BENCHMARKS in AFL football are constantly moving goalposts. The 1990s - with league expansion to 16 clubs with Port Adelaide's promotion from the SANFL in 1997 - put up West Coast as the first true measuring stick for non-Victorian clubs.
A decade after true national expansion began with West Coast and Brisbane in 1987 (after the SANFL passed up its invitation), Port Adelaide qualified for its first AFL final in 1999, its third season. This was one more than West Coast needed after its national entry in 1987; and well before Fremantle, which had a two-year head start on Port Adelaide.
"And we did it without the same (appealing) recruiting concessions (handed to other non-Victorian entries)," notes inaugural Port Adelaide AFL squad member Darren Mead.
Today, with the AFL at 18 clubs and the notion it is tougher than ever to win the national league premiership, the goalposts have moved to 2012 - the entry season of Greater Western Sydney (and the darkest hour at Alberton).
In an 18-team national competition, Port Adelaide has qualified for six top-eight finals series. Of the non-Victorian expansion clubs (excluding Sydney, the original South Melbourne), only West Coast has done better (seven) and Greater Western Sydney is on par (six).
In 27 seasons of national competition, Port Adelaide has qualified for 13 major rounds (13 appears to be the "number" this season after the 13-game winning streak from round four set up this season's top-four finish).
The first - in 1999 - was short in its journey, but long-lasting in its influence at Alberton, particularly with a young, ambitious playing group and the pairing of two innovative coaches, Mark Williams and Phil Walsh.
It was a different finals series - the second-ranked team played the seventh-placed qualifier (and for the last time before the realignment that remains in order today with the seventh finalist on the road to the sixth qualifier).
And it was an era of growing pains for a sport that closed the century as a full-time, truly professional code.
"We were all adjusting to being professional footballers," recalls Mead. "Fully professional.
" 'Choco' (Williams) was still trying to get the mix right - just how long we spent at the club for training, meetings. Early on, we - as players - were spending too much time at the club."
The pre-season brought change.
"The game style certainly changed," says Mead of the fundamental shift made at Alberton in the transition from John Cahill to Mark Williams with the tactical analysis of the late Phil Walsh.
"We were learning new ways to play.
"Rotations were still at 20-30 a match (before reaching as many as 140 a decade later); the coaches were still trying to work out how to use (the interchange rotations for tactical purposes). If you started on the bench in 1999, you were staying there until there was an injury.
"The detail in the game plan was more specific. There was a higher possession rate with the challenge of not turning over the footy. There were structures. There were set plays, particularly from Phil Walsh ... and half the time, as players, we would forget them."
The overload - mentally and physically as Port Adelaide fast tracked its moves through the truly professional era of AFL football - ultimately hit hard in Season 2000. But in 1999 the energy of a young, ambitious squad - and two driven coaches in Williams and Walsh - put Port Adelaide on the right footing to seek a finals berth.
The season opened with three consecutive wins - against Sydney at the SCG, Fremantle at home and Brisbane at the Gabba - with Port Adelaide breaking the watershed 100-point barrier in each match. Then the clamps came on to dampen the spoils of a strong start with a four-game losing streak leaving Port Adelaide behind on the win-loss count until a five-game winning run in late June-July.
The magical 12th win to be sure of a top-eight finals berth was sealed in a Showdown - a 24-point win at Football Park in late August when Port Adelaide increased the gap with the also rans on the premiership ladder to a secure 10 points. It held seventh spot on the ladder, four points clear of Sydney - and kept seventh spot despite a 67-point loss to fourth-ranked Western Bulldogs in round 22 (while Sydney crashed to ninth-placed Hawthorn by 85 points).
Under today's finals system, Port Adelaide would have played sixth-ranked Carlton which also had a 12-10 win-loss record (and significantly better percentage of 103 compared with Port Adelaide's telling 90.1). In 1999, Port Adelaide had a winning record against Carlton (from a 39-point victory at Football Park in mid-May).
The now-discarded finals system put Port Adelaide at the MCG against 1998 grand finalist North Melbourne which had won all four previous AFL games between the clubs - the most recent by just seven points at the MCG in early June. By September 4, at a rain-soaked G, North Melbourne had established its credibility as a premiership contender with 16 wins in the last 18 games of the home-and-away series.
"I still remember that final," says Mead. "The end of the (minor round) had been tight for us, so we were running on adrenaline when we made it to the MCG. North Melbourne had serious finals experience (with grand final appearances in 1996 as winners and 1998) - that was their extra edge in finals."
Mead had been with the Port Adelaide team that opened the club's AFL story at the MCG against Collingwood in late March 1997.
"That game was more nerve-wracking - we were not sure what we should expect," Mead said. "We left the MCG that hot day in March having cramped up - and knowing, 'This is the AFL!'
"The first final, well ... we all knew finals are different, that applies in every league. The first 10-15 minutes of any final demand you play as if it is life-or-death; you have to put your body on the line. And it is not just what you do physically; mentally you need to be tough too."
North Melbourne opted for the long-kicking game - not fearing contested marking situations - and gained the early lead that was 26 points at quarter-time.
"We came back at them," recalls Mead with the margin at 24 points at half-time when North Melbourne's typically mean defence was challenged by Stuart Dew. "We certainly had closed the gap in the third term .. "
It was just 12 points when a snap from wingman Jarrad Schofield produced one of the most-memorable goals of this final and the 1999 major round.
And then Mead was subjected to the turning point of this final.
"Wayne Carey," recalls Mead. "I was holding until then ..."
In 12 minutes, with Mead ultimately being taken out of this match-up, Carey took critical pack marks and kicked three goals. He found another in the last term to finish with six while North Melbourne started its passage to the premiership with a 44-point win.
"We left the MCG beaten but better for understanding exactly where we stood in the competition," Mead said. "That experience was going to be more and more important later ... We were young. We were given confidence in 1999 that we had a game we could build on.
"In 2000 we didn't get the pre-season right and went too far in adjusting at the start of the season (with a 1-8 start). The finish (six wins from 10) put us back on the right path to what became strong seasons from 2001-2004)."
Port Adelaide's rise from new entry in the AFL to finalist in just three seasons is a tribute to the club's ambition - and long-established culture that underwrites the "exist to win premierships" theme at Alberton.
"It is hard to compare what we did in three years to anyone before us," says Mead. "Our draft hand was different to anything before - and after - our entry to the AFL. But considering what we were given, we did a pretty good job.
"We came close in our first two years (missing finals by percentage in 1997 and ranking 10th in 1998). We were playing young kids. We had talent. We were driving our standards to be better and better. We were working hard to build our culture. And we took some heavy hits with serious long-term injuries to Matthew Primus, Josh Francou, Roger James and Brendon Lade. They are big names to take out of the midfield.
"There were disappointments after that 1999 final, as we all remember across 2001-2003," added Mead who played his last AFL game in the 2002 qualifying final loss to Collingwood at Football Park. "But none of those lessons were wasted.
"By 2004 (with the breakthrough AFL grand final triumph against Brisbane at the MCG), we were thriving from all that had been built through those tough lessons that began in the 1999 finals series."
From the 1999 qualifying final team, nine became premiership heroes in 2004 - Peter Burgoyne, Stuart Dew, Roger James, Adam Kingsley, Brendon Lade, Jarrad Schofield, Warren Tredrea, Gavin Wanganeen and Michael Wilson.
And since that 1999 final, Port Adelaide has squared the head-to-head count against North Melbourne with 17 wins from 34 games including two finals in 2005 (elimination final in Melbourne) and 2007 (preliminary final at Football Park).
