FROM my point of view, having captained Collingwood in the VFL, the Showdowns in Adelaide are right up there with the big games in Victoria.

In my playing days those games included titanic Collingwood v Carlton clashes, and now there is certainly the Collingwood v Essendon game at the MCG on Anzac Day.

Victorians understand the intense rivalry and competition those games bring and I think the Showdowns are exactly the same.

Obviously we don’t get the huge crowds, and the facilities here can’t cater for them anyway, but the passion is there.

The spotlight is very much on the game, if not even more so than on those big games in Victoria, because we’re only a two-team town and everyone is watching.

The tension builds during the week and the players really look forward to it.

You always put a little bit more preparation into the game because you have to live the outcome for another 15 weeks, or however long it takes for the two sides to meet again.

From the minute a Showdown ends it’s all people want to talk about, whether it be the 5 o’clock news in the morning or the 10 o’clock news at night.

There’s always someone voicing an opinion on the game.

As you walk down the streets people are more aware of who you are as a coach or as a player and also what the outcome of the game might be, or what it has been in the past.

The word “hatred” is probably talked up more in the media than anywhere else, but for us there is a huge respect for Adelaide and I’m sure it goes both ways.

I think the fear of losing the game is the thing that without a doubt drives the players best.

Last year I went to Europe for the first time and I was fortunate enough to go to Old Trafford and see Manchester United take on Liverpool in one of the great games in the English Premier League.

Probably even bigger than that game at Old Trafford, which is almost impossible to imagine, was the match I saw in Italy. It was AC Milan versus Inter Milan and it’s probably one of the biggest rivalries or derbies in the world.

Watching that match actually brought back memories of the Showdown in terms of how much passion and belief the supporters of both sides had in their team.

It didn’t matter where the teams stood as far as wins and losses were concerned and it’s been a similar scenario here in Adelaide.

Quite often the underdog going into the game has claimed victory.

I think the emotional high created by Showdowns actually caused a few problems for us in the early days and I remember having an interesting conversation with Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews about it.

We finished top of the ladder at the end of the minor round three years-in-a-row between 2002 and 2004 and back then we were always scheduled to play the Crows in the last or second-to-last game before finals.

In those days quite often a team would lose the week after a Showdown because there had been so much build up for that particular game that there was inevitably a let down the following week.

We followed that same script year after year going into finals and we didn’t make a Grand Final until 2004, so there might have been something in that.

Nowadays, at the request of both clubs, the second Showdown of the year is usually scheduled a bit earlier, so there isn’t that massive high right before the finals.

This time of year is a good time for a Showdown. We’re 0-2 and certainly if we need anything to give us a kick up the bum, playing Adelaide will certainly get our senses heightened because everyone is aware of how important this game is.

I think the best part of Showdowns in SA, when compared to the derbies in Western Australia, is that the competition between the two sides has traditionally been so even.

When the derby was introduced in Western Australia the teams were completely mismatched and I think West Coast won something like the first 10 or 15 games against Fremantle.

We had a run between 2000-03 where we won seven in a row and now the Crows have won six of the past seven, so it’s started to come back to being very even again.

I suppose that makes the Showdowns even more tantalising because everyone wants to see who will emerge the top dog in town.

Even after 11 years I think the first ever Showdown remains the most memorable for most Port Adelaide supporters.

Port Adelaide did everything in the early 1990s to try to secure that first SA license in the AFL, but the Crows got in and we had to sit, wait and watch for a few years.

There were a lot of Port Adelaide Magpies players associated with that first Showdown win and a lot of former Magpies playing in that game.

It probably meant more to those people in 1997 than it ever has since and it was just a terrific win.

I’m sure it made our supporters believe that we were worthwhile.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL