by Magellan » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:01 am
Here's the entire Cornes article for ya, Pistol Pete:
Attack on Port Adelaide’s history hurts entire SANFL, says Graham Cornes
HATE! It’s a malicious, destructive word but used in a football context, it softens and more simply describes some of the feelings that are evoked when club loyalties are displayed.
In the good old days before the AFL devoured the football market, if you didn’t live at Alberton or on the LeFevre Peninsula, you “hated” Port Adelaide.
Over the decades, like a diaspora of displaced people, the Port supporters and their loyalties spread north, south and east beyond the Cheltenham Cemetery.
Heck, you might even have had one living alongside you. However, if you “hated” a football club it didn’t mean you didn’t respect them.
It just added an extra dimension of emotion when you played them.
But you could never deny them their history and their record. Until last week.
The SA Football Budget, has for over a century, been the official program of the SANFL.
It’s a publication crammed with footy articles, players’ lists and club statistics that, over the seasons, we’ve loved and collected with a passion.
It is rarely inaccurate. However, last week Port supporters were horrified and outraged to discover that their club had been stripped of its history before the year 2011. It wasn’t a misprint.
It read that Port and Central had only met 15 times (with Port winning seven) since the club’s formation in 2010. Port was yet to win a premiership.
This rewriting of history has infuriated the club. Surely it was an oversight or a practical joke? Apparently not.
Writing on the Talking Footy SA forum on Friday, June 30, Mark Beswick, a West Adelaide Football Club board member, said: “During the week as Official SANFL Historian, I asked the budget to reset Port Adelaide WIN/LOSS records from 2011-2017.”
Beswick’s rationale was that as the Magpies and the Power had amalgamated as “One Club” in 2010, the Port Adelaide (Magpies) must be seen as a new SANFL entity since 2011.
So the editor of the Budget complied and stripped Port of its history.
Port Adelaide chief executive, Keith Thomas, was livid — although as a former Norwood player and champion, he understands football passion.
“It made my blood boil”, he told the Advertiser on Wednesday.
“The ramifications of this remarkable decision are as vast as they are obvious … I will be writing to John Olsen (SANFL Chairman) today.”
Beswick’s post actually had unanimous support on the forum, as among the SANFL purists there is much angst (hatred) directed towards our two AFL clubs’ presence in the SANFL, but you can’t rewrite history.
Whether we supported Port Adelaide or “hated” them, they have been an integral part of South Australia’s grand football landscape.
If you strip Port of its history you strip every other club of its. It’s been a journey of mutual benefit with even the least successful clubs playing important roles.
Port supporters often will tell you how much the SANFL owes their club because of the crowds and the revenue Port Adelaide has generated since 1870.
It’s such an ignorant opinion because without the other clubs, Port Adelaide would be nothing. Conversely, however, we are nothing without them.
The passion and contributions of SANFL volunteers such as Beswick should never be underestimated or disrespected because the very existence of SANFL clubs depends on them, but it has to be tempered.
It wasn’t the only time this week that West Adelaide supporters upset one of the AFL clubs ... but hopefully all has been resolved.
Whether we traditional SANFL supporters like it or not, the AFL will continue to consume the football market and indoctrinate young footy fans.
The SANFL nevertheless will continue to have major role in the football industry, and its history is the solid foundation on which it has been built.
Never disrespect or neglect that history.
When he was made aware of the bizarre decision to rewrite Port’s history last week, SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson told The Advertiser that the decision “wasn’t a position the SANFL supported”.
One can assume from his comment that Port’s history will be restored in next week’s SA Football Budget. Won’t those West Adelaide supporters hate that?
"Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn't there...and finding it." - Oscar Wilde