PAFC 150th Anniversary

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PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:59 am

The first Port Adelaide Football Club premiership - 1884

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1884 ... Organised football in Adelaide was in its eighth season ... and just three of the SA Football Association's original eight clubs from 1877 were still playing (Port Adelaide, South Adelaide and South Park).

Alberton Oval had replaced Buck's Flat at Glanville as the Port Adelaide Football Club's home ground since 1880.

And South Australians were still three years from having an express train service (the Intercolonial Express) between Adelaide and Melbourne ...

History has a habit of repeating.

Port Adelaide worked through a rollercoaster ride - and that "choker" syndrome - for the first eight years of its AFL story before claiming a hard-earned breakthrough national league premiership in 2004. The constant roadblock, finally overcome at the MCG on September 25, 2004, was Brisbane, winners of the previous three AFL titles.

This remarkably reads as a near replica to the storyline to Port Adelaide's first premiership.

Eight years, from the SAFA's first premiership in 1877 to Port Adelaide's first triumph in 1884.

A tough tale of near misses - second in 1878, 1879 and 1883, always to the quickly emerging rival at Norwood that after entering the SAFA in 1878 had collected six consecutive titles.

Port Adelaide had to shake off the "bridesmaid" label that had been pinned to the club and its players ... just as it did with the "chokers" tag that followed 130 years later. Persistence does pay off ...

Australian football's foundation years were based on a championship system - the best-performed team at the end of the pre-determined home-and-away fixture was crowned premiers. No finals. No grand final. The best team from early May to late September was king of SA football.

The decisive date for the 1884 SAFA premiership - and the long-running battle between Port Adelaide and Norwood - was at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, August 30.

Port Adelaide had a 7-2-1 win-draw-loss record.

Norwood was 7-1-2.

The winner of this match - even though there was still a full month of football to be played - was most likely to win the premiership ... and did.

Port Adelaide had lost to Norwood, 2-3 (goals being the only score that counted), at Alberton Oval in Round 3 on May 17.

Port Adelaide responded with an 8-3 win at Alberton in Round 11 on August 2. But the club went to Adelaide Oval three weeks later - after both teams had a 21-day break - never having beaten Norwood twice in a season nor in consecutive games.

History would have to be rewritten to make history.

The South Australian Register recorded the match was "the conquering game between the (two) clubs and virtually decided the premiership for the season 1884."

"Considerable interest was manifested in it, and in spite of the very dusty weather the attendance reached nearly 5,000. The supporters of both teams had mustered in strong force, and the excitement during the afternoon ran high, though a heavy gale blowing in the first half materially interfered with the exhibition of football.

"At times a good deal of unnecessary roughness was indulged in by members of each side ..."

It was the talking point of the season as "Goalpost" wrote in his season review in The Adelaide Observer: "A deal of jealousy and spite existed among players, more especially those in the Norwood and Port clubs." A meaningful rivalry was coming to be ...

In the second half of the 1884 premiership "play-off" Port Adelaide was counting the cost of the uncompromising tone in this battle. Port Adelaide first lost William Buchan with a dislocated shoulder and then Harry "Tick" Smith, after a heavy collision with Norwood novice George Duncan - and played for some time "two short".

This game did have a "look" that - again to prove history does repeat - proves "congestion" or "flooding" is not a modern concept in Australian football.

As The Register recorded: "It was evident that it would be impossible to make any headway against the strong gale blowing, and (Norwood captain Alfred 'Topsy") Waldron called all his forces back, (Port Adelaide captain Dick) Turpenny bringing his forward.

"The field now presented rather a peculiar aspect, only two men from each side being in the northern part of it, while about thirty players were all struggling on the ball in the south-eastern, corner, where the wind kept the play."

Port Adelaide won 3-0 (3.15 to 0.11 to be precise) to advance its record to 8-2-1 while Norwood was 7-1-3.

