How did Port Adelaide lose its soul?

[Cyrus the Virus]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/how-did-port-adelaide-lose-its-soul/story-e6freco3-1226096588124

Rucci has a crack at port supporters.

Hard not to agree with him to be honest. We have the worst supporters in the AFL, and the supporters are the main reason as to why we are where we are financially.

 

[Portia]

As one constitutional lawyer retained by The Rip said: "The club that once belonged to the members is now controlled by the SA Football Commission."

I think that it has become plainly apparent to all Port fans that we no longer can even pretend to run the club.

 

[simba_]

yes, okay Mick. make fun of us and how we don't like AAMI stadium in the public forum. even though you know so well exactly why. or do you? maybe as a journo as well as a "Port man" you DON'T actually know what its like? where do you sit at the games, do you go? do you sit in one of those boxes with the little pies and sausage rolls coming in thick and fast thinking "wow, where are all the loyal fans?!". try sitting out in that big cold stadium owned and operated by an organisation we've never liked that has never liked us oh and that OWNS us. don't make fun of how unhomely AAMI is in public when you SHOULD know how we feel, Mick.

and I don't wanna make pathetic excuses all day - if you love your football team go see them - but we're all humans aren't we? some people are sick of five years of bullshit, some people are sick of fifteen years of bullshit. some people have a shorter threshold and have jumped off completely. some like me just didn't reregister membership this year, too depressed with the state of footy in general. plus it's a ****ing nightmare to get to it really just is.. but to pile shit on us and say all the loyals fans have disappeared, why? at the end of the day we're a SANFL club and we always had a lot of bandwagoners at the start. we also had success which kept numbers healthy until the flag and a bit after. now correct me if i'm wrong but don't we still get 20 (okay this year more like 17) thousand to games? not tooooooooo bad is it? if there are 15,000 loyal port adelaide people out there who will definitely 100% rock up to games that's alright isn't it? we need not fall for the victorians lines of doom, "17k to their game, well, tassie needs a team eh? do you think they need another handout? what's going on down there, anyway?!". this is our worst year on the ladder and in the stands, this hasn't been a huge problem, just one that's been building.

"And the ones who say it with the greatest venom are the Port fans who no longer go to AAMI Stadium. They do not spend a cent on their club."

what bullshit is this? I don't go to AAMI so I don't spend on the club? what if I got the 1870 book a jumper and a scarf on my last visit at the club before my old man and I grabbed lunch? isn't that like $300 we're putting right into Alberton? would you rather us sit at that lifeless stadium and buy a $15 villies pie so the SANFL gets that money, so they can give a bit to us, so you can stop writing about how we don't spend anything on the club? oh but we were there and that's what matters. in a few years the money i pumped into the shop will be more important than the numbers the SANFL tweaks in our attendance.

no Mick. I will always mock the Crows because 100 years before they were born we existed. we may not exist in the same fashion now and we may have an extra color and a different jumper, we may have a board r*ped by the SANFL and essentially we may just be a franchise to everyone but to us, the supporters, the Power and the Magpies were made in 1870 and our great great relatives supported the same club as we do. that is all that matters Mick Rucci. the supporters make the club and we're still the same. they always have and always will no matter what code you follow.

the rest of that article is annoying to read and more bullshit. wow, great work, you're telling us all again that we've turned into a soulless corporation, another license owned by the SANFL. gee, thanks Mick. I didn't know who we were owned by because we don't care about that kind of stuff. should we keep fighting for what we believe in or should we concede completely and encourage them to relabel us? isn't Port Adelaide a mouthful, how about the Alberton Power? how about the Alberton Glory? wait, how about the Tasmania Glory?

 

[PatientMental]

I don't want to go to Adelaide Oval because it being moved is too far out of the way for me now.

Anyway. I think it was lost when we stopped picking up South Aussies exclusively to make our team.

 

[Waspy79]

The SA footy public have tired from the contempt with which it has been treated by both the SANFL and AFL, and voted with their feet, which is easiest done when on-field performance is insipid.

Rucci's article tries to cover about 5 agendas in one, it's poorly written and expressed.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Rucci is probably the one Port supporter with the most power to generate good feeling and he constantly fails in his duty. It's negative article after negative article.

 

[Froggy]

Seriously when west coast etc were shit last year did they go through this crap we have? No, the constant negative press we get no matter what we do is at a completely ridiculous level. The guys across town have much the same problems yet none of these articles wtf.

