Resource Port Adelaide's 1990 AFL bid via 'The Canberra Times'

[SgtSchulz]

Just found this and thought it would be amusing to some of you.

21st March
"Trio to miss Cats final hit out"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/120886781?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

24th March
"Final pre-season trial no practice game says Cats, Swans"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/120887455?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

15th April
"Younger brother shines"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122100200?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

BOOOOOOOOOM!

1 August
"Premier SA club plans AFL move"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122301794?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

1 August
"SANFL chief accuses Port of betrayal"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122301788?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

2 August
"Reserve plans still OK:ACTAFL"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122301887?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

3 August
"SA Magpies likely to ignore ultimatum"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122302100?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

4 August
"SA rebel club's entry into AFL hinges on Monday meeting"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122302254?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

5 August
"Port Adelaide fans kick, jostle critic"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122302558?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

6 August
Put Port Adelaide into AFL: Oakley
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122302786?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

7 August
AFL puts of Port decision
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122302866?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

8 August
Uncertain week for Port as SANFL adjourns
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122303186?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

9 August
Port Adelaide sued
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122303309?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

Norwood really did F&^$ it up for themselves.

10 August
AFL sought Norwood
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122303541?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

11 August
The big men fly for parochialism
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122303656?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

11 August
Port fighting AFL deadline
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122303688?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

14 August
Kelly keeps distance from Port controversy
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122304414?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

ICKY...

15 August
SANFL endorses composite bid (over 100 years of SANFL football for a Baltimore knock-off?)
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122304458?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

And it continued...http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l-category=Article&l-decade=199&l-

 

[I Dont Care]

It was big news back then, even the Cairns Post was running the story

 

[Ford Fairlane]

And I thought my summary of the 1990 AFL bid was a bit tl;dr.

Might have to go through the articles and see if I can expand the report.

 

[Powerstufff]

Fantastic post SgtSchulz. Painful revisiting it all though.
Interesting reading AFL sought Norwood, if I ever knew about that I'd forgotten it.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

How could poort powa try and join the afl in 1990? They didn't exist until 1996???

Signed,

S cRowe & G Cornes.

 

[bringbackbucky]

Interesting that Richmond were the only Club to supprot our bid over the SANFL's. They've been helping us out even before we were in the league!

 

[SgtSchulz]

Fantastic post SgtSchulz. Painful revisiting it all though.
Interesting reading AFL sought Norwood, if I ever knew about that I'd forgotten it.

Funniest thing was that the first SANFL bid was all about how Port Adelaide shouldn't be in the AFL. The AFL subsequently told the SANFL that they needed to actually make a bid, not just bag Port.

 

[Powerstufff]

Funniest thing was that the first SANFL bid was all about how Port Adelaide shouldn't be in the AFL. The AFL subsequently told the SANFL that they needed to actually make a bid, not just bag Port.

Yeah the AFL (at that stage really just the VFL on Red Bull) played it well. We became the dummy hand in a game of contract bridge.

 

[mic59]

Always thought there was something a little sneaky about the fact that the letter of intent went to Norwood before us. The AFL could never have wanted Norwood in favour of us, we were obviously the more successful club.

 

[Powerstufff]

Always thought there was something a little sneaky about the fact that the letter of intent went to Norwood before us. The AFL could never have wanted Norwood in favour of us, we were obviously the more successful club.

Would have been interesting to see if the Adelaide establishment had been able to initiate and sustain such a backlash had it been Norwood. But parochialism aside they'd have been a perfectly valid alternative to us.

 

[Garibaldi Red]

Wow- does that bring back some memories.

Interesting comment by Ross Oakley about the SANFL clubs supporting a composite bid would lead them to obscurity - bloody pissants.

 

[Grave Danger]

Yeah the AFL (at that stage really just the VFL on Red Bull) played it well. We became the dummy hand in a game of contract bridge.

We gazumped the SNAFL; the AFL gazumped us.

 

[GranFormaggi]

Great resource - thanks for posting.