Port Adelaide finished the season by beating South Adelaide 2-1 at Alberton Oval; thrashing South Park 12-0 at Adelaide Oval to be beyond Norwood's reach; losing to South Adelaide 1-4 at Adelaide Oval when the race to the flag had been won and collecting a forfeit in the last round from South Park (that never again played).

Norwood lost 2-4 to North Adelaide (that also was in its last weeks of football), collected a forfeit from South Park and finished the season by avenging the loss to North Adelaide with a 7-1 triumph.

Port Adelaide had its first premiership with an 11-2-2 win-draw-loss record. The "bridesmaid" image was gone.

"For some years past the 'magentas' have been straining every nerve to gain this supremacy," wrote "Goalpost", "and at last their efforts have been crowned with success.

"They have some brilliant players included in their twenty, and though the supporters of the 'red-and blues' still cling to the idea that they are equal to vanquishing them, I am fully satisfied in my own mind that the Ports this season are the best team in the Association and that they have won their laurels honestly and fairly."

Those brilliant players included, in the eyes of "Goalpost", the best in SA football - George Cairns. "(He) is the best we have in the colony," "Goalpost" wrote. "He is a splendid man back, being very reliable, and is of equal service forward, where his marking and kicking have gained for him his fame.

"Perhaps the best all-round man is (Charles) Kellett, also of the Port club. He is a sure back, and always follows splendidly, and one of few who plays the game as it should be. During the season I have watched him very closely, and numbers have much to learn from the cool gentlemanly demeanour he always exhibits on the field."

Port Adelaide had its flag and its first premiership heroes ... Cairns, Kellett, the Victorian recruit Turpenny, follower Michael Coffee, wingman William Buchan, forward Robert Roy (the competition's leading goalkicker with 22) and novice Albert Mitchell.

The club's careful recruiting from Victoria and development of young local talent had finally, after eight years, created a winning blueprint. History would repeat more than 100 years later for a bigger competition, the AFL.

Season 1884 was the breakthrough year ... and the flags kept flying high at Alberton ... 1890, 1897, 1903, 1906, 1910, 1913, the "Invincibles" of 1914, 1921, 1928, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1951, the "Golden Era" with the six-in-a-row from 1954-1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999 in the SANFL, the 2004 AFL premiership and the four Champions of Australia titles won in 1890, 1910, 1913 and 1914.

By 1965, Port Adelaide had more SANFL premierships (23) than any of its rivals - and many of its opponents combined.

Hence why Port Adelaide's ethos is: "We exist to win premierships ..."
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby JK » Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:40 pm

Great read mate .. Can wait to read the write-up for the Centenary ;)
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby am Bays » Fri Mar 06, 2020 5:46 pm

@Psyber you were there, recollections on the game from a Norwood fan’s perspective?? :D ;)
Let that be a lesson to you Port, no one beats the Bays five times in a row in a GF and gets away with it!!!
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Fri Mar 20, 2020 1:58 pm

Michelangelo Rucci has returned to Alberton Oval to help celebrate the Port Adelaide Football Clubs 150th Anniversary :

It is like going home.

And how the place has changed.

Then, in 1979, it was a desk by the front window of the modest house that marked the Port Adelaide Football Club offices on Queen Street flanking Alberton Oval. Now, there is the Allan Scott Power Headquarters on the other side of the club's spiritual home.

Then it was a typewriter ... and a pencil to update the record books and weekly statistic sheets. Now, we are in a digital age of laptops, spreadsheets and computerised data banks.

Then it was the hard copy Magpie News, usually monthly in-season. Now, there is a website, social media in a 24/7 world and a progressive-traditional club that prides itself on its strong (and noted) connection with its fans.

Then it was coach John Cahill offering the sage advice, "Call it as you see it." That is not to change insists club president David Koch.

So it is back to where the heart is; and always was. It is home.

For all the change, one constant remains: "We are Port Adelaide."

It has been the Port Adelaide Football Club since early May 1870. For 150 football seasons in leagues that keep changing their names, size and looks.

