Rucci confirms what we all know

[bomberclifford]

That's because it was a stupif ruling in 1997 and an even more ridiculous attitude in 2009. Any fan of any allegedly modernprofessional National competition anywhere in the world understands a) the need to connect with it's fanbase b) the need to stay with some tradition and c) occasionally there is a need to use alternate strips.

The puzzling thing is I have never heard once of a PAFC admin or fan (other than tongue in cheek) state that PAFC should wear it's PB's against Collingwood, there is an acceptance there. Altho' IMO it could be done if Collingwood tweaked their 'white' guernesy a little. only a fool would say that the PB's would somehow dilute Collingwood's brand.

PAFC are at a mini crossroad. Altho' we can wind up the 1870 thing for sake of rivalry the reality is PAFC need to be PAFC.

Would PAFC wearing PB's alienate some fans? Maybe

The real question is; would PAFC wearing PB's bring back more fans than it alienates and therefore end up a positive? IMO yes.

Port have created a new tradition with it's entry guernsey and it was worn on premiership day of course, but you play 12 games @ AAMI every year. 6 in new, 6 in PB's? PAFC could pick the 2 Showdowns and 4 big Vic Clubs to wear the PB's against in any year. Importantly they could be sold, how much money could be made from selling them?

I petitioned my Club to strike up a "Port to wear PB's in Showdowns" campaign. The Club wanted ideas as to why these games have slipped and I refuse to believe it's because the fans can't sit together. I'd love to see AFC play the PB's and I presume vice versa. Twice a year the gurnseys can be reprinted witha Showdown logo and sold, we all have to see Anzac and Dreamtime logos, give the SA clubs the same opportunity.

Small steps, allow PAFC to wear it twice a year in Showdowns and then work from there. Email the club and ask them to raise it, if enough fans from both sides make both Clubs think about it and petition it, how could the AFL say no?

Good post.

I think the next logical step would be a campaign to wear it in Showdowns but I'd suggest that would be the extent of it, other than the occasional heritage fixture.

As for our current guernsey: I like it and I think we need to be careful not to "throw the baby out wit the bathwater". The club has had amazing success in their AFL colours and this needs to be maintained.

Having said that, regardless of us being able to wear the guernsey in the AFL, I cannot understand why we are unable to sell them as merchandise. (well, apart from the agreement JJ brokered so we could wear it in heritage round against the Bulldogs in '06)

 

[aneale]

Good post.

As for our current guernsey: I like it and I think we need to be careful not to "throw the baby out wit the bathwater". The club has had amazing success in their AFL colours and this needs to be maintained.

I agree, the current 'home' jumper should stay and be used more often interstate TBH. Why it wasn't worn against WCE and Hawthorn is anyone's guess - neither were a clash and it was my understanding was that the white jumper was to be a clash jumper and not an away jumper.

Roughly done, but you could add some teal into a more traditional guernsey.

whatever the design tho', enough is enough. If Port, or any club for that matter wants to wear their traditional guernseys and there is no clash in the immediate game they are playing then there is no issue that the AFL should take with it regardless of what Collingwood think.

 

[nintiwirri]

I am a non Port Magpie fan and I follow the Power because I have always followed the PAFC.

Amen to that Brother

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I petitioned my Club to strike up a "Port to wear PB's in Showdowns" campaign. The Club wanted ideas as to why these games have slipped and I refuse to believe it's because the fans can't sit together. I'd love to see AFC play the PB's and I presume vice versa. Twice a year the gurnseys can be reprinted witha Showdown logo and sold, we all have to see Anzac and Dreamtime logos, give the SA clubs the same opportunity.

Small steps, allow PAFC to wear it twice a year in Showdowns and then work from there. Email the club and ask them to raise it, if enough fans from both sides make both Clubs think about it and petition it, how could the AFL say no?

Great suggestion aneale. If the SANFL really wanted to help Port out without having to hand over any cash to us, they should push for this idea and tell the AFL to let us market the guernsey how ever we want to, not this crap that we can only sell the PB guernseys worn by the players in the hertitage game. That way it fires up the SA public once again about showdowns and it might mean we get 35k to 40k of our supporters to a home showdown, before you add the crowies who attend, as plenty more of our fans will come along the first few times just to see us play in PB. We could sell 5,000 @ $100 average selling price and net $40 per guernsey. That's $200k profit the SANFL wouldn't have to give this year in a handout. Its a totally SA event so Collingwood can get stuffed.

