IT was a game remembered as much for the result as it was the post-match goings on, which symbolised the enduring hurt suffered by one club at the hands of another.

60 years on from Port Adelaide’s narrow 1958 Premiership win over West Adelaide, the sides are again preparing to meet on Sunday in Round 7 of the SANFL.

While the stakes aren’t as high and the rivalry not as fierce, the memories of the 1958 match live on in the minds of two of the greatest servants of each club, albeit with one key difference.

West Adelaide lost the game by two points in front of a massive crowd of 54,282 at Adelaide Oval.

With around 90 seconds remaining and trailing by three points, West ruckman Jack Richardson had the chance to steal victory, but his shot hit the post – at least on one version of events.

West Hall of Famer and four-time best and fairest Neil Kerley, who played in the game, is adamant the post cost his side the Premiership because the “gods were against us”.

“It was one of those games that could have gone either way,” Kerley recalled.

“To win tight close games you’ve got to have the football gods on your side and if they aren’t then you’re in trouble.

“We weren’t very happy and we decided that bloody post cost us the victory so four of us went down that night and broke into the Adelaide Oval and chopped it down – we took the top six feet off.

“That now is pride of place in the West Adelaide clubrooms.

“The four of us got fined one pound 50 shillings each which was a full match fee in those days!”

Nine-time Port Adelaide Premiership player and the 1964 Magarey Medallist, Geof Motley, remembers it differently suggesting the ball was touched off the boot by Ted Whelan.

“We won that game on its merits, not by any divine intervention from the gods,” Motley said.

“Kerls and I are very good friends but he has one of the worst memories for things like that.

“The post wasn’t the reason they lost, it didn’t hit the post at all.

“The ball was just touched off the boot.”

Kerley fired back at his good friend.

“Geof’s entitled to his opinion,” he said.

“We didn’t see it touch Ted’s hand, we just saw it hit the post and deprive us of a goal that would have won the match, but who knows what really did happen.

“If we’d won that game the flag would have made better decoration on the club walls (instead of the post).”

In the 1950s, the famous Port Adelaide side was all conquering.

It won an Australian-record six straight Premierships between 1954 and 1959.

Four of those finals were won against West Adelaide, and all decided by 16 points or less.

“Port just seemed to be a bit more composed in those tight games and they just held their nerve better than we did,” Kerley said.

“We were only a small side – they called us the mosquito fleet – and Port’s height, power and strength were in the end just too much for us in those games.

“Mind you they had some damn good players back then and they were coached by Fos Williams, and he demanded full-on commitment from them… and he got it.

West was coached by the legendary Jack Oatey, for whom the best on ground award in Grand Finals is named after.

“They had a huge hatred of Port Adelaide,” Motley remembered.

“We were archrivals back then and we had knocked them off so many times.

“West Adelaide was the only club Jack Oatey didn’t win a Premiership with.”

When the sides meet again at Alberton on Sunday both Motley and Kerley will be interested bystanders, although both will be keeping an eye on the result from afar, and they’ll be hoping the outcome will be more obvious this time.

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