Sick of the Americanisms in naming clubs

[Port Adelaide 1870]

The Power ? for 84 years known as the Magpies, then renamed the Power ?
Like what is a Power ? what does it represent ? Who is he, what association does it have with Port Adelaide ? the classic was Greg Boulton once said it represented the Torrens Island Power station in an off the cuff reply at a function where someone asked "Greg what is a Power ?" He replied " Err Umm, it Er Um .....Oh it represents the Power station at Torrens Island, you Know the one that generates Electricity "

For those who dont know Torrens Island is in a mangrove swamp athe inlet to the Port river, it has an Electricity generation plant there. No correlation to the club at all.

Storm
Thunder
lightning

Blah !!!!!! at least the 36'ers have a historical link to Adelaide, as in the year Adelaide was established 1836

The Crows....bleccchhh !, but at least it is a bird !!! Something that flies and pecks.

Brisbane are the Lions Grrrrrrrrrr. that is good.

What are your thoughts ?

PA1870

 

[Darky]

What about the Eastern Ranges in the under 18s comp. Note "Ranges", not "Rangers".
What is a Range exactly? If it's a reference to mountains, its just puzzling to say the least.

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Live by the sword, or die by the law!

 

[sandie]

Darky
I think Eatern Ranges is quite a good name for a Vic side, I don't know where they are located though, are they near the dandenongs?
If they are it is a very appropriate name.
Cheers

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mantis

 

[ptw]

PA1870

good topic

I tend to agree....I liked the Black Diamonds myself.

The thing I have come to realise is that decisions such as this are not made to please you and I.

The war is for the non-aligned 6 year olds.

You and I are going to support Port regardless of what they are called. The club wants trendy colours and an American name because that is what appeals to pre-pubecent (sp ?) Australian youth.

I think the club should do everything it can to swing those 6 year olds. The biggest risk the club has is continuing to associate itself exclusively with the Port Area and its tradition. You don't want to ditch this by any means but it does seriously limit your potential market.

I also think that was the reason behind the change this year to drop the "Port" from the official logo. It was dressed as a "Its Port Adelaide Power not Port Power" but I think it was to lose the Port altogether. The right thing to do in my mind.

btw - what is a blue ?

ptw

 

[Jock]

Something you often find yourself in if you happen to be misguided enough to go for Carlton.

I agree with the sentiment of this topic, but the Lions have been around for much longer than the need to adopt americanisms.

 

[Port Adelaide 1870]

Originally posted by Jock:
Something you often find yourself in if you happen to be misguided enough to go for Carlton.

I agree with the sentiment of this topic, but the Lions have been around for much longer than the need to adopt americanisms.

Jock, Sorry for any misunderstanding..

I wasnt suggesting the Crows or the Lions were americanisms, They at least went against all trends, surveys, public opinion, market research that showed calling your club some sort of electrical discharge name was the way to go.

PTW, we'll discuss Ports efforts at changing its public profile later, if you like.


PA1870

 

[AlfAndrews]

Really, if you're talking about Americanisms, surely the ultimate Americanism is the West Coast Eagles. Yech!!!

I have always loathed that name. It sounds like a bad rock band from California.

That "west coast" style of rock music that was so big in the 70s has got to be the most vomit-inducing schmaltz ever inflicted on modern culture.

Then to go and name an Australian Rules Football club after it ... paying homage, at the same time, to one of the worst rock bands to ever inflict their west coast chunderings on to the collective audiences of the world ... has gotta tell you something about where the collective Western Australian consciousness is at.

Bloody cowboys.

Why didn't they just call the frigging club "Perth"?

I agree that the Port Power thing was ****ed. There's no reason why they couldn't have kept the black and white colours. Collingwood were a real pain in the arse (note the Aussie spelling) over that. After all, Geelong and Carlton have had the same colours for yonks and no-one seems to worry about that. It might have got a bit confusing to have another club called the Magpies ... but, yeah, they could have come up with a more dinkum name than "Power".

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**floreat pica**

 

[CJH]

The Eastern Ranges are so named because of their proximity to the Dandenong Ranges as suggested by Sandie.

I quite like the nickname of the Melbourne Storm - quite a good reflection on the screwed up weather we get here.

I do agree with PA1870 that the Power is a nothing kind of name, not something that can be readily associated with. For me, I can readily identify with a Tiger. Not quite so easy being a Power!

While I am at it, I don't care much for either of the Power jumpers. Not striking at all. My view is that Port should wear the traditional black and white Port Adelaide Magpies jumper. Now that has some tradition and meaning behind it. I also don't think that Collingwood have any exclusive rights to the black and white colours.

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This is a hallucination and these faces are in a dream. A computer generated environment; a fantasy island you can do anything and not have to face the consequences.

 

[Woofer]

Gets a bit much. There's now a Western Bulldogs from Footscray, Western Magpies (Laverton), Western Lions (Mortlake, about 250 ks from Melbourne - where's the affiliation with the local community ?

Anyway, I think the worst I've heard is the Vic womens soccer team called the Victorian Vision. Vision ? I also shuddered the other night on ESPN sport where the yankee commentator referred to Manachester United as a successful "franchise" - hate that word.

 

[GoEagles]

Alf - They didnt name the club 'Perth' because they wanted the clubs name to represent the WHOLE state of Western Australia.

