"A grand final every second year ..."

On the Port Adelaide Football Club's 150th anniversary earlier this month (May 12), the social media team at Alberton crystalised the club's story in eight numbers ... including the tally of 76 grand finals.

A grand final every second year.

In the club's appropriately blessed "Golden Era" during the 1950s and 1960s, it was almost every year: 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968. And what happened in 1952, 1960 and 1961? Port Adelaide reached the preliminary finals in each of these three seasons to rank third.

By 1958, when Port Adelaide was playing in its sixth consecutive grand final and saluting captain-coach Fos Williams in his last league match as a player with a fifth successive premiership, the insatiable drive for success at Alberton was being matched by an external desire to see the club finally fail.

Port Adelaide administrative giant Bob McLean wrote in the club's 1958 annual report: "Our dominance of the game in this State has prompted many to say, 'Good for football if Ports get beaten'. Whilst it is understandable that it is not good for any sport for one team to dominate any contest or competition for a considerable period, we would hasten to assure members and supporters that neither our players nor administrators have any intention of relaxing their efforts in any way whatsoever in order to bring about a more even competition in league football."

By the 1990s, the theme was the same, but for a different end game: The rise from suburbia to the national AFL competition. From John Cahill's return as senior coach in 1988 to the club's entry to the AFL in 1997, there were six flags - and just two grand finals (1991 and 1993) missed.

Even with an AFL licence in the club's holding by December 1994, then club chief executive Brian Cunningham notes Port Adelaide did not discount the value of continuing to chase - and winning - SANFL league premierships while preparing for its national league entry in 1997.

“We had to win every (SANFL) premiership we could to ensure we were seen as a club that could enter the AFL on the back of success,” Cunningham said.

Port Adelaide's 37 titles - 36 in the SANFL and one in the AFL - have been won through every model of premiership play: With and without finals, one-off play-offs and major rounds that have featured as few as three teams and as many as eight.

Not every final Saturday in the season has been dubbed the "grand final". There were championship play-offs and "challenge finals", the system that allowed the minor premier to challenge for the flag if it failed in the major round early in the 20th century. Some might wish that method had lingered to the 21st century to have allowed Port Adelaide to make more of those three consecutive McClelland Trophies won as AFL minor premier in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Here is how Port Adelaide has made it to the last Saturday since 1889.

CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF

Port Adelaide and Norwood completed the 1889 SA Football Association season with identical win-loss-records after championship play: 17 matches in a six-team competition with 14-1-2 win-draw-loss counts.

Port Adelaide had the better scoring rate, 127.177 compared with Norwood's 102.165. Had percentage been in vogue, Port Adelaide would have ranked as minor premier - 78.25 per cent to 75.29.

Rather than have a tie for the premiership, the SA Football Association opted for a championship play-off - the first in Australian football history. Port Adelaide and Norwood gathered at Adelaide Oval on 3pm on Saturday, October 5 - with a Victorian umpire, Mr Tait, in control - for SA football's first "grand final".

Norwood won, 7-5 (or 7.3 to 5.9 with Port Adelaide kicking 2.6 in the second half while Norwood added 3.2 in an era when only goals counted in deciding a match). 

CONFERENCE PLAY-OFFS

Season 1898 marked the SA Football Association's first attempt at a finals series (at the same time when the new Victorian Football League was tinkering with conference systems).

The SA Football Association had six clubs (Port Adelaide, Norwood and South Adelaide as the pacesetters ahead of North Adelaide and West Torrens while West Adelaide did not win a game).

After the 14 home-and-away games were played, South Adelaide had a 14-2 win-loss record, Port Adelaide 10-4 and Norwood was 8-6. The Advertiser reported: "The Ports, Norwoods, and South Adelaides were level in the first round of the season and the Souths are ahead in the second round. The Football Association decided that the Magentas (Port Adelaide) and the Norwoods should play on Saturday (September 3) to decide which of the two has to meet the blue-and-whites next Saturday for the premiership."

So the SAFA had a semi-final for the first time (up against the horse racing at Morphettville that worked against a strong attendance at Adelaide Oval) on Saturday, September 3. Port Adelaide advanced, winning 4.16 (40) to 2.6 (18) - with behinds counting for the second season.

The "grand final" on September 10 ended Port Adelaide's premiership defence after a well-rested South Adelaide made the best start scoring 4.3 to 0.1 for a 26-point lead at quarter-time that extended to 44 points at half-time (8.5 to 1.3). Despite a stronger second half (that included keeping South Adelaide scoreless in the third term), Port Adelaide lost by 24 points - 4.8 (32) to 8.8 (56).

 

CHALLENGE FINAL

Port Adelaide's final season in magenta and blue - 1901 - put the club into a "Challenge Final".

Norwood was minor premier with a 13-5 record - and had the best record in the "first round" of the conference or divisional play. Port Adelaide had won 12 of its 18 matches - and was unbeaten in six games in the second stage of the home-and-away series.

As The Advertiser reported: "On Thursday evening (October 3) a special meeting was held at the Prince Alfred Hotel: The chairman, Mr. J. B. Anderson, presided. All the clubs were represented.

"The match West Adelaide v. West Torrens on the Adelaide Oval last Saturday concluded the second series of matches, and (on Saturday, October 5) Norwood play Port Adelaide for the premiership.

"The former have two chances, for should magenta win the first game the red and blues have the right to challenge them again; In the event of there being a second contest it will take place on the Unley Oval on October 12."

Deciding the SAFA premiership in October - rather than September - did not go down well with some of the game's observers, as noted with this report in the aptly titled journal, The Critic:

"The season is being prolonged in a ridiculous manner. Though Port Adelaide have completed their matches, and absolutely won the final round, the play off with Norwood will not eventuate until Saturday week, unless some arrangement is made this week.

