The Best Chance Of National Success

News that Port Adelaide Football Club plans to leave the SANFL sent shockwaves through South Australian football, though if we are honest with ourselves, the writing has been on the wall for years. Port Adelaide Chief Executive Matthew Richardson confirmed that once our current Adelaide Oval licence agreement finishes at the end of 2028, the Port Adelaide Football Club will leave the SANFL.

The immediate reaction from traditionalists is a lump in the throat. Leaving the state league where we were a foundation member in 1877 and where we lifted 36 premiership trophies feels like tearing out a core chapter of our history. But if you look at this decision through the lens of what this football club actually stands for, it is the only move to make.

As club legend Fos Williams famously enshrined, our purpose isn’t just to participate or settle for comfort. The aim of the Port Adelaide Football Club has always been to compete against the best, beat the best, and win premierships.

Speaking on SEN, CEO Matthew Richardson laid out the reality facing our football department:

“Clearly, for us, we need to make sure that that program is giving us the best chance to develop our AFL players in the best capacity. Right now, as it is, it is not… We won’t be in the SANFL beyond [2028].”

Chairman David Koch echoed the core issue:

“We need to be in the best second tier competition which allows us to develop our players.”

Richardson noted that the current standard is not serving our kids, but we politely disagree with the characterisation that the SANFL competition itself is “not strong enough.” The SANFL remains a fierce, high-quality state league with proud, standalone clubs. In fact, Port winning two of the last three SANFL wooden spoons isn’t evidence that the league is weak; it’s evidence of how severely compromised our secondary team has become under the system. The problem isn’t the strength of the SANFL; the problem is the artificial handbrakes applied strictly to us and the Crows.

When our developing players step onto the field in the SANFL, they do not play on an even playing field:

• Top-Up and List Restrictions: We are severely restricted in the quality of non-AFL listed experienced footballers we can field to surround, guide, and protect our young talent.
• The Injury Double-Whammy: When injuries strike the AFL group, and players are pulled up, it is doubled by the effect of injuries at SANFL level. Our SANFL side is decimated, forced to pull top-ups from amateur leagues.
• Lack of Continuity: Constantly shuffling players between local amateur clubs and our reserves team destroys team synergy, structure, and game-plan execution. How can a young midfielder learn our AFL system when surrounded by a rotating door of weekly fill-ins?
• The Umpires’ Whistle: The stark, long-standing free kick differentials stacked against AFL reserves teams in the SANFL speak for themselves.

If entering a national AFL reserves competition or an expanded VFL gives our squad an uncompromised, level playing field to prepare for elite football, then doing so is directly aligned with winning our next AFL flag.

The hardest pill to swallow came when Richardson was asked on SEN whether the Magpie moniker and the iconic Prison Bars guernsey would survive the transition. He couldn’t guarantee it.

Moving full-time into an AFL-managed second tier with Collingwood already present means we will likely be forced to set aside the Magpie name and the Wharf Pylon/Prison Bars for our weekly secondary team uniform. That hurts. Yet, clash issues already exist in that space; the Southport Sharks already wear black and white in the VFL, so while challenging, it shouldn’t mean discarding our soul.

If we must yield the everyday use of the Prison Bars and the Magpie emblem in a national reserves competition, then we must revere them even more fiercely on the occasions we do wear them (at AFL and VFL level).

Wearing the Prison Bars just for home and away Showdowns feels too transactional. Instead, let’s establish a solemn, sacred tradition for the black-and-white bars:

1. The Home Showdown: Defending South Australian turf in our founding colours.
2. ANZAC Day Round: Honouring the Port Adelaide players who wore that very guernsey before leaving to fight for our country.
3. One Marquee Home Game: A designated club heritage fixture, in prime time, at home, chosen each season.

There is immense reason to be excited about what lies ahead.

Imagine traditional VFL powerhouses running out at Alberton Oval on an even playing field. Port Adelaide taking on Collingwood’s VFL side under the lights at Alberton, with thousands of SA-based supporters packing the outer, would be an extraordinary spectacle. It brings real national competition back to our spiritual home.

Guernseys and logos are powerful symbols, but they are not the spirit itself. The soul of Port Adelaide isn’t found merely in a guernsey or an emblem; it is written in the club’s Creed, penned by Fos Williams in 1962:

“We, the Players and Management of the Port Adelaide Football Club, accept the heritage which players and administrators have passed down to us; in doing so we do not intend to rest in idleness but shall strive with all our power to further this Club’s unexcelled achievements.”

If we are entering an era where our weekly visual identity shifts, it is more imperative than ever that the board, the players, and the fans double down on who we are. We must aggressively celebrate our history, honour our legends, and demand relentless, uncompromising football across every team that wears the Port Adelaide name.

We don’t exist to blend in or protect state-leagues. We exist to win premierships. If moving to a national second-tier competition in 2028 gives our AFL side the ultimate platform to bring AFL Flag #2 (and more) and VFL flags back to Alberton, then Fos Williams would have demanded nothing less.