As for the term 'West Coast'. About 99% of the Eagles supporters refer the term "Eagles" to the clubs name. People dont say 'Whos your favorite West Coast player', but 'Whos your favorite Eagles player.' IMHO the 'West Coast' term has been created from the AFL and media, certainly not from the supporters itself.

 

[Frodo]

Good point GoEagles. Certainly the term 'West Coast' is hardly used at all over here and I guess because of that Fremantle is more often or not referred to as the Dockers ( apart from derogatory names). So the question comes to mind that if the Eagles changed name to Perth Eagles then would the two WA teams be referred to more as Perth and Freo?
In fact West Coast is such a broad name perhaps it should be changed to Perth.
How wound a local team called Victoria Vulcans go down in Melbourne?

 

[Darky]

Dunno about Vulcans but Jimmy Hird has the ears to be their first captain.

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Give me a woman who loves beer, and I will conquer the world!!!!!!!!!

 

[a _fan_to_talk_to]

Yes, i think the 'Eagles' should be called Perth as West Coast covers the whole state including Fremantle.

 

[Woofer]

Why are Australians always being sucked in by the way the yanks do things.

 

[Crow54]

Originally posted by ptw:
PA1870

The thing I have come to realise is that decisions such as this are not made to please you and I.

The war is for the non-aligned 6 year olds.

You and I are going to support Port regardless of what they are called. The club wants trendy colours and an American name because that is what appeals to pre-pubecent (sp ?) Australian youth.

If the Power was trying to attract youngsters to its cause, they made a big mistake with its name, logo and mascot. Surely the littlies would have loved a PIRATE. Imagine the fun they could have had with that image. Lots of little Long John's running around. The fans already use the skull & cross bones flag, so there wouldn't be much change there.... The present Mascot is a poor Timmy Ginever look-a-like which surely appeals to no-one.

Port Adelaide Pirates has a definite ring to it. The "Power" leaves itself open to all sorts of rubbishing, eg who turned the power off, etc.

 

[Asgardian]

As A Port Adelaide person I accepted that we could never enter the AFL as the Magpies or with the Black & White colours.
However I would have preferred a nickname such as "the Sharks", or "the Pirates"

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Chris

 

[CJH]

Asgardian,

I hear what you are saying. When Port were joining the competition, they needed Collingwoods vote, and agreed to change the Emblem and add an extra colour. Fine.

I don't think they could ever consider using the Magpie emblem as this would be way too confusing.

I cannot see why they cannot use just the black and white colours. Again, I don't believe Collingwood should have any exclusive rights to them.

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This is a hallucination and these faces are in a dream. A computer generated environment; a fantasy island you can do anything and not have to face the consequences.

 

[fighting fury]

It's interesting the whole name the team thing isn't it? Where they find the names is one thing and how they put them together is another.

Of course Australia will follow America. It's like that term 'keep up with the Jones's'.

If any of you have read a book by 'Ben Elton', he summarises Aussie's naming down to the tee. Can't quite remember the name of the book, but the gist of it was, we ozzies name things as we see it, while others colour coat.

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Welcome to the jungle

 

[jod23]

I like the name West Coast and everyone knows there a Perth team, its just a name. Like the Perth Wildcats arent officially called the Perth Wildcats anymore, there official name is the Bankwest Wildcats which i personally think is a disgrace but everyone knows there from Perth. Same rule applies for West Coast.

 

[Roylion]

I agree CJH,

I also cannot see why Port Adelaide can't use just the black and white colours. After all three clubs use blue and white in different shades and different proportions on their jumpers. In my view Port Adelaide should have been nicknamed the Pirates or the Raiders and worn an "all black" guernsey with the token white colour being limited to the number on the back.

 

[Asgardian]

True, there is no logical reason, at the league level, why Port couldn't enter as a Black & White team, it was emotion on the surface by Collingwood people, they felt ownership for Black & White.
However, deeper than that Collingwoods board needed to retain sole ownership of the colours for marketing/sponsorship purposes. The thinking was along the lines of "Potential sponsors who wanted to be associated with a Black & White club would be left with only one option - Collingwood - just as long as Port were refused those colours".
Collingwood was protecting a valuable differential between it and the rest of the league. Frankly I agree with Collingwood's business decision, therefore Port HAD to add a 3rd colour.

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Chris

 

[ptw]

infact Port added 2 colours teal and silver...although silver is not on the jumper.


Watch for a new black white and silver jumper in the future.

I agree that the "Power" is lame, and I like the comments about Pirates appealing to kids...also keeps up the aquatic theme.

For any yachties out there we could also have used the Port Adelaide Commodores....to compete of course with the Camry Crows

I don't mind having port playing in different colours in the AFL, like I said the club needs to think broader than simply the old Port Adelaide in order to survive in the long term.

ptw

 

[Stealth bomber]

I don't think "West Coast" is that American a name really. If you look at the NFL or whatever you won't see that many regionalized nicknames. I will admit that we tend to name teams after states a lot, though. Perhaps they thought "W.A. Eagles" didn't sound all that appealing.

The only such incident that I can really think of in the US where a team name was changed to a more regional name was when the Boston Patriots became the New England Patriots around 1970. I take that back...there's the Carolina Panthers too, so-named so that both North Carolina nor South Carolina had a legit claim, which I think is an idea that makes sense.

Don't blame us.

(btw, I *hate* the band too)