The increasing economic activity around the waterways ultimately resulted in a meeting being organised by young Port Adelaide locals John Rann, Richard Leicester and George Ireland with the intention to form a sporting club to benefit the growing number of workers associated with the wharves and surrounding industries.

His first season would ultimately be a failure with the club finishing last for the first time in its history however he managed to blood some new young players with Harold Phillips showing great promise.

[17] Attending the match were Chinese Commissioners to the Jubilee Exhibition General Wong Yang Ho and Console-General Yu Chiung who were provided the South Australian premiers private box at Adelaide Oval.

In 1890 Port Adelaide won its second SAFA premiership and would go on to be crowned "Champions of Australia" for the first time after defeating VFA premiers South Melbourne.

[20] On 10 July 1888 the club hosted a match against Great Britain (England) at the Adelaide Oval as part of the 1888 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia however the visitors were too strong in the showery conditions and won by a goal in front of 1,500 spectators.

Port Adelaide's champion players from this era include Harold Phillips, Ken and John McKenzie, Archibald Hosie, Charlie Fry and Stan Malin.

To conclude this trip Port Adelaide played a combination of some of the Western Australian Football League's best players and achieved a remarkable victory scoring 6.17 (53) to 6.12 (48), with Sampson Hosking named best on ground.

[34] During the 1913 preseason, Port Adelaide travelled back to Western Australia to play East Fremantle again with the local side winning for a second time 6.6 (42) to 4.12 (36).

Despite this inauspicious preseason the club would break through in 1913, dropping only two games during the minor round and eventually defeating North Adelaide 7.12 (54) to 5.10 (40) for the SAFL premiership and Fitzroy 13.16 (94) to 4.7 (31) for the 1913 Championship of Australia.

[36] The onset of World War I was causing players to start taking up arms in 1915 and forced the SAFL to be suspended for three years bringing an abrupt halt to Port Adelaide's dominance.

Normal competition resumed in 1945 and after finishing his military service Haydn Bunton Sr., now a triple Brownlow and Sandover medallist, joined the club for his final season.

Port Adelaide's run of disappointment from the 1952 and 1953 seasons would prove to be short lived with the club subsequently going on to win a national record six Grand Finals in a row from 1954 to 1959.

"In 1955 Port Adelaide and Melbourne, the premiers of South Australian and Victorian leagues, played an exhibition match at Norwood Oval in front of an estimated 23,000 spectators.

However the Melbourne club, despite their victory, was full of praise for their cross border challenger with all in the Demons camp agreeing that "Port Adelaide could take their place in the V.F.L.

Port Adelaide's hope of winning 7 consecutive premierships would be brought to an end by Norwood during the 1960 SANFL preliminary final, with the redlegs prevailing by 27 points.

Champion players introduced in this era include John Cahill, Peter Woite, Dave Boyd, Geof Motley and Russell Ebert.

The actual crowd was estimated at 80,000, much bigger than the official figure as the SANFL ran out of tickets early and were forced to shut the gates 90 minutes before the bounce as people were being crushed on entry.

A side story to the 1977 premiership was Randall Gerlach, the club's leading goal kicker the year prior, who made the decision to play throughout 1977 against his doctors advice regarding a chronic kidney condition that would prematurely end his career at age 24.

[66] From this point in time onwards Port Adelaide restructured the club in regards to economics, public relations and on-field performance for an attempt to enter the league in 1990.

[68] During early 1990 the SANFL decided to wait three years before making any further decision in regards to fielding a South Australian side in the VFL until it could be done without negatively affecting football within the state.

During the 1990 preseason Port Adelaide played a practice match against the Geelong Cats at Football Park in front of 35,000 spectators with Gary Ablett Snr and Gavin Wanganeen prominent.

"When knowledge of Port Adelaide Football Club's negotiations to gain an AFL licence were made public, the rest of the SANFL and many other people across the state saw it as an act of treachery.

[74] Present at the 1994 SANFL Grand Final was AFL CEO Ross Oakley and Alan Schwab who bore witness to the club's come from behind win against the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles.

Port Adelaide was widely tipped to take the wooden spoon at the start of the season[citation needed], but defied the critics to finish 9th, missing the finals on percentage behind Brisbane.

In the semi-final, Port faced the highly fancied minor premiers Adelaide in what was dubbed "The Ultimate Showdown" – the first occasion when the two cross-town rivals had met in a finals series.

The club's financial prospects were given a major boost in December 2009 when Premier Mike Rann announced a $450 million government commitment to redevelop Adelaide Oval, to enable AFL Football and home games for both Port and the Crows to be played in the city centre.

On 9 September 2012, Port Adelaide player John McCarthy died on an end of season trip in Las Vegas after falling from a ledge of The Flamingo Hotel.

Port Adelaide also had major changes within its administrative positions with television personality David Koch being named as the chairman of the club and numerous board members being replaced.

Building on its 2013 success and its move to the more central venue, off-field Port Adelaide signed up a record 55,715 members for the 2014 season, and averaged 44,429 at home games, a 65% increase from the previous year.

[97] Australian football historian John Devaney described the forced separation of Port Adelaide's SANFL and AFL operations as being "akin to the enforced splitting up of families associated with military conquest or warfare".