If we had control of our club we'd have been able to make decisions on where we play, our stadium deals etc. We ARE screwed by the SANFL proven by the fact the Crows are broke to. We have contempt for the dicks on the radio because all they do is bag our club, our club is already down the bottom but they want to kill it.

This article is simply logic defying, Collingwood had control over their club to fix it in the first place for starters.

 

[lotum]

it may have lost it's soul when in a public forum the previous coach has a go at the chief Sponsor, the club has never been the same IMO

 

[simba_]

it may have lost it's soul when in a public forum the previous coach has a go at the chief Sponsor, the club has never been the same IMO

actually the chief sponsor had a go at our coach who said nothing until we got the ultimate prize, then shoved it in his face at his best moment. in hindsight we're paying a huge price, but go back to 2004 and try and find someone who wont agree with the man and his victory

 

[Spadge]

 

[Forzaport]

Rucci's article is disappointing. Let's be honest, using 5aa as any sort of measuring stick is only going to give us a very skewed opinion. Maybe there's a subliminal message there for Port supporters to listen to 5aa, maybe I'm being paranoid.

Despite the terrible stadium, negative media coverage, poor on-field performances and the SANFL/SAFC sucking us dry we still have 36k members and about 20k that go to games. 5-10k have dropped off recently and the effort should be made to get them back to games. Instead we have a supposed Port supporting journo put the entire PAFC supporter base off-side with his sweeping BS statements. Yeah, that's going to get people to games or to tune into 5aa.

I got a free guest pass in the mail for the collingwood game so I'm going to be bringing an extra person with me that game. It's not much but it's a start. It's a shame guest passes are so expensive, I would've brought more people to the footy if they were $25 instead of $40.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

It is pretty obvious that a fair bit of the disenchantment is tied into losing control of our club. Peopel no longer have the same connection to the club. Look at all of the instances of where the Port supporters preferences have been ignored. Every time it happens is another nail in the coffin.

Just to name a few...

Being forced to play games at AAMI. If we controlled our own board and our board controlled our club we would have played games at Adelaide Oval years ago.

Port Powa est. 1997. This would have never survived so long if the members could have booted it out.

The Choco contract debacle. Head would have rolled for that (or perhaps the board would have made a stronger decision knowing that if they didnt head would have rolled).

The Hangar. It could have worked but getting the Crows scraps with a crows colored roof which apparently couldnt be changed was never going to win over those fans who suggested AAMI was the crows home ground moreso than ours.

Sacking Haysman. It wouldnt have happened if we controlled our own club.

The list goes on and on. What ends up happening is that fans get disenfranchised. Many peopel no longer think of it as THEIR club the same way they used to. As a result they are less likely to make the committment be it time, money, effort whatever to support the club in the same way that they used to.

We need to gain back control of our club. We need to reclaim our identity and the fans (and their money) will come back.

 

[Power Raid]

Seriously when west coast etc were shit last year did they go through this crap we have? No, the constant negative press we get no matter what we do is at a completely ridiculous level. The guys across town have much the same problems yet none of these articles wtf.

I live in Perth and have been thinking the same thing in how WCE and Port have been treated very differently.

The West and other media sources are very supportive of WCE, Freo, the WAFL, the AFL and the WAFC. I sense things are very different back home in SA.

I can't work out why there is such a cultural and media difference? I think SA suffers from various factions with their own agenda. I just don't get it. Maybe it is as simple as WA supporters like both WCE and Freo where in SA there seems to be a big rivalry.


Further, I think we will suffer as a club for another twelve months both on and off the field and we may or may not survive past 2015. If we survive, I suspect we will be a club controlled by the members, with our own licence and have an arms length stadium deal. If we do not get our freedom, in my belief, we are finished.

 

[PAFC04]

WE haven't lost our soul, we just had the living shit kicked out of the club with some of the worst decisions the club has ever made over the last 3 years.

I solely blame this on our board members who didn't have the balls at the time to make the right calls when it was needed.

We are now licking the wounds.....keep licking ladies and gents...keep licking!

Just be glad there isn't a relegation system in place.

To get our soul back, it is going to take someone with bigger balls to fix our problem.

 

[Froggy]

Also could you imagine fantasy like this being published in one of the Melbourne papers about one of their clubs when they are going shit? No, they've got a bit of perspective there having so many teams, something we've lost here in SA clearly.

