Review Round 3, 2024 vs Melbourne

[Capital Power]

Game was lost where it usually is, in the pre-match presser. If Koch doesn't have the balls to fire Hinkley, at least stop him from talking to the media.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Game was lost where it usually is, in the pre-match presser. If Koch doesn't have the balls to fire Hinkley, at least stop him from talking to the media.

And the players

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Northalives]

Overly simplistic. Hinkley is excellent at consistently beating non-finalists in the home and away season. He's arguably one of the best coaches in AFL history at that. But Melbourne aren't a non-finalist.

Read the Hinkleyball thread. We choke like this against good sides at Adelaide Oval under Hinkley in night games all the time, and we have been for the last decade. There was absolutely nothing new or unexpected about Saturday night's performance from a Hinkley coached side, and it has been consistent across a playing group that bar Boak and Wines is entirely different from the playing group that would lose matches the exact same way in the mid-2010's.

Unlike you I have a memory beyond that of a goldfish. It's not a knee jerk reaction to a loss after 3 games. It's a reaction to a loss after 11 years and 3 games. And it's the exact same loss we've seen over and over again and we've never learned from. You could have chucked on a replay of the Richmond game in 2019 and aside from the jumpers you wouldn't have noticed a difference.

Go read my post in the first page of the gameday thread. I basically predicted the last quarter of this game down to a tee before it had even started. That's the Hinkley effect. 'Knee-jerk reaction', **** me.

The season is over. In fact, the 2025 season is over too. They have been since August last year. If you want to delude yourself into thinking year 12 under Hinkley will somehow be different, be my guest, but you're only setting yourself up for more disappointment.

I think it was my first post about Port this year that I said " a Premiership is non-negotiable".

Whether you or I like it or not, Hinkley has been reappointed by Koch and co. - I don't like it but I am a Port supporter and I go to the footy or watch it on the telli and want Port to win.

We will see what happens at the end of the year and your assertion that this season is over and that 2025 is also over is absolutely ridiculous. It's 3 games into the year!! Get a grip!

 

[rogerjames]

The players reflected Hinkley's nervousness in the finals last year.

Port has set the bar low and it starts right from the top. We hear Koch saying that Hinkley has a "great win loss ratio". What the f**k has that got to do with winning flags? We play Australian Rules Football, not Association Football.

Hinkley should have been replaced years ago but he hasn't. I have said on numerous occasions that I am not a fan of his but he has, for some reason, been reappointed and he is doing his best which, as we have learnt, is not up to the Port standard. We can freak out at him and curse and cuss at him but it's the f***ing hierarchy that appointed him that needs to be roundly criticised.

Of course. Koch is the main culprit who has enabled this to unfold.

 

[Schulzenfest]

I think it was my first post about Port this year that I said " a Premiership is non-negotiable".

Whether you or I like it or not, Hinkley has been reappointed by Koch and co. - I don't like it but I am a Port supporter and I go to the footy or watch it on the telli and want Port to win.

We will see what happens at the end of the year and your assertion that this season is over and that 2025 is also over is absolutely ridiculous. It's 3 games into the year!! Get a grip!

Okay. Have fun being sad in mid-September.

 

[Northalives]

Honestly comparing your post and mine Id say yours seems much more hysterical.

Im just being realistic about the situation. Its not about a 7 point loss, its about the path we are on as a club. This is just the latest of 251 examples that show he isnt up to it.

For f**k's sake, I was one of the very few who railed against us burning generations of Port Adelaide supporters by trading them in for a f****ng reserves side for the AFL and warned that such an idiotic move would lead to mediocrity and the majority around here said I and others like me were wrong. Well suck it up!

The lack of traditional Port Adelaide people at the club everyday connected with the Magpies, reserves, under-age sides and all the volunteers, family and friends connected with a CLUB and supported and backed up by generations of Port people in our zones, kept the Port Adelaide traditions and disciplines at the highest level imaginable. Now, we are a f***ing corporate entity, no different to the cows, and we have been reduced to venting our displeasure on sites like Big Footy and on social media instead of at Alberton everyday of the week.

What used to be face-to-face interaction is now gobbledegook in the cybersphere and those corporate f**kwits that run the club are in no way accountable to Port Adelaide people like you and me. They got rid of us as a physical presence at Alberton and now treat us with contempt and we let them do it.

