SOMETHING old, something new, something blue.

Welcome to the newest chapter in one of Australian football's oldest books - Port Adelaide has a new senior team. And it will wear blue, just as the first senior men's team did in 1870.

Port Adelaide's long-debated - and much-awaited - entry to the national AFLW competition has arrived.

Saturday, August 26 becomes part of the Port Adelaide Football Club's key moments in a 152-year storyline of major achievements in Australian football.

The date stands alongside Saturday, March 29, 1997 when Port Adelaide entered the MCG for its first AFL game - against Collingwood.

And Saturday, May 12, 1877 when Port Adelaide - again on the road - at Kensington Oval playing the now-lost Kensington for the start of Australia's first State league.

And Saturday, July 28, 1870 - another road trip - to the cradle of South Australian football on the north parklands around today's Adelaide Oval for the club's first official match against the short-lived Young Australians.

This time, the road trip is one of the longest in the sport. Port Adelaide travels - with its full 30-player squad - to Perth to open its AFLW story on Lathlain Park against West Coast.

Expectation is again high, as it should be for any team from Port Adelaide.

The pundits have learned not to under-estimate Port Adelaide, as they did in 1997 when they declared John Cahill's AFL pioneers would collect the wooden spoon - and probably with no win. Lauren Arnell's AFLW trailblazers are expected to be the best-performed of the four new entries to the national women's league (Essendon, Hawthorn and Sydney complete the full deck of 18 teams in the ALFW).

"Big call: Port Adelaide to be the best-performing team of the expansion quartet, and will pinch a win from a top-eight team."

AFLW writer Sarah Black

STORY SO FAR

IT has been rushed.

Season 7 starts earlier than the previous six, so Port Adelaide's lead-in was cut short - by four months.

"There’s a question between, 'How much preparation you can do?' versus "How ready do you feel?'," notes Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell. "I feel confident that our players feel ready ...

"And, I feel confident too."

So far, Port Adelaide has played a "secret" Showdown trial with AFLW premier Adelaide at Thebarton Oval (a match kept out of the limelight to protect the build-up for the first AFLW Showdown on Friday, September 30 at Adelaide Oval).

The first "official" trial was against Essendon at The Hangar at Tullamarine in Melbourne where the well-established AFLW observers took note of the young talent that will become the basis of Port Adelaide's approach for sustained success on a new stage. This very much repeats the list-management strategy Port Adelaide worked to deliver an AFL premiership in its eighth season in the big league (2004).

"I am feeling so super confident about the way we have gone about our pre-season, the way we have connected pretty quickly - which we have had to do - and what we have produced in a pretty short span of time. I am super confident going into the game that is for sure."

Port Adelaide vice-captain Ange Foley

"OLD" AND NEW

ERIN PHILLIPS will have the Port Adelaide AFLW team take up a century old tradition from the start - the captain wears No. 1, just as her illustrious father Greg did while collecting his eighth SANFL flag in 1992.

Phillips returns to Alberton - where she was signed as Port Adelaide's first contracted female player in 2015 - after being an AFLW pioneer at Adelaide.

Alongside Phillips will be vice-captain Ange Foley, a strong spirit with the determination to leave a lasting legacy with this inaugural Port Adelaide AFLW squad.

Foley is admiring of the work of Port Adelaide list manager Naomi Maidment in assembling a well-balanced - and exciting - squad at Alberton. The first impression of Port Adelaide assembling a group of "pensioners" is shattered by the young talent gathered at Alberton.

"We have recruited really well," says Foley. "We talk a lot about building a good culture here - and very quickly. This group is made up of, first, great people. I have been so impressed with the way they have bought into what we are trying to create here. They are contributing to it. They are here to work really hard. They want to get better. They want to learn. Every week you see people starting to shine.

"We have some great coaches. They nurture. They explain things really well. They motivate you. We are building our culture. And we are enjoying what we do - so that will translate to playing great footy. This helps build success. 

"I am now excited to see what more we can do (in the games)."

