Revisiting the South Australian license saga of 1991
Roar Guru By The_Wookie, 16 Jul 2012 The_Wookie is a Roar Guru
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The Port Adelaide Magpies were founded in 1870, winning 36 SANFL flags and one VFL/AFL premiership in 2004. They joined the AFL in 1997 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1990. This page is dedicated to the story behind the earlier attempt.
Background
in 1981, the SANFL decided to try to enter a composite team in the VFL but SANFL requests to the VFL in 1981 were politely declined due to the VFL not considering national expansion at the time. This was despite applications also coming from East Perth in the WAFL in 1980.
In 1985, The National Football Council commissioned a report that recommended South Australia enter a team into the VFL, as a joint effort between Norwood and Port Adelaide, two of the more successful and oldest SANFL clubs.
With financial troubles affecting half its clubs, the VFL evidently saw expansion as its saviour in 1986 and set the wheels in motion inviting both the SANFL and WAFL to the league. This coincided with the appointment of the VFL Commission in 1985.
In 1986, the VFL invites both the WAFL and SANFL to submit teams to the league. The SANFL registers the Adelaide football club, but declines the invitation although it does continue negotiations.
The WAFL accepts agreeing to pay the license fee up front. The SANFL refuse to pay a license fee of any kind and in 1987 set up a player retention scheme to prevent the best talent leaving the SANFL. The VFL sets up Brisbane instead of an SA team. In 1987, West Perth director John Clinch advises the SANFL against joining the VFL saying it had ruined the WAFL.
The events of 1990
Early in 1990, the SANFL had met and unanimously voted to reject joining the AFL before 1993, further rejecting a license fee and demanding the league consist of no more than 14 teams. However the AFL was determined and began negotiating with Port Adelaide, who were already concerned that they were subsidising the rest of the SANFL clubs due to their strong support.
Port Adelaide, working with AFL Commissioner Alan Schwab, signed a Heads of Agreement with the AFL on July fourth 1990 which was kept secret for almost a month, but when revealed many in the SANFL felt that it was a betrayal. The SANFL ordered Port Adelaide to withdraw the bid. Further Port was told if its bid was successful, it would be removed from the league and games would not be permitted at Football Park.
The terms of the deal offered to Port were far more generous than those previously offered to the SANFL for its composite team, among other things it included a negotiated license fee of just $1.5 million (the SANFL would later attempt to get this deal for itself and the Adelaide Football Club). The deal would have left two Port Adelaides, one in the AFL and one in the SANFL.
To further complicate matters, at the urging of several SANFL clubs, Justice Olsson awarded a temporary injunction against Port, preventing it from proceeding further.
On August sixth, the Club addressed its members, with at least one Board member revealing he had voted against the decision. However Port remained defiant. The SANFL announced it would submit a counter-bid when its directors voted 10-1 (with Port the only exception) to join the AFL.
The battle was far from won. While the SANFL had announced its plan, the AFL demands included dropping the case against Port and paying its costs. Port argued that the actions taken were a breach of the Trade Practices Act. The SANFL would end up giving Port Adelaide a pitiful fine of $8,000 for not dropping the case. Port would go on to win the 1990 SANFL premiership – and gloat about winning it in the face of considerable adversity in the annual report.
Timeline of the Saga
■May 1990 – The SANFL and its clubs unanimously resolve not to enter a team until 1993
■Jul 4, 1990 – Heads of Agreement submitted to the AFL, kept secret for a month
■Aug 6, 1990 – Port members are told the board voted 7-1, SANFL submits own team
■Sep 19, 1990 – Adelaide is officially accepted by the AFL Board
Timeline of Events leading up to the Saga
■1981- The SANFL approves a composite club application to join the VFL who advises that applications are not being accepted at that time
■1985- The NFL conducts a study into a national league. The VFL shows no support for the study. The NFL report states that a SANFL composite team should not enter the league, but a joint Port-Norwood team should.
■1986- The VFL presidents vote to begin League expansion
■1986- The SANFL is invited to join the VFL, but declines (it does continue negotiating). The SANFL forms the Adelaide football club Inc
■1987- The SANFL introduces a Player retention scheme to stop talent deserting to the VFL.