 

[tribey]

Roughly done, but you could add some teal into a more traditional guernsey.

I am against any teal WP/PB variant, but if you need a back for that guernsey it's one we've already worn:

 

[PowerForGood]

I ran a thread a couple of years ago about this issue, support from non Power/Crows/Magpies supporters (for obvious reasons) ran at over 90%.

And as for showdowns, if the Crows supported us publicly on this issue, I'd almost be inclined to let them wear the SANFL state guernsey (even though the Crows are NOT a state representative team).

Anyone want to venture over to the Crows board with this idea, I reckon they'd jump at it.

 

[aneale]

I ran a thread a couple of years ago about this issue, support from non Power/Crows/Magpies supporters (for obvious reasons) ran at over 90%.

And as for showdowns, if the Crows supported us publicly on this issue, I'd almost be inclined to let them wear the SANFL state guernsey (even though the Crows are NOT a state representative team).

Anyone want to venture over to the Crows board with this idea, I reckon they'd jump at it.

I'd happily see you in PB's but i'd draw the line at us in a State jumper. It's just not the done thing. I wasn't that impressed with the yellow one we wore but it was at least relatiely unknown. I'd be dead against any crimson jumper.

As an aside it's about time the SANFL named a SOO team every year and presented guernseys out, they may never play but we should continue naming the team.

 

[tribey]

I'd happily see you in PB's but i'd draw the line at us in a State jumper. It's just not the done thing. I wasn't that impressed with the yellow one we wore but it was at least relatiely unknown. I'd be dead against any crimson jumper.

I liked the yellow guernsey cause it was sufficiently modified rather than a dead-on replica, but yeah. The SA state guernsey is an honour earned above and beyond league football, both for SANFL league players and Origin players.

WA wearing the state gold with black sash replica was a disgrace which was only further highlighted by its defeat to 'Fitzroy'.

As an aside it's about time the SANFL named a SOO team every year and presented guernseys out, they may never play but we should continue naming the team.

The WAFL/WAFC have been doing this for awhile now. I remember seeing a news item where players attended a dinner and were presented with framed state guernseys. Cassisi and van Berlo are two that have one on their wall. (Edit - found a link).

I know there was a state side selected by Rucci, Cornes, Kerley and a couple of others last year that received some press but I'm not sure how official it was - I remember because it still sticks in my craw they named Ottens (who had kicked 5 goals upto that point) at FF over Tredrea (who had 22 and while not too flash, was easily the second best SA KPF behind Pavlich).

 

[Ford Fairlane]

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Ally this to some of the comments in Advertiser opinion writer, card-carrying crowie and dyed in the wool Sturt supporter, David Penberthy's column today:

People like me, who hate Port, wish deep down that they barracked for Port. This is because there's something thrillingly defiant about embracing an organisation that's so loathed by the rest of civil society.

It's almost like joining a biker gang - becoming a "one percenter" as described by Hunter S Thompson, the one percent "who don't fit and don't care".

The thing which this outlaw sensibility delivers is an inordinate level of self-belief - whereby a united and marginalised outfit can turn the collective chip on its shoulder into the basis for extraordinary deeds.

Now admittedly this does spike at a certain level of hyperbole, and there are a couple of (not quoted here) comments that while dismissed as tongue-in-cheek are a little unsavoury. But at least it's a different view to that espoused by the Masters of Bland, Cornes and Rowe who would have us become another faceless corporate entity.

Or as Penberthy described his crows defeat at the hands of Brisbane a "simpering, handbag swinging, two hours of our lives we'll never get back capitulation at the Gabba." He writes disdainfully of the crows rationalising its defeat via Twitter, something he says Port would not accept, suggesting it "may be the result of being a made-up team as opposed to one with almost 140 years of tradition".

He lauds Choco for sticking it up the major sponsor on the victory dais of the 2004 Premiership.

