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

[Steve Dore]

Now the average wage is 36k. ......

You will find the majority are earning the minimum while a few are earning big bucks, which is why the median Is far higher than it should be which is a big reason why we are in recession

My post was in relation to the average wage not the median wage and the statistics I referenced from the ABS clearly state that they are for the "average weekly earnings" not median earnings.

 

[Portology]

If they were the club they believe themselves to be the crows wouldn't exist. Yes Port supporters are narrow-minded chum...we only see Port

Norwood would have pinched the supporter base we needed for a future composite club.

From Ross Oakley's mouth.

They spoke to Norwood first but of course the VFL were more serious about getting Port. Ultimately they wanted two sides, but only one in 1990. On the back of attendances and overwhelming recent success - 6 of 13 flags from '77-'89 FFS - Oakley knew Port was the only club whose long term underlying support level might possibly survive the shock of a composite SA AFL side at a level to sustain a later AFL entry (and leaving that possibility open helped IMO). He new a second composite side would've been on a hiding to nothing competing with a pseudo-State side already called "Adelaide". That if they went composite first, there needed to be unmistakable contrast/differentiation for the second side. Putting it all together, for Norwood to enter the AFL it had to be Port first then Norwood quickly after, or never. Never it is. Well played Nerio.

That Oakley quote is obviously kryptonite to Noords, but the lead lining on their reality deflection hats has leached into their minds, hence things like

Imagine only being able to see half the matches we played each year? Imagine finals being played all over the country.

Well TV has been a thing since the 1950s, but hey a bit new and "NIH" for some. "The AFL pushed SANFL off TV", you say? Well someone had to finance your sandpit for 25 years.

 

[*PAF]

You will find the majority are earning the minimum while a few are earning big bucks, which is why the median Is far higher than it should be which is a big reason why we are in recession

Sorry, jumped in late, missed the whole conversation and have no idea what the debate is about, but in your scenario the median would be lower that the average.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

As good as anywhere to put it, but today is 30 years since the bid was made public by Mike Sheahan in the Sunday Age.

Port Gazette: Changing the game

TODAY - July 29 - marks the 30th anniversary of SA football being changed forever by the Port Adelaide Football Club's bold bid to join the national competition. Michelangelo Rucci revisits the dramatic day in 1990 with four key players.

www.portadelaidefc.com.au

Port Gazette: Changing the game
TODAY - July 29 - marks the 30th anniversary of SA football being changed forever by the Port Adelaide Football Club's bold bid to join the national competition. Michelangelo Rucci revisits the dramatic day in 1990 with four key players.


SUNDAY, July 29, 1990 quickly became unlike every other Sunday morning in the grip of a South Australian winter - notably the last South Australian football season without the AFL positioned in Adelaide.

The weather bureau forecast was for a typically cool (15C), cloudy mid-winter's day with a shower or two from the south-west.

But from the east - from the front page of the Sunday Age newspaper - came the clap of thunder that changed South Australian football, and the State, forever.

The Port Adelaide Football Club was entering the expanding national competition, the newly badged Australian Football League.

The Australian Football League and rebel South Australian football officials are at advanced stage in secret negotiations that would see an Adelaide-based 15th team in the national competition next year.

It is believed the South Australian push to join the national league is centered on the involvement of the State's most famous club, Port Adelaide ...

Sunday Age, July 29, 1990

Today, on the 30th anniversary of the most significant event in South Australian football, we revisit and reflect with four key players in the saga - AFL chief executive Ross Oakley, Port Adelaide board member and future AFL club president Greg Boulton, Port Adelaide premiership player Bruce Abernethy and SANFL chief executive Leigh Whicker.

ROSS OAKLEY picked up his Sunday newspapers - in a pre-digital era when the news arrived with a thump on the front lawn rather than with a bell on the emails - expecting the usual rundown of the five games played on Saturday. He would have expected a quiet breakfast before going to the MCG for the Footscray-Collingwood match while Hawthorn played Brisbane on the Gold Coast.

