THERE were a few nervous moments in the final hour of the lead-up to Saturday night's Richmond v Port Adelaide clash when two light towers failed.

The light towers, which were located at the southern end of the ground, suddenly went out, threatening to delay the start of the game.

The game went ahead on time after power resumed but one of the light towers went out again in the final minute of the first quarter. The game played on until the quarter-time break when officials frantically rushed around to sort out the problem.

All four light towers remained in working order for the rest of the game.

AFL match manager Scott Taylor said after the game that proceedings would have carried on as normal if one of the four towers stayed out of action but the match would have been halted if two of them were not working.

In such an event, players would come off the ground for no longer than 60 minutes before the evening's event would have been called off.

Had the game been stranded in the first half, the match would have been abandoned but if the malfunction occurred in the second half, the win would have been awarded to whichever team was in front at the time.

Taylor did not rule out the possibility of a match being concluded several days later, as what happened in 1996 when a blackout brought the St Kilda v Essendon game to a standstill.

"That would have been a decision for the commission and the executive to work that out. If you couldn't reschedule it, it would have been a draw," Taylor said after the game.

Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus said his team was not disrupted by the havoc surrounding the lights which recently underwent a $27,000 upgrade.

"There was obviously a bit of panic going on there but the players' routine stayed the same and they were able to keep their minds on the task and that was the important side of it," he said

"It doesn't happen too often but the whole night they had chances where they could have let their minds wander off but they stayed in control of the game and stayed composed for most of the night."

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick also said the unusual circumstances had no bearing on his players.