Why you started supporting Port Adelaide??

[Peck]

my dad did, although now that we are in melbourne he's back to the saints.

also i lived about a block from alberton untill i was 9, and went there often. not to watch the footy though, i think i only went a few times, and i don't remember and i don't think i ever went to a power game.

I didn't actually follow/like footy much at all untill after a few years of living in a country town in Victoria, where i had no exposure to soccer (which was my favorite sport when i was in adelaide, now AFL is the god i worship ).

I think it really helped that we were doing well at that time(2002 at a guess), i mean if we were bottom of the ladder and st kilda were doing well, they might have even been my first team (instead of second).

 

[RangaInTeal]

I'm just interested in finding out why and how people started supporting Port Adelaide?
How it happend?
Why?
Why Port Adelaide?

how? Remember going down with Dad especially in 1996 and running around Alberton picking up cans and putting them into the MASSIVE square cages while the lads played footy with my cousin, one day a lady thought we actually thought we worked for the footy club and asked us to take back a glass or a plate or something back into the clubrooms, her male friend explained that we werent employed by the club just bored kids. I remember sitting in the old grandstand reading the old footy budget before the game started and matching names with those of kids at school, the first game I can actually remember watching it was late in the '96 season and we were playing Centrals at Alberton, I can not remember if it was a close match but we won and the anticipation before the final siren went was amazing and Alberton was packed.
How it happend?Dad played junior at the Magpies possibly even Reserves when he was young (prior to his Dad dying)
Why? It was where Dads Father was from, it was where Dad was brought up, It is my first memory of football, we were at the MCG and i can still remember Shane Bruer kicking Ports first goal.
Why Port Adelaide? See above, I played juniors for the Magpies I feel its my club.

Also just found out my (mums side) Grandmother's Grandfather was a trainer (Bell) out there very early, she has a Port Adelaide Team Photo (all the players pictures individually inside one big frame) and has offered a substantual fee by the PAFC for it, she has not sold it and it is one of the only Team photos they do not have the original to, I understand why the club would want it, but I also understand and apriciate why it is not up for sale.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

The old man ****ed off when I was 5 and the only thing I remembered of him as a young bloke was that he hated Port Adelaide with a passion so as a consequence I developed an insatiable love for this great club in 1974.





Is the Big Footy Psycholgist in the house?

 

[morell]

Success = bandwagon?

Success is absolutely a key recruiting mechanism. However, the bandwagon should have a one way gate on it.

 

[PortBrillance]

1992, when I was born

Why? In the family

 

[Ebert80]

how I reflected on that day when we were awarded the AFL licence while Sturt "won" another wooden spoon .

Haha, i like that

 

[RoosterLad]

So it was family rather than Port's footballing brillance that made you a Port fan today?

 

[Steve Dore]

So it was family rather than Port's footballing brillance that made you a Port fan today?

Its called tradition, but that would be a foreign concept to a supporter of a bandwagoners club

 

[RoosterLad]

Haha, a bandwagon North supporter? I'm yet to meet one of those.

 

[Ebert80]

Haha, a bandwagon North supporter? I'm yet to meet one of those.

I'm sure a few jumped off after the 89 grand final

 

[Spadge]

I'm sure a few jumped off after the 89 grand final

jumped off what?? a bridge?

 

[manureid]

Haha, a bandwagon North supporter? I'm yet to meet one of those.

Wasn't around the mid 80s that you started following North by any chance was it?

 

[Steve Dore]

Haha, a bandwagon North supporter? I'm yet to meet one of those.

I thought you were a Crows supporter

As for North Adelaide I remember '71 - '72. I'm sure you picked up a few bandwagoners then but I'm sure, unlike your good self, most have long since deserted for the Corporate Crows.

 

[goalump]

I was originally a Fitzroy support from birth to the end of the 1996 season (when the team merged with Brisbane).
I was a part of the cheer squad and the inner sanctum of the club.

