In the nick of time Port Adelaide rediscovered the form that took it to the 2004 premiership, belting the Kangaroos by 87 points in the AFL elimination final to set up a dream clash with bitter rival Adelaide.

The City of Churches will be abuzz for the next six days ahead of the first semi-final between the Crows and the Power - the first time they have met in a final.

Port has stuttered throughout its premiership defence and only fell into the finals in eighth place.

But everything clicked into place, with the Power kicking 20 goals to five after quarter-time to win 26.8 (164) to 11.11 (77) before just 25,195 fans at Telstra Dome, the smallest crowd for a VFL/AFL final in Victoria since WWII.

"(Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley's) group haven't played many finals and we have," said Port coach Mark Williams.

"The facts are that we're going to use that as much as we can and we're going to get confidence out of the fact that we've done the hard yards in the finals.

"You can't buy experience and you certainly can't buy finals experience.

"We drew on that and took a lot of comfort from that."

Stand-in captain Warren Tredrea was an imposing figure up forward for the Power, and his four-goal haul was matched by Brendon Lade and Josh Mahoney.

The Power also got great returns from Chad Cornes, Adam Kingsley and Peter Burgoyne, who was in doubt in the leadup with a knee injury.

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