Back to Port Adelaide Part 2
Right from the outset of his time as Port Adelaide coach, Foster Williams had exhibited a keen insight into what might be termed the 'harsh realities of football'. For example, the style of play in the South Australian competition might be pleasing to the eye, but it was nothing like as effective, nor as successful, as the style of play favoured by Victorian teams. Within a short space of time, Williams made Port Adelaide the most successful club in the SANFL by the simple expedient of emulating the Victorians. Even more perspicaciously, Williams could see the way that Australian society was developing, and was able to deduce a number of key ways in which that development might impinge upon and influence the sport of Australian football. Writing in 1967, Williams observed,
football in my view is about half way to what we will finish with. Twenty years from now with in-flow and the opportunities football can win for the talented youngster, we will see talent and discipline in a new light. This will bring a better spectacle, both from the skill of the game and the new teamwork possible through the new discipline of.....professional football. (See footnote 18)
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The end of one era, and the beginning of another. Jack Cahill, having just played his last game for Port Adelaide, is about to embark on one of the most successful and significant coaching careers of modern times. (Click to enlarge.) |
A direct corollary of this, so Williams
believed, would be the emergence, in time, of a national competition.
Consequently, throughout his tenure as Port coach he took care to ensure that
his players had regular exposure to top level, interstate opposition.
During the 1950s, the Magpies regularly played post-season matches against
leading VFL clubs, while for seven successive seasons in the '60s and '70s
pre-season fixtures, either home or away, were arranged with both Melbourne
and South Melbourne. Williams' successor
as Port coach, John
Cahill - invariably known as 'Jack' - played in many of these games, whilst
simultaneously absorbing many elements of his mentor's philosophy, both in terms
of coaching, and in relation to the game as a whole. Nevertheless, it is extremely
doubtful if, on taking up the coaching reins prior to the start of the 1974
season, he could have imagined that, twenty-three years later, he would be doing the same
with a Port Adelaide combination venturing, for the first time, onto the
national stage.
It is important to stress that Cahill was by no means slavish or uncritical in his emulation of Williams. Whilst he shared many aspects of his predecessor's outlook, most notably an ardent veneration for courage as the principal building block of effective football, his teams tended to play with considerably greater flair, and to have access to a much broader repertoire of styles. In particular, Cahill believed that a player's responsibilities went beyond merely 'winning his position', and that central to the team ethic was the requirement that he also assist his team mates to win theirs. Consequently, in addition to winning the ball and getting rid of it, à la Fos, Cahill's players were expected to use it intelligently, to the team's advantage. Moreover, implicit in this was a recognition that 'intelligent use of the ball' might often mean the utilisation of something that Williams tended to regard with undisguised disdain - other than when used as a last resort by a player under intense duress - the handpass. Indeed, under Cahill, Port Adelaide teams probably elevated the art of handball to heights never previously managed in the SANFL, not even by Jack Oatey's notoriously 'handball happy' Sturt sides. |
In essence, then, Port Adelaide under Jack Cahill rapidly became a much more attacking proposition than the club's fans had perhaps been used to. "I particularly want the players to have an attacking attitude," Cahill observed, shortly before the start of his first season in charge. "By that I mean if they see the ball, I want them to attack it without thinking twice. And if they make a mistake, there must be someone close by backing them up. I don't want them hesitant. I'm encouraging players to attack, even from the full back line...... I know the 'fors' and 'againsts' of this, but that's the way I want it." (See footnote 19)
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Paradoxically, a major reason for these divergences from the Williams 'coaching manual' was Cahill's emulation of his mentor's assimilation of interstate coaching ideas. Just as Williams had modelled Port's 1950s and '60s style of play on that which was then in vogue in the VFL, so Cahill, as soon as he was appointed, sought advice from leading VFL coaches and players like Tom Hafey, Ron Barassi, John Kennedy and Royce Hart (see footnote 20). It is hard to imagine Barassi, the man who had masterminded Carlton's famous come from behind win over Collingwood in the 1970 VFL grand final, not singing the praises of the skill to which that victory owed so much, handball. Similarly, Tom Hafey was coach of Richmond which, at the time, was probably the most attack-minded club in the VFL, an orientation which in 1973 had helped procure both the VFL and Australian premierships. Tactical considerations aside, Cahill undoubtedly had a better pool of players available to him than Williams had enjoyed during the latter part of his tenure. Indeed, the fact that Williams was able to get frankly mediocre Port combinations into grand finals in, for example, 1967 and '68 - and go within an ace of winning the flag in the former year - probably affords as eloquent a testimony to his greatness as the nine premierships. |
