THIS week’s match at AAMI Stadium will be St Kilda’s farewell to a ground that has been notoriously difficult for the club.

With Adelaide and Port Adelaide set to play their home games at the revamped Adelaide Oval from 2014, AAMI Stadium, once known as Football Park is embarking on its farewell season as an AFL venue.

The ground has served as the home of South Australian AFL football ever since the Crows burst on to the scene with a thumping victory over Hawthorn in round one, 1991.

Since then the venue has been somewhat of a bogey ground for many travelling teams  who have struggled to cope with the fanatical South Australian crowds willing on their sides.

In 27 encounters at AAMI Stadium, the Saints have come away winners on just seven occasions.

And without doubt, the most heart-wrenching of St Kilda’s 20 losses was the 2004 preliminary final to Port Adelaide.

The Saints got off to a solid start and had the early running when Fraser Gehrig kicked his 100^th goal of the season.

The subsequent ground invasion from eager fans and the resulting delay halted the Saints’ momentum and the Power clawed back. The margin did not exceed a goal at any of the quarter breaks and it was only some heroics from Gavin Wanganeen with a brilliant goal towards the end of the match that secured the win and a Grand Final berth for Port Adelaide.

The Power went on to roll the Brisbane Lions and captured a premiership that could very easily have been St Kilda’s.

Current St Kilda assistant coach Adam Kingsley was in Port Adelaide colours that night and has clear memories of Wanganeen’s heroics.

“Gav hadn’t had a touch to three-quarter-time and Choco (then Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams) really stirred him up in the three-quarter-time address,” Kingsley told saints.com.au.

“He had a go at him for not being a strong contributor and Gav then kicked two goals in the last quarter. One of them was an unbelievable goal from the boundary line that was a real team lifter.”

Kingsley supports the theory that the ground invasion from Gehrig’s 100^th goal was a turning point that benefitted the Power.

“I remember St Kilda had all the momentum. Port Adelaide couldn’t win the ball and all of a sudden Fraser’s kicked his 100^th and everyone ran out,” he said.

“It gave us the chance to regroup a little and it stopped a bit of St Kilda’s momentum. From then on, we started winning more of the ball and started to score.”

Now employed as St Kilda’s offensive coach, Kingsley has been careful not to mention the 2004 preliminary final to the many people still involved with the club who were part of that night.

“I try not to talk about it too much because I know it is a pretty painful memory for a lot of the guys,” he said.

“I don’t want to rub it in their noses but they have spoken about it. They’ve identified that everyone running on the ground killed their momentum and they rued that a bit.”

That said, there have been some memorable moments in the seven wins the Saints have had in Adelaide.

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The Saints’ first game there in 1991 finished in a 51-point win, thanks to a 10-goal bag from Tony Lockett, who like Gehrig 16 years later, kicked his 100^th goal of the season. That win sealed the Saints’ first finals appearance in 18 years.

St Kilda lost its next five games at the ground but won its first game against Port Adelaide in the Power’s first season in the AFL in 1997.

That match was significant for a few reasons, not least of all that the win and the percentage gained secured a top of the table finish for the Saints.

But there was a cloud of tragedy hovering over that game in more ways than one. Popular ruckman Lazar Vidovic ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament on the eve of the finals in what turned out to be his final ever AFL game.

But Vidovic and the St Kilda minor premiership were far from the big news story of the day as the world was coming to grips with the tragic death of Princess Diana who was killed in a car accident in France only hours earlier.

There was also the famous 2005 Qualifying Final where the club knocked off the Crows who had gone into the game as minor premiers. A phenomenal midfield effort from Robert Harvey served as the catalyst for that victory.

Now firmly part of the St Kilda camp, Kingsley admits a tinge of sadness that this weekend’s visit will be his last involvement at the ground where he played 98 of his 170 AFL games

“AAMI Stadium was a fantastic place to play. It’s a big ground with plenty of space and the conditions in Adelaide are normally quite perfect,” he said.

“We played a lot of night games there and playing at night in AAM Stadium is one of the best venues to play at. It’s got that little bit of dew but it’s usually quite mild. It is a terrific place to play but Adelaide Oval will be fantastic as well and the stadium deal will help both clubs.”