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Port Adelaide Football Club

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jiminy Krikkitt (talk | contribs) at 23:07, 28 January 2006 (rv anon: I've read the annual reports. The current PAFC is *not*, legally, the original club.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide Power Logo
Full namePort Adelaide Football Club
SportAustralian rules football
Founded1870 (original club)
1995 (legal entity for the AFL)
LeagueAustralian Football League
Home groundAAMI Stadium
AnthemThe Power to Win
PresidentGreg Boulton
Head coachMark Williams
20056th
Strip
Black, white, teal and silver

The Port Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Power, is an Australian Football League club based in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the successor to one of the oldest and proudest Australian rules football teams in existence: in the South Australian National Football League Port Adelaide was the most successful club in any of the sport's major competitions, winning thirty-four premierships over 120 years.

History

The Port Adelaide Football Club was first founded on 20 April 1870, and played its first match on 24 May at Buck's Flat in Glanville[1] (in comparison, Manchester United was founded in 1878, and the sport of basketball invented in 1891). Based in the north-western suburbs of Adelaide, its traditional supporter base is among the working-class residents of Port Adelaide and its surrounding areas; a strong rivalry naturally ensued with clubs of the wealthier suburbs such as Norwood and Glenelg.

In 1877, Port Adelaide was a founding member of the South Australian Football Association (later renamed the SANFL); it won its first premiership in 1884. Its colours and mascot changed several times in the early years; shortly after the turn of the century, it had settled on a distinctive "prison bar" strip in black and white, with the nickname "the Magpies". Its 1914 team went through the season undefeated, and then defeated Victorian champions Carlton in a match mooted as deciding that year's "Champions of Australia".[2] In the 1950s under coach Fos Williams, the club was exceptionally dominant in the league, winning seven premierships, including six in a row.[1]

Over the twentieth century, the Victorian Football League became richer than its interstate counterparts, and consequently the quality of its players and play increased. Port Adelaide's dominance of the SANFL led to frequent calls, of varying degrees of seriousness, for it to join the VFL. The latter expanded into Perth, Sydney and Brisbane over the 1980s, and after it renamed itself the Australian Football League in 1989, Port Adelaide reached an agreement to join.[3]

As the SANFL had been attempting to enter a composite state team in the league for most of the decade, legal action ensued, and eventually a new club, the Adelaide Crows, joined the AFL in 1991 instead. Port Adelaide remained in the SANFL, and won five premierships in the 1990s even as most South Australian football fans lost interest in the state league.[4]

File:PortMagpies.gif

In 1995, the SANFL club voted to change its name to the Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club, and an entirely new legal entity using the old name Port Adelaide Football Club was incorporated to further the club's AFL bid, with the old one's "culture, history and know how... transferred"[5]. This club was finally accepted into the AFL for the 1997 season; another change of colours and nickname was necessary, since the traditional "Magpies" was taken by Collingwood.[6] The AFL club claims the SANFL club's heritage up to 1996, but not afterwards; the Magpies' two SANFL premierships in this period, for example, are not officially counted towards the old club's total.[7]

File:MarkwilliamsNochoke1.jpg
Coach Mark Williams celebrating the club's 2004 AFL premiership

After initial disappointments with a young squad, the Power won its first AFL premiership in 2004 under the coaching of Mark Williams, Fos's son.

"Greatest Team of the Greatest Club"

In June 2001, the Port Adelaide Football Club announced it's greatest team (1870-2000). Between them, the 22 players had 201 premiership medals, 532 state games, 16 Magarey Medals and numerous other football accolades to their name. The club hailed the group the "Greatest Team of the Greatest Club".[8]


Greatest Team of The Greatest Club
B: Dick Russell John Abley Ted Whelan
HB: Neville Hayes Greg Phillips Geof Motley
C: Craig Bradley Russell Ebert John Cahill
HF: Dave Boyd "Bro" Dayman Harold Oliver
F: Scott Hodges Tim Evans Bob Quinn
Foll: Russell Johnston "Bull" Reval Fos Williams
Int: Harry Phillips Jeff Potter Peter Woite
Lloyd Zucker
Coach: Fos Williams

Awards

Premierships

AFL Premierships (1)

2004

SANFL Premierships (34 - Australian Record)

1884, 1890, 1897, 1903, 1906, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1921, 1928, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995 & 1996

Champions of Australia (4 - Australian Record)

1890, 1910, 1913 & 1914

AFL Minor Premierships (3)

2002, 2003, 2004

AFL Pre-season competition (2)

2001 & 2002

Individual Awards

Best and Fairest

See John Cahill Medal

Magarey Medal (SANFL) winners

Norm Smith Medal winners

Brownlow Medal (AFL) winners

None

Leigh Matthews Trophy (AFLPA) winners

None

Coleman Medal winners

None

AFL Rising Star winners

Home grounds

Club Records

Highest Score

AFL - 29.14 (188) v Hawthorn, Round 13, 2005

SANFL - 37.21 (243) v Woodville, April 19, 1980

Greatest Winning Margin

AFL - 117 points v Hawthorn, Round 13, 2005

SANFL - 179 points v Woodville, August 8, 1970

Most Games

392 - Russell Ebert (1968-1978 & 1980-1985)

Most Goals

1044 - Tim Evans (1975-1986)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a "A brief history", from the Official AFL Website of the Port Adelaide Football Club. Accessed 14 January 2006.
  2. ^ Michelangelo Rucci, "BLACK AND WHITE POWER", Advertiser, 8 July 2003, p. 68.
  3. ^ Kathryn Wicks, "Port Adelaide in move to join AFL", Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 1990, p. 59.
  4. ^ SANFL crowds dropped 57% in the years between the Crows' arrival in the AFL and Port Adelaide's. See Sandra McKay, "Famine threatens a footy feast", Age, 9 September 1997, p. 6.
  5. ^ Quote from Port Adelaide Football Club Limited, Annual Report, 1996, p. 4.
  6. ^ Gerard Wright, "Port Power Given Green Light for '97", Sydney Morning Herald, 22 May 1996, p. 57.
  7. ^ Greg Baum, "The power of Port", The Age, 25 September 2004, p. 1.
  8. ^ "The greatest team of all", from the Official AFL Website of the Port Adelaide Football Club. Accessed 14 January 2006.
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