Dear Members and supporters,

Tonight members of the Port Adelaide football community attended a special information evening at Alberton Oval.

It was a special moment for our club to have so many of our true believers and faithful followers welcomed into the heart of our proud football club to discuss what could be one of the most significant decisions our club makes in our lifetimes.

That decision will be made by our board tomorrow and it will be to answer the question of how our club looks into the future.

To understand our club, you only need look back to last Saturday.

In Melbourne, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was singing the praises of our club – the most successful in the history of senior Australian Football – as our AFL side fought its way to its first finals victory in six years against our old ‘sister club’ Collingwood.

Earlier that day, back in Adelaide, our SANFL boys fought their way back to a fantastic win over our old enemies Glenelg down at the Bay, believing it was their last game in the mighty prison bar guernsey!

Both performances epitomise the spirit of Port Adelaide. Both teams against the odds, displaying a will to win and never say die attitude that has been the envy of sporting clubs all over Australia for 143 years.

No longer should we view our club strictly in terms of Power, or Magpies.

We have never worn the same guernsey or had the same nickname throughout our history, but we have always been Port Adelaide.

We should view ourselves and fight for our future as the Port Adelaide Football Club.

Our current fight is about preserving the very essence of this great club.

Are we prepared to fight this battle together as ‘One Club’ or will we continue to allow outside forces to again drive a wedge into the Port Adelaide community and divide it against itself?

Our club has been compromised since 1997. We’ve paid a heavy price:

- No premierships for the Magpies since 1999
- No finals appearances in the AFL for six years
Before 2010 the proud Magpies were banished to Ethelton, and we know the state the Power has been in since 2007!

That is not what this club is about.

We need to construct a future that enables us to win AFL and SANFL premierships, gives our kids the opportunity to play and play well for Port Adelaide and, perhaps most importantly, be united as a club that is all pulling in one direction.

Without unity, I doubt that we can ever be truly successful again. Notwithstanding all of our grit and determination, it’s simply all too hard out there! We’ve got to be on the same bus.

Tonight I explained to those members in attendance at Alberton everything that we’ve been through over the past four months. This is an emotional issue and, as you read this I do ask that you consider it carefully.

Our original proposal to the SANFL Commission was as follows:
- AFL (Power)
- SANFL League (Magpies)
- SANFL Reserves
- U18, U16, U15-U13 talent squads.
- A reduction of our metro and country zones to 75% of current and
- A salary cap at 25% of current.

Simply put, this was rejected by the commission.

Why? I get the feeling that the SANFL want us to, in a way, be either an AFL or an SANFL club as opposed to an organisation that operates two distinctly separate structures.

At the same time that our proposal was rejected, the Adelaide Football Club submitted a proposal that was subsequently accepted by the SANFL.

We were offered a ‘reserves’ team under those conditions by the SANFL. While many encouraged myself and our chairman to fight to the death on that issue, I have been concerned that a move to dissolve the Magpies’ license on November 1 could be a genuine consideration by the League.

We are not considering the very expensive option of uprooting our club and playing in the VFL competition.

Nor have we considered the possibility of completely throwing the Magpies out the window!

What we have done is worked closely with the SANFL to negotiate a solution that suits the needs of our club and the integrity of their competition.

What the SANFL have come back to us with is the following model:

1. Port Adelaide AFL (playing as the Power)

2. Port Adelaide SANFL League (playing as the Magpies and retaining our traditional guernsey)
This team is made up of those players not selected for the AFL team each week and members from a pool of 15 contracted SANFL-only players. As of today the SANFL has allowed us to contract players to this list without an age-cap. In return, the salary cap for these players has been significantly reduced.

3. Port Adelaide SANFL Reserves (also as the Magpies and wearing the traditional guernsey)
From 2014 onwards this team will be our elite talent academy made up largely of 18-22 year old players. Our pool of 15 League-contracted players will be able to play at this level.

4. A series of youth development academies including a country and indigenous development program, an international player pathway, a father/son academy (much like those used by Victorian AFL clubs) and a metropolitan development program.

In 2014 we are required and will continue to operate junior Magpie teams in the U18, U16 and junior talent squad competitions.

I think this is a really good model that will help ensure a competitive Magpies team in the SANFL and help to keep our proud state league as the second-best competition outside of the AFL. That is something important to all of us.

In return, we will hand back our annual dividend from the SANFL to the competition for a right to maintain this model.

I believe this model was positively received by those members and supporters in attendance tonight.

I hope it will be similarly received by our wider supporter base.

For me the headline is that Port Adelaide is open for business, that we’re the Power in the AFL, the Magpies in the SANFL and, most importantly, we are Port Adelaide.

Our board of directors will vote on this model tomorrow. It has already cleared the SANFL with a 7-1 vote. For me that means that most of the league clubs are supportive of us, understand our commitment to them, and want to have a Magpies side that they can try and beat every week of the year.

If it is passed, we will begin work immediately towards building a football club for every Port Adelaide supporter and working tirelessly to make us truly ‘One Club’

Congratulations again to the Magpies boys on their great win to finish 2013, and make sure you cheer hard for our AFL lads against the Cats on Friday night.

We Are Port Adelaide
KT