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Port Adelaide’s rise from being the laughing stock of the AFL to a genuine premiership force is officially complete.
The team have gone from losing to both expansion clubs in their first year to defeating the two AFL powerhouses within the space of a month.
It was April 23, 2011, when the club, then coached by Matthew Primus, welcomed the Suns, just four games into their existence, to AAMI Stadium on a windy Saturday afternoon.
Having defeated cross-town rival Adelaide in the Showdown the previous week, the Power were largely expected to defeat the newcomers, who were coming off a 90-point loss to Melbourne at the Gabba.
All went to script when the Power led by 40 points late in the third quarter, only for them to shockingly lose the match after Justin Westhoff missed a set shot at goal after the final siren.
After the loss, the Power were branded as “the laughing stock of the AFL”, and it would have a psychological effect on the club for the remainder of the season, only narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon when it defeated Melbourne by eight points in the penultimate match of the regular season.
Losing to fellow newcomers GWS became the final straw.
It was then the Power started a total rebuild of the club, appointing untried Ken Hinkley as its head coach and popular television personality David Koch as the successor to Brett Duncanson.
Most of the playing list from 2012 survived through the off-season, though there was one notable addition to the squad in Angus Monfries, who returned home from Essendon through the free agency system.
Amidst this, however, there was one tragic loss and that was John McCarthy, who lost his life during the Power’s end-of-season trip to Los Angeles in September 2012.
Port Adelaide then started the 2013 season with five consecutive victories, before subsequently going on to lose their next five. They maintained a positive win-loss record throughout the season, a 12-10 record being enough for the club to qualify for its first finals series since being massacred by Geelong in the 2007 grand final.
The Power faced Collingwood at the MCG in its elimination final, and defied the odds to upset the highly-favoured Pies before ultimately having its season of mass improvement ended by Geelong in the semi-final six nights later.
Despite its season of resurgence, many experts did not predict that Port Adelaide would repeat the success story that was season 2013, some even predicting second-year blues for Ken Hinkley, the same fate that befell Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson that year.
The Crows had crashed from being within a kick of reaching the grand final to finishing eleventh in the space of twelve months, though there were some factors behind their downfall, including the Kurt Tippett contract saga and the suspension of the late assistant coach Dean Bailey for his role in the Melbourne tanking scandal.
Sadly, however, the critics have been proven wrong. So far this season the Power have won eight matches and lost just one (against North Melbourne by seven points in Round 3), and at the end of Round 10, the club that was once the laughing stock of the AFL will sit proudly on top of the ladder.
The club’s rise from the dark days of the time period between 2008 and 2012 to the powerhouse team that we all know has culminated in their hard-fought victory over last year’s premiers, Hawthorn, and the rest of the AFL has been put on notice.
Never at any stage of the match did the Power trail, though they were challenged by a Hawthorn side that were missing Jarryd Roughead (suspended), Sam Mitchell, Josh Gibson and Cyril Rioli (all injured) in the second half.
With its victory over the Hawks, they have become the first team since the Sydney Swans in 2012 to defeat both Geelong and Hawthorn in a regular season.
On that occasion, the Swans went on to win the premiership – and given the form the Power have enjoyed so far this season, a second flag to compliment its solitary success a decade ago remains a strong possibility.
Port Adelaide plays Melbourne and St Kilda in the next fortnight; both are very winnable matches that should set the Power up for a strong second half of the season after having recorded their best ever start to a season.
There is no doubt that this current Port Adelaide side is a premiership team in the making. Chad Wingard is fast becoming one of the premier midfielders in the competition, and if he keeps up his current form, then he will be a serious challenger to Gary Ablett Jr for this year’s Brownlow Medal.
The Power’s decision to bring home Jared Polec from the Brisbane Lions has also been vindicated, and Travis Boak, who wanted out of the club at the end of 2012, has made good on the two-year deal he signed with the Power at the end of that season and led by example on the field.
Remarkably, of the 22 who lined up in the Power’s win over Hawthorn, 13 of them survived the history-turning loss to the GWS Giants – thus showing how far the club has come from its darkest days.
Among those 13 included current captain Travis Boak, his predecessor, Domenic Cassisi, Kane Cornes, Chad Wingard and Aaron Young, who was the sub both in the win over the Hawks and the loss to the Giants, among others.
It’s now fair to say that the darkest chapter in the history of the Port Adelaide Football Club has officially ended, with the club now in serious contention to challenge for the 2014 premiership.
Even so, the Hawks still remain, to many, as the team to beat this season, though they have now lost consecutive matches in a regular season for the first time in over two years.
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