However, my family decided not to follow the team (if you can call it that) north, so I was clubless for about nine months.

I did have a few choices - North Melbourne (they were very close to merging with us), the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide.

After a few weeks of deliberating I decided Port. The side has more former Fitzroy players in it than Brisbane, the colours were good and I had not grown up hating the side.

The final deciding factor was family. My grandfather and his brothers grew up in Port Adelaide, but he migrated to Melbourne and became a Collingwood fan.

Now most of the SA clan are Port fans (which is great for conversations), and I've convinced my mum to following Port!

 

[Spadge]

i could imagine some of the responses you'd get on the Adelaide board for a similar thread

"i used to be a north supporter but we werent good enough to make it into the AFL so i followed a new franchise into the best competition in australia which had no direct relevance to my footy club apart from it was based in the same state"

unlike me who has supported the same football club since my year of birth in 1974

 

[Steve Dore]

i could imagine some of the responses you'd get on the Adelaide board for a similar thread ......

Well a number of my Crow supporting friends never really had much of an interest in footy, didn't play it as juniors or seniors, and never followed an SANFL club. When the Crows were formed they started to notice footy because of all the hype but were not really supporters. After the 1997 GF they were all "life long" Crows supporters who are footy experts

But then there are others who jumped on the corporate state team. What was that banner that some Port wag used to hold up at Showdowns, "Which SANFL team did you abandon to follow the Crows"?

 

[Portology]

Success = bandwagon?

Not quite, Trollster Lad.

Unparalleled success = *tradition*, which is passed on by family and friends and the quirks of geography and demographics, and keeps things going during the inevitable tough times.

As for the OP...

I grew up "in the area". In the early 70s it was just *assumed* you support Port. The vast majority of kids I went to school with were Port supporters. Ebert used to visit school regularly - a huge buzz. Marketing, but not as we know it All *before* '77 GF. Premierships not in my living memory. GF defeats to North my oldest footy memory, '76 the worst, the whole 'fight it out' mentality, always being competitive, the most consistent memory.

In high school those who could kick to save their lives (not me!) had a shot at Port juniors... that did produce a couple of SANFL Port players. Port just is "our" club, it is part of the environment we grew up in, there's no other club I could possibly support this way - you only grow up once.

Seeing my Club grow up, out of those suburbs to a national stage, go further than any kid back then could imagine (and find out later those crusty old guys Fos & Motley did have the vision, but no way to make it happen).

What a %^*& thrill to feel a tiny bit of connection to all that.

In short, this isn't a bandwagon, it's a disease

 

[RoosterLad]

I started following North in 1981 when I was born actually. My Dad is a life time fan so it is in the family...

I was in High School when had a semi decent side in the mid-90s so I missed most of that due to working Saturdays. I eventually told my boss I wanted to go to the footy instead of work all day, that was around 99-00.. I picked a great time to start going to the footy every week.

Sorry to be a pedantic bastard stanmack but the team that beat Sturt in '98 is a different team to the one you supported against Carlton last week.

 

[i_love_the_hoff]

When we migrated from Italy, the first game of football I watched, had Port in it . I was waiting for my family to get the bags from the thing when we got off the plane. And it was on in the airport. And I liked them.


But family as well. when they were here before us and then I liked them more after the 2006 draft..............

 

[PowerKat]

I'm a little different as well morell

None of my immediate family followed footy - Dad thought it was a thugs game and wasn't all that interested in sport generally. I lived in the SW suburbs, so close to Glenelg and the old 'Panther Park'. When I did start taking an interest, Dad always said I should barrack for South cos we lived in that area, but who listens to their father!

In primary school a few things happened that led me to be interested in footy and to choose Port, but it's sort of unexplainable so the 'why' is not clear cut. One was my younger sister's best friends who was a Sturt supporter regularly wore a duffle coat to school with a number on the back, and just some general banter in the school yard and scarf wearing aroused some curiosity I guess. One kid in my class spent quite a few lunch breaks commentating the feats of Russell Ebert - who was this guy? .

