tribey
ʎǝlʞuᴉH ʞɔɐS
Veteran
Port Adelaide - Connor Rozee Player Sponsor 2020
Port Adelaide - Zak Butters 2019 Player Sponsor
Port Adelaide - Jack Watts Player Sponsor 2018
Port Adelaide - Nathan Krakouer Player Sponsor 2015
Port Adelaide - Matthew Broadbent Player Sponsor 2013
Port Adelaide - John Butcher 2012 Player Sponsor
Look, I defy anyone not to be swept up in the thrill and excitement and the story at play here.
But this was a football club with every branch working for it. Starting with the venue. It doesn't matter how good I tell you the venue is, it's better. The Adelaide Oval is the most perfect piece of modern architecture because it's a thoroughly contemporary stadium with all the character that it's had in the past.
And then there are the fans. 47,000 fans. It was two years ago that their seats were covered by plastic sheets to avoid the embarrassment of empty seats, and did they make a din. And the way that it's built, it rolls the sound back on top of the ground. Ah, and it's, the players felt it. I know that for a fact.
And then there's the administration and he's dynamic, David Koch. You walk around with him and people love him. *banter from Robbo* I strongly like Kochie. *more banter with Robbo* So the administration. He's a dynamic, he's a magnetic figure, so he's given the people a figurehead. And then you've got Keith Thomas, who's a wonderful strategic planner and his worth is showing itself more and more.
And then you've got Ken Hinkley who has those players under his touch. So I was privileged enough to be in the rooms just before they ran out. And they go through the drills to feel the physical contact. And Jay Schulz and Matthew Lobbe are hammering into each other and it's sort of to the moment of taking your breath away and then Ken called them in and they came in the tightest group and they all leaned forward and Ken leant right into the middle of them and it was quiet. Those last words were so quiet and so firm. And then they broke and they went out there with such a sense of purpose.
And then I think about Travis Boak and the way that he led them out on the field and we know the responsibility that that leadership group has been given by Ken and how they've carried it throughout and then in the aftermath when the mission had been accomplished, the people, the joy from the people. And in the rooms afterwards, Oliver Wines' mum is standing there with Travis Boak's mum swapping stories of pride and Hamish Hartlett's mum comes over. And then there's Gavin Wanganeen and his 11-year old son who's running around in the manner where you go seven years' time he'll be part of this.
It's a football club that is, that is so united in what they're trying to achieve, and think about where they were, they were the carcass on the landscape, people wanted them out, to where they are now and they'd be everybody's second team unless you have a deeply-ingrained and irrational hatred of Port Adelaide.