This is the f***ed world we live in now and we made it so by trashing our ideals and principles so now, we have to adapt to the wishes and machinations of the morons and spivs that run the club and those f**k wits appointed Hinkley again. I go to the footy carrying the burden of not having been able to stop the takeover of my club by the short term f***ers but I go and still support my football team and want them to win.

Some of you lot around here really do give the impression that you want us to lose and fail so as to vindicate your abhorrence of Hinkley. I appologise for putting words in your mouthes but that's the way some of you come across.

We have strengthened the areas we were deficient in last year by bringing in good recruits and we have class players all over the ground and this is the best Port Adelaide team for years. I am not a Hinkley fan nor part of his cheer squad but that does not in any way mean that I don't want us to win games of football and NOT win a premiership. We are three games into the season, we lost a game by 7 points and people are already behaving like f***ing soccer pricks - children throwing their toys out of the pram.

Maybe we should have all have fought just a bit harder to retain control of our club and retain our never-ending line of Port supporters by maintaining our zones instead of throwing them all away to create a soft, namby-pamby environment for the AFL squad.

Do you think that for one moment that Hinkley would still be coaching Port if we had our old structures intact? Every day Hinkley, the players and the management of the club would have copped a savaging face-to-face from real, committed, intelligent Port Adelaide people who know what needs to happen to be successful and win flags.

Unfortunately, no amount of vitriol on the web will make one iota of difference to Koch and the others that now run our club. That is not to say we should just shut up and say nothing but what we shouldn't just run around freaking out after three games of a new season like the sky has fallen in.

 

[Northalives]

Okay. Have fun being sad in mid-September.

I will continue to go to the footy or watch it on the telli and barrack for Port to win and if we do not win a flag this year, then please join me in all manner of disobedience, if you not what I mean? Pitchforks and torches come to mind but I can't say that on here.

 

[Northalives]

Of course. Koch is the main culprit who has enabled this to unfold.

Many of us are also culpable in allowing Koch free rein.

 

[El_Scorcho]

I think it was my first post about Port this year that I said " a Premiership is non-negotiable".

Whether you or I like it or not, Hinkley has been reappointed by Koch and co. - I don't like it but I am a Port supporter and I go to the footy or watch it on the telli and want Port to win.

We will see what happens at the end of the year and your assertion that this season is over and that 2025 is also over is absolutely ridiculous. It's 3 games into the year!! Get a grip!

A premiership was non negotiable in 2015.

Here we are a full 10 seasons later having won just 2 finals in that time, just having lost in a the most classic Hinkley way possible by dominating I50s and failing to put it on the scoreboard, and you're telling us we're being ridiculous for having developed pattern recognition. The argument you're making here was made by many in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

Unless you're expecting some sort of mass illness/injury/scandal that sees most of the teams unable to field players, we aren't winning a flag with Hinkley as coach. What more evidence could you possibly need?

 

[Northalives]

A premiership was non negotiable in 2015.

Here we are a full 10 seasons later having won just 2 finals in that time, just having lost in a the most classic Hinkley way possible by dominating I50s and failing to put it on the scoreboard, and you're telling us we're being ridiculous for having developed pattern recognition. The argument you're making here was made by many in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

Unless you're expecting some sort of mass illness/injury/scandal that sees most of the teams unable to field players, we aren't winning a flag with Hinkley as coach. What more evidence could you possibly need?

You don't have to try and convince me but he is the coach and he's here for 2024 and whether he or anyone else is the coach, I don't give a f**k so long as we win the flag and I will support my team in that in mind for the rest of the year. I would gladly join you and everyone else in eating our hats if Hinkley coaches us to a flag and I will enjoy it no end.

 

[Northalives]

You think it's funny Schulzenfest that Port is a mirror image of the cows do you?

 

[Schulzenfest]

I will continue to go to the footy or watch it on the telli and barrack for Port to win and if we do not win a flag this year, then please join me in all manner of disobedience, if you not what I mean? Pitchforks and torches come to mind but I can't say that on here.

And what 'disobedience' will that be exactly? Making a few angry posts in the internet, renewing your membership anyway, and then getting mad at people in April 2025 for overreacting to just one loss at home against a top 4 side when it's only round 3?