John Cahill, pictured towards the end of his playing career, just manages to get boot to ball in the face of strong pressure from North Adelaide's Barrie Robran. (Click to enlarge.) |
The Magpies' progress under Cahill was steady. Having finished 5th during Fos Williams' final season at the helm, they rose to 3rd in 1974, a result that was repeated the following year when, owing to a dispute between the Port Adelaide City Council and the SANFL, the club was forced to play its home matches at the Adelaide Oval. Then came 1976, a season which, in hindsight, can be regarded as a vital benchmark in the history not only of Port Adelaide, but of the game in general. From the Port Adelaide perspective, it tends to be memorable for all the wrong reasons, but it nevertheless afforded a stimulus for the club's unparalleled achievements of the ensuing two decades.
Forties in Procella ('Strength in Adversity') might well be the motto of the Magpies' most intense and bitter SANFL rival club, Norwood, but late on the afternoon of Saturday 25 September 1976 it could unashamedly have been borrowed by the black and white aficionados among the record crowd of 66,897 packed into Football Park for the season's finale between Port Adelaide and Sturt. Those Port fans had just witnessed their team, which had totally dominated the 1976 SANFL competition, losing only 4 of 21 minor round matches before comprehensively thrashing Glenelg in the 2nd semi final, somehow conspire to lose when it mattered most against an in truth somewhat ordinary Sturt team which nevertheless was able to tap into a rich vein of finals experience, something which Cahill's Magpies sadly lacked.
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Magpie great Russell Ebert prepares to drive his team into attack during the 1981 grand final victory against Glenelg. (Click to enlarge.) |
That single two hour dose of grand final
football probably brought the entire Port team completely up to speed in terms
of finals experience, however. There is scarcely anything so salutary as
losing a game you know you ought to have won, and with no immediate way to right
the wrong, Port's 1976 grand final players had simply to re-group, and prepare
for the slog, sweat and pain of another season long tilt at the flag.
The 1976 season represented a benchmark in another important way, however, as it witnessed the first legible attempt to move towards a genuinely national club competition. The Wills Cup, which was sponsored by a tobacco company, and conducted by the NFL, involved clubs from the three main football states, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Port Adelaide participated, beating Footscray by 34 points, and losing to North Melbourne by 50 points, but the match results were really of secondary importance. What was of primary significance was that, although the Wills Cup matches were, by and large, poorly attended, they generated significant amounts of income through sponsorship and television. The VFL was quick to take note: in 1977 it withdrew from the pseudo-national affair to run its own sponsored night competition, and by 1978 it was offering more than twice the prize money of the NFL series (now sponsored by Ardath, and involving teams from the VFA in place of those from the VFL), and enjoyed significantly higher TV ratings, with a concomitant explosion in revenue from peripheral sources such as advertising. In 1979 the VFL formed a company, Australian Football Championship Pty. Ltd., with the objective of developing its own 'national' competition, thereby effectively rendering the NFL irrelevant. In time, all of the other states came to the VFL table because that was where the money was. According to Sandercock and Turner, writing shortly after these events in 1981: |
The VFL's move on night football was nothing short of a take-over bid for Australian football. Its formation of the AFC Pty. Ltd. once again isolated the VFA from the mainstream of national football. It also put a big question mark against the viability of the NFL as a national administration. Some commentators argue that the VFL, with its superior financial resources and business acumen, should run the whole of Australian football. The VFL is certainly convinced that it alone has the expertise to run football at the national level, and it has a compelling financial incentive to press its claim. Whether the VFL razzamatazz is what the game really needs is another question. (See footnote 21)
These comments should be read as a backdrop to the events of 1990, which will be discussed in due course. As of the early 1980s, however, it would seem that Fos Williams' dream of a full-scale national club competition was well on course, although not perhaps in quite the way he might have expected, or indeed would have wished.