A club is made by its people. So who are we? What makes each of us understand "the Port Adelaide way" while others - the them in the "them and us" that also has defined Port Adelaide for so long - react with such a telling blank look?

In 150 years there are so many ways Port Adelaide has changed - and changed each of us who make up the "we" in Port Adelaide. Different colours. Different jumpers. Different leagues. Different homes. But always Port Adelaide.

There is the Port Adelaide story, since 1870. And there is our Port Adelaide story, since a date that marks our blessing that can bring out envy in so many others. No two storylines are the same, yet there is a common feeling along whichever road leads to the spiritual home at Alberton; whatever march is taken to the grand meeting ground at Adelaide Oval.

It becomes, as the "them" would say, the "badge of honour" that defines Port Adelaide's people. It is of savouring success - and always wanting more. Craving to be the best - and forever wanting to be better. Never lacking imagination to be different, regardless of tradition, history or the constraints of others.

This is one of those stories - with its lessons of being "Port Adelaide" - since 1963.

Of standing on your father's shoulders at the northern end of Adelaide Oval for the best view of Port Adelaide's grandest games at the end of the golden era ... and being too young to remember the moment the siren that marked the club surpassing Norwood as the most successful in SA league football. But you want to remember when Geof Motley collected his ninth premiership in 1965 with a smile while grown men around you cried.

Of sinking in the mud in the north-eastern pocket at Alberton Oval in the late 1960s when the line-up of black cabs on Brougham Place carried for half a mile at half-time a battalion of men to the line-up of filled beer glasses at the front bar of the Alberton Hotel. And the ever thoughtful Peter Brien would have that glass of lemonade and raspberry cordial for the kid who just wanted to know the story captured with the strokes of an artist's brush on the wall at the eastern end of the bar by a mural dedicated to Port Adelaide's six-in-a-row triumph from 1954-1959.

Of breaking the Savings Bank of South Australia money box to count the money needed for the train ride to the Black Diamond Corner and to buy that wool black-and-white jumper, with those distinctive white bars ... and having enough to also get a number for the white panel on the back of the guernsey. How do you choose one hero from so many champions?

Of rushing over that steel fence at Football Park as a 12-year premiership drought ended with the 1977 SANFL centenary premiership ... and knowing just why some long waiting games are "worth it". Those words from Russell Ebert kept echoing, particularly after the seven-year wait to be in the AFL from 1990-1997 and again in those seven years to be national champions in 2004. They seemed more memorable and meaningful than hearing Neil Armstrong speak of small steps for man on the moon.

Of sitting behind the southern goal at Alberton Oval a year later as Sturt great Paul Bagshaw kicked 10 goals - six across 10 minutes in the second term while often standing unmarked in the southern goalsquare ... and not leaving until the nightmare was done. To truly appreciate the joy of victory, you also have to know why you detest defeat. And you always live with that promise of your team never giving up ....

Of telling your parents in the mid-70s - after they thought it was better to buy a place in the eastern suburbs rather than renovate a federation house at Alberton - that you hope they enjoyed it in "Norwood territory". And then, 12 years later, you move to the other side of the world. It is true, you can take the boy out of Port Adelaide, but Port Adelaide never leaves you. If only there was live streaming to be able to watch the 1988 SANFL grand final win against Glenelg while rolling from one side of Seoul to the other during the Olympic Games.

Of waiting in the late 1970s on the footpath on Brougham Place - no longer lined with taxis, but still the sales point for the man with the pies and pasties in a tray covered with hessian - as Tim Evans lined up the Kookaburra for another goal at the northern end of Alberton Oval. Not all those footballs were kicked back over the fence ...

Of stepping inside the ropes in the early 1980s to understand - as Fos Williams had ensured with his creed of 1962 - just how Port Adelaide would never compromise in its chase for victory on and off the field. "Any club worth its salt will clean out its no-hopers ..." and there was "Big Bob" McLean with his dry, cutting way to deal with reality rather than live with false hope.

