David Koch - The Chairman of the Board

[mynameissilver]

Seeing him speak in honouring Russell at the HoF, all I kept thinking was 'come back Bucky, we need you now more than ever.

Bucky bought a caravan . He has become a grey nomad. I mean he has been grey for a while.

 

[Prison bar Pete]

I'm just about ready to chuck it all in with this franchise, maybe watch the odd game on tv if I've nothing better to do. Until I see genuine signs of a return to the real Port Adelaide Football Club I don't see any point investing much time, energy, money & emotion in such a pointless venture (within a VFL competition).

 

[VineValerian]

I think there's a very good argument to be made that we've already lost our club and that it's never coming back.

The club is a low performance boys club. Even those who aspire to high performance operate within that bubble. Everything about the way the club is set up from the unelected board to the dependency on AFL money means the club is not accountable to its supporters in any meaningful way. So on and on we go, never really achieving anything, purporting to chase certain goals (greatness?) but in reality all we do is chase our own tails. The people at the club continue to be employed in high salaried positions whilst the supporters are expected to just keep turning up and believing in something that is an obviously lost cause to anyone who is paying attention. Unfortunately though, in this day and age, there are enough theatre goers to sustain the club without them needing to rely on and appease the old school style supporter who expects success.

The Prison Bars issue is to me the best representation of this. Such a simple and easy thing to achieve if the club was run by people who were aggressive, aspirational and looking to do the best by the club rather than themselves. The outcomes they get on that issue really speak volumes about where their priorities lie (ie themselves and their continued gainful employment in the industry).

All of this is also in the context of being the smallest club in the smallest market in an 18 team league that is significantly weighted to advantage 10 clubs from a certain state. The only advantage we ever had as a club was the expectations of our supporters which pushed the club to achieve. This was true in the SANFL but it's absolutely essential in the AFL. Without it, we are a minnow club. A tiny, irrelevant club that exists to put a game on the fixture and that will never, ever win a premiership.

All that we are really left with is yelling at clouds on BigFooty, longing for a club that simply doesn't exist in the way that it used to and times that have come and gone and will never come again.

Magnificently put

 

[tribey]

I think there's a very good argument to be made that we've already lost our club and that it's never coming back.

The club is a low performance boys club. Even those who aspire to high performance operate within that bubble. Everything about the way the club is set up from the unelected board to the dependency on AFL money means the club is not accountable to its supporters in any meaningful way. So on and on we go, never really achieving anything, purporting to chase certain goals (greatness?) but in reality all we do is chase our own tails. The people at the club continue to be employed in high salaried positions whilst the supporters are expected to just keep turning up and believing in something that is an obviously lost cause to anyone who is paying attention. Unfortunately though, in this day and age, there are enough theatre goers to sustain the club without them needing to rely on and appease the old school style supporter who expects success.

The Prison Bars issue is to me the best representation of this. Such a simple and easy thing to achieve if the club was run by people who were aggressive, aspirational and looking to do the best by the club rather than themselves. The outcomes they get on that issue really speak volumes about where their priorities lie (ie themselves and their continued gainful employment in the industry).

All of this is also in the context of being the smallest club in the smallest market in an 18 team league that is significantly weighted to advantage 10 clubs from a certain state. The only advantage we ever had as a club was the expectations of our supporters which pushed the club to achieve. This was true in the SANFL but it's absolutely essential in the AFL. Without it, we are a minnow club. A tiny, irrelevant club that exists to put a game on the fixture and that will never, ever win a premiership.

All that we are really left with is yelling at clouds on BigFooty, longing for a club that simply doesn't exist in the way that it used to and times that have come and gone and will never come again.

100%. Credit to John James and Kevin Foley — at least when they wanted to transition the club to a meek, generic, inoffensive franchise more in keeping with South Coast Power they were honest and upfront about it.