■1989- 7/10 SANFL clubs report losses
■1989- VFL income approaches 30 million, SANFL and WAFL income combined was 12 million.
■1990- The VFL formally becomes the AFL
■1990- May – SANFL clubs unanimously vote against joining the VFL before 1993, further the SANFL states that it will not pay a licence fee and no more than 14 teams should be in the league.
■1990- Port signs a heads of agreement anyway to join in 1991. The terms offered to Port were far more favourable than those offered to the SANFL previously. (its understood that the licence fee for Port would have been just 1 million
■1990- Port Adelaide plays Geelong in a trial match
■1990 Sep – The SANFL formally applies to join the AFL under the same terms offered to Port Adelaide.
■1990 Oct – Adelaide Football Club sub licence is formally signed and Adelaide enters the AFL.
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July 16th 2012 @ 8:42am
Brewski said | July 16th 2012 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Sorry Wookie, 1870 not 1970, typo there in first sentence.
July 16th 2012 @ 9:06am
Opinion Peace said | July 16th 2012 @ 9:06am | Report comment
Maybe they should revisit the Port-Norwood merger? Port Adelaide/Alberton is such a backwater of a place. I can understand why very few young players would want to be recruited to Port and why, it seems, quite a few would be happy to leave. In fact, I think more players would prefer to go to GWS these days than to Port.
July 24th 2012 @ 10:08am
adam214 said | July 24th 2012 @ 10:08am | Report comment
Merging with norwood a club we have hated and vice versa for over a 100 years?! can i buy some of the stuff your smoking?!
August 24th 2012 @ 3:37am
Jason from Sydney said | August 24th 2012 @ 3:37am | Report comment
When two teams who hate each other a merger would never work, I mean that in any sport.
July 16th 2012 @ 10:31am
Lachlan said | July 16th 2012 @ 10:31am | Report comment
Something has to be done to save a second Adelaide team in the AFL. I know the AFL is banking on the fact that Adelaide Oval will save them, this doesn’t seem likely. Not sure what can be done. Maybe a name change and colour and image change. This probably wouldn’t work because the old Port Adelaide supporters would ditch the club and it would be unlikely that new supporters would jump on board. A crowd of 17,000 for a home game after being well-established is unacceptable.
July 16th 2012 @ 12:18pm
Kasey said | July 16th 2012 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
Port are reaping the reward of its supreme arrogance in stabbing SA footy in the back in 1990. In 1995 entering a second composite side as in Freo was would have had much more chance of success on the national front, as it is, the generations of loathing in SA footy circles of all things Port Adelaide prevent many from buying in to the Power. They’d be lucky to Fill Alberton these days. Once the new Adelaide Oval is complete, the AFC fans will pack it out and once again the Power fans will complain that their shared home ground is too much “the Crows ground.” Adelaide Oval won’t ‘save’ Port, it will expose just how weak this franchise is on so many fronts and will end up being another nail in the coffin of this disastrous enterprise. At least the SA govt won’t be left with a white elephant as AFC fans fill it every second week from 2014 onwards.
July 16th 2012 @ 11:24am
checkside said | July 16th 2012 @ 11:24am | Report comment
Opinion Peace – your comment – “more players would prefer GWS these days than Port” – is correct and some coaches and supporting staff as well. Also non South Australians do not really understand the rivalry bordering hatred of Port Adelaide. It is known that many would prefer Collingwood than Port Adelaide!! This does go back many generations and if Port Adelaide was to fold I dont think a lot would be crying about it.
July 16th 2012 @ 4:12pm
Strummer Jones said | July 16th 2012 @ 4:12pm | Report comment
They need to change that mindlessly stupid name “Power” and that 5 year old’s cartoon picture of some bloke pulling a lightning bolt from the sky. The Swans are the only team that can “shake down the thunder from the sky” and they dont even have that on their emblem.
What about Port Whips, Wolves, Piping Shrikes, or even Port merging with another SA Club and calling themselves………..the Woodpeckers.
