Ken Hinkley and his mate Brenton Sanderson agree: it’s futile.

The Port Adelaide and Crows coaches say it’s pointless trying to downplay Saturday’s AFL match between the clubs as just another game.

The clashes of the bitter rivals, dubbed `Showdowns’, are always fierce. But this one is also historic: the first AFL match at a newly-completed and redeveloped Adelaide Oval.

“Showdowns are always big,” Hinkley told reporters on Friday.

“But because we’re here at Adelaide Oval and the significance of the first game, it feels like there’s a little bit more on it, it feels like a really big game. I feel a little bit more tension in the game.”

Sanderson, who played with Hinkley at Geelong and then sat in the same coaches box when both were assistant coaches with the Cats, said the game was a watershed moment for not just the AFL, but South Australia.

“This is just so exciting for out city, for our state, and for our football clubs,” Sanderson told reporters.

About 53,000 spectators are expected to fill the revamped Adelaide Oval, which has undergone a $535 million redevelopment.

But amid much hoopla surrounding the oval itself, Hinkley and Sanderson both realised a game has to be won.

“The feedback we get from the players is the build-up is enormous to this game and there’s a lot of anxiety and pressures,” Sanderson said.

“When the ball gets bounced, it’s just another game of footy. But it just feels like the hits are a little bit harder, the tackles are a little bit more fierce, the pressure when you’re having a shot for goal seems to be magnified a little bit more.”

Sanderson embraced Adelaide’s underdog tag for the fixture, heaping praise on Port – their fitness, their coaching, their midfield, their forwards.

“This is a really good football team we’re up against … we have got to be at our best to beat them,” Sanderson said.

“That half-forward line – (Robbie) Gray, (Chad) Wingard, (Angus) Monfries – is probably the envy of most sides in the competition.

“We can’t make it an open running game.

… because Port probably wins that sort of game against any team, let alone us.

“We’ll have to make sure that we make it a contest. Keep it in close, don’t let the ball get outside.”

Hinkley said he was prepared for that tactic, believing his friendship with Sanderson meant neither held any secrets.

“He knows what I’m like. And I’ve got a fair understanding of what he’s like,” he said.