A couple of announcements in the last week have reflected well on the Club as it endeavours to “Live the Creed”.
The push to move beyond the SANFL into the VFL (and create the best available model for premiership success in the highest league possible) and the signing of a new partner in UnionPay were both great examples of a club that does “not intend to rest in idleness”, for wildly different reasons.
Fos Wiliams famously said that “we shall henceforth aim to play in the best league possible” decades before a move to the then VFL (now AFL) was floated. It is the Port Adelaide way. To strive for greatness, to desire to compete against the best and to “expect to win” against the best. The SANFL, a competition where teams (and indeed the league) have at times been perceived as thwarting Port at every available opportunity, in a misguided attempt to get revenge for old wounds, is no longer in alignment with this vision. Moving on from this myopic league is just a further extension of this ethos. The time has come for Port to move beyond these suburban roadblocks as they continue to chase the ultimate glory in an AFL flag.
Some claim that this would be Port Adelaide “losing its proud history” but this proud history should never be lost. And so long as it is remembered, learnt from and respected it never will be. Port will always have a proud history of unparalleled SANFL success (including National Championship glory) from an era when SANFL success really meant something. To be the only non-Victorian club based side to elevate out of their state league to the national Competition should also always be a source of pride. The lessons learnt from those custodians of the club who were “aggressive and devoted to this cause” should never be forgotten, especially as we move to the VFL and endeavour to recognise as much of our proud history (and guernsey) as possible. Doing so will not be Port Adelaide “losing” its proud history, rather it will be Port remembering, honouring and adding to “this club’s enviable tradition”. Proud of the past, confident of the future!
In a similar vein, the club signing UnionPay to sit alongside MG and Shanghai Cred as financial partners of the Port Adelaide Football Club is another shining example of that proud history of “not resting in idleness” and striving for greatness. Whilst external circumstances may have stalled the on field exploits of the PAFC in China, the fruits of the vision that was seen from those custodians (both inside and outside of the four walls at Alberton) who looked beyond the 5014 postcode, are still being harvested in 2024 and beyond. These partnerships will help further secure the club financially in troubling financial times, helping them further reduce their debt (already reduced by $2.5 million in 2023) and hopefully finally helping to remove the perceived spending and governance limits that have hung over the club and are seen as another potential barrier to the on field success that the club craves.
Port has long been a club big on ambition and not scared to make the brave and tough decisions to see those ambitions fulfilled. Long may this continue both on and off the field.
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