HERITAGE matters. So does class.

And both stood out while Port Adelaide delivered many statements in winning the 49th rendition of the Showdown by 49 points.

Port Adelaide now leads the Showdown ledger 25-24. No other "second in the market" club in the non-Victorian sector of the national AFL has superiority over the first entry in Perth, Sydney or Queensland. Fremantle does not, nor does Gold Coast or Greater Western Sydney.

This says so much about Port Adelaide - and the heritage built up since 1870, more than 100 years before "franchises" were established to refloat the VFL and underpin the national AFL.

Port Adelaide has won three consecutive Showdowns by more than doubling Adelaide's score - by 57 points while conceding just 44 in the last derby of 2019; by a club record 75 points after giving up only 35 while wearing black-and-white bars in the only derby of last season; and by 49 points while allowing Adelaide to put up 38 points on a slippery Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

There is quite an emphatic tone to these results.

It is not in keeping with the well-worn promotional script about form not mattering in the Showdown, the premiership table being no guide to the derby and the betting markets holding no relevance in rivalry that has often played to the moment than the trends of a season.

Showdown XLIX proved quite the opposite. Port Adelaide is in a superior class to Adelaide - and even Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks does not deny it.

"They had the ball 100 times more than us - and they used the ball better than us," Nicks said.

Port Adelaide had a few themes to work in this derby.

It needed to address the poor outcomes in contested ball from the troubling loss to Brisbane at the Gabba seven days earlier. The first centre bounce was significant - lead ruckman Scott Lycett, former captains Travis Boak and Ollie Wines ... and the Showdown master, Robbie Gray.

"It has been me and Ollie all year," said Boak, who claimed his third Showdown Medal after surviving a knock to his left knee from a collision with key forward Charlie Dixon.

"And Robbie Gray said he wanted to be there too ... we won the first centre clearance."

Port Adelaide won the stoppages 33-31, 11-7 at centre. It won the contested possessions 170-159. It lead the Showdown from start to finish. Response noted.

Senior coach Ken Hinkley backed in his three-talls tandem of Dixon, Mitch Georgiades and Todd Marshall after they did not score a goal against Brisbane. They had seven of Port Adelaide's first eight goals in the derby and finished with tallies of 3.0 for Marshall, 2.3 for Georgiades and 2.1 for Dixon.

So the match did play out as expected by those assessing the vast differences in the line-ups - Port Adelaide had a deeper and more-accomplished midfield and more attacking options than Adelaide. Port Adelaide took 12 marks inside the forward 50; Adelaide had just two.

Boak, now a winner of three Showdown Medals, declared Port Adelaide's "identity is our defence; our pressure on the opposition."

Pure defence was certainly Port Adelaide's strength as noted by Adelaide being held to it second-lowest score in a Showdown (38 points after just 35 last year). The stand-out defender was Tom Clurey who blunted former Adelaide captain - and early Coleman Medal leader - Taylor Walker on the night. "He owned that contest," said Hinkley.

Once again, there are costs in victory to Port Adelaide. Lycett is in the headlines for his tackle on Ned McHenry, who was concussed in that contest - a moment that AFL match review officer Michael Christian has judged as worthy of a being sent directly to the tribunal. Defender-midfielder Dan Houston once again was subbed out of a match with a shoulder injury - allowing Marty Frederick to become Port’s first 23rd man to play in a Showdown.

And on a night when so many Port Adelaide fans among the 43,069 at Adelaide Oval decided to send a message to AFL House by wearing the bars, the victorious Port Adelaide players joined in the theme of the night by returning to their changerooms wearing the bars to sing the song.

Heritage matters.

And class counts.