Club History "It's not the SANFL any more"

[JimmyBC]

It's actually disrespectful to the ruthless leaders that won all those flags in the prime of the SANFL, it was never easy they were greats.

Put our current buffoons in a time machine to lead the club in the days of yore & we'd be sitting on a South Adelaide-esque 60 year drought & not even in the AFL.

 

[johnnysix]

Comments like "It's not the SANFL any more" are just a convenient way to dismiss criticism. And for opposition supporters, It's a way of saying "Just because you were great in the SANFL doesn't mean you can expect them to be any better than my team". Whether it's opposition supporters, the football media, or our own club, it's now reached a point of parody. Our success isn't stacking up against 3/4 of the competition. Especially under Hinkley. It's becoming too hard to deny and these days it just shines a light on the ignorance of those saying it more than it successfully deflects.

 

[JimmyBC]

All people want is a brand, attitude & mentality that holds up in finals (that doesn't equate to flags galore in this comp) & to move people on that can't make that happen after sufficient chances.. what a dramatic expectation.

 

[240volt]

Even matching the benchmark clubs is another realm from where we are.

I want to just at the very least be able to match Gold Coast and Essendon - sides that make decisions and can change when needed to bring in a new coach.
To match GWS - who have already made a grand final in Ken's tenure and have a chance of another.
To match Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs - who have also made it to the big dance while we've twiddled our thumbs growing with a young list that needs to work harderer.

For a starting point I just want to match the ambitions and actions of any of the other 17 clubs. There are none that have sat so pathetically idle as us, nor are there any clubs that have accepted this length of coaching mediocrity in the history of the competition. We are the most irrelevant, worst administered club in the history of the AFL.

I wouldn’t use Freo as an example, they have been in the comp longer than us and won SFA. They are a bigger disaster than us by a long way.

 

[tribey]

It's actually disrespectful to the ruthless leaders that won all those flags in the prime of the SANFL, it was never easy they were greats.

100%.

The wider pro-Hinkley faction’s snap reaction to any criticism of him is to invite you to go and support someone else. Or accuse you of being a ‘Tingles troll’. Or attack you for not being a ‘proper supporter’. Or accuse you of denigrating the club, and myriad variations on the theme.

But they’ll turn around and happily cheapen and invalidate our glorious history in service of shielding Hinkley and his increasingly dreadful record, by making it sound as if Port’s SANFL era was that of an overgrown Year 7 dominating a game of touch football with kindergarteners.

They can’t even begin to see what’s wrong with this and how hypocritical it makes them.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

I wouldn’t use Freo as an example, they have been in the comp longer than us and won SFA. They are a bigger disaster than us by a long way.

Oh I'm not talking about the period 1997-2012 back when we were a club I loved and respected, I'm talking specifically about the period 2013+ when we went from being Port Adelaide to Ken Hinkley's Southern Power.

Comparing us to them in those past 11 years:
1 GF appearance vs 0
1 change in coach vs 0

 

[Dupre]

Mr Rucci HOW DARE YOU spout such rubbish. after eleven years at the helm one would expect that someone who demanded Williams get the boot because supporters weren’t happy, piled it on daily in that Murdoch rag how it was time for a change, blah blah blah you wouldn’t have the gall to even have an opinion especially no that you are telling supporters they shouldn’t expect success after 11 years of Hinkley. it seems PAFC has become a place where second rate coaches, management with little football knowledge and washed up reporters have been employed. Some may have forgotten the clubs proud history and what made it so envied by other clubs and upon entering the AFL were admired for its determination to succeed as they had done in the SANFL, but TRUE PA supporters haven’t so STFU.

 

[jdeezy]

Oh I'm not talking about the period 1997-2012 back when we were a club I loved and respected, I'm talking specifically about the period 2013+ when we went from being Port Adelaide to Ken Hinkley's Southern Power.

Comparing us to them in those past 11 years:
1 GF appearance vs 0
1 change in coach vs 0

And leading into the period, they saw their coach wasn't working and made one of the biggest coaching plays in AFL history to attempt to fix it. It's impossible to imagine anyone in this current administration thinking, even for a second, about poaching a contracted coach from another team. We can't even let a contract run out.

 

[240volt]

Oh I'm not talking about the period 1997-2012 back when we were a club I loved and respected, I'm talking specifically about the period 2013+ when we went from being Port Adelaide to Ken Hinkley's Southern Power.

