• Port Adelaide hosts Norwood at Alberton on Sunday 20 August at 2.10pm
  • FREE Entry for kids under 18, and all Port Adelaide (AFL) and Norwood FC game-access membership cards

IT was one of the great goals in Port Adelaide Football Club history, but for Norwood it was one of those heartbreak moments.

Scott Hodges took a late mark in the dying moments of the 1996 preliminary final to put the Magpies ahead and into the decider – which it eventually won to record its 34th premiership.

For a Norwood captain Garry McIntosh, watching Hodges seal the deal at the time, it was a bitter pill.

portadelaidefc.com.au spoke to McIntosh in the lead-up to Sunday’s all-important clash between the traditional rivals at Alberton Oval.

‘Macca’ was in no doubt it was a legendary goal for Port Adelaide, and just another defining moment in the incredible story between two of Australian sport’s oldest rivals.

“I think you can look back through the history of all the big games for an incident that creates folklore: Keith Thomas’s great mark in ’84, and obviously the Scotty Hodges goal in the prelim final,” McIntosh said.

“He’d missed a few earlier on, which were probably easy, and the wind was probably blowing the wrong way for the kick.

“But, look, I reckon he probably kicked it 55 [metres] on the fly, and I don’t think it ever looked like missing.

“It was a pretty down moment [for Norwood] but I think it fuelled the fire in the team for the next year to make sure we got back and gave us an opportunity to win the flag.”

portadelaidefc.com.au will delve into the Port archive this week for interviews and recalls of classic Port-Norwood moments ahead of Sunday’s game.

With both sides fighting for a double chance in the SANFL finals, it promises to be another bruising instalment in their rivalry.

George Fiacchi and Michael Aish will appear at Talking Footy at the Port Club on Thursday night at 6.30pm. Bookings are essential on 8447 9902.