It was a terrific demonstration of the club's culture, the coach's seething anger at being run down by his own sponsor, and the sheer thrill of sticking it right up him on Australia's greatest sporting stage.

This is our Trump-like brand - ok, perhaps a little over-emphasised - but there would be many more like him that see Port in this vein, and secretly want to be part of Australia's greatest football club.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The author of that piece, David Penberthy, was editor of Sydney's Daily Telegraph between 2005 and late 2008. He does something in News Ltd group now, but I'm not sure what exactly.

He made Australia's most tabloid capital city newspaper even more so, during his time in charge. There's a touch of the tabloid in that article.

His article was a good read (it's scanned onto a thread on TPFP) and gets to the heart of what being a footy supporter is all about.

 

[Powerstufff]

There's a lesson to be learned ....

Take a bow for the whole post FF, very well done.

 

[Papa G]

Journalist admits what we've always known...

Article from last Friday's Tiser, which loses a little after Sunday's capitulation, as well as the fact currently our club fails to live up to a lot of the time, but the central point is what we've always known.


By DAVID PENBERTHY
May 22, 2009 12:00am
MICHELANGELO Rucci doesn't know this and because he resides up the back of the newspaper he will probably never find out. But for years I've fantasised about slipping some kind of stupefying drug into his fettucine carbonara so that I can oust him as Chief Football Writer.And today, because its my 40th birthday and I've always wanted to write about Aussie Rules, I'm going to give it a red-hot go. I won't pretend to write about technical stuff.
I still tend to view football through the prism of the Sturt sides of the late 1970s. Often while watching a game I'll find myself declaring that Jim Derrington is still a better player than Brendan Fevola, that Jonathan Brown might be OK but is clearly no Colin Casey, or that Michael "Flash " Graham is twice as fast as Leon Davis.
Sometimes I'll simply ask aloud: What would Rick "Jumbo Prince" Davies have done in that situation? It's a question we should also ask ourselves when not watching the football.
As a supporter of the peace-loving and gentlemanly Double Blues, it logically follows that I have a pathological hatred of Port Adelaide. Much of this comes from being exposed at a tender age to the truly horrifying Port sides of the 1970s.
We'd get along to Unley with the thermos and Grandma's crocheted knee rug to find that Sturt were playing a death squad from El Salvador.
By quarter time, Dave Granger would have pulled somebody's spine out and run off looking for someone to whip, Tim Ginever would have been reported for smuggling a power tool on to the ground, and Bomber Clifford would have eaten most of our interchange bench.
Then there were the fans. Most had escaped from prison, some were still armed, and they would stand on the northwestern concourse crushing cans of Export on each others' heads and throwing punches, pasties and dead cats at passers-by.
And that was just the ladies.
OK, OK, enough. I withdraw all of the above. The actual point of this column is about club culture and club identity.
Perhaps it's a result of new-found wisdom after four decades on this earth but I've come to a somewhat crushing realisation, and it's this.
People like me, who hate Port, wish deep down that they barracked for Port. This is because there's something thrillingly defiant about embracing an organisation that's so loathed by the rest of civil society.
It's almost like joining a biker gang - becoming a "one per center", as described by Hunter S. Thompson, the one per cent "who don't fit and don't care".
The thing which this outlaw sensibility delivers is an inordinate level of self-belief - whereby a united and marginalised outfit can turn the collective chip on its shoulder into the basis for extraordinary deeds.
This is what made the Port sides of the 1970s and 1980s so terrifying - it wasn't just Grave Danger's ultra-violence, but the fact that the Maggies could be six goals down at three-quarter time and get home by 23 points.
I have been thinking about that a lot this past week because the other night I received an offensive message, sadly not from a chick, but the Adelaide Football Club, the team I support in the AFL, and which I also follow on the social media site Twitter.
The Adelaide Football Club's twitter feed sends messages to your computer and mobile, keeping you abreast of all the latest AFL and Crows-related news.
After the Crows simpering, handbag-swinging, two-hours-of-our-lives-we'll-never-get-back capitulation at the Gabba, this was the tweet sent by the AFC: "Crows have gone down to the Brisbane Lions by 36 points despite a strong start at the Gabba on Saturday night."
The message could be given a more accurate and spirited rendering: "Crows blow massive lead after lazily assuming they had game won in 2nd term." Or: "Crows launch international manhunt for forward line" Or: "Crows look to rebuild for 2010."
Instead, the message was underpinned by the one thing which all crap sporting clubs have in common - and which you would never hear from a club like Port - a sense of rationalisation.
I mean, the boys did pretty well. Gee it was a strong start - winning's never easy at the Gabba - and they've done so well on the road this year - it was a pity they didn't go on with it.
THIS points to a culture of ambivalence, which may be the result of being a made-up team as opposed to one with almost 140 years of tradition.
It also points to a lack of passion. Every year here in Sydney there's the same debate ahead of Rugby League's State of Origin, where NSW insists that the Queenslanders don't have a monopoly on passion, despite the fact that the Sunshine State (as with SA's fleecing by the VFL) was pillaged for years by NSW Rugby League, but kept out of the first-grade competition.
And over the past few years Queensland has shown that it does have a monopoly on passion by smashing NSW and playing with more spirit, unity and purpose than the soulless NSW Blues.
Indignation and marginalisation are a great driver.
For me, the defining moment of the modern Port Adelaide Football Club was that Mark Williams, even upon winning the premiership, used the immediate afterglow of victory to tell Allan Scott to get stuffed.
Good for him. It was a terrific demonstration of the club's culture, the coach's seething anger at being run down even by his own sponsor, and the sheer thrill of sticking it right up him on Australia's greatest sporting stage.
In its current incarnation, the club I support is in no danger of having to prepare any victory speeches, inflammatory or otherwise.
My bet today is that when I write a column on my 80th birthday the Power will have won more premierships than the Crows because they are united in their sense of persecution, rather than heartened that the game was at least played in the right spirit and they were competitive for a while.
Anyway Rucci - back to you now, mate, it's probably best if we leave the readers in the hands of the professionals.
I'll be back in four decades with my second AFL column, which is tentatively titled: "Never Forget: The 1978 Grand Final and the case for having umpire Des Foster tried for crimes against humanity".
* penberthyd@theadvertiser.com.au