David Koch, Keith Thomas and Matthew Richardson did it by stealth with a series of bait and switch tactics designed to gaslight and marginalise the diehards while attracting theatregoers to form the new base.

Mission accomplished.

 

[AdamMarrett]

I think there's a very good argument to be made that we've already lost our club and that it's never coming back.

The club is a low performance boys club. Even those who aspire to high performance operate within that bubble. Everything about the way the club is set up from the unelected board to the dependency on AFL money means the club is not accountable to its supporters in any meaningful way. So on and on we go, never really achieving anything, purporting to chase certain goals (greatness?) but in reality all we do is chase our own tails. The people at the club continue to be employed in high salaried positions whilst the supporters are expected to just keep turning up and believing in something that is an obviously lost cause to anyone who is paying attention. Unfortunately though, in this day and age, there are enough theatre goers to sustain the club without them needing to rely on and appease the old school style supporter who expects success.

The Prison Bars issue is to me the best representation of this. Such a simple and easy thing to achieve if the club was run by people who were aggressive, aspirational and looking to do the best by the club rather than themselves. The outcomes they get on that issue really speak volumes about where their priorities lie (ie themselves and their continued gainful employment in the industry).

All of this is also in the context of being the smallest club in the smallest market in an 18 team league that is significantly weighted to advantage 10 clubs from a certain state. The only advantage we ever had as a club was the expectations of our supporters which pushed the club to achieve. This was true in the SANFL but it's absolutely essential in the AFL. Without it, we are a minnow club. A tiny, irrelevant club that exists to put a game on the fixture and that will never, ever win a premiership.

All that we are really left with is yelling at clouds on BigFooty, longing for a club that simply doesn't exist in the way that it used to and times that have come and gone and will never come again.

Very good post.

That argument has been there since 1997 when we started in the AFL. Who are we really? The 2001-2003 finals failures weren't Port Adelaide as we traditionally knew and all were accustomed to. Failures like that didn't happen to the club but in the AFL journey they were learning experiences up until the 2004 Premiership. From that flag we were well placed to become the traditional version of the club in the AFL. If you said to me post that flag we'd be at the end of 2022 and not won a flag since I'd not have believed it. The 2007 season bar the Grand result was the closest to a Port Adelaide season we could've had, instead we ran into a immovable object in the Grand Final and haven't been back to one since.

Our history post the 2007 Grand Final is grim reading. We had Choco lose the plot from that point onwards. Primus was pushing shit up hill when he got the job, into the Hinkley years which have squandered 3 Golden chances to play in and win Grand Finals. All three of them are as bad as the next. For me there is nothing romantic about the 2014 season. It was a waste of a golden chance to win a Premiership. From 10-1 to 14-8 having to do it the hard way, and ultimately losing a game we should've won if we kicked straight. But if we finished 16-6 we would've been top 4/top 2 and the path is easier. Recent history shows we may have blown it at home but for the romanticism of 2014 doesn't stack up for me. That leads into lean years from 2015-2019 which would've killed most if not all coaches at Port Adelaide traditionally but didn't. 2020 we blew it. At home, as unaffected by covid as anyone in the competition, players in our own beds and we lose a home preliminary final. Another chance wasted. 2021 was even worse. Another home preliminary final against a beat up opposition and lose by 71 points. Which results in the club hiding Hinkley until close to the season resuming, and lines like we have to move on etc which in the first 5 games was obvious the playing & coaching group were scarred from that defeat. The club actively didn't address it and has paid the price. Now we sit with a club that gets upset at a sticker on a sign, or stickergate and refuses to approach the Hinkley issue which is obvious to anyone with a semblance of footy intelligence.

So who are we really? Port Adelaide by name only and address. We aren't the real Port Adelaide Football Club, we are a shell of that. A play thing where effort & working hard is good enough because the competition is apparently hard to win. Something that if said to Fos Williams, Russell Ebert, Jack Cahill, Tredrea and our legends would've been scoffed at but now it's accepted and publicly stated by Koch, Hinkley etc who lead the club.