"I looked at that front page and thought, where has that (Port Adelaide in the AFL) come from?" Oakley recalled. "Mike Sheahan had beaten our press release by a few days. I knew the cats would now be among the pigeons. It wasn't long before we had a reaction from Adelaide ..."

GREG BOULTON was on his way to club president Bruce Weber's home at West Lakes for a three-hour board meeting starting at 9am.

"We had a hint something might appear in the Melbourne media," Boulton said. "And we knew there would be a negative response from the SANFL ... so we needed to manage that, the media and every other contingency ... we were making sure we had all our ducks lined up."

BRUCE ABERNETHY had turned up at Alberton Oval for the usual Sunday morning training run, hours after Port Adelaide had advanced its win-loss record to 11-3 to command second spot on the SANFL ladder with a 62-point win against the soon-to-collapse West Torrens at Football Park.

Unusual to every other Sunday morning was the increased media attention - and not for anything Port Adelaide had done the day before at league headquarters at nearby West Lakes.

"There were television news crews working on the biggest story in SA football history," Abernethy said. "And what did we know? Nothing ... and we did not know what to believe and what not to believe."


LEIGH WHICKER was in disbelief after he took a telephone call from his league president Max Basheer, who had his quiet Sunday routine smashed by an unexpected enquiry from Melbourne.

"Scot Palmer (famous for his Palmer's Punchlines in newspapers and on Channel Seven in Melbourne) had rung Max telling him that Port Adelaide had got the nod to join the AFL," Whicker said. "All hell broke loose."

Indeed it did. The SANFL had been blindsided, as it was four years earlier when the West Australians broke a pact with Basheer to form the West Coast Eagles as their first entry to the expanding VFL in 1987. Brisbane took the spot the VFL had reserved for the SANFL that refused to budge on key entry conditions, such as the $4million licence fee.

......... on it goes with all 4 contributing

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

BOULTON: "I always tell the story of how we, as Port Adelaide representatives, would be ignored at league functions. So we decided we would gather by the buffet, knowing no-one would come near us ... and no-one would get fed.

"As a league director, I would be asked to leave meetings or not even be told of informal meetings."

 

[radiojake]

The SANFL had been blindsided, as it was four years earlier when the West Australians broke a pact with Basheer to form the West Coast Eagles as their first entry to the expanding VFL in 1987.

What was the pact?

 

[Papa G]

What was the pact?

Pretty sure the SANFL and WAFL agreed to reject the VFL's overtures whilst they were demanding high license fees.

Also I think they wanted a few of the dead weight Vic clubs ****ed off too.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

What was the pact?

That they would work together against the Vics, but it was very loose agreement because WAFC were teetering.

 

[Alberton Proud]

Should've dropped Thomas on Max's head

 

[tribey]

The SANFL had been blindsided, as it was four years earlier when the West Australians broke a pact with Basheer to form the West Coast Eagles as their first entry to the expanding VFL in 1987. Brisbane took the spot the VFL had reserved for the SANFL that refused to budge on key entry conditions, such as the $4million licence fee.

That was the moment the jig was up.

Sure Skasey’s Bears were a dumpster fire and West Coast were the furthest cry from the powerhouse they would ultimately become for the first few years of their existence, but once the national comp had snagged a heartland state? Game over.

The belief that the SANFL could sit on its hands until at least 1993/94, waiting for the AFL to beg them to join with the suite of favourable conditions not afforded to WCE/BB was naïve at best, delusional at worst.

But given the same minds twiddled their thumbs while their golden geese began to starve at Footy Park, the whole affair was hardly surprising.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

This could be interesting

 

[Grave Danger]

This could be interesting

Ross Oakley told them, but they still thought they would put in a bid for the second licence...

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Basheer had been telling Oakley that Port Adelaide did not have the cash to pay a licence fee (a point highlighted by the lack of funds at Alberton to fend off the Supreme Court battle). He also had reminded Oakley of the farce that came with selling the Sydney licence to Dr Geoffrey Edelsten.

