TRAVIS BOAK, Robbie Gray, Tom Jonas and Hamish Hartlett are the last men standing from the Port Adelaide Football Club's darkest hour in 2012. It is doubtful the lights would still be on at Alberton if Boak had walked into Geelong's welcoming arms at the end of that make-or-break year.

Boak this week becomes the sixth Port Adelaide Football Club player to be saluted on his 300th senior game (after Russell Ebert, Greg Phillips, Darren Smith and Tim Ginever in the SANFL and Kane Cornes in the AFL).

The tributes from far and wide will speak of Boak's extreme professionalism in preparing himself as an athlete; of his never-ending revival (after a season in the no-man's land of high half-forwards) as a midfielder who still commands a tagger; of his leadership that had continued without any formal title (other than veteran); of his decency and commitment to meaningful causes such as childhood cancer.

Loyalty is the relevant note this week.

There is no doubt Boak would have played 300 AFL games anywhere in the national league after being called in the 2006 AFL draft (at No.5 when the Port Adelaide recruiting team stood firm on taking the best talent rather than the best option from South Australia).

And there is no question Boak had much on his mind as he cut a lonely figure while walking the darkened jetty at Grange late in the 2012 season when many - at Alberton and Geelong - wondered where he would keep chalking up the milestones in a football career that was about to reach its prime.

There was home, at Torquay along the Geelong peninsula where he would be the "man of the family home" filling the shoes in the absence of his late father Roger who had died of cancer when Travis was 16.

There was Geelong, the "home" AFL club that brazenly courted Boak in mid-July 2012 when coach Chris Scott and a player delegation led by Joel Selwood came to Adelaide - as then Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas put it - "with shiny buttons and a brass band".

There was Port Adelaide where a year earlier Jackson Trengove had set the agenda for a group of young men to stay together to achieve greatness at Port Adelaide. Boak's commitment in 2012 - while the AFL prepared to introduce free agency - gave Port Adelaide the statement contract signing that allowed it to be a "destination club" rather than a point of exodus with questions on its culture and relevance.

Boak has played 191 AFL games since the end of 2012 when he decided he would be part of putting a stop to those tearing Port Adelaide apart. 

A big part.

Boak became captain for the revival from 2013. He was club champion with his second John Cahill Medal in 2019. His three All-Australian crowns came after committing to Port Adelaide's new chapter (2013, 2014 and last season). He won his three Showdown Medals - 2013, 2020 and 2021 - in this time ... and in the derbies has left an image that will tell a story for generations by his assertive gesture after winning the toss for choice of ends in the first AFL derby played at Adelaide Oval in 2014.

Boak's stance was sending a message at a time when the club needed Adelaide Oval to be seen as its home rather than a shared venue with a more favoured tenant - this is Port Adelaide territory; and has been long before there was an AFL and another version of the "Adelaide Football Club".

Boak last year wrote of his Port Adelaide for the club's archival celebration from 150 years of football. It is part of his legacy:

"Our club lives to a real culture. It is not defined by slogans conjured up in meeting rooms and plastered on our walls to create inspiration. Port Adelaide's success comes from what we have in our hearts. We are defined by our actions as people, on and off field.

"My Port Adelaide - our Port Adelaide - is built on the values of hard work, being kind and staying humble. It is a Port Adelaide that achieves beyond the football field - and engages all of our people in that journey. We stand proudly together as a community. They will not tear us apart.

"I did not simply enter a football club when I came to Port Adelaide. I became part of a family. This is our strength at Port Adelaide."

It is a stronger Port Adelaide Football Club for Travis Boak's commitment.