 

[El Zorro]

I am actually tempted to get an Adelaide Oval membership next season and go watch the crows or port when I feel like it. Like a good theatre-goer. Over the past few years, I've been called white noise by our chairman, irrelevant by club management and more recently unintelligent by Charlie Dixon

22

Charlie Dixon

Age

34

Ht

200cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

4.7

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

G

1.6

5star

D

10.5

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.5

2star

M

5.0

5star

T

1.5

2star

G

2.5

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.8

4star

. I mean, clearly, I am not wanted. So, why insist?

 

[El Zorro]

Very good post.

That argument has been there since 1997 when we started in the AFL. Who are we really? The 2001-2003 finals failures weren't Port Adelaide as we traditionally knew and all were accustomed to. Failures like that didn't happen to the club but in the AFL journey they were learning experiences up until the 2004 Premiership. From that flag we were well placed to become the traditional version of the club in the AFL. If you said to me post that flag we'd be at the end of 2022 and not won a flag since I'd not have believed it. The 2007 season bar the Grand result was the closest to a Port Adelaide season we could've had, instead we ran into a immovable object in the Grand Final and haven't been back to one since.

Our history post the 2007 Grand Final is grim reading. We had Choco lose the plot from that point onwards. Primus was pushing s**t up hill when he got the job, into the Hinkley years which have squandered 3 Golden chances to play in and win Grand Finals. All three of them are as bad as the next. For me there is nothing romantic about the 2014 season. It was a waste of a golden chance to win a Premiership. From 10-1 to 14-8 having to do it the hard way, and ultimately losing a game we should've won if we kicked straight. But if we finished 16-6 we would've been top 4/top 2 and the path is easier. Recent history shows we may have blown it at home but for the romanticism of 2014 doesn't stack up for me. That leads into lean years from 2015-2019 which would've killed most if not all coaches at Port Adelaide traditionally but didn't. 2020 we blew it. At home, as unaffected by covid as anyone in the competition, players in our own beds and we lose a home preliminary final. Another chance wasted. 2021 was even worse. Another home preliminary final against a beat up opposition and lose by 71 points. Which results in the club hiding Hinkley until close to the season resuming, and lines like we have to move on etc which in the first 5 games was obvious the playing & coaching group were scarred from that defeat. The club actively didn't address it and has paid the price. Now we sit with a club that gets upset at a sticker on a sign, or stickergate and refuses to approach the Hinkley issue which is obvious to anyone with a semblance of footy intelligence.

So who are we really? Port Adelaide by name only and address. We aren't the real Port Adelaide Football Club, we are a shell of that. A play thing where effort & working hard is good enough because the competition is apparently hard to win. Something that if said to Fos Williams, Russell Ebert, Jack Cahill, Tredrea and our legends would've been scoffed at but now it's accepted and publicly stated by Koch, Hinkley etc who lead the club.

Maybe One club wasn't such a great thing. We should get the Port Magpies back.

 

[Launchpad McQuack]

Maybe One club wasn't such a great thing. We should get the Port Magpies back.

Presumably out of principle Richardson would quit PAFC and return to the "real" Port Adelaide.

 

[AdamMarrett]

Maybe One club wasn't such a great thing. We should get the Port Magpies back.

If you could do it again the Magpies would've ceased to exist and we'd only have had Port Adelaide in the AFL. That move to keep the Magpies always in my opinion stuffed the whole thing up.

 

[DaTBird187]

I remember Bucky saying when we won the licence that Port would never change. I found it hard to believe at the time and sadly maybe i was right.

On SM-G781B using BigFooty.com mobile app

It would never change, seconds before it did.

 

[tribey]

Maybe One club wasn't such a great thing. We should get the Port Magpies back.

