PORT Adelaide this week returns to the ANZAC calendar with every lingering bruise, bump and cut filling the medical rooms at Alberton falling into insignificance against the true spirit of Saturday night's home encounter with St Kilda.
Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas acknowledged he and his team-mates will reflect on the true meaning of the ANZACS - and of battle in wars that guarded Australian values - during this weekend's significant home clash with St Kilda on Sunday evening.
"What we do pales in comparison with those who have served the country and risked their lives for the nation," Jonas said at the Torrens Parade ground on Thursday. "(This match stands) as a platform to teach younger generations about what those before us risked and sacrificed to be where we are today.
"(As players) there is natural energy that comes around the sense of occasion. We go to the Dawn Service, there will be those who have relationships with people who have served, be it parents or grandparents; the gravity (of war service) is still very real and it naturally feels like an extra special occasion.
"I don't want to draw comparisons (between the battlefields of football and war) this week. But from the football perspective, we do have some sore bodies and we have had a few blokes who still need to prove their fitness later in the week.
"But that is part of the game. It is going to be a long year, we are back to 22 home-and-away rounds and full-length games. So we are going to need to adapt and give other people an opportunity - and we have great trust they can do the job."
Port Adelaide was denied a home ANZAC Day clash with the Western Bulldogs last season when the AFL was put into a 12-week lockdown with the COVID pandemic.
RSL SA/NT president Cheryl Cates acknowledged the importance of restoring the tradition of a major football match as a tribute to the ANZACs.
"The RSL always looks forward to working with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the conduct of the ANZAC round at Adelaide Oval " Cates said.
Port Adelaide on Thursday confirmed it will again award the Vietnam veteran Peter Badcoe VC, as it has since 2004, to the player on either competing team who reflects the ANZAC spirit in skill, courage in adversity, self-sacrifice, teamwork and fair play.
Port Adelaide chief executive Matthew Richardson described the honour of playing on ANZAC Day as a "great privilege for our football club".
"For us to be playing on ANZAC Day is extra special," Richardson said. "It is a really significant day for our football club. It is an enormous privilege - and it is a day when we tell, through football, the amazing stories of great Australians, including two of our great players who served, Bob Quinn and Will Drummond.
"It is such an important day, ANZAC Day - not just for our football club, but also the community. To celebrate this, on ANZAC Day, is extra special when you think what that day means for Australians starting with the Dawn Service. To finish the day at Adelaide Oval with a game of football - a big and important game for our club - while hosting the RSL and the Australian Defence Forces is significant and we don't take it for granted."
Jonas will lead a defence that needs to be refitted to cover the loss of first-year half-back Lachie Jones, who is to miss at least the next month with an ankle injury.
"It is very disappointing for Lachie," said Jonas. "But we know he will attack his rehab and be back in a month or so. It opens the door for the likes of Miles Bergman to come back to half-back (from the midfield), Jarrod Lienert and (the untried) Marty Frederick.
"We have a bit of an embarrassment of riches in the back half at the moment which is making it frustrating for some of the boys playing well at SANFL level."
On the football front, Jonas is not letting go of the pain from last year's home loss to St Kilda by 29 points at Adelaide Oval where Brett Ratten's team kicked 12.1.
"That is not at the back of my mind - it is at the front of my mind," Jonas said. "We are very aware of St Kilda's threats, particularly with all the flak they have been copping in Victoria. It is a big game for them (on the rebound) - and is equally as big for us.
"We will be well prepared."
Port Adelaide's commitment to honouring the ANZACs - of whom 130 also represented the football club - with high-profile matches at Adelaide Oval dates to the 1960s with SANFL grand final rematches following the traditional march. Hosting an AFL game during the ANZAC Round is a long-standing note in the club's requests to the league on the home-and-away fixture.
Port Adelaide returns to hosting St Kilda in the ANZAC Round after playing the Victorian club five consecutive times - for a 4-1 win-loss record - at Football Park from 2006-2010.
The match at Adelaide Oval will begin at 6.10pm on Sunday.
