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Port Adelaide’s performance against finals contenders Carlton on Sunday night was the sign of a champion football side in the making.
Or maybe they are already there?
At the end of 2012 season, the once-proud Port Adelaide Football Club was at its lowest level ever.
The one-time arrogant team from the early 00s, where they were as dominant as any other, was nowhere to be seen and it was embarrassing for the game and the state.
A club with no direction in consecutive years, they had lost to both expansion clubs, Matthew Primus – a club legend – was told he was not required next year, president Brett Duncanson stepped down, there was crippling debt, poor crowds, a bail-out from the AFL, lack of sponsors, low membership and with compromised drafts in the coming years, the future was not looking good at all.
And with Geelong trying to poach Port’s best player and future captain Travis Boak mid-season, it showed the lack of respect an AFL club should demand.
Fast forward just under 12 months later to the elimination final against the mighty Collingwood at the MCG.
Port out-played, out-classed and out-ran the premiership contenders and appeared to do it with ease.
The following week, Port took it right up to the best team of the last seven years in Geelong, but still no one took them as a serious contender.
So how did a team go from absolute basket case – yes, the worst team in the AFL on and off the field – to premiership contenders in one season? I’m sure it’s what Melbourne and St Kilda are surely asking themselves.
2013 saw the club with a new coach and leader in Ken Hinkley. New president David Koch has used his status to get more money for the football department so they can do their job properly and 40,000 members followed too.
Fitness guru Darren Burges was brought in and appears to be worth every cent.
But the key to it all is the players uniting.
They suffered a terrible tragedy in the 2012 off-season with the passing of John McCarthy but it appears to have galvanised them.
Boak re-signed and was named captain, Robbie Gray, Brad Ebert and Hamish Hartlett are fit, Kane Cornes is back to his menacing best and Westoff continues to be underestimated by the opposition.
Throw in two readymade stars in Ollie Wines and Chad Wingard and suddenly we are all starting to take notice.
With the inclusion of Jared Polec and Matt White this year, the move to Adelaide Oval and unified support from the fans, the arrogance of Port is back.
And I for one am thrilled, that’s why the Power is my tip for the flag this year.
And for the record, I’m a Pies fan.
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