We're already well and truly past the point of 'well let's give them until the end of the year until we get angry'. I'm angry now. We've re-signed Hinkley 4 times for a total of 11 years since we last won a knockout final. They don't get the benefit of the doubt anymore.

 

[Schulzenfest]

You think it's funny Schulzenfest that Port is a mirror image of the cows do you?

I think it's funny that you think our reserves team has even the slightest bit to do with Hinkley's continued employment.

 

[Northalives]

I think it's funny that you think our reserves team has even the slightest bit to do with Hinkley's continued employment.

You just don't get it.

The reason Hinkley is still our coach is because Port Adelaide people have been marginalised at best and thrown away in reality, for an AFL reserves side and because the community of Port Adelaide people are no longer at Alberton, pricks like Koch, Hinkley, Cornes, Richardson and the players can strut around patting each other on the back without being subjected to ferocious anger from real Port Adelaide people for their mediocre displays. There is no f****ng way that Hinkley, or Koch for that matter, would still be at Port if Alberton were still inhabited by the same people, the same type of people who got us into the AFL!

We got into the AFL because we were ruthless and the Port Adelaide hierarchy and players had to answer to the supporters who held the knowledge of success within them. Those people, those communities are no longer heard at Alberton, if they were, Koch, Hinkley and the others would NOT BE THERE!!

The people that run Port now are a f****ng boys network only interested in their own importance and well-being. How the f**k can the Chairman of Port Adelaide get away with saying that Hinkley is a good coach because he has a good "win/loss ratio". I'll tell you how he gets away with it, he is not answerable to the rank and file because he and the short sighted idiots got rid of the rank and file for a f****ng AFL reserves side!

Do you think Bob McLean would have ever said that he appointed a coach because he had a good "win/loss ratio"? If A. R. McLean had ever said such a thing, he would have been strung up by the rank and file! The great Champion Geof Motley was sacked as coach in 1961 for failing to win the Preliminary Final following on from losing the 1960 Preliminary Final. It mattered not a jot that he had led Port to the 1959 Premiership, he failed in 60 & 61 and he was sacked! Now we have some fellow who has been coach for 12 years and not even got us to a Grand Final and the Chairman defends the c***!

This has happened because we allowed spivs and "brand and marketing" ponces to take over the club. These pretentious aresholes reckoned that it was more important to have an AFL reserves side than 144 years of accumulated history and tradition at Alberton.

The c***s of the SANFL made us have a seperate Port Adelaide Magpies in 1977 but come 2010, we were reunified only to have the morons hand back to the the c***s of the SANFL our head on a platter by decommissioning our Magpie base for a f****ng AFL reserves side in 2014!

That catastrophic decision has led to the liquidation of the Port Adelaide ethos which is not just words on a piece of paper, the Port Adelaide ethos was carried by Port Adelaide people who now, very sadly, see their children and their children's children being born in Woodville West Torrens and other filthy club's areas. Port Adelaide traditions and allegiances will be bred out and these suicidal actions have ramifications, one of which is that coaches like Hinkley are reappointed by those that are unworthy of being called Port Adelaide people and who are accountable to no-one but themselves. We, the rank and file are just like chooks being fed scraps by the marketing spivs.

The AFL reserve's side is symptomatic of what a hollow, undisciplined and valueless club we have become. We were never a club that took short cuts, we were never lazy and always stuck to our principles. We threw that all away for a f****ng AFL reserves side and sadly, some people still think that we are the same Port Adelaide Football Club of the early 1990's who forced our way into the AFL replete with our traditions and disciplines. Many of those who still think we are the same club of the 1990's can't figure out how the f**k Hinkley is still coach - it's f****ng sad.

 

[Peninsula Boy]

You just don't get it.

The reason Hinkley is still our coach is because Port Adelaide people have been marginalised at best and thrown away in reality, for an AFL reserves side and because the community of Port Adelaide people are no longer at Alberton, pricks like Koch, Hinkley, Cornes, Richardson and the players can strut around patting each other on the back without being subjected to ferocious anger from real Port Adelaide people for their mediocre displays. There is no f****ng way that Hinkley, or Koch for that matter, would still be at Port if Alberton were still inhabited by the same people, the same type of people who got us into the AFL!

We got into the AFL because we were ruthless and the Port Adelaide hierarchy and players had to answer to the supporters who held the knowledge of success within them. Those people, those communities are no longer heard at Alberton, if they were, Koch, Hinkley and the others would NOT BE THERE!!