Comparing us to them in those past 11 years:
1 GF appearance vs 0
1 change in coach vs 0

The club you loved till 2012 was as soft as shyt.
We should have won at least one if not two extra premierships.
Finished top 2 years in a row with a total loss of 8 games over those two years and didn’t even make a GF.
Add that to 119 and there’s nothing much to be proud of over that time.
We have a history of chocking in big games since we entered the comp.
Only thing we have been consistent at is giving away stupid free kicks to lose big games.
Yeah we need to fk Hinkley and Kotch off 100% but need to replace them with real football people who hate losing.
All we are really remembered for is the biggest loss in a Grand Final.
Thats our real AFL history in 3 numbers 119.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

The club you loved till 2012 was as soft as shyt.
We should have won at least one if not two extra premierships.
Finished top 2 years in a row with a total loss of 8 games over those two years and didn’t even make a GF.
Add that to 119 and there’s nothing much to be proud of over that time.
We have a history of chocking in big games since we entered the comp.
Only thing we have been consistent at is giving away stupid free kicks to lose big games.
Yeah we need to fk Hinkley and Kotch off 100% but need to replace them with real football people who hate losing.
All we are really remembered for is the biggest loss in a Grand Final.
Thats our real AFL history in 3 numbers 119.

Don't get me wrong I would have loved to improve on what we did in that time, but I at least loved the club then. I felt that everyone was on the same page, one team, trying to succeed together. The players played for the jumper and members, the administration held people accountable and didn't try to constantly spin bullshit. It was during that time a huge amount of work was done to set us up.

Could and maybe should we have gotten more out of that list between 2001-2003? Yeah. Should we have gone defensive in that 2007 game? Yeah, probably. But we also made two grand finals in that time, and won more games in our first 10 years in the comp than any other side which is unheard of. We rode those highs and lows together.

That's totally different to Ken Hinkley's Southern Power from 2013-2023, where members and supporters are treated like idiots that don't know footy, traditions are pissed on, players don't turn up for games in recognition of our greatest ever, and the club is more than happy to spin endless failure as success with irrelevant metrics and does whatever it takes to can keep some random bloke from Camperdown happy. There are no highs or lows any more because every time we lose it feels like we might be close to change, and every time we win we know we are close to disappointment. Its just a water treading franchise that I feel nothing for other than remembering the past.

 

[silverfingers]

I cannot stand that sort of SANFL bullshit talk...
Makes no difference what competition we are in, we should always be aiming to be the best, and most successful.

 

[240volt]

Don't get me wrong I would have loved to improve on what we did in that time, but I at least loved the club then. I felt that everyone was on the same page, one team, trying to succeed together. The players played for the jumper and members, the administration held people accountable and didn't try to constantly spin bullshit. It was during that time a huge amount of work was done to set us up.

Could and maybe should we have gotten more out of that list between 2001-2003? Yeah. Should we have gone defensive in that 2007 game? Yeah, probably. But we also made two grand finals in that time, and won more games in our first 10 years in the comp than any other side which is unheard of. We rode those highs and lows together.

That's totally different to Ken Hinkley's Southern Power from 2013-2023, where members and supporters are treated like idiots that don't know footy, traditions are pissed on, players don't turn up for games in recognition of our greatest ever, and the club is more than happy to spin endless failure as success with irrelevant metrics and does whatever it takes to can keep some random bloke from Camperdown happy. There are no highs or lows any more because every time we lose it feels like we might be close to change, and every time we win we know we are close to disappointment. Its just a water treading franchise that I feel nothing for other than remembering the past.

Franchise Is the key word there, that’s what football is all about these days.
Corporate sponsorship $ growing membership $ making money, winning is a secondary thing.
Carlton is a great example, haven’t won fk all in 28 years but will make a healthy profit this year off the hint of hope.
You don’t need to win a flag to make money, all you need is 95k members.

 

[Steve Dore]

The "it's not the SNAFL any more" excuse is completely ignoring the facts. We're not an SNAFL level semi-professional club competing with fully professional AFL clubs who have a distinct advantage. We are a fully professional club with a fully funded football program. We have access to the same talent pool (mostly) as other clubs and the same salary cap.

Under Hinkley we have not even made a Grand Final while both Hawthorn and Richmond have won three flags each and six of the eighteen clubs, one third, have won a flag. In that same period ten clubs, more than half, made a Grand Final. No one is expecting us to make a Grand Final every year or win a flag every other year but expecting us to do what at least fifty percent of the competition has done is not having unrealistic expectations that the gaslighters would have us believe.