But back in 1977, South Australian football's centenary season, Port Adelaide's sole pre-occupation was with the SANFL premiership, an honour that had eluded it for much too long. The season got off to an excellent start when the council and the SANFL reached agreement on the use of Alberton Oval for football, and over the course of the year fans flocked in in near record numbers to watch the pride of the district in action. They had plenty to cheer as well, as the Magpies endeavoured to put the horrors of the 1976 season firmly behind them with a series of dazzling performances that earned both the minor premiership and numerous accolades. Acutely conscious, however, that there was only ultimately only one game, and one performance, that really mattered, the longer the season wore on, the more the focus of John Cahill and his players was on a potential date with destiny at Football Park on Saturday 24 September.
That day duly arrived, with only John Nicholls' Glenelg side standing between the Magpies and the ultimate prize. On the eve of the big match, Mike Pilkington wrote:
Memories of the humiliation and disgrace which have plagued Port since this time last year can be wiped out tomorrow. Redemption, and the elation which goes with it, will come to the Magpies in the centenary grand final. (See footnote 22)
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Prophetic words indeed, for after a tough, bruising and occasionally spiteful game, the Magpies emerged victorious by 8 points, 17.11 (113) to 16.9 (105). In point of fact, they had the match well won much earlier, but a flurry of late goals by the Bays gave a deceptive closeness to the final scores. For Port captain Russell Ebert, it had been "a bloody long time, but jeez it was worth it!" - sentiments wholeheartedly shared by every supporter of the most loved and loathed footy club in the state. The Magpies' best player list from the 1977 grand final gives some notion of the wealth of talent which Cahill had at his disposal. Best afield was Brian Cunningham, a plucky and tenacious rover who would later serve the club in a number of administrative capacities. Others to excel included utility Randall Gerlach, who was playing in defiance of medical advice, dynamic and hyper-aggressive wingman Bruce Light, spring-heeled ruck-rover Max James, and 7 goal spearhead Tim Evans. After the almost inevitable 'premiership hangover' year of 1978, the Magpies bounced back to their best in 1979, initiating a sequence of three successive premiership wins with a 9.9 (63) to 3.14 (32) grand final victory over South Adelaide in blustery, slippery conditions. Norwood by 18 points in 1980, and Glenelg by 51 points in 1981, were Port's other grand final victims during this run. |
Greg Phillips - click to enlarge. |
After dropping to 3rd in 1982 Port Adelaide entered one of the most discomfiting phases of its long history. The 1983 season saw coach John Cahill's departure for two years of in-fighting, acrimony and modest achievement with Collingwood, followed by a couple of seasons back in South Australia with West Adelaide. His replacement as Magpie coach was Russell Ebert, who managed a 60% success rate in terms of finals qualification in his five years in charge.