Of watching from afar as Port Adelaide sought to take the game of Australian football forward in 1990 by ending the impasse on the growth of a national league. And seeing from close hand how Port Adelaide fulfilled its destiny to be an AFL club with the same rigour that defined the repetitive premiership victories. Such dominance ensured the national competition was complete with SA's most-successful sporting club. Never take anything for granted. Work harder than others. Garner the strength of all your club.

Of admiring - amid the cyncism from the "them" crowd - as Port Adelaide president David Koch threw on the agenda at the season launch at Adelaide Oval in 2014 the prospect of a pre-season game in Macau, China. Then, as only Port Adelaide could do - turning this concept into an AFL game for premiership points in Shanghai in 2017, after getting the prime minister to put this on the AFL agenda. It is the "Port Adelaide way" - see no limit to any objective. And so the first game for premiership points outside Australia and New Zealand came to be.

Of believing for the past thirty years - no matter what test was put before Port Adelaide on and off the field - no-one will tear apart a football club and its people. We are Port Adelaide. We are defiant. We are ambitious. We are never standing still. We are proud. We admire the boldness Port Adelaide has carried from century to century to be the best among the best.

We have come to this 150th anniversary in different ways, but with one unifying goal - to be Port Adelaide forever. It is the Port Adelaide way.

And it is nice to be home.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Fri Mar 20, 2020 2:00 pm

1995

Fremantle joined the AFL as its 16th national league team - and second from Western Australia. In a competition loaded with clubs wearing blues, white, red and yellow, the Dockers became the first AFL team to adopt purple in a playing uniform - and the first to have four colours (red, white, green and purple). It was a pointer to what was to come.

John Cahill completed a phenomenal sequence of 10 premierships - to join Jack Oatey as the most-successful coach in SANFL history - from 10 grand finals. It began with the SANFL centenary premiership in 1977 and continued with 1979, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1989, the flag of defiance in 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1995.

And the Formula One Grand Prix is raced on the Adelaide street circuit for the last time.

We can only guess ... until the AFL era.

Port Adelaide's wardrobe of jumpers is filled with many colours (and designs with even the trademark black-and-white combination of the 20th century presented in many forms until Bob McLean insisted on stripes being replaced by the bars in the 1950s).

But why the Port Adelaide Football Club took up one set of colours and changed to another is not detailed with authority until the preparations for AFL entry in 1995.

We can guess ....

Blue and white, from formation in 1870 to the eve of the formation of Australia's first formal league competition, the SA Football Association in 1877.

Were the blue-and-white hoops a natural derivative of the blue-and-white shirts worn by sailors on the docks at Port Adelaide?

Pink and white on entry as a foundation club with the SA Football Association in 1877 - and for the first seven seasons in the new competition.

Was this colour set a remnant of the short-lived Queenstown and Alberton Football Club where some of Port Adelaide's start-up players of 1870 had doubled-up for games in the pioneers days of South Australian football?

Magenta and blue for the first premiership in 1884 - and the second (1890) and third (1897) and first Champions of Australia title in 1890.

Who wants a guess on this one? Was this colour combination a remnant of memories from England with the claret-and-blue shirts of teams in association football?

And to black-and-white - and the bars jumper - in 1902.

Did the magenta dye become too difficult to find at the turn of the century?

Or did the presence of another team wearing blue - Sturt as the SA Football League's seventh club from 1901 and with two shades of blue in its uniform - make it prudent for Port Adelaide to change again?

Remarkably, the majority of Port Adelaide Football Club members opposed the change from the "Magentas" when the club had its annual meeting at the Railway Hotel at Port Adelaide on Wednesday, March 26, 1902.

The Evening Journal reported: "A discussion took place on the question of the colours. It was mentioned the magenta and blue jackets were very unsatisfactory to the players and that it was impossible to procure properly dyed costumes.