In an ideal world, we have a [reserves] team in the expanded VFL just like GWS, Gold Coast and Southport(!) do,

And the Magpies go back to being a standalone entity in the SANFL, with zones and junior grades, but everything still functions as One Club as originally intended in 1996 before the visionless chodes at the SANFL rolled up their sleeves.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

I am actually tempted to get an Adelaide Oval membership next season and go watch the crows or port when I feel like it. Like a good theatre-goer. Over the past few years, I've been called white noise by our chairman, irrelevant by club management and more recently unintelligent by Charlie Dixon

22

Charlie Dixon

Age

34

Ht

200cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

4.7

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

G

1.6

5star

D

10.5

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.5

2star

M

5.0

5star

T

1.5

2star

G

2.5

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.8

4star

. I mean, clearly, I am not wanted. So, why insist?

Don't forget "those who don't matter" by the coach.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

In an ideal world, we have a [reserves] team in the expanded VFL just like GWS, Gold Coast and Southport(!) do,

And the Magpies go back to being a standalone entity in the SANFL, with zones and junior grades, but everything still functions as One Club as originally intended in 1996 before the visionless chodes at the SANFL rolled up their sleeves.

Imagine the rules the SANFL would give the Magpis though.

They'd force them back to an Ethelton equivalent for fear of the advantages they'd have

 

[tribey]

Imagine the rules the SANFL would give the Magpis though.

They'd force them back to an Ethelton equivalent for fear of the advantages they'd have

The system was in place from 2011-2013 without any danger of an unassailable powerhouse, but you’re right.

The books would be gone over like the Abbott government hounding those on the dole.

 

[Spadge]

Im actually starting to wonder if we would have been better off having Kevin Foley as our president

 

[Enviable Tradition]

The system was in place from 2011-2013 without any danger of an unassailable powerhouse, but you’re right.

The books would be gone over like the Abbott government hounding those on the dole.

We know that but the SANFL won't care.

They love getting their "revenge" by beating a Port side with 2 hands tied behind its back.

 

[Portmagpies36]

If you could do it again the Magpies would've ceased to exist and we'd only have had Port Adelaide in the AFL. That move to keep the Magpies always in my opinion stuffed the whole thing up.

Correct, tbe SANFL demanded we have the Magpies remain.

 

[Harlott]

It’s hard to truly judge if we’re too far from the Port Adelaide we grew up with until we get the right people in place.

 

[NoddyHolder]

Im actually starting to wonder if we would have been better off having Kevin Foley as our president

Unlikely to have been any better. Was only a Port 'supporter' to aid his political career (member for Port Adelaide despite residing in the eastern suburbs). Never showed any more feel for footy than Koch

 

[tribey]

Correct, tbe SANFL demanded we have the Magpies remain.

Bucky said the original sublicense bid conditions stated preference for applications that would reduce the SANFL to an 8-team league, thus eliminating the bye.

But Port went in wanting to keep the Magpies, having the sort of One Club/Two Teams setup we eventually saw from 2011-13.

This was unacceptable to the other SANFL clubs, who feared an already dominant Port Adelaide would funnel rivers of AFL gold into the Maggies, making them even more unassailable.

So the SA Football Commission issued an ultimatum.

Liquidate the Magpies and go lock-stock all-in to the AFL, or divorce operations and relocate them elsewhere, with any and all interaction forbidden (remember when we had to get express permission to have the PAMFC so much as participate in the Family Day trial game?).

Bucky chose the latter, with his stated rationale being that he couldn’t deny a kid from the LeFevre/Eyre zones the chance to aspire to wear the prisonbar like he had.

 

[Jojay]

Im actually starting to wonder if we would have been better off having Kevin Foley as our president

Would've been an unmitigated disaster. His manifesto was to move as far away as possible from our heritage to bring in 'new' fans.

* that.

What we need is Koch and Co. to move on and allow new energy and to give a fresh perspective a go. A decade is long enough. We all know it won't happen though.

These pricks will have to be dragged out kicking and screaming.