The people that run Port now are a f****ng boys network only interested in their own importance and well-being. How the f**k can the Chairman of Port Adelaide get away with saying that Hinkley is a good coach because he has a good "win/loss ratio". I'll tell you how he gets away with it, he is not answerable to the rank and file because he and the short sighted idiots got rid of the rank and file for a f****ng AFL reserves side!

Do you think Bob McLean would have ever said that he appointed a coach because he had a good "win/loss ratio"? If A. R. McLean had ever said such a thing, he would have been strung up by the rank and file! The great Champion Geof Motley was sacked as coach in 1961 for failing to win the Preliminary Final following on from losing the 1960 Preliminary Final. It mattered not a jot that he had led Port to the 1959 Premiership, he failed in 60 & 61 and he was sacked! Now we have some fellow who has been coach for 12 years and not even got us to a Grand Final and the Chairman defends the c***!

This has happened because we allowed spivs and "brand and marketing" ponces to take over the club. These pretentious aresholes reckoned that it was more important to have an AFL reserves side than 144 years of accumulated history and tradition at Alberton.

The c***s of the SANFL made us have a seperate Port Adelaide Magpies in 1977 but come 2010, we were reunified only to have the morons hand back to the the c***s of the SANFL our head on a platter by decommissioning our Magpie base for a f****ng AFL reserves side in 2014!

That catastrophic decision has led to the liquidation of the Port Adelaide ethos which is not just words on a piece of paper, the Port Adelaide ethos was carried by Port Adelaide people who now, very sadly, see their children and their children's children being born in Woodville West Torrens and other filthy club's areas. Port Adelaide traditions and allegiances will be bred out and these suicidal actions have ramifications, one of which is that coaches like Hinkley are reappointed by those that are unworthy of being called Port Adelaide people and who are accountable to no-one but themselves. We, the rank and file are just like chooks being fed scraps by the marketing spivs.

The AFL reserve's side is symptomatic of what a hollow, undisciplined and valueless club we have become. We were never a club that took short cuts, we were never lazy and always stuck to our principles. We threw that all away for a f****ng AFL reserves side and sadly, some people still think that we are the same Port Adelaide Football Club of the early 1990's who forced our way into the AFL replete with our traditions and disciplines. Many of those who still think we are the same club of the 1990's can't figure out how the f**k Hinkley is still coach - it's f****ng sad.

Tredders for Chairman.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

For f**k's sake, I was one of the very few who railed against us burning generations of Port Adelaide supporters by trading them in for a f****ng reserves side for the AFL and warned that such an idiotic move would lead to mediocrity and the majority around here said I and others like me were wrong. Well suck it up!

The lack of traditional Port Adelaide people at the club everyday connected with the Magpies, reserves, under-age sides and all the volunteers, family and friends connected with a CLUB and supported and backed up by generations of Port people in our zones, kept the Port Adelaide traditions and disciplines at the highest level imaginable. Now, we are a f***ing corporate entity, no different to the cows, and we have been reduced to venting our displeasure on sites like Big Footy and on social media instead of at Alberton everyday of the week.

What used to be face-to-face interaction is now gobbledegook in the cybersphere and those corporate f**kwits that run the club are in no way accountable to Port Adelaide people like you and me. They got rid of us as a physical presence at Alberton and now treat us with contempt and we let them do it.

This is the f***ed world we live in now and we made it so by trashing our ideals and principles so now, we have to adapt to the wishes and machinations of the morons and spivs that run the club and those f**k wits appointed Hinkley again. I go to the footy carrying the burden of not having been able to stop the takeover of my club by the short term f***ers but I go and still support my football team and want them to win.

Some of you lot around here really do give the impression that you want us to lose and fail so as to vindicate your abhorrence of Hinkley. I appologise for putting words in your mouthes but that's the way some of you come across.

We have strengthened the areas we were deficient in last year by bringing in good recruits and we have class players all over the ground and this is the best Port Adelaide team for years. I am not a Hinkley fan nor part of his cheer squad but that does not in any way mean that I don't want us to win games of football and NOT win a premiership. We are three games into the season, we lost a game by 7 points and people are already behaving like f***ing soccer pricks - children throwing their toys out of the pram.

