Opinion Favourite season supporting Port Adelaide

[silverfingers]

Simple, very hard to go past 1990.

Started the season well, played well for the first 10 rounds, and yet once the AFL licence bid broke we went up a notch and were unstoppable.
Only lost one game after the bid broke, the 2nd Semi, and then crushed North Adelaide in the Prelim.
Hodges was unstoppable. Watching him every week was a joy. We thumped sides off the park - West at Alberton, Sturt at AO, and all with a backdrop of real hostility.

Won the flag, the Jack Oatey Medal, the Magarey Medal, runner-up Magarey Medal, leading goal kicker.
Absolute favourite season.

 

[davo999]

For me it was probably 1980 . 76 I thought was going to be during the year but we failed which made ‘77 a bit nerve racking with a not wanting to get too excited attitude.
1980 we were reasonably clearly the best side .
1990 true was great but had the drama of the AFL bid . Hodges was something else that year and we were able to thumb our noses at the rest of the comp with our football so yea it was definitely a good year.
‘94 with the pic Grand Final , but for a full years enjoyment I’ll go 1980

 

[ibd77]

Pretty hard to go past 2014 wild ride.

Very exciting season leading to a positive and bright future for the club, then 2015 happens.

 

[Windy Cindy]

Any year we won a flag

 

[PowerLil]

We were unbelievably good in '76 only losing one game until the grand final drubbing by Sturt. 1977 was sweet sweet redemption.
"Taken us a bloody long time but by geez it's worth it." The great man Russell Ebert.

 

[philreich]

For me it was probably 1980 . 76 I thought was going to be during the year but we failed which made ‘77 a bit nerve racking with a not wanting to get too excited attitude.
1980 we were reasonably clearly the best side .
1990 true was great but had the drama of the AFL bid . Hodges was something else that year and we were able to thumb our noses at the rest of the comp with our football so yea it was definitely a good year.
‘94 with the pic Grand Final , but for a full years enjoyment I’ll go 1980

I was thinking the same thing. Nobody scores 3400 points in the minor round, but we did that year, and the crowning glory was beating Norwood in the decider.

 

[QPower]

1988, 1990 and 2004.

 

[Alyx]

2026*


*

 

[Vic_Vinegar]

1990/1994/2004/2014

 

[chiwigi]

2014 for me, it felt like a total rebirth.

 

[Marmozet]

2013 - I was just happy to not be s**t after so long. But I think 2014 takes the cake for me.

I was only 7 for the majority of 2004 so I didn’t have a full understanding or appreciation for it. But after 2001-03, I can’t imagine it would have exactly been “enjoyable”. The pressure all year must’ve been immense and with the lingering fear that we were going to choke in finals again, home & away wins that year must’ve felt meaningless unless we got the job done in September.

Winning the QF against Geelong must have just been nothing but relief, ditto the Prelim against St Kilda, and then of course the big one.

 

[Steve Dore]

2004

 

[TeeKray]

I was only 7 for the majority of 2004 so I didn’t have a full understanding or appreciation for it. But after 2001-03, I can’t imagine it would have exactly been “enjoyable”. The pressure all year must’ve been immense and with the lingering fear that we were going to choke in finals again, home & away wins that year must’ve felt meaningless unless we got the job done in September.

Winning the QF against Geelong must have just been nothing but relief, ditto the Prelim against St Kilda, and then of course the big one.

2004 was enjoyable to an extent. We won all but one game in the second half of the season and routinely crushed teams at home. There was pressure coming into the QF but it was evident relatively early that it would be different from our previous QFs. The PF was the most excruciating game of football ever because I think deep down we all knew it was the last chance and it really could've gone either way.

As for favourite seasons ...

2013 was great because it was very unexpected and kept providing highlights along the way.

I enjoyed 2020 because it was a unique season and we were top all year. It still feels kind of rough that we were top all season, barely lost a game, won our QF and then lost a PF where our opposition kicked 6 goals and that was that. Feels like we did nothing wrong and still have nothing to show for it.

And I know it's not popular but I'll throw in 2007 as well with the obvious caveat. We just rode our luck that year, basically everything fell into place and there were memorable wins everywhere. Came unstuck in the end though.

 

[Marmozet]

I loved 2020 as well. Our form that year really got me through the tough times of the pandemic that year.

I’m still shattered we didn’t win it that year. We had absolutely everything going for us and it would have been an amazing premiership for us to win, no matter what anyone said at the time about any asterisk

 

[Mufc1975]

hard to go past 77, my first Port flag and a year after the heartbreak of 76. 1990 comes in a close 2nd with the FU to the sanfl

 

[Peninsula Boy]

1. 1990
2. 2004
3. 1988

 

[Scodges]

1977, hearing the GF on radio with my mate who was a mad Port fan, was the day I started my Port journey


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[Steve Dore]

2004 was enjoyable to an extent. ...

