Revisiting Port Adelaide's victory in the 2004 AFL decider

As Port Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions prepare to clash at the Adelaide Oval this Saturday afternoon, let’s take a trip down memory lane to revisit their famous 2004 AFL grand final showdown.

The Brisbane Lions were the three-time defending premiers and were attempting to become just the second team after the dominant Collingwood team of 1927-1930 to win four consecutive flags.

Opposing them were the Mark Williams-coached Port Adelaide side, which gained a reputation of choking in the three preceding finals series – including crashing out in straight sets after having claimed the double chance in 2001. Port had won the minor premiership for a third consecutive season but it was in 2004 that they started to perform when it mattered most.

Port Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions finished first and second on the ladder, in the process earning home finals in which they hosted Geelong and St Kilda respectively.

The Lions thrashed the Saints in the opening game of the 2004 finals series but despite having earned the right to host another home final at the Gabba, their preliminary final match against Geelong was moved to the MCG. It was possible that two finals matches in one given weekend would be hosted by non-Victorian teams, but the AFL’s contract with the Melbourne Cricket Club required that at least one finals match must be played at the MCG in each week of the finals series.

In the end, it did not seem to matter as the Lions ended the Cats’ season of improvement with a narrow nine-point victory, which would catapult them into their fourth consecutive grand final and a shot at history.

The Power had the more straight-forward path, first defeating Geelong by 55 points and then, after a week off, just surviving a surge from St Kilda to win a heart-stopping preliminary final by only six points and in the process ruin Robert Harvey’s 300th AFL game.

Both the Power’s finals matches were played at their home base of AAMI Stadium, the team having retained the right to host their preliminary final as the higher-ranked winner from the first round of the finals series.

And so the first AFL grand final not to involve a team from Melbourne was to be contested by perennial finals chokers and the three-time defending premiers. What would unfold would be one of the most aggressive grand finals in recent history, a fight between Alastair Lynch and Darryl Wakelin dominating the first quarter.

Lynch, Wakelin, Jonathan Brown (striking and wrestling), Josh Carr (wrestling) and Simon Black (striking) were all booked for separate offences. The physicality in this grand final prompted the AFL to establish what is now known as the ‘double penalty’, whereby any offences in the grand final would result in double the original sentence for the offence.

For their parts, Lynch received a ten-match suspension for his role in the first quarter brawl with Wakelin, but as this was to be his final AFL game, his suspension was eventually never served.

Black was suspended for three matches and Brown five, both of which would be served in the opening rounds of the 2005 season.

After a very close first half, it appeared as though the Lions would close in on becoming only the second team to achieve the ‘four-peat’ midway through the third quarter. But a refreshed Port Adelaide, with nothing to lose and a 24-hour advantage on the Lions rest-wise, romped home in the final quarter to win by 40 points and win their first AFL premiership in only their eighth year in the competition.

Byron Pickett, a premiership-winning defender with North Melbourne in 1999, was the clear best-on-ground with three goals, while Josh Mahoney proved to be the x-factor in the Power’s strong second-half performance.

The immediate aftermath was then dominated by Power coach Mark Williams, who after the final siren mocked a choking gesture by pretending to hang his tie above his head. He uttered these now-famous words – “Allan Scott, you were wrong” – inflicting the last laugh on the club sponsor who said at the beginning of the season that Port would never win a flag under the coaching of Williams.

In the years following the 2004 grand final, both clubs have struggled – particularly the Brisbane Lions, who suffered a sharp decline on the field. In fact, the club has only made the finals once in the past decade, back in 2009.

Port Adelaide, on the other hand, overcame a poor 2005 season to reach the semi-finals, only to have their premiership defence trampled onto the AAMI Stadium turf by Adelaide in what became known as “The Ultimate Showdown” – the teams’ first meeting in an AFL final.

As of 2014, only four survivors remain from this historic grand final: Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions), Domenic Cassisi, Kane Cornes (Port Adelaide) and Shaun Burgoyne, who won a second premiership medallion with Hawthorn last year.

A further four are now coaches in the AFL: Justin Leppitsch (currently the coach of the Lions), Chris Scott (Geelong), Brad Scott (North Melbourne) and Damien Hardwick (Richmond).

Port Adelaide will this weekend celebrate the tenth anniversary of its 2004 premiership by wearing a replica of their main guernsey from that year when they take on the Lions. The 2004 premiership-winning team will be paraded prior to the match, and their names will be included, along with those of the Power’s 2014 club members, on this one-off guernsey.

The Lions, for their part, also marked the tenth anniversary of their three-peat of flags by wearing their replica guernseys from that era in their matches against Essendon and Collingwood early last year.

The Power find themselves with two wins and one loss for the season so far, the defeat coming by only seven points against North Melbourne last week.

By contrast, the Lions are still to win a game this season and are ravaged by injuries and suspension, with one of their most important players in Daniel Rich out for the season after suffering a shocking knee injury in their 53-point loss to the Suns on the Gold Coast last week.

The Power are still undefeated at the Adelaide Oval and will be favoured to continue that record when the two teams meet on Saturday, with a win set to cap off a day of celebrations for the Port Adelaide Football Club.