July 16th 2012 @ 11:49am
Norm said | July 16th 2012 @ 11:49am | Report comment
Brewski – you are wrong. PAFC was founded in 1870. I was at the game in May 1970 which marked their centenary. I was also at the meeting on Aug 6 1990. Line most true members, I am a member of the Power & Magpies. Was there at the ‘G in 2004 & 2007. We are not having a god year, but our attendance on Saty of 17,000 was bytes than attended the Demons, Australia’s oldest football club!
July 16th 2012 @ 12:39pm
Jason Cave said | July 16th 2012 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
I wrote an article some years ago about what if an Adelaide Crows team had performed if it had entered the then VFL in the 1980s (ie 1983-85)
The team was:
B: B. Winter G. Phillips D.Hughes
HB: B.Abernethy T.Giles M.Leslie
C: M.Williams R.Ebert (c) N.Craig
HF: M.Aish S.Kernahan N.Roberts
F: T.Evans R.Davies G.McIntosh
R: M.Redden C.McDermott J.Platten
INT: R.Johnston T.Ginever T.McGuinness G.Fielke
EMERG: M.Taylor P.Jonas R.Klomp D.Marshall
COACH: Graham Cornes
July 16th 2012 @ 1:59pm
Bayman said | July 16th 2012 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
Jason,
Not a bad side but I wonder if it really would have had ten Port Adelaide players in it? Especially since Port missed the finals in two of the three years (1983 and 1985) that you nominate.
Several of those players were already at other VFL clubs at the time (e.g. Jonas, Williams, Taylor, Abernethy, Phillips) and I doubt their clubs would have been too happy to release them to a new Adelaide team.
Hughes joined Melbourne in 1984 so any Adelaide team would have had to be quick to sign him (admittedly, he may not have left Adelaide if a team had been available).
I doubt, however, that any Adelaide VFL team at the time would have picked Johnston, Ginever or Giles, all Port Adelaide players, ahead of some others who may have been eligible.
Craig on a wing seems an odd choice given he spent most of his life as a rover and Giles at CHB is positively optimistic (a flank at best and not in my side at all).
Still, that era saw the emergence of several South Australian players who formed the nucleus of the State of Origin teams which had so much success over Victoria during the 1980s. Great days indeed.
July 16th 2012 @ 11:51pm
Brewski said | July 16th 2012 @ 11:51pm | Report comment
Craig Bradley ?.
July 17th 2012 @ 11:28am
Roy said | July 17th 2012 @ 11:28am | Report comment
Peter Motley?
July 17th 2012 @ 12:33pm
Bayman said | July 17th 2012 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
Roy, Brewski,
They’d both be in my team and among the first picked.
July 17th 2012 @ 9:53pm
CraigB said | July 17th 2012 @ 9:53pm | Report comment
Platten????
July 17th 2012 @ 9:52pm
Brewski said | July 17th 2012 @ 9:52pm | Report comment
I was going to mention Motley, the guy in the car accident, but when trying to think of him, only the name Motlop kept coming to mind … Cheers.
July 16th 2012 @ 3:02pm
Cameron said | July 16th 2012 @ 3:02pm | Report comment
Finally, the truth about what happened is out. People who say that Port should never have applied to enter the AFL arelooking at Port Adelaide’s perspective, Port Adelaide had the largest supporter base and was dominating the SANFL at the time and could afford to have two teams, as well as many other factors.
July 16th 2012 @ 5:25pm
The_Wookie said | July 16th 2012 @ 5:25pm | Report comment
By 1990 it would have been mad for them not to try. As late as the mid 93 Port were still averaging 11,000 to SANFL matches at Alberton and basically still carrying the entire league.
If any CLUB was going to make a shot in the AFL then it was going to be Port. It personally irritates me that the SANFL:and AFL went about it the way they did.
July 16th 2012 @ 5:54pm
Bayman said | July 16th 2012 @ 5:54pm | Report comment
Cameron,
With all due respect I think history has shown that Port could not afford two teams. Their AFL team was relatively successful, even ultimately successful, on the back of the core of SANFL Magpie talent and expertise. They also picked up some handy, experienced and hardened SANFL players from other clubs who, along with their interstate pickups, made them competitive for some time.