Playing finals is scary.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

1990.

Hodges 153 goals, enough said.

2004 I was nervous right up until the last quarter of the grand final.

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[Coobk001]

The SANFL was different. We expected finals. The regular season was just a formality really. The atmosphere at our games was pretty chilled until it raised in finals. So really any SANFL season we talk about is just based on the finals series. For me the upset GF wins of the 90s were the peak years. 94, 96, and 1990 was something special for obvious reasons.

AFL wise.
1997 was a great start, we came in and were really competitive which was great.

2007 was an insane ride and still in my top couple seasons. Opposition fans like to have a laugh at the end result, but it's far worse to have won spoons than gone on the awesome ride we did that year, the margin in the GF meant nothing when the game was gone.

2013 into 2014 was just an absolute pleasure. The club rising, fan base heaving, new coach, rising players, huge performances, new anthems, a united club, etc. I've never been as proud of losing as I was standing at the MCG after losing to the Hawks by 3 points.

Other than that obviously 2002-2004 were great, but we were just dominant and faltered in 2002 and 2003 when we shouldn't have and that killed those years, until that breakthrough 2004 series. Obviously 2004s the highlight of everything, as it was the ultimate, the long awaited prize and remains one of the best days of my life at the MCG. Its just such a shame that being good but not good enough has become etched into our AFL DNA and the Hinkley era has entrenched mediocrity into our core.

 

[ClintEastwood]

2004 by the length of Alberton Oval.

 

[Poo Eckert]

Probably 89, would drive down play golf at Riverside, the go to footy post and watch Port at footy park. Great day

 

[Macca19]

2004 was too stressful to enjoy until after the fact.

For me it was 1992. We were miles ahead of the rest and you knew we’d win the flag very early on.

At afl level probably 2001 and 2013

 

[Ford Fairlane]

For sheer football domination, 1980.

Port was minor premiers with 19 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw in the minor round. Port’s average winning margin was 80 points.

After drawing with Centrals in round 1 Port defeated Norwood by 108 points, Woodville by 161, South Adelaide by 24 and West Adelaide by 117 before losing to Sturt at Unley by 4 points. Even in that game Port Adelaide supporters can still recall fondly that David Granger played one of the great centre half forward games on Sturt’s VFL star recruit Gary Hardeman. After that hiccup, the carnage continued with Port defeating Glenelg by 51 points, West Torrens by 90, North Adelaide by 122, Centrals by 4, Norwood by 90, Woodville by 51, South by 94, West by 91, Sturt by 63 before another hiccup, dropping a game to Glenelg at Glenelg Oval by 24 points. Following that setback Port finished off the minor round with wins over Torrens by 56 points, North 102, Centrals 91, Norwood 55, Woodville 75 and South 72.

Port Adelaide’s domination over the competition was utter and complete. Port scored the most points over a season (3,421) and had the least kicked against it (1,851). Port became the first team to score 3,000 points in a minor round. From being the lowest scoring team in the 1979 Magarey Medal count (90), Port polled the most votes (213) in 1980. Port won the League and Reserves premierships and won the Stanley H Lewis Memorial Trophy for a record seventh time, this trophy being awarded to the club that performs best across the four grades of SANFL competition.

Russell Ebert fresh back from his season with North Melbourne won his fourth Magarey Medal and introduced the God of Thunder overhead hammer handball.

Tim Evans broke the sanfl goalkicking record with 146 goals. The bearded wonder kicked a club record 16 goals in Port’s round 5 clash against West Adelaide. In round 17, as Ebert broke the Port Adelaide club record for league games played, Tim Evans brought up his hundredth goal for the season en route to piling on 14 goals for the match against West Torrens. Evans became the first player to kick 10 goals in a SANFL Second Semi Final as Port dispatched Sturt by 63 points during which he broke Fred Phillis’s single season SANFL goal kicking record of 137 goals set in 1969.

As mentioned, we also won the reserves premiership. This match should also be noted as an extraordinary result in an extraordinary year. Port played a Glenelg side that included budding young stars Stephen Kernahan and Chris McDermott. Port Adelaide was clear favourites having beaten the Bays by 91 points two weeks earlier in the Second Semi Final. However the Grand Final looked gone from the Magpies’ grasp as Glenelg established a 44 point three quarter time lead, 13.12 to 6.10. Coming home with the breeze, Port Adelaide kicked 9.6 to a solitary point by Glenelg in the last quarter to win the Reserves Premiership by 15 points, 15.16 (106) to 13.13 (91). David Granger kicked 5 goals for the Premiers and Mick Hamill was judged best afield.

1980 was the footballing annus miraculus.

 

[Harlott]

The 1980’s side was a machine. I was a kid back then listening to games on the radio. Most commentators would refer to the team as the most disciplined and unrelenting side they’d seen. Norwood did extraordinarily well to push us in the GF.