“We will have $1 million in your league’s bank account on Monday morning,” Basheer insisted. He also spelled out how the SANFL would pay by instalments the remaining $3 million of the licence fee that ushered the Adelaide Football Club from a trademark to a reality.

Ultimately, Oakley cracked. And Port Adelaide was sunk.

“That was the key to be whole deal, the winning hand – everything else followed from the moment Max put that million dollars on the table,” Whicker said. “And in 1990, $1 million is a fair cop.”

On the return flight to Adelaide, Basheer was “worried about how the (SANFL) clubs would react … and I did not sleep well all that weekend” before a meeting with the league delegates on the Monday.

https://indaily.com.au/sport/footba...fd6eb6c258e&utm_source=EDM&utm_term=READ MORE

 

[Grave Danger]

https://indaily.com.au/sport/football/2020/09/11/max-basheer-and-the-1-million-deal-that-launched-the-crows/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDAILY September 11 2020&utm_content=INDAILY September 11 2020+CID_f34f02fe13d4b20669b77fd6eb6c258e&utm_source=EDM&utm_term=READ MORE

Mr Keating sizing up Mr Basheer as small. Exceedingly small. Mr Bannon says, "I told you, mate".

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

https://indaily.com.au/sport/football/2020/09/11/max-basheer-and-the-1-million-deal-that-launched-the-crows/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDAILY September 11 2020&utm_content=INDAILY September 11 2020+CID_f34f02fe13d4b20669b77fd6eb6c258e&utm_source=EDM&utm_term=READ MORE

As journo Garry Linnell and author of the best footy book I have read Football Ltd - The inside story of the AFL, said in 2006 Fox Footy Channel Headliners doco - The Birth of The Crows, "its about the dough, its always about the dough."

I had heard years ago that Max had written a whole lot of stuff down and had documentation that he stipulated would not be released until he died. It's why I was surprised to read;

The book is now an advancing reality. Former Advertiser journalist Penny Debelle is assisting Basheer, who is supporting his sharp memory with the meticulous notes kept in his agendas, in particular the diaries from his record 25 years as SANFL president from 1978 to 2003. Debelle’s reputation for fastidiously cross-checking across decades in print journalism ensures Basheer’s book will stand up to any test – a theme Basheer is ready to challenge with some recent recollections promoted during the 30th anniversary of the wild winter of 1990.

Penny will do a good job. I know her husband Rob and nephew Guy. I've wondered many times if the documents Basheer has, would expose the full extent of what Norwood was upto and that's why he did'nt want stuff released until after he died. Max has stayed close to his nephew David Basheer who was on the Magpies board then Power board from 2007-2012.

 

[Fizzler]

As journo Garry Linnell and author of the best footy book I have read Football Ltd - The inside story of the AFL, said in 2006 Fox Footy Channel Headliners doco - The Birth of The Crows, "its about the doh, its always about the doh."

I had heard years ago that Max had written a whole lot of stuff down and had documentation that he stipulated would not be released until he died. It's why I was surprised to read;

The book is now an advancing reality. Former Advertiser journalist Penny Debelle is assisting Basheer, who is supporting his sharp memory with the meticulous notes kept in his agendas, in particular the diaries from his record 25 years as SANFL president from 1978 to 2003. Debelle’s reputation for fastidiously cross-checking across decades in print journalism ensures Basheer’s book will stand up to any test – a theme Basheer is ready to challenge with some recent recollections promoted during the 30th anniversary of the wild winter of 1990.

Penny will do a good job. I know her husband Rob and nephew Guy. I've wondered many times if the documents Basheer has, would expose the full extent of what Norwood was upto and that's why he did'nt want stuff released until after he died. Max has stayed close to his nephew David Basheer who was on the Magpies board then Power board from 2007-2012.

This reminds me I need to finish reading Football Ltd. Bought it for $3 at an op shop next to my work a little bit ago after it'd been on my wishlist for a while. The Max Basheer book will be incredibly exciting to read too, especially given Football Ltd came out before Port's actual entry to the AFL (yet after the original bid obviously.)