Likewise, the SANFL Magpies survived on the back of what was left behind by the Power. As the years have gone on though the old Port know-how has been lost to both entities. The famous creed is now a thing of the past and almost an embarrassment now that neither club has a hope in hell of living up to it – or even understanding what it really meant.
Fos must be spinning in his grave. Modern reality has now hit home. Port’s once mighty lording it over the SANFL is well and truly over. Their struggles in the AFL well and truly documented. The great players are largely gone and it’s an ever increasing struggle to replace them.
Where the Power began with hardened bodies to compete from day one they now have to recruit eighteen year olds who are untried and unproven with no muscle to boot. It’a a vastly different world. The Suns and the GWS are proving what it’s like to play kids – talented or not.
In every way, Port Magpies and the Port Power are back in the pack and the glory days are long gone. It was inevitable that a club built on the foundations of a single SANFL club would eventually pay the price for a lack of resources and support.
The Adelaide Football Club, with the support of nine (now eight) other SANFL clubs supporters was always going to be ultimately more successful and to maintain that success for longer. The SANFL knew it in 1986 when they first registered the club. They knew it in 1990 when they acted to prevent Port Adelaide from entering the AFL.
Port supporters failed to see it because they assumed the great days would, and should, continue. The AFL didn’t really want Port Adelaide in the competition but they did want to force the hand of the SANFL and they achieved what they wanted. Overnight we had the Crows and two years earlier than the SANFL had hoped. Mission accomplished at AFL headquarters.
As somebody once said, “Be careful what you wish for”. Port wanted the AFL and now they’ve got it. The price is the long, drawn out demise of not just one but two football teams – the Power and the once great Magpies. It used to be easy to attract potential players to Port Adelaide but now they are just like anybody else and much worse than most.
It’s a new experience for Port people – fans, players and administrators – and not one they enjoy. The “largest supporter base” you refer to would be handy now. It was fine when they were winning games and flags almost by divine right. It was easy to be a fan then – a little more difficult now. Not so much fun.
Port Magpies fans struggle to follow both teams with equal passion. They certainly struggle to support both teams financially. So both teams now struggle. Suddenly, in the new world of the AFL that “largest supporter base” becomes very tiny indeed when compared to the Crows and the fans they’ve picked up from those nine other clubs.
Back in 1990 it might have been possible to pick up the “swinging” fan as a supporter based on the principle that everyone likes a winner. Those fans are unavailable today – unless the decision is made out of pity. Today, only Port fans become Port fans and it’s an ever diminishing group.
The Port administration of 1990 could never have believed the club’s fanbase would drop off so alarmingly. Port fans then claimed to be the most loyal in the state. Now we know they were just like those of every other club. There when it was winning and a bit harder to find in adversity. Not so loyal after all. The great Magpie myth finally exposed.
As was said earlier, “Be careful what you wish for”. You just might get it.
As a South Australian it pains me, at least in part, to see Port now in the AFL. I hope they turn it around and become mighty again but I’m not holding my breath. As a Crows fan, and a Glenelg fan, I struggle for sympathy but I take the wider view, see the bigger picture.
The real enemy are those bloody Victorians so, Port Adelaide, get off your bloody bum and do something. Dont think, do!
July 16th 2012 @ 6:40pm
Cameron said | July 16th 2012 @ 6:40pm | Report comment
As usual Bayman, you are one of the many people who talk down Port Adelaide and how they should not exist. Every team goes through a tough and rebuilding stage and every club and business has a time, or multiple times, where their board members make the wrong decisions at the wrong time. If the Victorians are the real enemy here, then the SANFL should never have joined the VFL.
I totally agree with your comment Wookie. I think you are a great reporter.
July 17th 2012 @ 12:29pm
Bayman said | July 17th 2012 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
Cameron,
Where exactly did I say Port should not exist? Port fans keep bleating on about how the Crows took the spot which was rightfully theirs and that’s the reason why Port is in the sh*t now.
The fact is the AFL never wanted Port Adelaide in the competition ahead of a SANFL sponsored team but they were happy to use Port to force the hand of the SANFL. And if you don’t believe that ask yourself why the AFL turned its back on Port and accepted the Crows immediately.
