Opinion Port Adelaide's biggest rival aside from the Crows

Port Adelaide's biggest rival aside from the Crows?


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Havoc

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Why is it that despite the Crows/Power both being around the same mark in terms of success in the AFL... the Crows don't have any rivalries apart from the Power, with the exception of maybe the Bulldogs? While the Power have rivalries with Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong and West Coast as well as the Crows!
 

Papa G

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Why is it that despite the Crows/Power both being around the same mark in terms of success in the AFL... the Crows don't have any rivalries apart from the Power, with the exception of maybe the Bulldogs? While the Power have rivalries with Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong and West Coast as well as the Crows!

I don't consider any of those particularly strong.

I actually think there is a bit of an onfield rivalry between Port and Richmond. Heard Jack Reiewoldt say a few years ago that Port were the team that he (and by extension the team) hated the most.
 

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Why is it that despite the Crows/Power both being around the same mark in terms of success in the AFL... the Crows don't have any rivalries apart from the Power, with the exception of maybe the Bulldogs? While the Power have rivalries with Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong and West Coast as well as the Crows!
Bland club I guess.
 

Havoc

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I don't consider any of those particularly strong.

I actually think there is a bit of an onfield rivalry between Port and Richmond. Heard Jack Reiewoldt say a few years ago that Port were the team that he (and by extension the team) hated the most.

True... and it goes without saying there's much more rivalry between Richmond/Power as opposed to Richmond/Crows. In fact, the Power have always tended to hate us.. with the exception of a brief period following the 2017 grand final... while the Crows have never hated us at all, apart from a brief period following the 2017 grand final, then they went back to liking us/being neutral towards us.

I'd like to add to this and say... the Power/Geelong rivalry is kind of similar in this regard, except the brief period where the Power didn't hate the Cats was after Patrick Dangerfield left the Crows.. to join the Cats. Meanwhile.. there's never been any rivalry between Adelaide/Geelong at all, there was a brief period of hate from the Crows faithful following Dangerfield departing.. only for the Crows to go back to liking/being neutral towards Geelong again shortly after.
 
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Oct 12, 2007
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Why is it that despite the Crows/Power both being around the same mark in terms of success in the AFL... the Crows don't have any rivalries apart from the Power, with the exception of maybe the Bulldogs? While the Power have rivalries with Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong and West Coast as well as the Crows!

The Crows are a mishmash of 9 other clubs supporters.

They have enough internal rivalries already without looking externally.
 
The Crows are a mishmash of 9 other clubs supporters.

They have enough internal rivalries already without looking externally.

This made me laugh because of how true it is.
I've never heard it articulated until now though.
 
True... and it goes without saying there's much more rivalry between Richmond/Power as opposed to Richmond/Crows. In fact, the Power have always tended to hate us.. with the exception of a brief period following the 2017 grand final... while the Crows have never hated us at all, apart from a brief period following the 2017 grand final, then they went back to liking us/being neutral towards us.

I'd like to add to this and say... the Power/Geelong rivalry is kind of similar in this regard, except the brief period where the Power didn't hate the Cats was after Patrick Dangerfield left the Crows.. to join the Cats. Meanwhile.. there's never been any rivalry between Adelaide/Geelong at all, there was a brief period of hate from the Crows faithful following Dangerfield departing.. only for the Crows to go back to liking/being neutral towards Geelong again shortly after.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

There was a long time when your serially underperforming groups had us seeing you just like your South Australian counterparts, Glenelg, who we had a habit of beating up on in big finals. All roar and no claw if you like. Off field the whole tearing yourselves apart thing, dumps of manure, a passion that had seemingly turned toxically self-destructive. A lot of us did want Dimma as coach instead of renewing Mark Williams back in 2009. After a doughnut of a start you (and that bloody weather) rained on our 140th parade in 2010. Then along came our unfulfilled flash in the pan era 2013-14, culminating in *that* elimination final, some renewed smugness towards yourselves on our part... and then then didn't the tables just turn. All that said you guys are no Collingwood, Essendon or Carlton in terms of hate from us lol. Trust me, we'll be eternally grateful for 2017 :thumbsu:
 
True... and it goes without saying there's much more rivalry between Richmond/Power as opposed to Richmond/Crows. In fact, the Power have always tended to hate us.. with the exception of a brief period following the 2017 grand final... while the Crows have never hated us at all, apart from a brief period following the 2017 grand final, then they went back to liking us/being neutral towards us.

I'd like to add to this and say... the Power/Geelong rivalry is kind of similar in this regard, except the brief period where the Power didn't hate the Cats was after Patrick Dangerfield left the Crows.. to join the Cats. Meanwhile.. there's never been any rivalry between Adelaide/Geelong at all, there was a brief period of hate from the Crows faithful following Dangerfield departing.. only for the Crows to go back to liking/being neutral towards Geelong again shortly after.
There have been some intense periods between the Port and Richmond.

In 1997 we went into Rd 6 game as favourites for the first time in our short AFL history after winning our previous 3 games, Geelong, the crows and Brisbane, the last 2 in tight games, and surprisingly we belted you by 11 goals at Footy Park and then you belted us by 14 goals at MCG 15 weeks later. Nothing too intense to start.

