HOW many football games are set up with a theme of doom for the opposition in the need to pass a cemetery?

Welcome to Alberton Oval, the spiritual home of the Port Adelaide Football Club since 1880. In the week of the club's 150th anniversary (May 12, 1870), the celebrations continue with the 140th anniversary of Port Adelaide's first match for premiership points at Alberton on Friday (May 15, 1880).

There are 1300 metres from the Port Road western flank of Cheltenham Cemetery to the western gates at Alberton Oval - a graveyard for many visiting teams.

In 1946, Advertiser football writer Harry Kneebone noted "Alberton means more to Port Adelaide than the home ground means to any other team". He noted the torment Alberton Oval presented to Port Adelaide's fiercest rival, Norwood.

In 17 SANFL seasons from 1922 to 1938, Norwood did not win a game against Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval. South Adelaide have waited many decades for wins at Alberton Oval - 29 years from 1907-1936 and 28 years from 1939-1967.

From July 3, 1909 to June 19, 1915, Port Adelaide was unbeaten in 31 games at Alberton Oval.

In Kneebone's memory, there was a tale of how Port Adelaide players thrived off the prophecy of doom from the cemetery as he recalled a State team trip interstate.

"I remember one Port Adelaide player saying to a Norwood representative: 'Your fellows are beaten as soon they pass the Cheltenham Cemetery'," Kneebone wrote.

"There is something in what he said, but there seems to be no real reason why this should apply to generation after generation of Norwood footballers."

Port Adelaide this season celebrates 140 years at Alberton Oval. Friday marks the 140th anniversary of the club's first match for premiership points at the ground that first appeared on the map as the Queen and Albert Oval in November 1877. Former local mayor John Formby donated the land.

The Port Adelaide Football Club's presence at its original home, Buck's Flat at Glanville Hall, ended in 1879 when the property was sold at auction and carved up as a residential development.

On Monday, January 12, 1880 - at the Commercial Hotel at Port Adelaide - 40 footballers and cricketers of the Port Adelaide football and cricket clubs gathered to consider uniting for a takeover of the ground. They were told they were looking at a L100 commitment to cover the outstanding costs from recent works that included "fencing, planting couch grass and trees, laying on water, erecting a grandstand etc."

It was decided a "deputation, consisting of six members of the Port Adelaide Football Club and the same number of members of the Port Adelaide Cricket Club should wait on the Queenstown and Alberton District Council and Mr Formby to see if they would allow the football and cricket clubs to hold the land on the same terms as those on which the (Queen and Albert Cricket Association) held it, and report the result to a (later) meeting."

On Thursday, April 20, the Port Adelaide Football Club was advertising its eagerness to set foot on Alberton Oval for its first practice match - 3pm on Saturday, the "First Twenty v Allcomers of Second Twenty". The tram, the advertisements added, would leave Port Adelaide for Alberton at 2.40pm.

The South Australian Register recorded the moment reporting: "This club (Port Adelaide) played its opening colour match on the Queen and Alberton Oval on Saturday afternoon, April 24. The contest was between 19 of the first twenty and 29 of the second twenty, and resulted in the 19 obtaining three goals to their opponents' one.

"The weather was very unfavourable for the game.

"Messrs. J. A. Atkins and S. McPherson captained the respective teams."

On May 15, 1880 - on the second weekend of the SAFA premiership season - Port Adelaide had its first rival at Alberton for premiership points; Kensington.

The visitors came by train (seeing the cemetery to their left). They left without scoring while Port Adelaide won the game 1-0 (or 1.8 to 0.0 if the behinds are noted).

"The attendance was large," reported The Register, "as it was thought the match would be an interesting one".

Atkins lost the toss, Kensington kicked to the northern end to take advantage of a "very slight breeze". It counted for little as Port Adelaide locked the ball in its half.

Port Adelaide scored first, just before half-time with a behind from LeMessurier. The winning goal was scored by John Sidoli late in the half, from a mark and "well-judged kick".

In the second half, as Port Adelaide loaded up the scorecard with non-counting behinds, the newspaper correspondent at Alberton Oval noted with dismay how "Price, of the Ports, made a nice mark in front of the visitors' goal, but failed to score."

Reports on the final score - Port Adelaide's 1.8 or 1.7 - varied as did opinions on the field umpire, Mr Channon. One newspaper described him as "satisfactory"; another declared he "did not seem altogether au fait with the rules".

Port Adelaide played six premiership games at Alberton Oval in the 1880 season for a 2-3-1 win-draw-loss record - wins against Kensington and Adelaide in the first two matches; draws against South Adelaide, Victorians and Norwood in the next three games; and a loss to South Park in the season-closer ... for football.

Port Adelaide actually closed its inaugural season at Alberton Oval with an athletics meeting on Saturday, October 2. The Express and Telegraph reported:

"The day was fine though windy, but owing probably to the attraction offered at the Semaphore by the firing of the guns at Glanville Fort the attendance was not very, large, there being only about 300 persons, including a considerable proportion of ladies, present.

"The Port Adelaide Football Club is remarkable for the energetic and thorough manner in which it carries out anything appertaining to sports, and visitors to the Alberton Oval on Saturday expected to have an enjoyable afternoon. And they were not disappointed, for a better programme and keener competition have rarely, if ever, been seen at Port Adelaide."