Much more significant, however, were a number of off-field developments, notably in relation to the VFL's ever tightening control over the game's character and destiny. Fully conscious of the way in which the wind had begun to blow, in 1982 the SANFL asked the VFL to consider admitting a composite South Australian team to its competition. Individual clubs such as East Perth and Norwood allegedly did likewise. In most instances, the VFL's response was simply to ignore the approach, which aside from demonstrating rank arrogance on its part, gave the clear impression that it had already concocted its own preferred blueprint for the future of football. As to what that blueprint actually entailed, there was some doubt - a point to which Port Adelaide's 1982 Annual Report made somewhat bitter reference:
The anticipated composite South Australian side entering the VFL competition did not eventuate and (the) national competition still appears a long way off. One must ask does the 'Big V' want the game to go national, or does it still believe that the bleeding of clubs of their good players in other states is the path to tread? Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia are now coming in for more than their fair share of plundering and yet through it all some clubs in the VFL are declaring huge financial losses and until sanity is restored throughout Australia in the world of Australian Rules football, many more clubs will face financial ruin. The current economic climate is not encouraging and it is encumbent (sic.) upon us all to have a really serious think about where we are going and what we can do for our club. (See footnote 23)
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Games against Norwood are often spicy affairs. (Click to enlarge.) |
This last sentence takes on
somewhat enhanced significance in light of what was to transpire some eight
years later, but back in 1983 there appeared to be genuine doubt as to whether
the club would still be in existence at all by 1990, let alone endeavouring to
embark on a national adventure. Of all the SANFL's clubs, Port Adelaide
would appear to have been hit the hardest by the economic difficulties of the
early 1980s. Given that it embarked on the 1983 season having won four of
the previous six league premierships this may seem strange, but as numerous
clubs were to discover in the ensuing couple of decades, on field achievements
were no longer the primary benchmark by which success in football was measured (see
footnote 24).
That Port Adelaide ultimately survived was attributable both to hard work and good business sense, with the latter being unequivocally derived from a somewhat rueful recognition that, in the new order of things, the SANFL and its constituent clubs had undergone a significant decline in status. For star Port Adelaide players of this era like Mark Williams, Greg Phillips, Craig Bradley, Bruce Abernethy, Danny Hughes, and Greg Anderson playing for the club that had once, with some justification, regarded itself as the strongest in the land, was no longer an end in itself, but a means towards an end - that end, needless to say, being participation in Australian football's elite competition, the VFL. |
After several months of speculation, Jack Cahill returned 'home' to Port Adelaide at the end of a 1987 season that had seen the club, for the second year in a row, bow meekly out of the finals race after two successive losses. As far as veteran Port supporters were concerned, there was a certain element of déja vu to this return, from which they were hard pressed not to glean a certain optimism. More than a quarter of a century earlier, in 1962, the great Fos Williams had also made a welcome return to Alberton after a brief time away, and had immediately steered the team to a premiership. Could Jack do the same? There could be no doubting the talent of the players: Greg Phillips and Bruce Abernethy had both returned from Victoria the previous year while still at or close to their peak as players, and with 1988 All Australian Martin Leslie they comprised one of the finest half back lines seen in South Australian football for many years; former Collingwood ruckman Russell Johnston combined guile and great resolve with tremendous leadership qualities; full back Roger Delaney and centreman Stephen Williams were very different, but equally accomplished, players who also shared the enviable ability to kick the ball 'a country mile'; lanky ruck-rover Andrew Obst was beginning to show the form that would make him a star in the VFL with Melbourne; full forward Scott Hodges was developing into a formidable spearhead; centre half forward Darren Smith was elegant, aerodynamic and imposing; and players like George Fiacchi, Tim Ginever, David Brown and Wayne Mahney almost certainly had black and white blood flowing through their veins, so fervent and unadulterated was their commitment to the Magpie cause.
Another possible reason for optimism in 1988, the two hundredth year of Australia's colonisation by Europeans, was that Port Adelaide had, in the past, demonstrated an uncanny and unequalled ability to lift the premiership in years with a special meaning to them. They had done so in 1936, South Australia's centenary year; 1951, when Australia celebrated its fiftieth year since Federation; 1958, the centenary of the game; and 1977, the centenary of the SANFL. What price five out of five?
