There seems to be a lot of confusion from those who don’t like Port and those over the border (deliberate or otherwise) about the meaning of the Never Tear Us Apart song and why it resonates so strongly with the Port Adelaide faithful. For Port members though it is clear and just as relevant as ever.
The singing of the song began in March 2014 and was quickly embraced by the Port faithful, celebrating their club’s reunification and revival under President David Koch and coach Ken Hinkley.
It resonated with a fan base that had seen their club divided in numerous ways. There had been the board room divide when they had been forced to create a separate and distinct Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club (with CEO Mathew Richardson declaring that club the ‘real Port Adelaide’). There had been the physical divide with the PAMFC being relocated to Ethelton. There was the fans divide with a small minority of members choosing to stick with their pre-existing AFL club rather than follow Port into the AFL. There was a divide from the members with the board now controlled by the SANFL. There was the divide from their roots with the club wanting to focus nationally and distance itself from its Alberton postcode. There was the divide from the famous black and white prison bars with the club striving to create a new identity and prioritise a new colour (teal).
Along came club greats George Fiachi and Tim Ginever helping to reunite the two clubs back into one, a new administration who wanted to reconnect with its Alberton postcode and it’s creed and a new coach who wanted to reconnect with the clubs famous accountability with phrases like “you get what you deserve”. Hope was springing eternal that the club could reunite and once again become the force that it once was. And so the members held up their scarves and sang. “They will never tear us apart”!
They sing to “never tear US apart” from…
Our Alberton roots
Our traditions (like the captain wearing #1 and the prison bars)
Our ethos (best exemplified by the creed)
Our ability to direct the future of our club (as they had with the one club movement)
Our relentless desire for success
And the leaders, administrators and players of the club who upheld these things that they valued the most.
Anyone willing to uphold these values, regardless of their background, will always be considered one of “US” at Alberton.
They did not sing for those who “breed an atmosphere of non-professionalism”, those who are “there for the bloody joke, for the social life, for the prestige”. Those they desire to be “weeded out”, using any tool the membership have available to them to make change (which are few and far between), before they have yet another opportunity to try and “tear us apart”.
Leave a Reply