Official Club Stuff The Licence The Lunch

[MagPower83]

Is there a dress code for these? I'm quite happy to attend in my lace up PB over my newest BiB... But if it's a shirt & tie affair Im more than happy to break out the PAFC tie...

Really looking forward to this!

 

[AdamMarrett]

Can someone please post a write up from this function.Would've loved to attend but being in Perth a slight issue.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Where are our updates you slackers?

 

[tribey]

The SANFL crashed the lunch using the cast of terrorists from Die Hard 1. REH just called Professor Snape "booby".

 

[manureid]

The SANFL crashed the lunch using the cast of terrorists from Die Hard 1. REH just called Professor Snape "booby".

Has Dingle headlocked anyone yet?

 

[Ford Fairlane]

REH is now called JohnMcClaneFeetcut.

 

[Garibaldi Red]

All I will say is Glenelg voted against the Crows

 

[manureid]

All I will say is Glenelg voted against the Crows

How or why does one vote against itself?

 

[Rising Power]

All I will say is Glenelg voted against the Crows

Was it the ol "We don't think there should be a South Australian team in the AFL...but if there is, please let it be us"?

 

[Powerstufff]

Where are our updates you slackers?

Too busy either laughing or going "Wow!" Excellent event would tell you some of it but am now home and getting ready to go into town.
Road workers on the eastern side of Tapleys Hill Road at the rail line intersection near Trimmer Parade are a lazy, contemptuous bunch of campaigners. Traffic must have been backed up 2km and there were 7 guys standing in a blocked-off lane while one of them desultorily moved asphalt with a crowbar.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Was it the ol "We don't think there should be a South Australian team in the AFL...but if there is, please let it be us"?

If only there'd been more of this attitude.

It's the most effective stick to bash Norwood people with and it has a lifetime guarantee

 

[Rising Power]

If only there'd been more of this attitude.

It's the most effective stick to bash Norwood people with and it has a lifetime guarantee

I'm particularly fond of using this stick. Most of my old school mates are Norwood supporters. The father of one of them has been heavily involved with the club in training/support role for years. And my old man used to employ a bloke whose father was one of Norwood's 3 key men that dealt with the AFL back in 1990. They hate me for it, and especially hate Port Adelaide, but even more so they despise the Crows too!

 

[tribey]

I'm particularly fond of using this stick. Most of my old school mates are Norwood supporters. The father of one of them has been heavily involved with the club in training/support role for years. And my old man used to employ a bloke whose father was one of Norwood's 3 key men that dealt with the AFL back in 1990. They hate me for it, and especially hate Port Adelaide, but even more so they despise the Crows too!

Yeah, unless you weren't yet born or were an impressionable kid with no idea on the matter, how could you be any other way?

In one fell swoop the club you've supported all your life is relegated to permanent obscurity. Forever. A ramshackle would-be cashcow in GWS is more famous for getting bollocked Australia-wide for a few seasons than Norwood is for being the second force in South Australia for over a century, for goodness sakes.

If in some hypothetical distant future an international Aussie Rules hypermegagigaleague ever started up and the only participants from this country were Collingwood, West Coast and a composite national team - let's call them the Australia Australias - are we sticking with Port in the AFL or are we going balls deep with the green and gold tilt?

Madness.

 

[bomberclifford]

Just got back.

Had a great afternoon. The speakers were fantastic.

Cos Cardone gave a media perspective with some very funny anecdotes about the day we signed the HOA.
(the story about Dave Judd being the one who was spotted entering the lawyers office that tipped off Cardone about what was going on was a laugh.)

Boulton and Oakley gave an inside and outside perspective of what happened and why.

Bucky and Boulten then gave a run down of the lead up to the second license with some pretty significant insights into the duplicity of some clubs.
(Glenelg, Norwood, Collingwood and Centrals)

KT & Koch gave a summary of the last few years and how we've got to where we are.

The common theme throughout the day was the petty bullshit from the SANFL that is still being dealt with today.

The thing I liked is that Oakley didn't play the 'party line' and gave a pretty honest account of the whole journey from the VFL/AFL side.

 

[chiwigi]

Centrals wanting to merge with us and Collingwood wanting to turn us into an SA Collingwood franchise were eye openers for me.

 

[Powerstufff]

Centrals wanting to merge with us and Collingwood wanting to turn us into an SA Collingwood franchise were eye openers for me.

The timing of both of those things is relevant. Too tired, too beered up to think about explaining them having just got home.

 

[Garibaldi Red]

Centrals wanting to merge with us and Collingwood wanting to turn us into an SA Collingwood franchise were eye openers for me.

I was surprised it took us 20 minutes to tell the Wobblers to go and get fcuked

 

[Garibaldi Red]

The timing of both of those things is relevant. Too tired, too beered up to think about explaining them having just got home.

'Twas a very long day but bloody enjoyable

 

[bomberclifford]

Rucci already bringing up some little tidbits against Cornes.

 

[Powerstufff]

Some background
Barry Curtin set this up, and had been trying to do so for a couple of years. KT had held him off over concerns about legal action but once Oakley had published his book saw no reason to stop him any more.
Curtin as always MC'd smoothly, very humorously, and in a totally Port biased way.
The upstairs room at the Port Club was packed, I think they said 280 people so a good little money maker.
So many famous people from the Port diaspora were there it was a bit surreal. Not Jack Cahill though, they made a point of mentioning that so there must have been a story there for some of the attendees but it wasn't spelt out to us plebs. Other well known faces too e.g. Rucci
Chiwigi was given the fish option instead of the steak option and had to be quite assertive to get it changed, it was like watching Seinfeld's Soup Nazi episode in real life. Just put that in for balance, can't keep saying everything was great.

Cos Cardone
then a journalist with The News, now a PAFC board member
Great story about getting a whiff of us meeting with the then VFL** in 1990 but then suddenly unable to contact anyone from the club. Some incredible detective work had him and Ray Titus sitting in the top floor of the Union Hotel on Waymouth St watching the offices of the club's lawyer across the road. We are crap at cloak and dagger, having the meeting 200m away from the News Ltd offices. They sprang our then President Bruce Webber in the Topham Mall carpark around midnight and the fun began.

Ross Oakley
Former AFL Chairman
Reminded everyone Aussie Rules football was a busted-arse sport in the 80s. From the VFL perspective a number of clubs were technically insolvent. That included West Coast which was saved from going under by loans from 6 WA millionaires. Far from selling TV rights the VFL struggled to give them away and one season back in his tenure Ch7 grudgingly agreed to limited coverage only a couple of weeks before the season got underway.
Their strategy* was to have a local club and a composite club from each of SA and WA. Port was earmarked for SA and South and East Fremantle were to field a joint team over there (more on this in a moment).
Super interestingly for me Max Basheer approached the expanding VFL in 1982 with an SA plan for a team that would use players from all the SANFL teams (no details given - buy the book I guess). The proposal was very impressive, too impressive as it turns out as the VFL clubs felt it was too strong and knocked it back. Subsequent to that the SANFL hummed and hahed about entering a team into a national competition by 1993 at the earliest.
Throughout Oakley's tenure one enduring truth became apparent, where clubs were directly involved in planning for the sport they were useless self-serving campaigners. For example the 2 Freo WAFL teams could not work together to set up an AFL team and the AFL had to bypass them and set the Dockers up as a stand alone team. The VFL had to establish an AFL Commission because the clubs taking strategic decisions themselves was a nightmare. Based on those two scenarios the SANFL was told to set up a Commission to oversee its AFL licence once the Cows won it. This never proved a success in SA as once Port was given a licence the Commission behaved in as partisan a way that it was if the licences were governed by the SANFL clubs themselves.
Anyway Norwood was named as trying to enter the soon to be AFL pre-1990 whereas the VFL was actually inviting us. Not a slight to Norwood as such but the VFL's view that we had a strong geographical base. Once the poo hit the fan in 1990 neither Port nor the VFL had the cash to fight the legal stoush the SANFL had initiated. Had we had a supporter with deep pockets things could have been very different. Even surrendering cost Port/the VFL $180,000 in SANFL court costs and I'm not sure if Oakley was joshing but he said he had to put his house up as surety to raise that money.
Interestingly he said that despite the public pretence of putting the 1996 licence to tender Port were always going to get it, which made Bucky Cunningham react. All that work put into the bid and he could have handed up a A4 sheet of paper saying "Port are interested' and we'd have still got it.
FWIW Oakley said lots more about visits, negotiations, the culture of footy in those days and so on. A good speaker.

Greg Boulton and Brian Cunningham
Former president, former CEO
Probably those who weren't there would have been familiar with much of what these guys said. Both were involved with both bids. There was lots on the short sighted, destructive attitude of the SANFL both then and now. The forced retention of the Magpies, but in a perpetually emasculated version - until this year when finally structured to be competitive again but stripped of Juniors, recruiting zones etc. Tribute made to Bruce Webber, now deceased.

David Koch and Keith Thomas
Board Chairman, CEO
Their talk dovetailed with that of Boulton and Bucky.

* Once South Melbourne had moved to Sydney, and West Coast and Brisbane Bears had been set up
** edited as said AFL initially

 

[Forzaport]

Great review, thanks Powerstufff

 

[Winestoppable]

Did Oakley mention anything about his confusing and contradictive view about who is Port Adelaide in the AFL?

 

[Changaneen]

Centrals wanting to merge with us and Collingwood wanting to turn us into an SA Collingwood franchise were eye openers for me.

What !!