That “spot” was never going to be Port Adelaide’s as long as their bum pointed to the ground. Port did, however, help sow the seeds which hastened the end of the SANFL as a truly meaningful competition – along with the AFL of course. But really, after 1987 it was inevitable anyway and everybody knew it.
In the circumstances of where football was headed, dominated by the AFL, you are naive in the extreme if you think the SANFL should have, or could have, resisted the push to expand the AFL. By 1990 there were already teams in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. If you think Adelaide could be somehow immune from that – good luck. And if you think the SANFL wanted to preside over chaos, well, good luck with that too!
The SANFL had seen the writing on the wall for some time as evidenced by the application to send a team in the early 1980s which the then VFL rejected. The SANFL had always intended, at some point, to have a team in the VFL/AFL but they wanted to control the timing. Port short-circuited that approach with their 1990 application.
One of the reasons Port copped so much flak from the SANFL and its constituent clubs is that Port, just a month or two earlier, had been part of a unamimous SANFL vote to reject the AFL until 1993 – as pointed out by Wookie. Any wonder the SANFL felt betrayed by Port which must have been preparing its application as it voted along party lines.
Personally, I favoured the introduction of Port as the second team in Adelaide, just as I favoured blocking them the first time around. In the circumstances, Port were the natural enemy of the Crows. However, those of us who grew up loving the SANFL before the advent of the AFL were in no doubt what the impact would be. Players were already being taken by Victoria at an ever increasing rate and the best way to stop it was to join the AFL – even if that meant the demise of a great compeition as the Western Australians had already discovered.
You say, “As usual Bayman, you are one of the many people who talk down Port Adelaide and how they should not exist”. I might respond, “As usual Cameron you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about”. I don’t talk down Port Adelaide but I do criticise them and I don’t hold back if I think they deserve the blast. I’ve donated money to the club to help them and I hate the bastards – what the f*ck have you ever done!
Too many Port people sit on their bums and whine about the poor deal Port have had from the SANFL (as Wookie does below). Here’s a clue – the SANFL’s responsibility is to the SANFL. If Port and Adelaide help fund that then that’s the price of entry to the AFL. They both knew that when they began this journey so I don’t give Port much sympathy now just because they massively misread the landscape and couldn’t predict that one tenth of the population (let’s assume) would not be enough in the long term given the circumstances – especially if that one tenth is expected to support two teams, the Power and the Magpies.
Adelaide is in the same boat but the nature of the team means that it gets the other nine tenths – a much more sustainable situation.
Perhaps you and Wookie think the SANFL should fold just to prop up Port Adelaide. Port Adelaide had a unique footy culture before 1990 which was envied and admired across the country. Port people were Port people (although Big Bob McLean was actually a Norwood man and Fos Williams came from West Adelaide) and the world was all about them and the rest.
The Power have diluted that to the point where the administration now seems to have no connection whatsoever to Port or its history. They don’t bleed black and white any more. They’re professional administrators and officials which would be just as much at home at the Crows, or Brisbane, or Collingwood. It’s not the Port Adelaide we knew and Cameron, if you were honest, you would agree.
The creed belonged to Fos Williams and the Magpies. The Power hijacked it and now have forgotten what it stood for because there’s very few there, if any, who really give a toss about Port in the way that Big Bob and Fos did. Or John Cahill.
I remember Port winning SANFL premierships when they had what I consider to be the second or third best team in the comp. They won because they were Port, they were aggresive, nasty, forever hungry and they never gave up.
Look at the Power today and tell me that’s still Port Adelaide. It’s not bloody close and for that I will happily criticise them for ruining a football heritage handed down, over a century and more, by better men than these pretenders will ever be.
And if you don’t like what I say Cameron I don’t give a sh*t. It’s your problem not mine.
I want Port Adelaide to survive but not as they are now. I want to see some pride, some effort, some guts – like I always did see from Port in the past.
And I want their f**king supporters to stop whining about how unfair the world has suddenly become. F**cking grow up, get off your arse and do something about it. Donate your time, your money and whatever else it takes to get Port back on track. Just don’t sit there whining about how unfair it all is because nobody else gives a damn – they’ve got their own problems.