 

[aflgal]

How funny, my thoughts too. I will never barrack for Port Adelaide in the SANFL- I hate them- I am a Sturt person too!!!, BUT as I tell my friends in the AFL "At least Port Adelaide is a real club". Not like that amorphous bunch of cobbled-together groups known as the Crows- who I didn't support at all- the whole saga was a complete schmozzle back in the 1990's. It's old hat now.
I really think it is time for some fresh blood in the SANFL and Crows- how long have those same men been involved in footy? Since 1950? Same old same old...
I reckon if you ask uncommitted kids 8-16 who thye'd rather barrack for in AFL, they would say Port. Crows supporters are a bunch of old ladies and men- they are too faceless/"white bread"

 

[Steve Dore]

... I will never barrack for Port Adelaide in the SANFL .......

Well even if you wanted to you missed the boat by 12 years

 

[Andre]

Unfortunately we rationalise with the best of them.

I want straight talking - that's followed by action. When we're shit, say we we were shit and drop some players. Sure we can't have a Grave Danger player these days, but the fans are the only part of the club acting anything like the best parts of the 70's and 80's. Unfortunately.

 

[aflgal]

Hee hee touche!
I remember the great days when SANFL had 10 teams- all those Sturt v Port tussles (and lots of punches thrown at our "gentlemen" by you lot!)- but it was all good fun and really exciting to us little kids!
Off topic I know but gee I'd love to see a team in the SANFL from the NT

 

[Steve Dore]

Hee hee touche!
I remember the great days when SANFL had 10 teams- all those Sturt v Port tussles (and lots of punches thrown at our "gentlemen" by you lot!)- but it was all good fun and really exciting to us little kids! ......

As a youngster in the early sixities I developed a healthy dislike for Sturt

 

[240volt]

As a youngster in the early sixities I developed a healthy dislike for Sturt

I had the same dislike but those towering torps from the half forward flank at adelaide oval by Diamond Jim Tilbrook will live in my memories forever.