Right from the outset, it was evident that Jack Cahill's return had lit the touch paper to something special. In round 1, the Magpies were merciless in overwhelming Sturt to the tune of 52 points, and thereafter, although the occasional game was dropped, it was obvious to most observers that Port Adelaide was the team to beat for the 1988 flag. Any lingering doubts anyone may have had over this were emphatically obliterated on Saturday 17 September when, on an afternoon plagued by gale force winds, the Magpies fronted up to arch rivals Norwood in the 2nd semi final. By half time, Port had 5.14 on the board, while the Redlegs had troubled the scorers just once, for a minor score. Norwood finally managed a goal in the 3rd term, but added just one more for the game in succumbing to one of the most humiliating defeats in the club's history. Final scores were Port Adelaide 10.17 (77); Norwood 2.5 (17).
| The Magpies were now playing with a swagger and a confidence that recalled the previous John Cahill era, and which had been notoriously absent for much of Russell Ebert's time in charge. In the grand final, even after Glenelg had dominated much of the opening quarter, one got the impression that the Port players were merely flexing their muscles. When Glenelg's champion ruckman Peter Carey missed a rudimentary set shot for goal right on the quarter time siren his team mates seemed visibly to wilt, an impression that was starkly reinforced over the course of the next couple of terms as the Magpies added 7.8 to 1.4, effectively winning the match in the process. At the final siren the scoreboard showed Port Adelaide comfortable 29 point winners, 12.12 (84) to 8.7 (55), and while it may not have been a particularly eye-catching performance it was hard not to be impressed by the ruthless efficiency with which the Glenelg challenge had been extinguished. Bruce Abernethy won the Jack Oatey Medal after an energetic rather than spectacular display at both half back and in the centre, while David Hynes proved a more than adequate replacement in the ruck for suspended skipper Russell Johnston. Martin Leslie and Greg Phillips were well nigh impassable across the half back line, while full back Roger Delaney kept Max Kruse goalless. Most of all though, it was a performance in which the unglamorous but often decisive elements of team play - shepherding, backing up, talking, tackling, smothering - were consistently and admirably manifested. The 'returning Messiah', John Cahill, summed up the victory with a characteristic combination of passion and precision: |
High flying action against Glenelg at Football Park in 1994. (Click to enlarge.) |
We worked very hard for this. It started a year ago..... I suppose. We really had to succeed to prove the committee's decision was right. I was just pleased to come back to Alberton because I love Port Adelaide, it's where I played all and coached most of my football. It's been a very disciplined year both on and off the ground. I thought that as the season wore on we became more and more disciplined and more unselfish as a team unit. The players were prepared to work very hard and expected to work hard and committed themselves both on and off the track. (See footnote 25)
In 1989, the Magpies lifted their team skills and discipline to new levels, culminating in a 15.18 (108) to 1.8 (14) grand final annihilation of a North Adelaide side that by no means lacked talent, but was simply not permitted to compete. It is easy to imagine certain members of the Port Adelaide board watching this awesome and indeed scarcely credible display and wondering whether their team had somehow out-grown its roots.
This is just speculation, of course. Nine months later, however, the club made a move that effectively split South Australian football asunder when it formally applied to field a team in the Australian Football League (as the VFL had been re-christened the previous year) from 1991. Such a move was in direct defiance of the declared stance of the SANFL, which did not consider that the time was yet right for a South Australian team to enter the AFL. The key word here is 'yet', as there was a tacit admission by the SANFL that there would ultimately come a point when the interests of football in the state would indeed be best served by involvement in the quasi-national competition which was evolving out of the old, suburban VFL. Port Adelaide's actions, however, effectively forced the SANFL's hand; consequently, in a quick fire but nevertheless carefully calculated response, it applied to field a team of its own in the AFL. Ultimately, after a modicum of apparent procrastination, it was the SANFL's bid which was accepted, and so the Adelaide Crows were born.
One is tempted to presume in hindsight that this is what the AFL actually wanted all along, and that the Port Adelaide bid, unlike previous approaches from individual clubs, was encouraged and ostensibly treated seriously in order that the AFL might enjoy the benefits (mainly financial) of having a composite South Australian team in the fold somewhat earlier than the SANFL wished.