"A proposal to submit the question to a committee for consideration was not entertained, and after a lengthy discussion it was decided to retain the old colours."

The Advertiser declared: "A discussion took place concerning the question of the club's colours. It was argued that the present colour faded rapidly and black-and-white was suggested as a substitute. A majority, however, decided for the retention of the magenta and blue."

At the SA Football Association meeting at the Prince Alfred Hotel in the city on April 28, Port Adelaide formally registered black and white as its new colours.

Beyond all doubt is why Port Adelaide took on a new look for its start in the AFL from the 1997 season - and four colours for the first time in the club's history.

Port Adelaide premiership captain Brian Cunningham (1979-1980-1981 SANFL flags) was in the club's chief executive chair in 1995 when the decisions had to be made on how the AFL team would be presented in the national league.

"We did not want to lose black and white, not when it had been our club colours for such a long time," Cunningham recalled of the decisions made months after the SANFL awarded Port Adelaide the second AFL sub-licence placed in South Australia.

"Black and white had to be part of the mix.

"The AFL (accepting Collingwood's protest there could be just one team in black-and-white stripes) wanted us to come up with another colour not being used by any other club."

No red, navy or royal blue, no yellow, no green ... and no purple.

Port Adelaide's board settled on, as Cunningham remembers from the colour charts, "PMS371".

"Teal," said Cunningham, who with fellow board member Phil Hoffman while on holiday in the United States, found reassuring confirmation in the choice of teal.

"PMS371, teal," said Cunningham who had been taken by the colour while meeting with American basketball NBA team Orlando Magic and American football NFL franchise Miami Dolphins.

"Teal fitted with our beaches, the water in our Port River, our maritime history ... and it worked with black and white.

"(AFL telecaster) Channel Seven was happy to go with teal. The AFL liked what it saw on the tests we did with Channel Seven.

"And from what we had seen on the streets of Orlando, it was encouraging to note teal gave a vibrant feel to a town, particularly when the Magic was having success on the basketball court."

And silver?

"That was difficult to use on a guernsey," Cunningham said. "It was a colour for the future. It works with black and white ... and teal, but we felt it was for later (as noted today in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets sporting silver amidst their colourways).

"All those colours gained good support in key groups we wanted to win over - women and children aged 11 and under."

Port Adelaide presented its new colours - and its first three AFL jumpers for home, away and the pre-season Cup - at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on August 31, 1995. Before an approving audience of Port Adelaide fans filled with anticipation - and grand expectation - club captain Tim Ginever led the parade of his team-mates in jumpers that would not be seen in action until 1997 because of the AFL's decision to hold off expansion for 12 months.

Port Adelaide's two-start passage from suburbia to the national league - from the tumultuous winter of 1990 to the first bounce against Collingwood at the MCG in March 1997 - is a major feature of the Port Adelaide Football Club Archives Collection.

You can be among the first to read all of the Port Adelaide Football Club's story since 1870 - from the parklands to the big fields in the AFL and beyond to China - by pre-ordering this commemorative book that chronicles the club's unrivaled achievements.

Read how a juggernaut from Alberton was created and how it became loved and loathed in equal measure.

The limited-edition piece gives members and supporters rare insight into the club's storied history, as the Port Adelaide Football Club History Committee, along with key staff, worked tirelessly to put together a piece that encapsulates every element of the club's rich history.

The collection gives never before seen access to the moments in time that made Port Adelaide Australia's most decorated football club and includes rare photographs, profiles of star players from the club’s 150-year history, and unseen lift out memorabilia including replica player medals, premiership cards, Fos Williams’ coaching notes and so much more.

All of Port Adelaide's True Believers can also be a part of this incredible piece of the club's history, with a special section within the book dedicated to the passionate supporters that have shared the club's journey from the wharves of Port Adelaide to the national stage.

For a limited time upload a photo to be featured in this special section, making the collection the perfect gift to commemorate the club's special place in your life.

