It’s The Constitution

“It’s the vibe… and, ah, no, that’s it. It’s the vibe. I rest my case.” – Dennis Denuto

At Port Adelaide right now, everyone’s talking about the vibe. Move on Ken Hinkley. Pension off the unelected (by the members) president David Koch. Resist the unwanted (by many members) Cos Cardone from sliding into the presidency. It’s easy to point at the personalities and imagine that changing them will change everything.

But here’s the reality: you can roll every head in the boardroom and still be left with the same problem, because the problem isn’t the people. It’s the Constitution.

Under the current structure, the majority of the Port Adelaide board is appointed by the AFL, not elected by the members. The very people who pay their membership, who fill the stands in the rain, who pass down the creed from one generation to the next, they don’t get to choose the majority of their leaders. And worse, they have no mechanism to remove them when they fail. 

This is not proper governance. In any healthy, accountable organisation, the leadership answers directly to its members or shareholders. That’s how you align decision-making with the values, ambitions, and priorities of the people who actually own the jumper. Instead, Port’s leadership answers to an external governing body whose priorities are not necessarily Port Adelaide’s priorities.

History shows us what works. In the AFL era, the most successful clubs, the ones with consistent premiership contention and strong cultures,  are overwhelmingly member-controlled. They live and die by their members’ trust, and that trust is earned through transparency, responsiveness, and a shared commitment to the club’s stated purpose. Those clubs have boards that fear their members in the best possible way, because they know if they don’t deliver, they can be voted out.

That’s real accountability. That’s real democracy.

And that’s exactly what Port Adelaide is missing.

Our creed says: We exist to win premierships. Our history says we do whatever it takes to be the best. But our current governance says we exist to serve the AFL’s agenda first and the members second. That is why decisions are made that defy the club’s ethos. That is why year after year, mediocrity is tolerated. And that is why replacing one coach or one president or one heir-apparent won’t fix anything.

Until we have a constitution that gives the members control over the majority of the board,  with the power to hire and fire their leaders, we will remain passengers on someone else’s ship. Our colours, our creed, our identity may be on the sail, but someone else is at the wheel.

The solution is not in the vibe. It’s in the vote. And until Port Adelaide members fight for it, we’ll be stuck playing by someone else’s rules, chasing someone else’s definition of success, and wondering why “we exist to win premierships” has become more slogan than standard.

This is not a fight about one season, one coach, or one president. It’s about whether Port Adelaide is a football club or a franchise in someone else’s portfolio.

If we truly believe in the creed, then we must demand the structures that give us the best chance to live it. That means constitutional reform, and it has to start NOW.

If we want to take advantage of the clause in the Adelaide Crows constitution that allows them to regain control of their club in 2028 (one we failed to have entered into ours), then the campaign must start NOW. 

We need a board elected by, and accountable to, the members. We need the power to choose our leaders, the power to remove them when they fail, and the power to set the direction of our club without AFL interference. Otherwise we risk ending up right back where we started at some point in the future (no matter how good the current replacements are).

This is how the most successful clubs in the competition operate, and it is how Port Adelaide operated for most of its proud history. We didn’t wait for someone else to hand us success. We built it ourselves.

It’s time to bring that spirit back. The members must stand together, organise, and push for change. Petitions, motions, public pressure, whatever it takes. Because if we don’t fight for the vote, then we can’t complain about the people in power.

If the creed still means anything, then this is the premiership we have to win first.