 

[Changaneen]

Some background
Barry Curtin set this up, and had been trying to do so for a couple of years. KT had held him off over concerns about legal action but once Oakley had published his book saw no reason to stop him any more.
Curtin as always MC'd smoothly, very humorously, and in a totally Port biased way.
The upstairs room at the Port Club was packed, I think they said 280 people so a good little money maker.
So many famous people from the Port diaspora were there it was a bit surreal. Not Jack Cahill though, they made a point of mentioning that so there must have been a story there for some of the attendees but it wasn't spelt out to us plebs. Other well known faces too e.g. Rucci
Chiwigi was given the fish option instead of the steak option and had to be quite assertive to get it changed, it was like watching Seinfeld's Soup Nazi episode in real life. Just put that in for balance, can't keep saying everything was great.

Cos Cardone
then a journalist with The News, now a PAFC board member
Great story about getting a whiff of us meeting with the then VFL in 1990 but then suddenly unable to contact anyone from the club. Some incredible detective work had him and Ray Titus sitting in the top floor of the Union Hotel on Waymouth St watching the offices of the club's lawyer across the road. We are crap at cloak and dagger, having the meeting 200m away from the News Ltd offices. They sprang our then President Bruce Webber in the Topham Mall carpark around midnight and the fun began.

Ross Oakley
Former AFL Chairman
Reminded everyone Aussie Rules football was a busted-arse sport in the 80s. From the VFL perspective a number of clubs were technically insolvent. That included West Coast which was saved from going under by loans from 6 WA millionaires. Far from selling TV rights the VFL struggled to give them away and one season back in his tenure Ch7 grudgingly agreed to limited coverage only a couple of weeks before the season got underway.
Their strategy was to have a local club and a composite club from each of SA and WA. Port was earmarked for SA and South and East Fremantle were to field a joint team over there (more on this in a moment).
Super interestingly for me Max Basheer approached the expanding AFL in 1982 with an SA plan for a team that would use players from all the SANFL teams (no details given - buy the book I guess). The proposal was very impressive, too impressive as it turns out as the VFL clubs felt it was too strong and knocked it back. Subsequent to that the SANFL hummed and hahed about entering a team into a national competition by 1993 at the earliest.
Throughout Oakley's tenure one enduring truth became apparent, Where clubs were directly involved in planning for the sport they were useless self-serving campaigners. For example the 2 Freo WAFL teams could not work together to set up an AFL team and the AFL had to bypass them and set the Dockers up as a stand alone team. The VFL had to establish an AFL Commission because the clubs taking strategic decisions themselves was a nightmare. Based on those two scenarios the SANFL was told to set up a Commission to oversee its AFL licence once the Cows won it. This never proved a success in SA as once Port was given a licence the Commission behaved in as partisan a way that it was if the licences were governed by the SANFL clubs themselves.
Anyway Norwood was named as trying to enter the soon to be AFL pre-1990 whereas the VFL was actually inviting us. Not a slight to Norwood as such but the VFL's view that we had a strong geographical base. Once the poo hit the fan in 1990 neither Port nor the VFL had the cash to fight the legal stoush the SANFL had initiated. Had we had a supporter with deep pockets things could have been very different. Even surrendering cost Port/the VFL $180,000 in SANFL court costs and I'm not sure if Oakley was joshing but he said he had to put his house up as surety to raise that money.
Interestingly he said that despite the public pretence of putting the 1996 licence to tender Port were always going to get it, which made Bucky Cunningham react. All that work put into the bid and he could have handed up a A4 sheet of paper saying "Port are interested' and we'd have still got it.
FWIW Oakley said lots more about visits, negotiations, the culture of footy in those days and so on. A good speaker.

Greg Boulton and Brian Cunningham
Former president, former CEO
Probably those who weren't there would have been familiar with much of what these guys said. Both were involved with both bids. There was lots on the short sighted, destructive attitude of the SANFL both then and now. The forced retention of the Magpies, but in a perpetually emasculated version - until this year when finally structured to be competitive again but stripped of Juniors, recruiting zones etc. Tribute made to Bruce Webber, now deceased.

David Koch and Keith Thomas
Board Chairman, CEO
Their talk dovetailed with that of Boulton and Bucky.

Thanks Powerstufff.

 

[Powerstufff]

What !!

As everyone tried to come up with ways to make footy in general profitable, and their own clubs in particular viable, it seems there were many 'Sliding Doors' moments. I can't recall the timing and exact circumstances of the proposal from Centrals, but I do remember other SANFL clubs were discussing alliances too. I don't remember who brought that up, probably Boulton or Cunningham. Or could have been Barry Curtin stirring, he does that.
The Collingwood proposal was made quite professionally and seriously after we more or less had the second SA licence. It would have fundamentally been Collingwood West. We weren't told the money/conditions offered unless anyone went up to people and questioned them later. Any ideas there RussellEbertHandball?