We are shit but article after article like this and you wonder why the club can't make an off field improvement? It simply doesn't matter what the club does it's getting dumped on for any old reason. There's a few points Rucci misses and that's if it were completely membership owned then none of the rewriting of 2008 would have happened because we'd not be putting up with the SANFL bending us over. It still baffles me how we can be broke, the Crows broke, the SANFL broke but it's still somehow only us at fault?

Again, unlike the other clubs we can't fix our problem without control of the club, it's much easier to make decisions and move in a certain direction if you don't have to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy and get things rubber stamped only to see the gains taken away by a decision out of your hands.

 

[Jonts]

Anyway. I think it was lost when we stopped picking up South Aussies exclusively to make our team.

I agree with this South Aussies gives the team some heart

picking Port Adelaide SANFL boys gives it some more think port should get at least one per yr

Rucci is probably the one Port supporter with the most power to generate good feeling and he constantly fails in his duty. It's negative article after negative article.

Timmy is the only genuine positive port person in the media and he gets little media time even Tredders doesn't spread the good news

 

[Northalives]

Port lost it's soul?
Go **** yourself Rucci.

To blame our club's predicament on the club's supporters is an absolute disgrace.

It is we, the supporters , that made it possible for our club to get into the big league and it is us who PAYED and cheered and made sacrifices to support our club and we won a premiership in the "big" league.

It is we who shouted from the rooftops the M.Williams must be culled forthwith or we risked getting to this exact situation but no, the gutless, pretentious aresholes, who thought they knew better and completely disregarded the ideals and principles that made us the envy of the football world; these pricks allowed a **** ing megalomaniac to tear up everything that our club was based on. Things like, the club is greater than any individual; these cowards sat by and watched our club and it's principles crumble and turned their back on great Port Adelaide people as they left to go elsewhere and this **** sucking, heap of shit Rucci is blaming us?

**** off Rucci - we are not the problem nor have we lost our passion and our soul.

Why don't you write in your old-world, flat-earth society supporting gutter rag, what the vast majority of Port Adelaide supporters have been saying since our shameful capitulation in that Grand Final? You now, these "traitors" whose world has become a nightmare because of where our beloved club has got too and believe me, Port Adelaide supporters are grief stricken and the desolation is real for us. How real is it for our players?

Why don't you ask how the players feel - whether having a soul is more important to them than a big bank balance?

Why didn't you a assassinate R. Gray for his reported flippant remarks about us going bottom and instead flay us unmercifully?

You and your lot of pompous, intellectually delinquent companions should stop looking for some profound reason as to why we are, where we are and certainly stop charging us with treason.

The reason we are where we are is because those that were/are in positions of authority within our club, turned their back on our principles and the result is what we see today both on and off field and it is a long way back and the last thing we need is pricks like you asking us to navel gaze.

I said it before and I'll say it again : Rucci, go **** yourself!

 

[Quadzilla]

Port lost it's soul?
Go **** yourself Rucci.

To blame our club's predicament on the club's supporters is an absolute disgrace.

It is we, the supporters , that made it possible for our club to get into the big league and it is us who PAYED and cheered and made sacrifices to support our club and we won a premiership in the "big" league.

It is we who shouted from the rooftops the M.Williams must be culled forthwith or we risked getting to this exact situation but no, the gutless, pretentious aresholes, who thought they knew better and completely disregarded the ideals and principles that made us the envy of the football world; these pricks allowed a **** ing megalomaniac to tear up everything that our club was based on. Things like, the club is greater than any individual; these cowards sat by and watched our club and it's principles crumble and turned their back on great Port Adelaide people as they left to go elsewhere and this **** sucking, heap of shit Rucci is blaming us?

**** off Rucci - we are not the problem nor have we lost our passion and our soul.

Why don't you write in your old-world, flat-earth society supporting gutter rag, what the vast majority of Port Adelaide supporters have been saying since our shameful capitulation in that Grand Final? You now, these "traitors" whose world has become a nightmare because of where our beloved club has got too and believe me, Port Adelaide supporters are grief stricken and the desolation is real for us. How real is it for our players?

Why don't you ask how the players feel - whether having a soul is more important to them than a big bank balance?

Why didn't you a assassinate R. Gray for his reported flippant remarks about us going bottom and instead flay us unmercifully?

You and your lot of pompous, intellectually delinquent companions should stop looking for some profound reason as to why we are, where we are and certainly stop charging us with treason.