Maybe we should have all have fought just a bit harder to retain control of our club and retain our never-ending line of Port supporters by maintaining our zones instead of throwing them all away to create a soft, namby-pamby environment for the AFL squad.

Do you think that for one moment that Hinkley would still be coaching Port if we had our old structures intact? Every day Hinkley, the players and the management of the club would have copped a savaging face-to-face from real, committed, intelligent Port Adelaide people who know what needs to happen to be successful and win flags.

Unfortunately, no amount of vitriol on the web will make one iota of difference to Koch and the others that now run our club. That is not to say we should just shut up and say nothing but what we shouldn't just run around freaking out after three games of a new season like the sky has fallen in.

This is a great post and I agree with a lot of it.

I need to clarify on a couple of points though where I think you misunderstand the posts of myself and others:

1. I want us to win... premierships. That's all I care about. I want Rozee up on the dais celebrating, I want to see JHF take a premiership medal, I want to see Zak Butters or Dan Houston yell something inappropriate in to the mic. Could we win with Hinkley coaching? Sure, its possible, in the same way that the Dees could technically have won one with Neeld, but he is a massive hindrance and makes it incredibly hard as we've seen for 11 years. We need everything to go perfectly and need our on-field leaders to really step up to win one. So to me the clearest path to a flag is step 1: get rid of Hinkley, and step 2: win multiple flags with a better coach. As a result as of right now I find it hard to care about week to week results. I think if we were to miss the 8 this year it might expedite his removal, and in turn our success.

2. If you think people are overreacting to this loss, you simply don't read enough of the threads on here. The things I'm saying now I was saying before the game happened, after the GC and Richmond wins, and for the most part fairly consistently at the very least since the last contract extension was announced (but in reality since 2019). I would be saying the exact same things if we had won, though I probably wouldn't be posting them in here as this thread is now just another testament to the ongoing problems at the club. Nobody is freaking out about winning or losing this game, we are just giving our consistent thoughts on the club after yet another predictable event.

 

[1954]

You just don't get it.

The reason Hinkley is still our coach is because Port Adelaide people have been marginalised at best and thrown away in reality, for an AFL reserves side and because the community of Port Adelaide people are no longer at Alberton, pricks like Koch, Hinkley, Cornes, Richardson and the players can strut around patting each other on the back without being subjected to ferocious anger from real Port Adelaide people for their mediocre displays. There is no f****ng way that Hinkley, or Koch for that matter, would still be at Port if Alberton were still inhabited by the same people, the same type of people who got us into the AFL!

We got into the AFL because we were ruthless and the Port Adelaide hierarchy and players had to answer to the supporters who held the knowledge of success within them. Those people, those communities are no longer heard at Alberton, if they were, Koch, Hinkley and the others would NOT BE THERE!!

The people that run Port now are a f****ng boys network only interested in their own importance and well-being. How the f**k can the Chairman of Port Adelaide get away with saying that Hinkley is a good coach because he has a good "win/loss ratio". I'll tell you how he gets away with it, he is not answerable to the rank and file because he and the short sighted idiots got rid of the rank and file for a f****ng AFL reserves side!

Do you think Bob McLean would have ever said that he appointed a coach because he had a good "win/loss ratio"? If A. R. McLean had ever said such a thing, he would have been strung up by the rank and file! The great Champion Geof Motley was sacked as coach in 1961 for failing to win the Preliminary Final following on from losing the 1960 Preliminary Final. It mattered not a jot that he had led Port to the 1959 Premiership, he failed in 60 & 61 and he was sacked! Now we have some fellow who has been coach for 12 years and not even got us to a Grand Final and the Chairman defends the c***!

This has happened because we allowed spivs and "brand and marketing" ponces to take over the club. These pretentious aresholes reckoned that it was more important to have an AFL reserves side than 144 years of accumulated history and tradition at Alberton.

The c***s of the SANFL made us have a seperate Port Adelaide Magpies in 1977 but come 2010, we were reunified only to have the morons hand back to the the c***s of the SANFL our head on a platter by decommissioning our Magpie base for a f****ng AFL reserves side in 2014!