Oh to have been a bank depositor. Interest rates, according to Canberra Toyota, they were being slashed to 17.5 %

 

[Papa G]

Does anyone think that if Port and Norwood had entered the AFL, the remaining SANFL clubs and the SANFL competition itself might have been in a stronger position? ie non Port and Norwood people would have been more likely to stick with their SANFL club instead jumping aboard the Clowns/quasi state team bandwagon?

 

[I Dont Care]

How could poort powa try and join the afl in 1990? They didn't exist until 1996???

Signed,

S cRowe & G Cornes.

Rowe is too stupid, and Cornes too hateful, to recognise this logical fact

 

[Alberton Proud]

14 days to cobble together a Composite proposal and spawn the bastard child of the SNAFL

WOW

 

[Phhht]

Crows are the bastard child resulting from a torrid 14 day affair between numerous SANFL clubs. Dam it Notso was right, they should have been able to wear that State Representative Guernsey.

 

[Powerstufff]

Does anyone think that if Port and Norwood had entered the AFL, the remaining SANFL clubs and the SANFL competition itself might have been in a stronger position? ie non Port and Norwood people would have been more likely to stick with their SANFL club instead jumping aboard the Clowns/quasi state team bandwagon?

If you took Port and Norwood and their supporter bases out of the 1990 SANFL there wouldn't have been much of a SANFL left. But as a money maker similar to Cows/Port it would be interesting to know how that would have gone. The SANFL itself could have topped up with a few SAAFL teams similar to the way the VFL evolved, losing Port and Norwood would not have necessarily been the end.
If everyone knew then what they know now about the financial viability of Australian Rules football we could well have had an AFL with the much mooted two tier model using all pre-1985 (Sydney there, but no West Coast) VFL, WAFL and SANFL teams. A subject for the off-season perhaps?

 

[Rising Power]

I always give my Norwood mates a rib about it..."Norwood sent off their fax accepting the invitation 15 minutes too late!" and such like, haha.

Interesting to note that we wouldn't have been able to play at the "Council owned" Adelaide Oval, I thought that would've been in the bag but there were obviously some non-Port supporters at the ACC and SACA lol. AFL matches at Alberton, although a salivating thought, would never have worked long term.

 

[SgtSchulz]

I always give my Norwood mates a rib about it..."Norwood sent off their fax accepting the invitation 15 minutes too late!" and such like, haha.

Interesting to note that we wouldn't have been able to play at the "Council owned" Adelaide Oval, I thought that would've been in the bag but there were obviously some non-Port supporters at the ACC and SACA lol. AFL matches at Alberton, although a salivating thought, would never have worked long term.

Maybe it could have lasted for a year or two. In the long run someone would have let us use a bigger ground because $ do the talking.

 

[tribey]

Norwood really did F&^$ it up for themselves.

10 August
AFL sought Norwood
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/122303541?searchTerm="port adelaide"&searchLimits=l-category=Article|||l-decade=199|||l-year=1990|||sortby=dateAsc

Ferraro was the old buzzard who looked like a bulldog with a wasp in its mouth when the announcement was made that we'd won the second license.

That's what happens when you tow the line like a mindless sheep.

Petty little dens of misery such as Glenelg were never going to let the big boys breakaway without a fight - but at least Port had the stomach for it and was duly rewarded.

 

[Powerstufff]

.... AFL matches at Alberton, although a salivating thought, would never have worked long term.

Agreed. Even if we'd added seats, etc. I can't see transport having been able to cope.

... when you tow the line ....

Toe the line.

 

[Steve Dore]

Great resource - thanks for posting.

Oh to have been a bank depositor. Interest rates, according to Canberra Toyota, they were being slashed to 17.5 %

View attachment 61616

I don't know about deposit interest rates but I can certainly remember paying 17.5% interest on my mortgage. No first home owners grants back then either.

 

[SgtSchulz]

I don't know about deposit interest rates but I can certainly remember paying 17.5% interest on my mortgage. No first home owners grants back then either.

That is criminal.

 

[Papa G]

That is criminal.

The average house in Adelaide only cost just under $100,000 back then, whilst it was tough, people weren't mortgaged up to the eyeballs like they are now. 17.5% now would virtually wipe most people out.