I was once totally against any changes to the prison bar jumper but some of those designs with silver or blue look sensational, which just goes to show the original was so good that it can be tastefully modernised and still retain its history.
Just my opinion. As you said it has been 'tinkered' with.
I was once totally against any changes to the prison bar jumper but some of those designs with silver or blue look sensational, which just goes to show the original was so good that it can be tastefully modernised and still retain its history.
I, myself, personally think this looks sensational (perhaps the bars a touch broader). We may not be allowed to wear black and white in the AFL (or only rarely), but the 'prison bars' design is distinctively OURS and should be seen on the national (and worldwide) stage. These are my own thoughts and no one can say they are incorrect:
I've posted this in another thread, but i'm a big believer that if we'd introduced the teal PBs in 1996, they would have been by far more popular than our other efforts and we'd still be wearing them today.
The reason we consider the black and white PBs so sacrosanct is because we had our identity absolutely slammed in the mid 2000s and we had to fight tooth and nail not only to defend our club, but even just to argue that we were who we were. We were banned from using the PBs and then had our rights to our heritage trashed from pillar to post. Through that enormous amount of stress, the classic black and white PBs became the enduring symbol of our club and became so important to us because they represented everything the outside world (and often our own administration) were trying to take away from us.
Clearly, in 1996, the club went full on 1990s modern. We introduced teal which was THE sports colour of the era (the other big modern colour was purple, but Freo had gotten in first). We also totally abandoned classic football design and went totally garish, in your face 90s with our design. The combination of a new modern colour AND an OTT design was too much and there was a lot of consternation, especially from the older supporters, about how ridiculous we looked, while the rest of us, not foreseeing the identity crisis, were happy that our club was looking to the future and pushing the modern angle.
Let's do a thought experiment.
In 1996 someone taps the graphic designers on the shoulder and convinces them that teal is enough, and that we don't need to go super modern with our design, we could go for something more conventional. We'd had almost certainly gone back to the most Port Adelaide design that exists, the PBs. Something like this:
This design would have strengthened our visual links to our heritage and would have quelled a lot of the herpiest derp that ever derped "If you guys are the real Port Adelaide why do the Port Magpies wear your guernsey?" arguments that were almost a daily occurence in the mid 2000s. We would have been visually Port Adelaide, and it would have been far easier for the supporter base to accept the change of guernsey.
I'll argue that the identity crisis would have been significantly lessened by the wearing of this guernsey from day 1. Given the lesser identity crisis, we wouldn't have had the furnace of pressure that made the black and white PBs so sacrosanct, and we would have been far more accepting of the teal PBs design.
Think about it. If one of the three of Delaney, Ginevar or Hodges walked out in 1996 wearing the teal PBs, it would instantly have struck the biggest chord with the supporter base and if it wasn't the home jumper then, would have been so within a few years, and it very likely would still be our home jumper today.
I've posted this in another thread, but i'm a big believer that if we'd introduced the teal PBs in 1996, they would have been by far more popular than our other efforts and we'd still be wearing them today.
The reason we consider the black and white PBs so sacrosanct is because we had our identity absolutely slammed in the mid 2000s and we had to fight tooth and nail not only to defend our club, but even just to argue that we were who we were. We were banned from using the PBs and then had our rights to our heritage trashed from pillar to post. Through that enormous amount of stress, the classic black and white PBs became the enduring symbol of our club and became so important to us because they represented everything the outside world (and often our own administration) were trying to take away from us.
Clearly, in 1996, the club went full on 1990s modern. We introduced teal which was THE sports colour of the era (the other big modern colour was purple, but Freo had gotten in first). We also totally abandoned classic football design and went totally garish, in your face 90s with our design. The combination of a new modern colour AND an OTT design was too much and there was a lot of consternation, especially from the older supporters, about how ridiculous we looked, while the rest of us, not foreseeing the identity crisis, were happy that our club was looking to the future and pushing the modern angle.
Let's do a thought experiment.
In 1996 someone taps the graphic designers on the shoulder and convinces them that teal is enough, and that we don't need to go super modern with our design, we could go for something more conventional. We'd had almost certainly gone back to the most Port Adelaide design that exists, the PBs. Something like this:
This design would have strengthened our visual links to our heritage and would have quelled a lot of the herpiest derp that ever derped "If you guys are the real Port Adelaide why do the Port Magpies wear your guernsey?" arguments that were almost a daily occurence in the mid 2000s. We would have been visually Port Adelaide, and it would have been far easier for the supporter base to accept the change of guernsey.
I'll argue that the identity crisis would have been significantly lessened by the wearing of this guernsey from day 1. Given the lesser identity crisis, we wouldn't have had the furnace of pressure that made the black and white PBs so sacrosanct, and we would have been far more accepting of the teal PBs design.
Think about it. If one of the three of Delaney, Ginevar or Hodges walked out in 1996 wearing the teal PBs, it would instantly have struck the biggest chord with the supporter base and if it wasn't the home jumper then, would have been so within a few years, and it very likely would still be our home jumper today.
It's not my favourite guernsey either, but if it had been wheeled out at Laserfest '96, how do you reckon it would have gone with the true believers given the other options on the table?
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I did think about that, but I reckon 2009 was too late and the core supporter base would have rallied against any non black and white PBs.
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Bring Back the Bars
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Bizarre comment