Of the 16 events, the premier race was the half-mile handicap - that carried a gentleman's gold watch as the prize presented at the club dinner the following Tuesday - was won by Port Adelaide goalkicking hero John McKenzie.

For the rest of the year, between cricket matches, Alberton Oval became a notable picnic ground for the locals and church groups.

The Port Adelaide Football Club had a new home - and its spiritual base while adding Football Park at West Lakes, Adelaide Oval (before and after the redevelopment) and Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai, China to the roll call of home venues in 150 years of football.

Very few have savoured the trip past the cemetery to play football at Alberton Oval. If the ghosts at Cheltenham do not bother visiting players, the living Port Adelaide souls in the outer at Alberton Oval certainly do.

"It is a difficult place to go for a football game and win," says Australian Football Hall of Famer Graham Cornes, who played and coached as a rival at Alberton Oval in the 1960s-1980s. "Port Adelaide was a great team on home turf. And the supporters played their part. It was a tough crowd, a tough team and a tough place to play football."

SIX TO REMEMBER

1) 1977, THE RETURN FROM EXILE

June 11, 1977: Port Adelaide 9.17 (71) d Norwood 10.9 (69)

Port Adelaide moved to Adelaide Oval in 1975 and 1976 while being locked out of Alberton Oval through a difficult dispute with the Port Adelaide council. The return in 1977 - the SANFL's centenary season - was met with the record attendance for a league game at Alberton Oval rewritten in mid-June when 22,738 watched Port Adelaide win an epic clash with Norwood by two points.

2) 1988, RECORD SCORE

July 23, 1988: Port Adelaide 33.24 (222) d South Adelaide 10.3 (63)

John Cahill was back for his second of three stints as Port Adelaide's SANFL league coach, after working at Collingwood in the VFL and West Adelaide in the SANFL. The Midas touch was evident again with Cahill directing Port Adelaide to another hat-trick of SANFL premierships (1988, 1989 and 1990 to follow his success in 1979, 1980 and 1981).

Port Adelaide rewrote the record books with the 33 goals against South Adelaide - and the 159-point winning margin fell just one point short of the club record at Alberton.

3) 1980, TIM'S 16

May 3, 1980: Port Adelaide 28.19 (187) d West Adelaide 10.10 (70)

In Port Adelaide's 110th year, Tim Evans became the club's first century goalkicker - and rewrote so many markers in the record books. His 16 against West Adelaide at Alberton Oval surpassed the club-record 15 kicked by James Tomkins (also against West Adelaide) in 1903 and Neil Hawke (against South Adelaide at Adelaide Oval) in 1957. Evans' 146 goals for the season surpassed Ken Farmer's season record of 134 in 1936.

4) 1903, BIGGEST WIN

August 22, 1903: Port Adelaide 29.12 (186) d West Adelaide 4.2 (26)

Port Adelaide closed the 1903 home-and-away season at Alberton Oval with its biggest win at the ground - 160 points against West Adelaide. Port Adelaide's 29 goals were scored by just three men - James Tomkins kicked 15.2, Matthew Healy 10 and James Mathieson four.

Port Adelaide locked away the minor premiership - and set about collecting the SAFL premiership it had forfeited in 1902 in a protest to the leagues umpiring appointments for the finals.

The 1903 season marked the opening of a new grandstand at Alberton Oval - the pavillion today known as the Williams Family Stand.

5) 1931, FIRST VFL RIVAL

October 14, 1931: Port Adelaide 17.23 (125) d Geelong 11.5 (71)

Port Adelaide had claimed the minor premiership in 1931, but made a straight-sets exit from the finals. Geelong was the VFL champion having beaten Richmond four days earlier by 20 points in the grand final at the MCG.

This match was on the Eight Hour' (Labour Day) public holiday - and surprisingly only 3500 passed through the turnstiles at Alberton Oval.

Port Adelaide's poor goalkicking allowed Geelong to lead at quarter-time (4.1 to 2.6) and half-time (9.2 to 6.10).

Port Adelaide forward Leslie "Bro" Dayman finished with eight goals and high praise. The Advertiser reported: "Dayman played one of his best games for the year. He outmarked the opposition at full forward and scouting far afield, handled the ball with surprising dexterity on the ground. His eight goals were scored evenly throughout the game - one in the first quarter, two in the second, two in the third, and three in the last."

The match also marked the return of Tom Quinn (brother of Bob Quinn) to Alberton Oval. Quinn represented Port Adelaide in 59 SANFL league games from 1928-1930 before he moved to Geelong to take up work at the Ford Motor Company (and carried the nickname "Maggie" from his team-mates at Kardinia Park). He became one of Geelong's greats, playing 168 VFL games from 1931-1940. He featured in two VFL premiership teams, won two best-and-fairest titles and is in the Geelong Team of the Century.

6) 1997, FIRST AFL GAME

February 8, 1997: Port Adelaide 14.6 (90) d Richmond 6.1 (37)

Port Adelaide's first appearance on Alberton Oval as an AFL team was ... delayed, by the opposition being kept on the tarmac at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport by electrical faults to the plane that was to carry Richmond to Adelaide.

The Friday afternoon match was rescheduled for Saturday 11am - and marked Port Adelaide's first win in AFL company.