"The only match down for Saturday is West Adelaide and West Torrens, in the result of which no one takes a grain of interest. Why could not Norwood and Port play on Saturday? The summer is (fast coming on, and the players get very hard knocks on the hard ground even in September.

"As matters are now we shall not finish until perhaps October 12. No wonder the delegates have decided that this shall not happen next season."

Had Edward Strawn - after being handed a free kick from a "respectable kicking distance" - kicked accurately rather than out-of-bounds on the full, Port Adelaide would have been playing for a premiership at Unley Oval seven days later. Instead, Norwood won by four points - 4.9 (33) to 4.5 (29) - after being held goal-less in the last term.

In magenta and blue, Port Adelaide played in three "grand finals" and lost all three. The move to black-and-white with the bars in 1902 - when the SAFA introduced the final-four finals - was memorable for Port Adelaide, as minor premier, being disqualified after its refused to play its semi-final while the association persisted with appointing Phil Kneebone as the umpire.

FINAL FOUR - AND CHALLENGE FINALS

Port Adelaide's first win in a "grand final" was in 1903 - after it used the challenge system.

In black-and-white bars, Port Adelaide rebounded from the controversy of the 1902 season to again win the minor premiership with a 10-1-1 win-draw-loss record.

Port Adelaide won its semi-final, beating Norwood by 16 points but lost the first grand final to South Adelaide by eight points. Using the challenge rights of the minor premier, Port Adelaide overcame South Adelaide by seven points seven days later at Adelaide Oval.

In 1904, Port Adelaide was not so fortunate. Again, Port Adelaide won the minor premiership with a 10-1-1 record. This time it lost the semi-final to South Adelaide by 18 points - and waited for Norwood to beat South Adelaide in the battle of the semi-final winners before issuing the "challenge". Norwood held up, winning the "challenge final" by four points.

From 1902 to the end of the challenge system in 1930, Port Adelaide played on the last Saturday of the SAFA-SAFL football season 16 times out of a possible 26 (with three seasons abandoned for war, 1916-1918). Port Adelaide won seven premierships - 1903, 1906, 1910, 1913, 1914 with the "Invincible" season, 1921 and 1928.

Port Adelaide, as minor premier, used the "challenge" card 10 times for a 4-6 strike rate - 1903 (won the premiership against South Adelaide), 1904 (lost to Norwood), 1906 (won against North Adelaide), 1907 (lost to Norwood), 1909, 1911 (lost both times to West Adelaide), 1915 (lost to Sturt), 1921 (won against Norwood) and 1928 (won against Norwood).

The 1921 final series was the most-testing in this challenge format. Port Adelaide was minor premier. It drew with third-ranked Norwood in the semi-finals; lost the replay by 41 points and a fortnight later won the premiership by challenging and beating Norwood in the "grand final" by eight points after not managing a goal in the second half.

Port Adelaide converted its minor premierships to straight-sets victories for the flag twice - in 1913 and 1914.

Without the minor premiership, Port Adelaide made it to the "grand final" three times - losing to minor premier North Adelaide in 1905 and 1930 and to Norwood in 1929. 

FINAL FOUR - AND McINTYRE

Ken McIntyre, a lawyer and lecturer, changed Australian football from 1931 removing the "challenge" rights of a minor premier. The race to the premiership played out across three weekends with four finals in the major round - two semi-finals, one preliminary final and one grand final.

From 1931 to the end of the final four in the SANFL in 1972, Port Adelaide played in 25 of a possible 35 grand finals (with the 1942, 1943 and 1944 seasons not counted while the SANFL reduced from eight to four teams with Port Adelaide merging with West Torrens - and playing in all three grand finals, winning the first).

Port Adelaide won 13 grand finals - 1936, 1937, 1939, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963 and 1965 with a record crowd at Adelaide Oval (62,543).

Fos Williams won nine of these flags, including the first five of the "Six in a Row" run from 1954-1959 that was completed with Geof Motley as captain-coach.

Port Adelaide lost 12 grand finals - 1934, 1935, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1953, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968.

From 1953-1958, as a playing coach, and from 1962-1968, as a non-playing coach, Fos Williams completed 13 seasons as Port Adelaide's coach with grand final appearances (for an 8-5 win-loss count).

So dominant was Port Adelaide through this "Golden Era" that Williams never forgot how the eagerness to see his team fail advanced from the terraces to the halls of power in the SANFL. In his last game as a player, the 1958 SANFL grand final, recalled league president Stanley Lewis shaking his hand before the match at Adelaide Oval and saying: "Good luck ... but I hope you lose."

FINAL FIVE

In 1973, with the SANFL competition comprising 10 teams after the elevation of Central District and Woodville in 1964, the league progressed to a final five - adding the elimination and qualifying finals and giving the minor premier a break from the first weekend of the new-look major round.

Since 1973, Port Adelaide has played in 19 of the 47 SANFL grand finals.

Port Adelaide has won 13 grand finals under the final-five system - 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999. John Cahill was coach for 10 of these premierships - and SANFL record shared with Jack Oatey.

Port Adelaide has lost six grand finals in this era - 1976 (with the record crowd officially listed at 66,897 at Football Park), 1984, 1997, 2014, 2017 and 2019.

FINAL EIGHT - AND AFL

Port Adelaide joined the AFL in 1997 when the national league had been working a final-eight system since 1994. The club has qualified for two national grand finals - winning in 2004 against Brisbane and losing to Geelong in 2007.

Port Adelaide's motto is: We exist to win premierships. Since the turn of the 20th century, this has required qualifying for grand finals - and Port Adelaide has a grand count of making it to the last Saturday in the season.