 

[Shaucob_Burjan]

I'm not even expecting SANFL reign of flags levels of success.

I do expect us to beat teams we finished much higher on in the ladder in the finals.

GWS, Bulldogs, West Coast. That's not the hard part about finals. Hard is being the underdogs against a Collingwood in the prelims/GF but finding a way through. If you're not the underdogs, then the expectation is to win.

 

[El_Scorcho]

This only changes once we get control of our board back.

Until then, we're effectively relying on the AFL appointing a board and chairman who actually want us to be successful. It might happen in the future, but it's never sustainable until there is pressure from members on those board positions. Does anyone think the likes of Cos Cardone get to be board members for a decade if we had a vote?

Unfortunately it's my understanding that there is no timeline or even plan in place to return the board to the members. Do I have that correct?

The Crows have a 2028 end date where the members take control back. Ultimately that will leave us with a situation where the Crows are member controlled, a real football club, and we aren't. Hopefully the Crows supporters really, really lay into us about this publicly because it might be the only thing that creates enough agitation for change.

 

[240volt]

This only changes once we get control of our board back.

Until then, we're effectively relying on the AFL appointing a board and chairman who actually want us to be successful. It might happen in the future, but it's never sustainable until there is pressure from members on those board positions. Does anyone think the likes of Cos Cardone get to be board members for a decade if we had a vote?

Unfortunately it's my understanding that there is no timeline or even plan in place to return the board to the members. Do I have that correct?

The Crows have a 2028 end date where the members take control back. Ultimately that will leave us with a situation where the Crows are member controlled, a real football club, and we aren't. Hopefully the Crows supporters really, really lay into us about this publicly because it might be the only thing that creates enough agitation for change.

If what your saying about the crows is true then it’s going to be many more years before we (the members) have any serious say in anything.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

If what your saying about the crows is true then it’s going to be many more years before we (the members) have any serious say in anything.

It is 100% true.

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[El_Scorcho]

If what your saying about the crows is true then it’s going to be many more years before we (the members) have any serious say in anything.

It's definitely true.

I don't see it as a bad thing though, I see it as a light at the end of the tunnel. We're currently in a hole we can't possibly climb out of. The public pressure of the Crows being a real football club and us being an AFL puppet franchise needs to be massive. We need the media and Crows supporter base to absolutely savage us. It should be the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to the club, because we absolutely have to have change in that area.

 

[240volt]

It is 100% true.

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

So if they get control in 5 years and they came in 6 years before us are we looking at least 11 years of this BS ?

 

[Enviable Tradition]

So if they get control in 5 years and they came in 6 years before us are we looking at least 11 years of this BS ?

We have no provision in our constitution to get our license back.

So at this stage it is indefinite

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Steve Dore]

So if they get control in 5 years and they came in 6 years before us are we looking at least 11 years of this BS ?

As Enviable Tradition posted above, that condition is not in our constitution set by the AFL.

The master businessman and finance guru Koch only became aware of this recently. Apparently he had just assumed that our deal was the same as the Camry Crows.

 

[El_Scorcho]

So if they get control in 5 years and they came in 6 years before us are we looking at least 11 years of this BS ?

The time was set in 2014 when the SANFL finally relinquished the licences back to the AFL. The Crows wrote into their constitution a date that the licences would return to the members. We didn't. The AFL controls our board indefinitely as it currently stands.

 

[Steve Dore]

The time was set in 2014 when the SANFL finally relinquished the licences back to the AFL. The Crows wrote into their constitution a date that the licences would return to the members. We didn't. The AFL controls our board indefinitely as it currently stands.

What genius was chairman of the board when that happened?

Did he have an ulterior motive for not having the club revert to member ownership or was he, as he has since claimed, completely unaware that that wasn't written into the constitution?

 

[Enviable Tradition]

What genius was chairman of the board when that happened?

Did he have an ulterior motive for not having the club revert to member ownership or was he, as he has since claimed, completely unaware that that wasn't written into the constitution?

I cant believe it has taken so long for people to finally get upset about this.

But I am pleased people finally are.

 

[El_Scorcho]

I cant believe it has taken so long for people to finally get upset about this.

But I am pleased people finally are.

We're going to get less than zero traction on this until the Crows get their licence back. I'm hoping there are some big plans for that time among former players, the likes of Ginever, Fiacchi, Tredrea etc. It's the most important time in the modern history of the club since the SANFL had the licence taken from them.