"We're just going to play a brand of footy that's the Port Adelaide way - that our fans and members are going to love and, if we play that way, hopefully, success follows. For every single one of us, our goal is to win premierships, and we have a very successful club that exists to win premierships, so that's something we want to build towards." Port Adelaide captain Erin Phillips

WHO TO WATCH

NEW heroes will be added to Port Adelaide's roll call of champions since 1870.

New cult figures will emerge from this inaugural Port Adelaide AFLW squad.

From the pre-season matches, 19-year-old midfielder Abbey Dowrick (No. 5) has emerged as the first contender to wear the badge of "rising star".

"She is just hard," says vice-captain Ange Foley. "She has great hands, great skills. And Abbey is one of those girls who just is willing to learn and get better.

"Amalie Borg (No. 21) was strong in defence against Essendon.

"Alex Ballard (No. 19) ... there are more; it is quite exciting."

STORY TO COME

SEASON 7 has 18 teams, but just 10 games in the home-and-away season with a top-eight final series.

Port Adelaide will have its first home game - at the refitted Alberton Oval where the women's squad is based in the Fos Williams Family Stand - on Saturday week (September 3) against the Western Bulldogs. The match time is now confirmed as 1.10pm.

Port Adelaide's first AFLW fixture has this mix:

LAST SEASON'S FINALISTS: Adelaide (round 6), North Melbourne (round 8),

NON-FINALISTS: West Coast (round 1), Western Bulldogs (round 2), Carlton (round 3), Gold Coast (round 5), St Kilda (round 9), 

NEW TEAMS: Sydney (round 4), Hawthorn (round 7), Essendon (round 10).

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT

"We exist to win premierships ... 100 per cent. Our list will reflect that. I was fortunate enough to meet with Jack Cahill a couple of weeks ago. The Port Adelaide trademarks of what kind of player comes into our men's and women's program - you will see a correlation between the two. Hard, contested footy. Good kick. High footy IQ. Competitive as hell. You will see that across both programs. Yep ... Jack said, 'We weren't dirty but if there was a ball to be won you go to win it'. That is certainly how I will be coaching. Win one on one."

Lauren Arnell, Port Adelaide senior coach

BIRD SEED

(all the little stuff that matters)

WEST COAST v PORT ADELAIDE

Opening round of AFLW Season 7

When: Saturday, August 26, 2022

Time: 2.40pm (Adelaide)

Where: Lathlain Park, Perth

First meeting of the teams

West Coast entered AFLW in 2020; Port Adelaide in 2022.

ONE memory - and lesson - will linger from Port Adelaide's historic start in the AFLW: No game is won until it is indeed won.

Port Adelaide led West Coast by 11 points with a quarter to play. It had the wind at its back on a rain-soaked Lathlain Park in Perth. And the scorecard on the Champion Data statistic sheets were reading just as Port Adelaide would have wanted, particularly with a double-digit lead in contested possessions. The pressure the Port Adelaide players had put into the game, with the team's tackling numbers approaching 100, was impressive.

Every signal was pointing to a dream start for Port Adelaide.

And 10 minutes later it was not a battered West Coast that had wilted. Rather, Port Adelaide was overwhelmed by a four-goal burst built on West Coast working "Hail Mary" plays to the goalfront - and having its prayers answered with some extraordinary (and lucky) opportunities to score.

Port Adelaide let a grand opportunity slip with two 10-minute patches - at the start of the first term and the last quarter. The first set up a 12-point lead for West Coast; the second delivered a 12-point win.

Port Adelaide played better for longer. It had the ball more often, as noted with the 196-184 advantage on all disposals.

West Coast did its best work across shorter timespans, particularly by converting one in every two entries to its forward-50 arc - and is rewarded with its fifth win at the start of its fourth AFLW season.

Port Adelaide has the bitter taste of a defeat that betrays the effort offered by the players - and punishes them for slipping when the game needed to be won.