That catastrophic decision has led to the liquidation of the Port Adelaide ethos which is not just words on a piece of paper, the Port Adelaide ethos was carried by Port Adelaide people who now, very sadly, see their children and their children's children being born in Woodville West Torrens and other filthy club's areas. Port Adelaide traditions and allegiances will be bred out and these suicidal actions have ramifications, one of which is that coaches like Hinkley are reappointed by those that are unworthy of being called Port Adelaide people and who are accountable to no-one but themselves. We, the rank and file are just like chooks being fed scraps by the marketing spivs.

The AFL reserve's side is symptomatic of what a hollow, undisciplined and valueless club we have become. We were never a club that took short cuts, we were never lazy and always stuck to our principles. We threw that all away for a f****ng AFL reserves side and sadly, some people still think that we are the same Port Adelaide Football Club of the early 1990's who forced our way into the AFL replete with our traditions and disciplines. Many of those who still think we are the same club of the 1990's can't figure out how the f**k Hinkley is still coach - it's f****ng sad.

I couldn't agree more with the club reaming itself with `One Club', we gave up way too much for what we got in return.

There was absolutely no doubt the original system needed serious refinement but we won our so far only AFL flag under that system, and giving up what was regarded as the best country zone in Australia (by eg Kevin Sheedy), which was then given by the sanfl to flipping norwood , and kids born in Queen Street Alberton and other strong Port Adelaide areas, and including the sons of former players now being zoned to wwt is an absolute joke.

The `unbeatable at Alberton' sign on the players' race is also a joke, the remnants of the Magpies with their 6 or 7 top ups, most of whom couldn't get a gig with other club's reserve's teams now gets smashed there regularly by clubs who would have been lucky to win one game there every 10 years, and on the odd occasion we unearth a diamond in the rough clubs like sturt, glenelg and norwood can poach them with offers that are much higher than Port are allowed to pay them.

I don't know if this is correct but it wouldn't surprise me greatly if it is, a mate told me south have won more games at Alberton since the formation of One Club than they did in the previous 50 odd years.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

A premiership was non negotiable in 2015.

Here we are a full 10 seasons later having won just 2 finals in that time, just having lost in a the most classic Hinkley way possible by dominating I50s and failing to put it on the scoreboard, and you're telling us we're being ridiculous for having developed pattern recognition. The argument you're making here was made by many in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

Unless you're expecting some sort of mass illness/injury/scandal that sees most of the teams unable to field players, we aren't winning a flag with Hinkley as coach. What more evidence could you possibly need?

Ok I think that's going a little too far.

We'd built a paper thin list on the back of 2013 and 2014.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Ok I think that's going a little too far.

We'd built a paper thin list on the back of 2013 and 2014.

If you can be a kick away from a prelim in 2014 and then add one of the best ruckmen in the league and having no significant players leave, you can win a flag in 2015. Any other opinion is loser talk.

A premiership is non negotiable every season, but it's especially non negotiable in seasons like 2015, 2018 and 2021 where you've built up and gone all in with experienced recruits.

 

[Duck Farmer]

Unless you're expecting some sort of mass illness/injury/scandal that sees most of the teams unable to field players, we aren't winning a flag with Hinkley as coach.

I can see the headline now:

Power Shocked in Home Preliminary Final as SUNS Top Ups Shine after Coolangatta Air Disaster

 

[Bump Bailey]

I couldn't agree more with the club reaming itself with `One Club', we gave up way too much for what we got in return.

There was absolutely no doubt the original system needed serious refinement but we won our so far only AFL flag under that system, and giving up what was regarded as the best country zone in Australia (by eg Kevin Sheedy), which was then given by the sanfl to *ing norwood , and kids born in Queen Street Alberton and other strong Port Adelaide areas, and including the sons of former players now being zoned to wwt is an absolute joke.

The `unbeatable at Alberton' sign on the players' race is also a joke, the remnants of the Magpies with their 6 or 7 top ups, most of whom couldn't get a gig with other club's reserve's teams now gets smashed there regularly by clubs who would have been lucky to win one game there every 10 years, and on the odd occasion we unearth a diamond in the rough clubs like sturt, glenelg and norwood can poach them with offers that are much higher than Port are allowed to pay them.

I don't know if this is correct but it wouldn't surprise me greatly if it is, a mate told me south have won more games at Alberton since the formation of One Club than they did in the previous 50 odd years.

