PORT ADELAIDE premiership heroes Mark Williams, Warren Tredrea and Gavin Wanganeen reminisced about the Power’s inaugural AFL premiership at the club’s 150^th Anniversary Gala.

Speaking to 1600 people at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Friday evening, Williams told the packed house that three years of torment went into winning the club’s first AFL flag.

“There was a lot preparation going into that,” Williams said.

“There was plenty of torment about not quite getting there. What it took on the day - the team was pretty resilient.

“Down at half time we still believed in what we were doing. To everyone’s credit, to the supporters, everyone stuck with us.

“It was a great result.”

The iconic footage of Williams walking down the MCG walkway onto the ground will go down in history, and the premiership coach admitted it was a spur of the moment decision.

“As you saw it was just raw emotion, there was no planning at all,” he said.

“We were down at half time and they were calling us chokers as we were walking down to the rooms.

“I don’t know, to me it was just kind of ‘go and get nicked, we aren’t chokers, we are Port Adelaide’.”

Premiership captain Warren Tredrea paid special tribute to injured captain Matthew Primus, after the ruckman missed the majority of the 2004 season with a knee injury.

Tredrea said Primus barely missed a training and was a huge influence for the group that would go on to win the flag that year.

“People forget in round 3 Matty (Primus) hurt his knee - he was the captain,”

“We had some players leave in the off-season but the facts are the team worked together better.

“It is a testament to the captain Matty was, bar surgery I don’t think he missed a meeting or training session. Whilst he didn’t play on the day, he was a massive part of what we did.

“It gives kudos to the theory that squads win premierships not teams. For me, I was the vice-captain along with Josh Carr who tossed the coin.

“We represented the community.”

Gavin Wanganeen spoke about the performances of the Indigenous players in the 2004 Grand Final, with Byron Pickett, Peter Burgoyne and Wanganeen himself amongst the best afield.

Pickett had 20 touches and booted three goals, Burgoyne had 25 disposals, while Wanganeen kicked four goals amongst 18 touches.

“I’m extremely proud of us Indigenous players to have a nice contribution on the day,” Wanganeen said.

“To see Byron (Pickett) win the Norm Smith Medal was absolutely awesome for him and his family.

“But if you spoke to Peter Burgoyne, he will say he should’ve won it.”

The CEO at the time, Brian Cunningham, said it was important to celebrate the premiership with the club’s supporters.

“We met as a board on the Monday night and we took the cup to the Port Club,” he remembered.

“There were 50-60 people there and each of them came up and touched it, had photos with it, so we left it there. We left it there for months and thousands of people came in. It was their trophy.

“At the end of the day as a footy club, we come from humble suburban Port Adelaide. We are in the big league.

“One thing we needed was the AFL premiership. It belonged to everyone and we made sure everyone felt that.”