July 17th 2012 @ 2:40pm
The_Wookie said | July 17th 2012 @ 2:40pm | Report comment
Actually I dont think any of us saw the SANFLs admission into the VFL as anything but inevitable. It was the SANFL who stalled after 1986, first with the Player retention scheme and then in 1990 with the Unanimou Vote to stay out of the AFL until at least 1993. Even when the SANFL came to the table they still had demands – the 14 team league had to stay at 14 teams including any new SA team for a start.
If the SANFL hadnt come to the table in 1990, would Port have got in instead? Absolutely. The business case presented to the AFL was acknowledged as outstanding by Commissioner Alan Shwab who helped Port with the bid. No Football Park? Then we would have had games at Adelaide Oval as early as 1990.
I understand what you’re saying, but theres documented historical evidence behind my “whining” and if you dont like that, then you are still entitled to your opinion.
July 17th 2012 @ 4:12pm
Bayman said | July 17th 2012 @ 4:12pm | Report comment
Wookie,
Thanks for allowing me my opinion and it goes without saying – though I’m about to say it – I’m more than happy for you to have yours.
While I agree in principle that Port would probably have been accepted if the SANFL had stayed mute, deep down in our hearts, Wookie, we both know the SANFL came to the table precisely because of the Port bid. Ergo, they were never really going to get accepted in 1990.
I do accept that the football landscape of Adelaide would have changed enormously had Port been accepted in 1990 and I further accept that the issue of support, crowds and financial, would probably be different for Port had that been the case.
The problem is that in reality it was never going to be the case – hence the situation Port finds itself in now. As dear old dad used to tell me, “If your auntie had balls – she’d be your uncle!”
As for the “whining”, the situation is what it is and nothing will change it. Get up and move on. I could equally moan about Glenelg losing the 1977 Grand Final to Port by 8 points in the first year of the interchange. Ivan Eckerman, off with a hammy, comes back on after Port lose two more and kicks two goals to be the difference. The year before Port would have had to play the game out with 17 men. Admittedly, not the most satisfying way to win a flag but a win is a win and a premiership is, well, just that. But we lost it thanks to Ivan. Not that I’m bitter!!!!
July 17th 2012 @ 4:18pm
Bayman said | July 17th 2012 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
Wookie,
As an aside let me say that, from my memory, your article reflects pretty much what happened so I’ve no issue at all with what you wrote. In fact, I agree with it.
My problem is with those Port supporters who think somehow the Crows dudded them. The SANFL was always going to react in the way that it did, given the circumstances.
If anybody dudded the Magpies it was the AFL who reneged on the deal – once they could see they were going to get what they really wanted. A SANFL backed team in the AFL.
July 17th 2012 @ 6:01pm
Cameron said | July 17th 2012 @ 6:01pm | Report comment
1. I do know what I am talking about Bayman, you don’t know me, so you can’t say that I don’t know anything.
2. You talk like you don’t want Port in the AFL.
3.Critisising something or someone is talking down to them or thing, that you are critisising.
4. I have donated money to Port Adelaid ehave have been a Magpies member for 20 years and a Power member since ’97, so don’t say that I haven’t done anything.
5. Thing is, as evidenced by many reports, the SANFL have taken more than their fairshare from Port and Adelaide. I think the SANFL should only prop up both Adelaide teams when either of the two Adelaide teams needs some financial assisstance,which it would be able to do if they didn’t take so much money away from both clubs.
6. Bayman, no team is what they used to. No team ever will be because of the nature of professional sport.
7.Thing is Bayman, I agree with you when you say that the supporters of Port Adelaide do need to help out their team, but who wants to see their beloved team constantly lose every week?? No-one.
8. The world has always been unfair Bayman, so don’t point the finger at us saying that we are the only ones saying it, because everyone knows the world isn’t fair.
9. Calm down on the swearing. There’s no need to swear.
10. I’m not saying that I don’t like what you say, I just disagree with what you say.
11. I also don’t give a shit if you have a problem with myself or PAFC, that’s your problem, not mine.
July 18th 2012 @ 11:23am
Bayman said | July 18th 2012 @ 11:23am | Report comment
Cameron,
Your response is exactly why I wrote what I wrote – and I’ll tell you why….
