And Port coach Mark Williams has revealed he rang Tredrea at 4pm – just three-and-a-half hours before the 7.30pm start – to ask whether he wanted to play against the Bombers.
The triple All-Australian centre half-forward promptly left Williams in no doubt he would be playing, and he went on to produce an inspirational performance – 12 kicks, seven handpasses, six marks, five inside-50 entries and three goals – to help lift the Power to a 39-point win and a berth in Saturday’s preliminary final against Collingwood at the MCG.
Understandably, Williams was full of admiration for Tredrea’s heroics and hailed him as ‘a great player’.
“Tredders was under a real injury – or sickness – cloud,” he said.
“I rang him at 4 o’clock this afternoon and asked him whether he wanted to play. I really didn’t know if he was going to play until then, so it was a wonderful effort by him to get out there and play.
“It’s hard to put superlatives on a great player. Legends start to build with these sort of things… remember the year that Tredrea got out of bed and did what he did? That’ll be written down in time.
“There have been some wonderful efforts go through the Port Adelaide Football Club over the history of the club and that will be one that’s remembered along with those.”
Tredrea, of course, was more reserved in his assessment.
“If you play, you want to play well and do your bit for the team,” he said.
“Everyone’s going to write up that I got off the death bed and played well, but if you’re a player, you want to play well, you want to win a game, you want to win a final.
“Fifty per cent fit, 70 per cent fit, 90 per cent fit… I was going to get out there and play. I wasn’t going to sit at home and watch the team have a crack at it. I wanted to be a part of it. I did everything I could to do it.
“I had the flu for three days. You have a run and you’re fatigued and you get that little edge off you. But the way we played probably helped me out a bit.
“You get a bit flat but the next day I’ll be over it, which is good. The worst has passed. You’re never 100 per cent so it’s always one little thing or another. The games you’re 100 per cent are probably the games you don’t even get a kick.
“The problem was the upset nights of sleep. I’d sleep for two or three hours and wake up in a sweat. I tried to eat as much as I could.
“I was actually surprised how well things went in terms of running capabilities compared with what I thought it was going to be.
“I’ll be a bit better once I’ve slept tonight. It was a bit of a struggle. Every time you get the flu it’s not the greatest thing.
“Wednesday was when it first came on. I had a bit of a run Wednesday morning – just a bit of a kick around – and then I started getting bit achy on Wednesday afternoon, as you do with the flu.
“I was just about to do half the session on Wednesday (afternoon) and I decided against it. Looking back now, it was probably a pretty good move.
“I suppose the next time I got out of bed was 3 o’clock this afternoon. Other than that, I’ve spent a fair bit of time sleeping.”
Tredrea described Port’s attack on the ball as ‘sensational – probably 10 out of 10 compared with a five last week’.
“That’s where the improvement’s been made in the last week,” he said. “It’s always been there but it – the intensity – just wasn’t there for the start of the game last week.
“Instead of us turning over the ball, it was Essendon turning over the ball. We were the ones who were making them pay, whereas it was Sydney making us pay last week.
“We were just a bit more crisp than what they were and we made it pay towards the end.”