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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:16 pm

Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby am Bays » Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:29 pm

Booney wrote:Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?


Nope, 86 GF
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Bum Crack » Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:36 pm

Booney wrote:Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?

Yep. i quite enjoyed it until it became the Port Power show.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Magellan » Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:48 pm

Booney wrote:Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?

Caught bits towards the tail end, as they were going through the 1990 controversy and pre-Port Power stuff. Like Bum Crack, this was less appealing to me, although seeing highlights of KG getting mobbed at Alberton in that game against against Westies brought back memories - I remember listening on the radio to the scores around the grounds, and hearing that there was almost a riot down there.

I'll have to track it down to see the earlier footage and interviews from the 50s through to the mid-80s (is it still available on Channel 7?), more up my alley.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:53 pm

Magellan wrote:
Booney wrote:Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?

Caught bits towards the tail end, as they were going through the 1990 controversy and pre-Port Power stuff. Like Bum Crack, this was less appealing to me, although seeing highlights of KG getting mobbed at Alberton in that game against against Westies brought back memories - I remember listening on the radio to the scores around the grounds, and hearing that there was almost a riot down there.

I'll have to track it down to see the earlier footage and interviews from the 50s through to the mid-80s (is it still available on Channel 7?), more up my alley.


Yep, I think it's on the C7 catch up app.

I was sitting in the Williams Family Stand looking to my right as KG made his way down from the commentary box and watched him walk across the front of the stand to leave. There was not one eye on the game at that point, around 15,000 from memory looking at the heaving crowd in front of the stand.

We lived in Brooklyn Park and only rarely stayed back for after match presentations, we stayed that night and couldn't even get into the downstairs bar let alone the upstairs function. The place was electric, in fact I'd say it rivals any game I've ever been to as far as the "buzz" around the ground went. Unbelievable.

Hairs on the back of my neck just stood up thinking about it. :D
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Magellan » Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:58 pm

Booney wrote:
Magellan wrote:
Booney wrote:Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?

Caught bits towards the tail end, as they were going through the 1990 controversy and pre-Port Power stuff. Like Bum Crack, this was less appealing to me, although seeing highlights of KG getting mobbed at Alberton in that game against against Westies brought back memories - I remember listening on the radio to the scores around the grounds, and hearing that there was almost a riot down there.

I'll have to track it down to see the earlier footage and interviews from the 50s through to the mid-80s (is it still available on Channel 7?), more up my alley.


Yep, I think it's on the C7 catch up app.

I was sitting in the Williams Family Stand looking to my right as KG made his way down from the commentary box and watched him walk across the front of the stand to leave. There was not one eye on the game at that point, around 15,000 from memory looking at the heaving crowd in front of the stand.

We lived in Brooklyn Park and only rarely stayed back for after match presentations, we stayed that night and couldn't even get into the downstairs bar let alone the upstairs function. The place was electric, in fact I'd say it rivals any game I've ever been to as far as the "buzz" around the ground went. Unbelievable.

Hairs on the back of my neck just stood up thinking about it. :D

Probably the closest we've ever come in the SANFL to a riot in the crowd (can't think of any other incident that was as provocative), albeit one media personality versus thousands of supporters. Certainty a lot of feeling in SANFL footy in July-August that year, that's for sure.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Mon Mar 30, 2020 4:01 pm

Magellan wrote:Probably the closest we've ever come in the SANFL to a riot in the crowd (can't think of any other incident that was as provocative), albeit one media personality versus thousands of supporters. Certainty a lot of feeling in SANFL footy in July-August that year, that's for sure.


A Magpie on a stick was quite provocative.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Magellan » Mon Mar 30, 2020 4:06 pm

Booney wrote:
Magellan wrote:Probably the closest we've ever come in the SANFL to a riot in the crowd (can't think of any other incident that was as provocative), albeit one media personality versus thousands of supporters. Certainty a lot of feeling in SANFL footy in July-August that year, that's for sure.


