THIS is like asking Greenpeace to shed a tear for a seaman on a Japanese trawler, injured while hauling up a wounded whale, but we will try. South Australia may not have a team in the finals this year for only the second time since Port Adelaide entered the competition 12 years ago.

And it could be one SA team making sure the other also misses the finals. If Port wins today's Showdown at AAMI Stadium, history suggests the Crows will need to win four or five of their remaining six games to make the final eight.

Please, Victorians, share our moments of grief, just as you no doubt have in sympathy with West Australian fans. In the past 19 AFL/VFL finals series, only once has there not been a team from the west of the Victorian border, in 2000, and only three times have Victorian teams filled the top four positions at the end of the home-and-away series — 1993, '95 and 2000.

After Geelong broke its drought — and Victoria's — last year, maybe another victory is looming for the self-proclaimed protectors of football in its 150th year.

In the meantime, great interest still lies in today's Showdown — not only in whether the victor can remember its club song (Port has lost its past five and Adelaide four) but in how many fans will be at the match.

This is Port's home game, and fears were expressed that the attendance will be the lowest for a Showdown since its inception in 1997. Last year, Port's home game drew a record low 36,959 for these clubs, compared with the 45,524 who attended Adelaide's home game in round three.

Given Port's form, and the fact it is attracting the fewest fans of any AFL club to its home games this year — an average 24,136 including only 19,851 to the North Melbourne game last Saturday night — the concerns are very real.

It is why the clubs have gone to extraordinary lengths to create greater interest in this game, when in reality their previous clash was such a great contest it should sell the Showdowns for all time.

On Wednesday, we had the great yo-yo championship between two players from both sides with the losers — Port's Domenic Cassisi and Greg Bentley — having to eat doughnuts with sprinkles in the Crows' colours in Rundle Mall.

The real drama was when an ambulance with its lights flashing was trying to get past the circle of fans in the mall, but they ignored it because they were too fixed on whether Adelaide's Chris Knights could "rock the cradle" with his yo-yo.

But, of course, you read it on the front page of the Melbourne dailies.

The following day, the coaches and captains held a joint conference at Adelaide's casino, Skycity, and once more we had yo-yos on the table. Mark Williams and Neil Craig just couldn't help themselves. Actually, they were very good.

They were also again exceptional when it came to talking up the game, not from a selfish point of view, but merely to promote the game.

"Every game is worth four points, but against our traditional rivals it will probably be our biggest crowd for the rest of the year," Williams touted.

When asked whether it surprised him that the clubs needed to drum up interest in these games considering the previous 24 had been mostly outstanding, especially the last, Williams said: "We would argue we played pretty hard and tough last time and smashed and bashed … it was such a brilliant game. I am sure the Crows were really proud of the fact they finished with 16 fit players and won … it was right up there as one of the great football games.

"To be celebrating for the last whatever weeks, thinking, gee, we can't wait until the next (Showdown) comes around, I would be thinking it would be sold out before it does come around."

Craig endorsed Williams' reflection of the game and called on Crows fans to attend. However, there was no hint of smugness given Adelaide's ability to consistently draw bigger crowds. And neither there should be.

Like Victorians should be enjoying right now, and as they say in the classics, every dog has its day. The clubs on the western front are struggling, and within SA, there is every reason to believe that, in time, Port may hold sway with fans and it will be the Crows doing zany things during city lunch breaks to grab some crucial seconds of promotion on the six o'clock news.

Figures released by the AFL last week showed that Adelaide's membership dropped by 2256 on the previous year, but still has the highest membership of any club — 48,720. The Crows are 3857 ahead of West Coast, and have 6222 more members than Victoria's biggest club, Collingwood.

Port is ninth on the membership list with 34,073 — a huge shortfall of 14,647 compared with its home-town rival.

It is interesting to note that the membership leaders — Adelaide and West Coast — have the highest number of concession members, and are among the lowest when it comes to junior memberships. Compared with Port, the Crows have 59.6% more concession memberships, but 0.9% fewer juniors.

The figures suggest that Adelaide inherited the older members from the halcyon SANFL days, and many have faded into the grandstands in the sky; while Port is being rewarded for attracting kids to the club.

So, Victorians, enjoy your basking in the sun while you can, scoff at the yo-yo promotion to get the fans to today's game as we will, but do you know how many kids were excited about getting a free doughnut with black, white and teal sprinkles in Rundle Mall? Plenty. And may God help you save the whales too.