2 years after that there was a game at Footy Park that started off in drizzle and ended in pouring rain for all the 2nd half, the game was a slug fest, we won 4.8 v 3.12, which was our lowest score until another game in the pouring rain in Rd 10 2010 at Footy Park when you kept us to 3.12, won by 40+pts, it was Dimma's first win as a coach after 9 losses and you spoiled our 140th birthday celebration. We had started the year promisingly at 5-2 but Tredrea did his ankle in that 7th game where we beat Essendon by a goal, it was his last ever game, we lost the next 2 and the loss to Richmond set the rot in that saw us lose 9 straight and Williams was forced to walk away. He was really sacked but the club made it untenable for him to continue. The Rd 22 game in 2010 was a lot better, but Port lost by a couple of goals after leading by 5 goals at 3/4 time. Typical Port in those 2008-12 years. Edit my bad, Port won that Rd 22 2010 game by a couple goals not lost it but Richmond kicked 7 in the last quarter after Port lead by 5 at quarter time.

The 2 years before that there were 2 really tight games at Footy Park, 2008 shootout in Rd 13, both sides had only won 4 or 5 games, 19 goals v 20, you won by 4 pts and Motlop kicked 6 for us and Cleve Hughes - another spud that tore us apart between 2008-12 years also kicked 6. The next year was the Tredrea game where he kicked the goal to put us in front by 3 pts, then went and sat behind the ball at CHB after the restart and took the match saving pack mark.

The 2012 draw in Rd 22, we had sacked Primus and played Ok under Hocking but hadn't won anything and you had continued to improve had won about 10 games and a win would have meant a 9th or 10th finish, was a pretty decent game to watch

The 2014 elimination final was intense for us and we got to play our first home final in 7 years, the BS of being forced to wear a clash jumper at home that resulted in us wearing the PBs and our electric start..

The last 4 years has been reasonably intense, the last 3 games have been bloody intense, overall 7 games and 5 of them won by 14 pts or less since 2017.
 
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Sep 8, 2007
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The Crows are a mishmash of 9 other clubs supporters.

They have enough internal rivalries already without looking externally.
Tim Ginever so eloquently put it to me several years ago, when you put 9 small pieces of s**t together all you get at the end of it is one big piece of s**t.

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk
 

chickentendies

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True... and it goes without saying there's much more rivalry between Richmond/Power as opposed to Richmond/Crows. In fact, the Power have always tended to hate us.. with the exception of a brief period following the 2017 grand final... while the Crows have never hated us at all, apart from a brief period following the 2017 grand final, then they went back to liking us/being neutral towards us.

I'd like to add to this and say... the Power/Geelong rivalry is kind of similar in this regard, except the brief period where the Power didn't hate the Cats was after Patrick Dangerfield left the Crows.. to join the Cats. Meanwhile.. there's never been any rivalry between Adelaide/Geelong at all, there was a brief period of hate from the Crows faithful following Dangerfield departing.. only for the Crows to go back to liking/being neutral towards Geelong again shortly after.

Richmond were the only VFL club to honour an agreement they made with Port about us entering in the early 90's so they're my favourite club outside of Port tbh.
 
This made me laugh because of how true it is.
I've never heard it articulated until now though.

If only I could find a picture of the guy who went to an SANFL final at Adelaide Oval with two half guernseys sewn together.

I think it was half Crows half Sturt.
 

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...and yet they were the most insistent of all clubs that our recruiting concessions be as sh1t as possible.
Fear of how good we would be from day 1 because they understood us as a club. Alan Schwab was our biggest backer at the AFL and he was CEO/GM at Richmond for over a decade before he went to the VFL in 1985. He had many dealings with Port in that decade as Port played Richmond a few times.
 

EskimoPAFC

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Why is it that despite the Crows/Power both being around the same mark in terms of success in the AFL... the Crows don't have any rivalries apart from the Power, with the exception of maybe the Bulldogs? While the Power have rivalries with Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong and West Coast as well as the Crows!
They exist to beat us we exist to win premierships.

Yes Im aware we have sucked at it for 17 years but it is still the guiding principle of both clubs.
 

King Cold

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That’s why those four were the candidates. My point is that clubs must mutually identity one another as rivals. I don’t know if they see us as their rivals.

Interesting because I've been on the Crows board and the general consensus over there is they don't have any rivalries other than the Crows/Power rivalry.
 

EskimoPAFC

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Interesting because I've been on the Crows board and the general consensus over there is they don't have any rivalries other than the Crows/Power rivalry.
Yeah I explained this a couple of posts up but it is one of those rivalries where one side is facing inwards whereas the other is facing outwards.

The cows face inwards - they only want to beat Port. Every game against us is their grand final. They get more joy from us losing than they do from their own success. You can see it in the way they reference the 2007 GF (a game they weren't even involved in), so much more than they do anything that happened in 97 or 98.

Port face outwards - we want to beat everybody. Our goal is to be the dominant team in Australia again, and to win flag after flag in the AFL. Its why we have more rivals, because what happened to us in 2003, 2007, 2014, 2017, 2020 or 2021 genuinely hurts, and we want revenge on these sides that stopped us on our way to the ultimate success.
 

AFC AFeederClub

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Ken Hinkley''s our biggest rival by far, Sad but true. Every week we are fighting a professional spin doctor with his own ego pushing him forward and backed by a media protection racket and PAFC board to gutless to even question the fraud. The crows come in a long, long, long way 2nd
 
The Port vs Norwood thing is weird from the perspective of an elder millennial such as meself.

I was too young to know about footy, let alone the machinations and fallout from the 1984 GF, and then apart from the odd notable game here and there (The Parade after Anthony Williams’ passing; The Hodges Bowl), the Redlegs were an impotent afterthought until Port ascended to the national competition.

It was all about Port vs Glenelg, and to a lesser extent, Port vs North and then Port vs Centrals. Even WWT felt like more of a rivalry when they were flying circa 1993/94.
 
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