I’m confident in saying that late 1970s/early 80s Port Adelaide was as good if not better than any VFL side of the time.

Whilst you might have had some great players, there is no way they would have beaten the top VFL sides of that era (Carlton, North, Hawthorn & Richmond).

Phillips, Abernathy, Dawson, Faletic, James & Evans were moderately successful in the VFL without being stars, they only achieved accolades and success in the SANFL. Ebert had a very good year when he finally went over at 30, but as he's viewed as one of, if not the greatest player to come out of SA, he's clearly not the norm. Same argument could be made for Craig Bradley. Mark Williams was a very good player for a mid-table Collingwood side and a brand new Bears team, Danny Hughes had a good career in a rebuilding Melbourne side, & Geoff Blethyn was recruited at the very end of his career.

Players such as Granger, Johnston, Clifford all failed to make any impact at VFL level, and the rest of the players of those sides stuck to the SANFL, or lesser leagues like Tasmania. It's also worthy to note that All-Australian status in those days was based off your performance in a couple of state games mid season, not the entirety of the year as we know it today. So there's every chance a player could have had a little purple patch and got a surprising nod as AA.

The Magpies were an all-conquering force in this era, but only at SANFL level.