Great post. We sold our soul end of 2013 to get the reserves alignment, and now we're just another plastic expansion franchise fooling itself into thinking we're something else, because we bring out a former Magpies player to kick the first goal every now and then.

Our board, exec and media department flaunt and ride the coattails of history that doesn't belong to them and they don't deserve - history that was earned by those who adopted an ethos and expectation that has nothing in keeping with the way the current custodians administer the club - in fact they willingly desecrate it.

Surely there had to be a middle ground or compromise that could be found before agreeing to give away our metro/country zones and juniors that had been the veins and lifeblood of the club. Although I don't have any suggestions for what that compromise could or should have been, which I realise isn't very helpful.

The fact you can't grow up in Port Adelaide now and realistically hope to represent your local club through the ranks from juniors to the highest level in the land, other than being fortuitously plucked in a 1-in-100 draft, to me totally defeats the purpose of what the whole thing should be about, and what we claim to represent.

Sure "We Are Port Adelaide", but you could honestly pick us up and plonk us down anywhere now, because the roots are gone.

Yep, we are no longer a big fish in a small pond and instead compete in the highest competition in the land. Brilliant. It's what we wanted. But let's not pretend the cost hasn't been enormous to our identity, fabric and heritage.

With our SANFL presence now an embarrassment, and soon to be mothballed anyway, that leaves us with what to show for 150+ years of history?

A mediocre AFL team that doesn't win premierships, an AFLW team, and a nice new building.

What even are we?

 

[tribey]

If you can be a kick away from a prelim in 2014 and then add one of the best ruckmen in the league and having no significant players leave, you can win a flag in 2015. Any other opinion is loser talk.

A premiership is non negotiable every season, but it's especially non negotiable in seasons like 2015, 2018 and 2021 where you've built up and gone all in with experienced recruits.

Yeah, there seems to be a natural propensity to downgrade the list based on hindsight.

But at the time Boak, Gray and Wingard were bonafide superstars of the comp.

Baby Wines had just come off putting up 25 & 3 going head to head against Nat Fyfe in a cutthroat final.

Ebert, Hartlett and Polec were as good a second string midfield as anyone (with Sam Gray capable of doing his month-long Lachie Neale impression during the team’s late season peak).

Schulz, Westhoff, Monfries (and Wingard, Gray) were capable of kicking a winning score against anyone.

Carlile, Trengove, Jonas and Hombsch were as capable a defensive quartet as anyone, with Broadbent being seen as an elite halfback flanker, making Mike Sheahan’s Top 50. Pittard and O’Shea were still more than capable of good performances as intercept-rebounders.

Ryder and Lobbe were as strong a ruck tandem as anyone.

And to a man it was considered that their best footy was in front of all of them.

 

[Powerade 08]

That all sounds very good but im still not sure how having zones would help us win more games in the AFL competition.

If you think giving the players 'feedback' will help, Lachie Jones will be at a sausage sizzle at Findon on Saturday. But I don't think it will help

 

[Doctor Feel]

You guys are all vastly underestimating our secret weapon.

The WooHoo Co!

 

[EskimoPAFC]

Yeah, there seems to be a natural propensity to downgrade the list based on hindsight.

But at the time Boak, Gray and Wingard were bonafide superstars of the comp.

Baby Wines had just come off putting up 25 & 3 going head to head against Nat Fyfe in a cutthroat final.

Ebert, Hartlett and Polec were as good a second string midfield as anyone (with Sam Gray capable of doing his month-long Lachie Neale impression during the team’s late season peak).

Schulz, Westhoff, Monfries (and Wingard, Gray) were capable of kicking a winning score against anyone.

Carlile, Trengove, Jonas and Hombsch were as capable a defensive quartet as anyone, with Broadbent being seen as an elite halfback flanker, making Mike Sheahan’s Top 50. Pittard and O’Shea were still more than capable of good performances as intercept-rebounders.

Ryder and Lobbe were as strong a ruck tandem as anyone.

And to a man it was considered that their best footy was in front of all of them.

We can't forget that it was also the year where Kane Cornes deserted a list spot mid-season to go do some fireman cosplay. If Willem Drew was to walk out now we would struggle.

I'm not questioning whether we were capable of winning a flag in that year, I'm questioning whether winning the flag that year was a "non-negotiable", and whether Ken should have been sacked that season, without the benefit of hindsight. I think that takes it too far.