2. You talk like you don’t want Port in the AFL.
No, I did not. I said, in essence, it was about time Port fans stopped going on about how tough life has been for them and how they got stitched up in 1990. They did get stitched up – but by the AFL, not the SANFL. The SANFL’s response to the Port bid was exactly what anyone would have expected from a body responsible for SA footy. The AFL reneged on the deal.
4. I have donated money to Port Adelaid ehave have been a Magpies member for 20 years and a Power member since ’97, so don’t say that I haven’t done anything.
I didn’t say you have not done anything – I asked “What have you done?” There is a difference and I’m glad to see that at least you’ve put your money up for the club – as I have. Well done.
8. The world has always been unfair Bayman, so don’t point the finger at us saying that we are the only ones saying it, because everyone knows the world isn’t fair.
I never said only Port fans think life is unfair, not once. I did say life is unfair – but it’s unfair for everybody and it’s about time Port fans understood that fact.
9. Calm down on the swearing. There’s no need to swear.
Fair call.
10. I’m not saying that I don’t like what you say, I just disagree with what you say.
Fair call. Disagreement is healthy for debate, without it there is no debate and how boring would that be? You are entitled to your opinion but…..my objection is based largely around the fact that you keep telling me I said things I did not say.
11. I also don’t give a stuf if you have a problem with myself or PAFC, that’s your problem, not mine.
I don’t have a problem with you Cameron and I certainly have no problem with the PAFC. The issue I have with you is that, as a passionate and no doubt disappointed Port fan, you have obviously become very sensitive to any criticism of your club. Too sensiitive. You are putting words in people’s mouths, in this case mine, hence the “you don’t what you are talking about” comment.
I’m sure that as a 20 year veteran of the Port Adelaide Football Club you do indeed know a fair bit about Port Adelaide both at SANFL and AFL level. You do not know, however, what I think and your interpretations of what I wrote could not have been more wrong. Hence the comment.
I do, however, understand that your interpretation probably comes from being a long time fan, disappointed at Port’s current standing in both leagues, who, as I said, has become very sensitive to the club’s situation and very sensitive to what you may think are cheap shots at the expense of a once proud club.
I actually admire your passion Cameron but you need to understand that every time someone criticises the club and/or its supporters it does not mean that person wants Port Adelaide thrown out of the AFL. That sort of thinking, or interpretation, comes from a seige mentality and people tend to get that when things aren’t going well for them – or their club. And if that’s the case the criticism is probably warranted.
So cheer up Cameron, nobody is wishing Port would disappear but even you might agree Port do have some issues and, although you may not agree on this, they are issues of their own making. There’s no plot, no conspiracy. Port have simply believed their own publicity for too long and now they are like lost souls. They have forgotten what made them great because the club is, really, no longer run by true Port people who knew what it was really all about.
Mark Williams was the end of an era and now they have to start all over again – but it will never be the same. Fos, Big Bob and Jack Cahill are long gone and never to return. The edge Port had, the Creed, are now no more than historical fact and those days, great days, are over. Now Port is just like every other club and worse than many.
Wookie’s article is historical fact. It happened as he wrote. What he didn’t say though, and I did, is that it was Port Adelaide who misread the intentions of the AFL and the response from the SANFL. That’s what I said Cameron, not “Let’s kick Port out of the comp”.
Whatever problems Port now has it has brought on itself. Perhaps they were arrogant back in 1990, perhaps they were the largest fish in the pond, perhaps they were ambitious to test themselves on a bigger stage. Perhaps, as I think, they were all of the above. But they started the journey and this is where it has taken them – in both leagues. That is what I said Cameron and that is what I think.
For what it’s worth I still think Port should be wearing the prison bars in the AFL. If Geelong, Carlton and North Melbourne can all happily wear blue and white I struggle to see why Collingwood has a divine right to black and white. When the two clubs play each other Collingwood could change their jumper!
