The Port Adelaide Football Club was founded in late April or early May 1870. The club played its first game against a side called 'The Young Australians' in 1870 at Glanville hall Estate. In 1877 Port Adelaide joined seven other local clubs and formed the South Australian Football Association, the first organisation of its type in Australia. From 1877 to 1996 Port Adelaide won 4 Championships of Australia, 34 SANFL premierships and 1 wartime SANFL premiership as a merged club with West Torrens. In 1990 the club approached the newly named AFL for entry but was eventually beaten by a composite proposal, the Adelaide Crows, by the SANFL. The AFL guaranteed Port Adelaide a place in the competition in 1994 and eventually entered in 1997.