The critics will maintain this Port Adelaide team is full of promise - and potential. Experience is now the critical need. Lessons from this last quarter become invaluable. 

Lauren Arnell certainly has built Port Adelaide's first senior women's team to live the "Port Adelaide way". 

Port Adelaide had built the 11-point lead at three quarter-time on contested football - and aiming to the tall threats of Gemma Houghton and Julia Teakle in attack, particularly the bullish Houghton.

"We played Port Adelaide footy," said senior mentor Lauren Arnell, the first AFLW player to coach an AFLW team. "We brought it to the contest." 

This game was built on momentum - or scoring bursts.

West Coast established the first lead with the opening two goals of the match.

Port Adelaide responded with the next four.

West Coast finished with the last four, all in a 10-minute burst built on - despite working against the wind - playing long and fast to the goalsquare at Lathlain Park.

Port Adelaide did have shining lights under the rain clouds in Perth.

Abbey Dowrick, the West Australian midfielder who came to Adelaide to play SANFLW football, lived up to all her promise with a 21-disposal start to her AFLW career.

A week after the No. 9 Port Adelaide jumper was seen for the last time in the AFL on the shoulders of 271-game Robbie Gray, midfielder Maria Moloney picked up the vibe of the famed guernsey in her club debut. Her third goal in AFLW company (after two in her 11 games at Brisbane) was marked with unexpected opportunity. Moloney, while unmarked just outside Port Adelaide's forward-50 arc, remarkably had a clearing kick from the West Coast defence land in her lap. She immediately played on, working a tandem by handpasses with captain Erin Phillips to score Port Adelaide's fourth goal that opened a 12-point lead during the third term. 

Phillips started - as named - in the centre and immediately drew the close-marking attention of West Coast rival, Irish recruit Aisling McCarthy. The AFLW pioneer finished with 10 disposals while her Port Adelaide team-mates sent the strong signal they will not be known for cameos on the fringe of Phillips' image and limelight.

Phillips moved into attack seemingly suffering from a leg injury. She was back in the midfield rotations after West Coast had reclaimed the lead in the last term.

"History in the making" is filled with many notes from this historic match.

Port Adelaide won the first clearance, won the battle for the first possession ... but lost the first term by two goals, one gifted to West Coast star signing Kellie Gibson from a turnover at kick-in. West Coast certainly was stronger at the start - and incredibly efficient with four scores (2.2) from its first four inside-50 entries. But Port Adelaide had momentum building towards the end of the first term while Lathlain Park was under increasing threat of the rain that hit Perth on Saturday morning swirling back over the West Australian capital. 

West Australian Julia Teakle enters the history book for the first Port Adelaide score in the AFLW - albeit a miss from a set shot 25 metres in the first term.

Fremantle recruit Gemma Houghton is to be remembered for the first Port Adelaide in the national women's league - from a set shot at the top of the goalsquare early in the second quarter.

"Amazing ...," the dual All-Australian said at half-time for her reaction on making history for Port Adelaide.

"It has been such a short journey," added Houghton who joined Port Adelaide on May 9, "and such a privilege to play for this club."

Justine Mules, in her 50th AFLW game, gave Port Adelaide its first-ever lead (by six points) in an AFLW game with her snap from 20 metres at the start of the third term marking the team's third goal.

Moloney's running goal had that lead extend to 12 points just before three quarter-time. It also marked the end of Port Adelaide's momentum run ... and the start of the lesson Arnell's group will carry for the next nine games of this first AFLW home-and-away season: It ain't over 'til it's over. 

AFLW - SEASON OPENER

WEST COAST v PORT ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE      0.2     2.3    4.3     4.4 (28)

WEST COAST         2.2     2.3    2.4     6.4 (40)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Dowrick, Moloney, Yorston, Houghton, Foley, Surman.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: Houghton, Moloney, Mules, Tahau. 

CROWD: 1846 at Lathlian Park, Perth.

NEXT: Home opener v Western Bulldogs at Alberton Oval, Saturday, September 3, 1.10pm.