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Mark Williams, who replaced John Cahill as coach of the Power after the 1998 season. |
If Port Adelaide was indeed the 'fall guy' in all of this it received no sympathy from the non-black and white sections of the South Australian public. According to popular perception, the club, by its actions, had wrought irreversible division and discord in South Australian football, and there were even some who felt it ought to be excluded from the SANFL. It was not, of course - like it or not, the SANFL still needed Port Adelaide - but what is quite undeniable is that, since the events of 1990, the predominantly 'healthy hatred' which fans of other SANFL clubs felt towards Port Adelaide has been transformed into something altogether more intense, acrimonious and unforgiving. To many South Australian football supporters, Port Adelaide, in both its incarnations, is a veritable pariah. Seldom has this attitude been more volubly or visibly expressed than at the 1990 SANFL grand final, which pitted 'the pariahs' of Port Adelaide against the club which had reacted most vehemently when news of the Magpies' AFL bid broke, Glenelg. For a detailed, blow by blow account of this memorable match, from which a battered, bruised but most emphatically unbowed Port combination emerged 15 points to the good, click here. |
Over the years, Port Adelaide and the people associated with it have positively thrived on the antagonism and detestation of other clubs and their supporters, and during the first half of the 1990s, with such feelings at an all time high, the Magpies were in their element. With Jack Cahill still providing astute and inspirational leadership, the club won a premiership in 1992, unearthing one of the bona fide champions of the modern game in Nathan Buckley in the process, and after missing out in 1993 it proved its supremacy again in each of the following three seasons. By the time of the 1994 grand final win over Woodville-West Torrens it was clear that the AFL was desirous of admitting a second South Australian-based club to its ranks, and that Port Adelaide was rapidly emerging as its favoured option. By the time of the following season's grand final defeat of Central District the matter was as good as resolved, although the initially preferred year for the club's admission, 1996, was no longer deemed feasible as Fitzroy had had the audacity to defy both the odds and intense external pressures and continue to exist, and the AFL was adamant that it did not wish to expand its competition beyond sixteen clubs.
In 1996 therefore, Port Adelaide supporters enjoyed one last season devoting their exclusive attention to an SANFL competition in which their heroes performed with the now familiar authority, conviction and, ultimately, courtesy of a 36 point grand final win over Central District, success. David Brown, who won the Jack Oatey Medal for best afield, was one of a dozen members of the Magpies' 1996 senior squad who would be plying their trade with the club's AFL incarnation, the Power, in 1997. Also returning home were Gavin Wanganeen (Essendon), a member of the club's 1990 premiership side, who had since won a Brownlow Medal, plus Braden Lyle and Shane Bond from West Coast. Other than that, Port's fledgling AFL side received very little in the way of recruiting favours, with its initial squad of 46 players boasting only 768 games of V/AFL experience, or an average of just under 17 games per player. Only Wanganeen (138 games) and Stephen Paxman (102 games with Fitzroy) had made it past the 100 game mark. Many supposed experts openly predicted that the Power would struggle to win a single game during their debut season in the 'big time'.
Almost inevitably, Port Adelaide's inaugural AFL coach was the man who had arguably done more for the club than anyone except Fos Williams, 'Gentleman Jack' Cahill. Midway through the 1996 season, Cahill had handed over the reins of the club's SANFL side to Stephen Williams, and begun the exhaustive process of preparing for the club's initial assault on the AFL.