 

[GremioPower]

I think there's a very good argument to be made that we've already lost our club and that it's never coming back.

This is the best summary of our current situation and future that I have seen. I agree that the club we remember isn't coming back. This is the present and future of the franchise previously known as the Port Adelaide Football Club.

There will always be a Port Adelaide Football Club. It has just forgotten what it is.

Remembering is hard, and it may get harder with time, but it’s always possible.

 

[GremioPower]

In an ideal world, we have a [reserves] team in the expanded VFL just like GWS, Gold Coast and Southport(!) do,

And the Magpies go back to being a standalone entity in the SANFL, with zones and junior grades, but everything still functions as One Club as originally intended in 1996 before the visionless chodes at the SANFL rolled up their sleeves.

Yep. That’s my opinion, too.

—

Imagine the rules the SANFL would give the Magpis though.

They'd force them back to an Ethelton equivalent for fear of the advantages they'd have

Business as usual, then.

—

These pricks will have to be dragged out kicking and screaming.

Just like every single hybristic tyrant in History!

 

[El_Scorcho]

I think there's a very good argument to be made that we've already lost our club and that it's never coming back.

The club is a low performance boys club. Even those who aspire to high performance operate within that bubble. Everything about the way the club is set up from the unelected board to the dependency on AFL money means the club is not accountable to its supporters in any meaningful way. So on and on we go, never really achieving anything, purporting to chase certain goals (greatness?) but in reality all we do is chase our own tails. The people at the club continue to be employed in high salaried positions whilst the supporters are expected to just keep turning up and believing in something that is an obviously lost cause to anyone who is paying attention. Unfortunately though, in this day and age, there are enough theatre goers to sustain the club without them needing to rely on and appease the old school style supporter who expects success.

The Prison Bars issue is to me the best representation of this. Such a simple and easy thing to achieve if the club was run by people who were aggressive, aspirational and looking to do the best by the club rather than themselves. The outcomes they get on that issue really speak volumes about where their priorities lie (ie themselves and their continued gainful employment in the industry).

All of this is also in the context of being the smallest club in the smallest market in an 18 team league that is significantly weighted to advantage 10 clubs from a certain state. The only advantage we ever had as a club was the expectations of our supporters which pushed the club to achieve. This was true in the SANFL but it's absolutely essential in the AFL. Without it, we are a minnow club. A tiny, irrelevant club that exists to put a game on the fixture and that will never, ever win a premiership.

All that we are really left with is yelling at clouds on BigFooty, longing for a club that simply doesn't exist in the way that it used to and times that have come and gone and will never come again.

The thing that will change it is getting the club back under member control. The problem as we've often stated is that Koch is under zero pressure because his sole KPI is simply keeping us as a going concern, so to remove him by force we have to put the club in financial danger enough that the AFL notice.

What that will probably take is a wealthy benefactor eliminating the debt on the condition that control is given back to the members. Or, I guess, a sustained debt reduction campaign from the club with the stated end goal of getting the club back in the hands of the members. But the people currently in charge don't give a shit because, as you say, the members having control means they'll have to perform to keep their jobs.

Looks like one of us is going to have to win Powerball.

 

[GremioPower]

The thing that will change it is getting the club back under member control. The problem as we've often stated is that Koch is under zero pressure because his sole KPI is simply keeping us as a going concern, so to remove him by force we have to put the club in financial danger enough that the AFL notice.

What that will probably take is a wealthy benefactor eliminating the debt on the condition that control is given back to the members. Or, I guess, a sustained debt reduction campaign from the club with the stated end goal of getting the club back in the hands of the members. But the people currently in charge don't give a s**t because, as you say, the members having control means they'll have to perform to keep their jobs.

Looks like one of us is going to have to win Powerball.

Maybe a Supporters’ Association created with the goal to recover ownership of PAFC might work, but it would be a long-term project.

It could eventually have candidates for the board, even.