At Port Adelaide, we never truly reach the end. As the Creed says, “we do not intend to rest in idleness but shall strive with all our power to further this club’s unexcelled achievements.” That means we are always chasing more, more improvement, more success, more premierships.
But to begin that journey, you must know where you’re going. We need to have the end in mind. Not to “stop, stop, stop when were top, top top” (that line is a discussion for another article) but to regain our mantle as the most successful football club in the country, and then work to stay there.
The next destination? Not a “winning season”, not top 4, not a grand final, not even a single flag. Not a fluke. Not a one-off. Not a “we made a Prelim, isn’t that enough?” No.
The benchmark for true AFL success — Brisbane, Hawthorn, Richmond — is sustained, repeatable winning. That’s what we expect. That’s what we want. And that’s what we demand.
Once we reach that? We go again. We make it a habit.
To do that, there’s work to do. A lot of it. It needs to be structural change that focuses on and sets the club up for success, and it needs to culminate in results. It goes far beyond just changing the coach. It starts with five key markers, the five things the members want to see to turn this club into what it was always meant to be.
The Club Ethos
Everyone’s talking about when Josh Carr will replace Ken Hinkley, will it be in the coming weeks, or not until season’s end? But while the timing matters, the bigger issue is what kind of club Carr will be walking into.
Changing the coach is necessary, but it’s not enough. Not unless the environment around the coach is one that expects greatness, demands standards, and backs him with the right people. If we hand Carr the reins but keep everything else the same, we’re not building success, we’re just changing the paint job on a car with no engine.
Surround Carr with Winners
Josh Carr’s a proud Port Adelaide man. He knows what success looks like, he lived it. But no coach can do it alone.
We need to bring in assistant coaches who have walked the premiership path, preferably more than once. People who’ve seen it, shaped it, delivered it. From the best systems, Richmond, Geelong, Brisbane, Hawthorn. Winners.
Port Adelaide used to have a ruthless edge about getting the best. It didn’t matter where they came from, or whether they had been moulded from the inside, what mattered is that they were here to win. Let’s get back to that again.
A Member Controlled Board
We want our club back. Simple as that.
It’s time for a Board structure where the majority of directors are elected by the members, not appointed behind closed doors by the faceless men at the AFL. We outlined exactly how that could work in this article. This isn’t about nostalgia — it’s about accountability.
A Board that answers to the members will build a club that reflects member values. And our values are simple: success on the field comes first.
A Football-First President
With a member controlled board, we can have the kind of President this club needs and hold them accountable to the wishes of the members. We can vote for someone who sees premierships as the primary goal, not surpluses. This doesn’t necessarily mean someone different, it might still be Koch but with an added level of accountability to the results, surrounded by the right people.
The finances matter, of course, but only as fuel for football success. A President who gets that is essential. Because when your President thinks like a football person, the whole club starts to look and feel like one again.
A Football-First Football Committee
Right now, we’ve got two premiership greats (Warren Tredrea and George Fiacchi) sitting on the Football Committee. And they’re outnumbered. That needs to change.
We want a Football Committee and Head of Football dominated by people who have been there and done it. People who know what real standards look like. People who won’t accept mediocrity and don’t confuse effort with achievement.
This isn’t a community club. It’s a premiership club. Let’s run it like one.
Three Flags in a Decade
Results are what matters at Port Adelaide, not hopes, not dreams, not aspirations. Those are important but only to the degree they pay a role in achieving the results. We’re not chasing dreams. We’re chasing standards. Brisbane. Hawthorn. Richmond. Three premierships in ten years. That’s not mythology, it’s not an unrealistic expectation based on past SANFL success. It’s the proven standard of sustained AFL success. It is what the best run clubs do.
And once we reach that, we go again. Because the end in mind isn’t a finish line. It’s the next line. Then the one after that.
We don’t just want to win. We want to build a system that wins over and over again. Like Hawthorn claiming at least one AFL premiership in every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s, including four flags in the ’80s and a three-peat in the 2010s, proof of a club built for sustained success. That’s the benchmark beat to be the most successful club in Australia again.
Not a flash in the pan. Not a one-off underdog story. But a club that expects to be there every September, every year. To finish with the cup in hand.
We are told we “exist to win premierships.” That’s the line that unites us. That’s what brings 50,000 people to Adelaide Oval and countless more to the fence at Alberton.
The members never forgot that. Now it’s time the club remembered too.
We’re not asking for miracles. We’re asking to meet real world standards. And we’re ready to build them.
With the end in mind, and multiple flags in sight.
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