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That assault got underway in somewhat inauspicious style at the MCG on 29 March 1997 as Collingwood handed the club that had until recently shared both its colours and its logo a hefty 13 goal belting. A home loss to Essendon followed, but in round 3 the Power issued a warning to the rest of the competition by not only downing Geelong at Football Park, but doing so with a style and a conviction that belied the team's inexperience. Over the ensuing weeks the team played a brand of football that was as eye-catching as it was often inconsistent, scoring some noteworthy wins, and sustaining a number of sizeable losses. Nevertheless, its ultimate achievement in only failing to qualify for the finals on percentage arguably deserved much more in the way of commendation than it received. Port's second season in the 'big time', perhaps predictably, proceeded less smoothly. The side was still no guaranteed pushover, and victories over eventual premiers Adelaide, Carlton by 89 points at Optus Oval, and the Western Bulldogs by 34 points in a low scoring game at Football Park were particularly noteworthy. However, nine and a half wins for the year left something to be desired, and John Cahill's two year tenure as coach was brought - not particularly acrimoniously, it has to be said, but nevertheless disappointingly - to an end. |
Chad Cornes takes a ripper - click to enlarge. |
The appointment of Mark Williams, a former Port Adelaide, West Adelaide, Collingwood, and Brisbane Bears player, as Cahill's successor was perhaps predictable but was no less popular for that. Williams had certainly served his apprenticeship, with spells as assistant coach at both Windy Hill and Alberton, as well as a two year stint as senior coach at Glenelg. During his period as Cahill's assistant with the Power he had been widely credited with bringing the best out of young players such as Bowen Lockwood, Stuart Dew and Nick Stevens, and given the fact that Port had probably the youngest senior squad in the AFL he looked well placed to exploit their potential.
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The Power players, wearing jumpers based on those worn by the club's legendary 1914 side, leave the AAMI stadium arena after the 2003 Heritage Round victory over Carlton. (Click to enlarge.) |
Prior to the start of the 1999 season the clear and unambiguous aim was finals participation; nothing less would suffice. A solid pre-season brought the club's first AFL grand final appearance - albeit only in the Ansett-Australia Cup - and, at the time, the 47 point loss to Hawthorn was viewed as just a temporary hiccup. The first three rounds of the home and away season seemed to bear this out as Port scored commendable wins in Sydney, at home to Fremantle, and at the Gabba, but this was followed by a sustained slump which cast doubts on the team's ability to compete consistently at the top level. The response, between round 13 and 17, was emphatic, a club record 5 consecutive wins reaffirming the claim to finals involvement, if failing for the most part to cast aside the doubts of the cynics. Nevertheless, by any objective criteria, the Power's eventual qualification for the finals was a significant achievement, especially given the substantial recruitment restrictions within which the club was required to construct its AFL squad. The major blip on the club's AFL report card to date came with a 2000 season that yielded just 7 wins and a draw and 14th spot on the ladder. However, recovery came swiftly, and in every subsequent season the Power have contested the finals, initially with limited success, eliciting a modicum of dissatisfaction with Mark Williams' coaching style. However, speculation that his future might be in doubt was rapidly knocked on the head at the close of the 2003 season, and in 2004 the man known with slightly mischievous affection as 'Choco' was entrusted with the task of overseeing operations at Alberton for a sixth successive year. |
Right from the opening round of the season, in which Essendon was almost brutally cast aside by more than 100 points at AAMI Stadium, it was evident that that there was an enhanced resolve and purpose about the Port Adelaide players. As the season wore on, despite encountering setbacks which would have floored a lesser team - an injury list second to none in the competition, a dismal mid-year hiding at the hands of the Kangaroos, for example - that resolve and purpose steadily grew. After clinching a remarkable third successive minor premiership, the Power made short shrift of Geelong in the opening week of the finals, and then had to call on every ounce of determination and courage to outlast a brazen challenge from St Kilda in the club's first home preliminary final. In hindsight, Port's 6 point triumph in that game can almost be regarded as the moment the 2004 premiership was clinched.
