Season 2019 - Port Adelaide

Put out your tarps… in celebration.

Tassie Power!!!

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But David Koch is a financial genius

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I would love nothing more than for this news to be true…just to stick it up my Power member parents!

Tassie Tarps

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they have a strong supporter base. god knows what they do with all that money…

On one hand we laugh, but this is bad for the game and imo it shows how badly the AFL is managing the game. If the game can’t financially support 2 teams in Adelaide then it’s proof they’re doing something wrong.

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As if we need more proof of that.

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Can easily support two neutral sides in Adelaide. The setup was wrong by bringing in an established Port as if you didn’t support them you hated them. Port misread the tea leaves and thought that all Port Magpie fans would become Power members when in fact many deserted them or remained loyal to their AFL sides. Port realised this too late and tried rebranding the club to appeal to neutrals but no chance of Norwood, Sturt supporters barracking for Port.

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Think calling them after regional areas would work better.
E.g West Adelaide/North Adelaide (IWest Adelaide in SANFL i think, but pobably not as hated as Port)
even linked SA/Adelaide country

But I guess reason Port got in is becuase 1, they wanted to get in, but also setting up a club from scratch is hard work - just ask suns/GWS. Was different for Adelaide as whole City got behind them

It’s one of the reason’s West Perth’s bid to join the VFL didn’t gain any traction. You’re probably unaware of this (most are) but prior to West Coast being formed by a business consortium, West Perth had preliminary discussions about the logistics of leaving the WAFL and joining an expanded VFL. Apart from the costs (which they couldn’t fund), it was felt that only West Perth supporters would follow West Perth in what ever competition they appeared in. In the mid 80’s, they were averaging around 7k to each game. There was no way the East Perth Pansies or Moss St Fairies supporters would drop their already established VFL side to follow the Mighty Cardies. The Brisbane, West Coast, Adelaide and subsequently GWS and GC model is the one that works because the Port Adelaide example has proven the reservations of the VFL and West Perth administrators to be correct.

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Absolutely. WA got it correct with the Eagles and Freo as both are composite teams. Crows got a leg up being first in SA and probably should have been another composite side come in

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Didn’t know that occurred. But yes that model in terms of Port was very limiting to their potential fanbase. Freo to a certain extent, even though there was no Fremantle FC that was playing in the WAFL that then graduated to an AFL team, but their fanbase is typically limited to the Fremantle area and south of that. It’s probably not a hard and fast rule but most Freo supporters did support the Eagles in the early stages of their existence prior to the Dockers joining the AFL. I know that north of the Swan is heavy Eagles heartland, not much Dockers, and most Freo fans are located south of the river. That sound about right Digs?

That’s right. And for the record, I don’t even like driving south of the river.

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Haha with my new job the head office is in Canning Vale, so when I’m over in the west I have had to get myself more acquainted with the south. I lived north of the river when I was over there…

Wasn’t there a move by Port Adelaide in the late 80’s/very early 90’s to enter the AwFuL? I have a vivid memory of it being front and back page news in the Herald Scum while I was at uni (recall reading it in the music library while I was filling in time between lectures…) It ultimately got knocked on the head for obvious reasons (i.e. limited appeal of an aligned club) and the Crows were fast-tracked instead.

I wonder why they then decided to overlook all that when Port Adelaide came again in the mid-late 90’s??? Then again, who’d even begin to understand the dubious dealings of the AwFuL…

You’re entitled to a toxic allowance every hour you’re forced to set foot in Canning Vale.

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Port went some way further than West Perth did in their bid.

Yep. The SANFL was very reluctant to enter a side in the AFL so Port went behind their back and tried to sneak in. The SANFL got wind of it and blockaded Port using Football Park firstly and then rushed to assemble a composite side when the SANFL finally knew they had no option but to join. The SANFL were filthy with Port because the VFL was on the verge of collapsing and a new National comp would have been started where the SANFL and WAFL would have held the balance of power

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Not sure about the SANFL but the WAFL was pretty buggered at the time. And the VFL had recovered somewhat by 1991. No doubt that Port forced the SANFL’s hand but they couldn’t have lasted in isolation for ever. They’d be stuffed now had they not joined the AFL.

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