A Magpie on a stick was quite provocative.

Central Districts supporters, circa 1979?
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Magellan » Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:38 am

Magellan wrote:
Booney wrote:Any of you watch the "Onward to Victory" doco on Sunday?

Caught bits towards the tail end, as they were going through the 1990 controversy and pre-Port Power stuff. Like Bum Crack, this was less appealing to me, although seeing highlights of KG getting mobbed at Alberton in that game against against Westies brought back memories - I remember listening on the radio to the scores around the grounds, and hearing that there was almost a riot down there.

I'll have to track it down to see the earlier footage and interviews from the 50s through to the mid-80s (is it still available on Channel 7?), more up my alley.

Watched the balance of this on the catch-up service last night, and there's some great footage and interviews (for example, Bob McLean's speech post the 1958 GF, which was quintessentially late 1950s - everyone around the table was an old man in a suit with thick rimmed glasses, and receding white hair, a sign of the times!). The segment on the death of Anthony Williams was quite moving, particularly as I recall that happening, and hearing about that win against Norwood at the Parade. IIRC, that match was where George Fiacchi was shifted into a back pocket (having been usually picked as a rover up to that point), and the rest is history.

From my perspective as someone external to Port Adelaide, that game was the one where Cahill had somehow resurrected the self-belief and 'never say die' Port spirit that seemed to have been lost or dormant under Ebert's coaching reign. Port seemed to have a more desperate and ruthless edge under Cahill where they never seemed out of the contest. There were a couple games that year where Port came back from large deficits at 'lemon' time to win, including a game against North at Footy Park where they dragged in a 23 point margin to win by 3 or 4 points. Also beat the Bays late in the season coming from about 5-6 goals down at three-quarter time.

Again, I'm not qualified to say, but my theory would be that the untimely loss of Anthony Williams was (to some extent) the catalyst that galvanized Port to believe that they could beat anyone, and go all the way in 1988.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:53 am

Magellan wrote:The segment on the death of Anthony Williams was quite moving, particularly as I recall that happening, and hearing about that win against Norwood at the Parade. IIRC, that match was where George Fiacchi was shifted into a back pocket (having been usually picked as a rover up to that point), and the rest is history.


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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby The Bedge » Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:58 am

That Anthony Williams part was emotional to watch, couldn't help but feel stirred up - had to fight back tearing up myself - something incredibly powerful/moving seeing grown men appearing vulnerable and showing emotion.

Then as the game turned after halftime, felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.. it was something of fairy tales.
Last edited by The Bedge on Tue Mar 31, 2020 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Booney » Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:59 am

Imagine the emotion at the Williams family home that night. Hard to fathom.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby robranisgod » Tue Mar 31, 2020 9:21 pm

Booney wrote:
There was not one eye on the game at that point, around 15,000 from memory looking at the heaving crowd in front of the stand.

:D


The official crowd was 7,605 so either your memory is playing tricks or Port were manipulating the crowd numbers. My mob certainly were notorious for that in the 1980s.
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby The Bedge » Tue Mar 31, 2020 9:33 pm

robranisgod wrote:
Booney wrote:
There was not one eye on the game at that point, around 15,000 from memory looking at the heaving crowd in front of the stand.

:D


The official crowd was 7,605 so either your memory is playing tricks or Port were manipulating the crowd numbers. My mob certainly were notorious for that in the 1980s.

Most people have 2x eyes.. 7,605*2 = 15,210
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Re: PAFC 150th Anniversary

Postby Bum Crack » Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:45 am

The Bedge wrote:
robranisgod wrote:
Booney wrote:
There was not one eye on the game at that point, around 15,000 from memory looking at the heaving crowd in front of the stand.

:D


The official crowd was 7,605 so either your memory is playing tricks or Port were manipulating the crowd numbers. My mob certainly were notorious for that in the 1980s.

Most people have 2x eyes.. 7,605*2 = 15,210

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