Not that it seemed that way as the team lined up against triple premier Brisbane in front of 77,671 spectators at the MCG on grand final day, particularly after the Lions had overcome a stuttering start to lead by a single point at the main break. The early part of the 3rd term was an arm wrestle, during which the teams traded goals, but late in the quarter the Power, with veteran champion Gavin Wanganeen to the fore, suddenly switched on the accelerator and moved out to a 17 point advantage. Two further goals to Wanganeen (for a total of 4) early in the last quarter effectively sealed the result, with the Power eventually winning by 40 points, 17.11 (113) to 10.13 (73), erasing three seasons of agony and unfulfilled potential, and emphatically silencing the doubters, in the process. Along with Wanganeen, some of the best among Port's many fine players included Norm Smith Medallist Byron Pickett (3 goals), silkily skilled midfielder Peter Burgoyne, dogged tagger Kane Cornes, who kept the dangerous Simon Black quiet, strong marking forward Toby Thurstans, and hard-as-nails midfielder Josh Carr.
After the euphoria of 2004, the 2005 season was a disappointment, with the team displaying horrendously inconsistent form in both the home and away season and the finals. Indeed, for much of the season finals qualification appeared unlikely, but solid wins in the last two rounds against Brisbane at the Gabba and Fremantle at AAMI Stadium ultimately secured 8th place on the ladder. A resounding 87 point elimination final defeat of the Kangaroos in Melbourne spawned genuine optimism that a back to back premiership triumph might be on the cards, but in the following week's semi final the Power were overwhelmed to the tune of 83 points by minor premier Adelaide.
On the face of it, the 2006 season brought yet further decline, with seasoned players like Gavin Wanganeen and Josh Francou retiring, and 8 wins from 22 matches consigning the Power to the comparative indignity of 12th position on the premiership ladder. However, the enormous promise shown by youngsters such as Danyle Peace, Elijah Ware, Troy Chaplin and Jacob Surjan strongly suggested that the team's decline in fortune would only be temporary.
In 2007, Port Adelaide's supporters underwent an emotional roller-coaster ride the like of which few if any of them would ever have previously experienced. In one sense, the promise hinted at in 2006 was built on to an extent far in excess of even the most optimistic of expectations as the Power battled their way through to a second grand final appearance in four seasons. Ultimately, however, following the side's unprecedented annihilation in that grand final, it was a season of inordinate disappointment, engendering no small amount of perplexity and soul-searching. While it would perhaps be going too far to suggest that the defeat undid all the good of the preceding five or six months, it undoubtedly constituted something of a reality check, as well as giving rise to some short term challenges of a sort with which the club had had little recent experience of dealing, and with which, to be brutally frank, it abjectly failed to cope, at any rate during a dismal 2008 season that produced just 7 wins from 22 matches and consigned the team to the ignominy of thirteenth place on the premiership ladder.
A century ago, the Port Adelaide Football Club was in a rather similar position to that in which it finds itself today, struggling at times to come to terms with a changed environment, but doing so with energy, imagination and great persistence. Ultimately, the club prevailed, fielding some of the most extraordinarily successful teams in South Australian football history. A hundred years on, the stage may have changed and the stakes may have risen, but one would need to be very brave or very foolish indeed - notwithstanding the events of Saturday 29th September 2007 and their somewhat disappointing immediate aftermath - to bet against a similar train of events panning out in the foreseeable future.
Where now?
or
18. 'SA Football Budget', 30/9/67, page 4. Return to Main Text
19. Gentleman Jack: the Johnny Cahill Story 1958-82 by John Wood, page 70. Return to Main Text
20. Ibid., page 74. Return to Main Text
21. Up Where Cazaly? by Leonie Sandercock and Ian Turner, page 172. Return to Main Text
22. Quoted in Wood, op cit., page 91. Return to Main Text
23. 'Port Adelaide Football Club Inc. Annual Report and Balance Sheet Season 1982', page 11. As to the question of whether the VFL actually had a distinct blueprint for the future of football in mind at this point, I have my doubts. The VFL's pseudo-national expansion process was, I believe, much more a result of knee-jerk economic expediency than careful planning. Return to Main Text
24. Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Claremont would be other clubs to face extinction or erosion of identity though merger despite considerable on field success. Not even the most powerful football club of the modern era, Brisbane, has been immune from economic worries. Return to Main Text
25. 'Football Times', 6/10/88, page 3. Return to Main Text