The following year I was taken by a neighbour's family to a game at Glenelg - they were fanatical Glenelg supporters. I admit to feeling bored by about half way through the 2nd Q. Looking back - what a lucky escape - I could have become a Bays supporter! I also became good friends with a girl at school, who was a firm Port fan as I found out that winter when she wore her scarf and beanie - went to a game with her and her Dad, and tbh I liked black, so that was it - it was 'the vibe'. I had no idea about the history etc even though 77 would have been fresh at the time.

Went a couple more times in 79 then became a regular in 80 when I was 13. Just loved it. I used to get my Mum to drop me off to games, or catch a bus, going to Alberton and footy park mainly, often on my own (which astounds me looking back) or dragged either or both sisters along. Younger one continues to be right into it. Hung out near the cheersquad and learnt a few things (lol) - and even joined for a couple of years . One of my cousins played junior footy for Port as well, but I didn't even even know until I was 15 or 16 for some reason, and was already rusted on by then.

 

[kaysee]

I have only ever known supporting PAFC. Not sure how or why. Probably because my Grandfather and Mum did. I remember growing up as a 5-10yo pretending I was Russell Ebert, making #7 my favourite number because of him.

I followed Carlton (probably due to Craig Bradley being there) in the AFL before any Adelaide teams came in. Once Adelaide came in I followed them for a bit since they're "the Adelaide team" and wanted to see the PAFC boys do well, but still strongly followed Carlton. Once PAFC got the 2nd license they got my full support and I kicked Adelaide to the curb and stopped following Carlton (although I have no 2nd favourites... I don't mind watching them play).

 

[Steve Dore]

.... Sorry to be a pedantic bastard stanmack but the team that beat Sturt in '98 is a different team to the one you supported against Carlton last week.

It is a pretty safe bet that the 21 (?) players from the 1998 PAMFC GF team were not all in the 22 that represented the PAFC against Carlton on Sunday. Not only not the same team but not even the same club.

 

[Capital Power]

Think i've bored you all with this before but a slightly different perspective from a more recent fan ..

Raised in Sydney on NRL, been a fan of the Sharks for 35+ years. Any of you who follow NRL would be instantly aware of the kind of neuroses that I would be suffering as a result, but I digress..

I was determined to make my son (the last of four children) an NRL fan. Took him along to a few Sharks games, and he basically tried to claw his way out at half time (this is common, and no cause for real concern). He didn't show much interest in our local Brumbies either (got GF tickets one year, but he said he didn't want to go because "I went last week" )

So, in 2004 when we were in Adelaide visiting my parents we organised to go to an AFL game. By chance it was the Port vs Geelong game which many on here said was our best H&A that year - we won 116-112 IIRC. Anyway, we were sitting behind the cheer squad and by half time he was hooked. We decked him out for the second half and he's been fanatical ever since and I love sharing that with him. Older sister is now also a member and a diehard Brett Ebert fan....

He now plays and umpires junior AFL and loves the game. I reckon it really is the best game for youngsters because it is so inclusive and not just for the ones that are "good at sport"

As an aside, being a long term Cronulla supporter I have learned the art of the "Monday Morning Excuse" for dealing with the inevitable crap one gets at work/school etc whn one turns up in teal. This week he was advised to say "If it wasn't for Nick Riewoldt, we'd be in the Eight"

Don't get to many games, sadly, owing to the distance, but we would love to be season ticket holders and be able to go every week. Hats off to those of you who do that, especially in these trying times

 

[Portology]

It is a pretty safe bet that the 21 (?) players from the 1998 PAMFC GF team were not all in the 22 that represented the PAFC against Carlton on Sunday. Not only not the same team but not even the same club.

And the answer is: Peter Burgoyne

 

[Steve Dore]

And the answer is: Peter Burgoyne

One player does not make a team