The reason we are where we are is because those that were/are in positions of authority within our club, turned their back on our principles and the result is what we see today both on and off field and it is a long way back and the last thing we need is pricks like you asking us to navel gaze.

I said it before and I'll say it again : Rucci, go **** yourself!

/\ this

I have been mulling over Rooch's article and wanted to be balanced and not go off ... but Rooch ... go **** yourself ... Northa has nailed i!

 

[tribey]

Anyway. I think it was lost when we stopped picking up South Aussies exclusively to make our team.

I agree with this South Aussies gives the team some heart

Guys, no offence, but this is 5AA-caller groupthink garbage.

A xenophobic SA-only policy would've resulted in no Dave Granger, John Abley, Tim Evans, Russell Johnston, Matthew Primus, Damien Hardwick, Josh Carr or Warren Tredrea - plenty of superstars and those who are held up as the very embodiment of Port Adelaide there.

We've got big problems, yes, but burning pitchforks and demanding we only pick kids who hail from between Port Augusta and Mt Gambier is laughable.

 

[Jonts]

Guys, no offence, but this is 5AA-caller groupthink garbage.

A xenophobic SA-only policy would've resulted in no Dave Granger, John Abley, Tim Evans, Russell Johnston, Matthew Primus, Damien Hardwick, Josh Carr or Warren Tredrea - plenty of superstars and those who are held up as the very embodiment of Port Adelaide there.

We've got big problems, yes, but burning pitchforks and demanding we only pick kids who hail from between Port Augusta and Mt Gambier is laughable.

not saying that we should go a SA only policy but you have to admit you feel better on draft day when the kids we call out are SA

Nice list there but i'm pretty sure the quality "true port" players that are SA origin is longer

Tredders not a SA lad? wow

 

[tribey]

not saying that we should go a SA only policy but you have to admit you feel better on draft day when the kids we call out are SA

I'd rather have the right player, be they from South Australia or South America.

Nice list there but i'm pretty sure the quality "true port" players that are SA origin is longer

Of course it is, we're a South Australian club. Doesn't mean we should scapegoat a certain minority or cut our noses to spite our face when we're not traveling well, does it?

Tredders not a SA lad? wow

His dad, Gary, was Victorian and acquired from Collingwood. He wasn't the best player but his progeny sure as hell was.

 

[Jonts]

I'd rather have the right player, be they from South Australia or South America.



Of course it is, we're a South Australian club. Doesn't mean we should scapegoat a certain minority or cut our noses to spite our face when we're not traveling well, does it?



His dad, Gary, was Victorian and acquired from Collingwood. He wasn't the best player but his progeny sure as hell was.

mmm but i always enjoy that feeling when that player that gets called out is from SA, don't think i would be the only one

No of course it doesn't this is the AFL you have to draft from everywhere, just one SA lad per draft would be good

Ahh but i also talked about them being Port Adelaide Magpie lads which tredders was

 

[Portia]

Not to mention that you would have to have every draft go exactly your way to have 4 decent SA-born KPPs.

 

[Harlott]

I think rooch is trying to stir it up. As a supporter, it's pretty disheartening to go to the footy and only half the crowds we used to get show up. Must be for the players too who at this stage need all the help they can get. I can understand some of the attitudes here about AAMI Stad, SANFL, terrible team but in the end I'm 100% convinced it wouldn't matter a sh** if we were flying and the whiff of a flag was in the air.
Me and my bro still go every week. Would feel like I was abandoning the club that has given me so much pleasure and enjoyment in life. Hate the way they are playing, the criticism we cop, the seemingly lack of success we're going to have in the foreseeable future but I just can't swallow the downhill skiing nature of some of our supporters who some accuse the players of the same thing.
I look at it this way. There are people who won't go see a show because they know it will be crap and they want to be entertained and then there are the family/friends who'll go, pretty sure it will be crap but go to support.
Hopefully it'll turn sooner than later

 

[Ford Fairlane]

His dad, Gary, was Victorian and acquired from Collingwood. He wasn't the best player but his progeny sure as hell was.

While I agree with your premise tribey to include Warren in your list is silly and misleading. Born in SA raised in SA educated in SA came through Port's system and his dad has been a coaching fixture at Port for a number of years.

Carl Fragomeni, Steve Curtis, Robert Whatman, Tony Martyn, John Spry, Stephen Clifford ... I could go on and on, yes. Warren Tredrea, no.