The pains of a Port Adelaide supporter

He was talking about the decline of the mafia in the United States, and possibly, more obliquely, the country itself. I think it also works for journalism (I hear some insane stories about expense accounts from my veteran colleagues), living in Sydney (house prices!) and, most of all, for being a Port Adelaide supporter.

“It’s good to be in something from the ground floor,” he tells her. “I came too late for that, and I know. But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.”

One of the first things Tony Soprano says to his therapist, Dr Melfi, in the pilot episode of The Sopranos is a quote that stays with me.

I didn’t have a choice. I was born into it. When my grandparents got off the boat from Italy and settled in Adelaide’s glorious western suburbs, they weren’t to know it was Port Adelaide territory, and what that would mean for us 60 years later.

It has been a blessing and a curse. Nothing brings out the scumbag in me like a Showdown. The Crows are for the top end of town; we are the people’s club, and proud of it. I could spend hours talking about Roger James, or Michael Wilson, or even John Butcher. I’m still furious we let Shaun Burgoyne go.

The late, great Foster Neil Williams, an icon of the Port Adelaide Football Club. Credit: Bryan Charlton

For the many readers who would be totally unaware of our background, I can reveal to you exclusively that we are the most successful club in the history of the game. That is, we have won the SANFL premiership 36 times. No other team dominated their state league to such an extent. Back then, we were known as the Magpies, wore the black and white prison bars, and we were untouchable. We were the big fish in a small pond – so naturally, as the VFL evolved into the AFL, it felt right for us to move into the national competition.

There have been multiple books written about what happened next, but long story short, we eventually entered the AFL in 1997 but had to come up with a new nickname (Power) and a new colour scheme (hello, silver and teal) to appease those in charge, and by those in charge I mean Collingwood.

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