The ironic thing about season 2011 for Port Adelaide is that it is the first season of the ‘One PAFC’ merger of the SANFL Magpie team and AFL Power side. Ironic because Port Adelaide Football Club is far from united.
This is beyond an annus horriblis for the Power. 2011 has been a watershed for in how not to run a club because everything has gone wrong. This season, Port has lost a CEO, a premiership player and the ability to run itself as a professional business.
However, the last 10 days for the club has been darker than anything that has happened before.
Two hundred-point thrashings saw a lot of questions raised about the leadership and direction of the club.
There were damaging leaks that the Port President was to be rolled and that long standing player Kane Cornes was to be sacked at the end of the season.
What has become more apparent as this week rolls on is that there is a powerful faction at the club that wants to install former Port player Peter Woite as President.
Even AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou weighed in, taking pot shots at Port’s recruiting strategy over the last few years while promising to back their survival.
So where is Port at?
What is apparent is they are desperately underfunded, lacking resources to compete with the best and most importantly lacking a united approach on how to move forward.
There are more factional disputes than at a Federal Labor Party Conference. More worryingly, there seems to be a faction trying to whitewash the Mark Williams era at the club.
But for all this ranting and raving, there is no cohesive way forward that is being presented to get the club out of its mire.
All forces need to pull the same way to save Port Adelaide from extinction. While they are guaranteed five years of survival (given the AFL commitment to nine games per round in the TV rights), after 2016 they could be left a carcass with the football vultures to pick off the meat.
In all this doom and gloom, there are some rays of hope.
Port Adelaide has $9 million guaranteed from the AFL. This is a perfect opportunity for the club to bolster its football department spending and get good staff behind the players.
Also, the list has some promising talent with Jackson Trengove, Travis Boak and Robbie Gray the players around which Port can build a future. The big issue though is whether they can convince Trengove and Alipate Carlile to stay on at a club in crisis.
The hope is small and the troubles are grave.
Port Adelaide needs to reconnect with the football reality again. Everyone dropped the ball after the 2004 premiership win, forsaking strategic planning on an expectation of success. Only now is the club realising how bad a mistake they made.
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