[2] Port Adelaide has played in the South Australian Grade Cricket League since 1897.

[1] Newspaper records show that a Port Adelaide cricket team existed in the early 1860s.

The team competed briefly in the Adelaide Suburban Cricket Association before forming a local league, the Port Adelaide Cricket Association in 1882–83.

William Whitridge proposed Port Adelaide at the annual meeting of the SACA in September 1885 but the motion was defeated due to the lack of available grounds.

The club was officially formed at a meeting at the Friendly Societies' Room in July 1897.