And Cameron, I barrack for Port whenever they play a team from outside of Adelaide (with the Swans a possible exception) so I feel the pain too – though not as much as you I suspect.
July 16th 2012 @ 6:50pm
The_Wookie said | July 16th 2012 @ 6:50pm | Report comment
Ports struggles have been almost entirely due to the vindictive nature and petty revenge that continues to permeate the landscape. Its been more than 20 years since the AFL and SANFL screwed over a Port Adelaide Bid that had an impressive record, support base and business case, and the SANFL clubs and board have held them to ransom ever since. Port didnt lack resources, it was hamstrung as to what it could do with its resources for damn near 20 years. Only recently when it became apparent that Port were massively in financial trouble and the advent of the One Port philosophy was the situation somewhat rectified however to this day money is taken from Port (and Adelaide) WHETHER THEY MAKE A PROFIT OR NOT, in order to continue to prop up unsustainable SANFL club spending.
The SANFL didnt know what the hell it was aiming for in 1986 when it registered the Adelaide Football Club.t had already applied and been rejected for VFL admission in 1981. As late as 1990 it unanimously rejected entry into the VFL, and when that became a fait accompli attempted to force conditions – NONE of which were granted by the way. Port at least was concerned it was carrying the league in terms of popular support – and it was by all accounts, and continued to for some years after Adelaides admission.
July 16th 2012 @ 9:09pm
Cameron said | July 16th 2012 @ 9:09pm | Report comment
Right on the money there, Wookie. To this day, some people deny this, and they are the people who are holding SA footy back.
July 20th 2012 @ 11:38am
Strummer Jones said | July 20th 2012 @ 11:38am | Report comment
So Wookie, just to be clear where you stand, if the top 5 Victorian clubs and the main interstate clubs tried to form a “Super-Aussie Rules” comp run by Newscorp, and the AFL tried to stop them, you would be the first to say “hey, don’t screw over these teams trying to defect from the AFL”?
July 16th 2012 @ 9:24pm
Jason Cave said | July 16th 2012 @ 9:24pm | Report comment
To give you an idea of just how much hatred there was between Port Adelaide Magpies and the rest of the SANFL comp in 1990 after Port’s attempted bid to join the AFL, came in the 1990 SANFL Grand Final.
It was a promoter’s dream-Port v Glenelg, the most fiercest rivalry in the SANFL.
Glenelg was the club that was leading the anti-Port push to join the AFL. And the most outspoken of these was the Glenelg coach, one Graham Studley Cornes.
Port ended up winning the grand final.
But the fireworks had only just begun.
As was tradition in the SANFL Grand Finals, the losing coach (in this case, Cornes) visited the Port rooms along with Glenelg captain Chris McDermott.
While congratulating Port on their victory, Cornes didn’t miss the Port officials (which included Port president Bruce Webber).
The gist of Cornes speech was ‘Congratulations, but you’ve stuffed up football in SA’.
The Port officials & supporters gave Cornes a hostile farewell.
Yet Cornes had the last laugh, when he was appointed the inaugural coach of the Adelaide Crows a week later.
July 16th 2012 @ 10:29pm
Brewski said | July 16th 2012 @ 10:29pm | Report comment
Studley Seriously !!.
What were his parents thinking.
July 17th 2012 @ 4:27pm
micka said | July 17th 2012 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
Whatever it was it should be bottled! What a pissa!
July 16th 2012 @ 10:59pm
Norm said | July 16th 2012 @ 10:59pm | Report comment
Cornes wife had the last laugh when Chad & Kane signed with Port
July 17th 2012 @ 9:26am
checkside said | July 17th 2012 @ 9:26am | Report comment
Let us all see what the Port Adelaide Football Club is truly made of. It is now struggling on and off the field. Its fans are not there to support them as they are not accustomed to losing. Come on you “old magpie fans” who ranted about tradition. Remember Fos and Jack and all the premierships when you were a big fish in a small pond. Time to go to the games win or lose, go to the club and put your money where your mouth is. Us mere mortals who didnt follow the PAFC want to see you do something, like we all have when “our” club has it hard. Stand up and be counted or maybe the SANFL should come up with another composite team to take your place.