OCTOBER 25, 1996. Port Adelaide was finally at the AFL draft table, albeit with recruiting concessions inaugural chief executive Brian Cunningham argues were watered down too much.
Port Adelaide did not have the No.1 draft pick, as would be expected with the new entry to the national competition. That was taken away, along with picks No.2, 3, 4 and 5 - and second-round picks Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 - for claiming established, uncontracted talent at West Coast (Ian Downsborough), Essendon (inaugural captain Gavin Wanganeen and Scott Cummings), Fitzroy (Matthew Primus) and Sydney (Adam Heuskes).
History was in the making at pick No.6 - Port Adelaide's first call at an AFL national draft, 15 years after the club had felt the sting of the first VFL draft with Richmond claiming (but not collecting) Peter Hofner and Melbourne seeking Danny Hughes.
Port Adelaide already had loaded up with youth from the SANFL - notably with Peter Burgoyne, Darren Mead and Warren Tredrea and Michael Wilson at Port Adelaide and Stuart Dew from Central District, among 29 South Australian pre-draft selections.
Experience was part of the draft strategy.
Port Adelaide's first draftee ... at No.6: John Rombotis, left behind by Brisbane after eight Fitzroy players were kept on AFL contracts with the new Lions (while the Bears were mothballed in the first VFL-AFL merger). The second, at No.7, was the untried young forward Bowen Lockwood.
Rombotis had less than a fortnight earlier celebrated his 20th birthday. He had been through the draft system before - called at No.23 to Fitzroy in the 1994 national draft, after making his mark in the under-age system with the Sandringham Dragons in Melbourne. A midfielder, he sampled four AFL games in 1995 - and established himself as a centreman in 1996 when Fitzroy was being torn apart by financial crises.
"I was having a really good year ... working to Matthew Primus as the ruckman," recalls Rombotis, who was regularly scoring from the midfield in a losing team. He played all 22 games while Fitzroy was running out of money and time to engineer another salvation plan.
Port Adelaide and Brisbane were to pick the cream of Fitzroy's talent.
"By round 14 or 15, the Port Adelaide crew was meeting me," recalls Rombotis. "(Inaugural senior coach) John Cahill was a fantastic motivator. When they told me I would be picked up in the club's first national draft, I sensed the big occasion. They left me with one message - 'Keep doing what you're doing'.
"Those last eight weeks were not easy at Fitzroy (as the founding VFL club was recast in the forced merger with Brisbane). I played average footy for those last eight weeks, moving out of centre to play a role at half-forward, sometimes getting a run on the ball."
Port Adelaide stayed true to its promise to draft Rombotis. He went from the turmoil of a club in death to the excitement of a club in growth from the SANFL to the AFL.
"I know about extremes in football, like having every club wanting to draft you - to none wanting to talk to you," Rombotis said. "That last game with Fitzroy ... we were pumped by Fremantle (86-point loss) at Subiaco Oval in Perth and we wanted to do everything right by the fans who had made the trip west to see our last game.
"It had been a hard 12 months. There would have been 6000 Fitzroy fans there for the last game. We had to honour them ... and what pub do you think we find in front of us straight after the game? The Brisbane Hotel ... what a place to finish for a group of guys who had decided they were not going to Brisbane!"
Rombotis signed a three-year deal with Port Adelaide.
"And I loved everything about Port Adelaide," says Rombotis. "Everything. The positive energy (that contrasted all the doom that had fallen on Fitzroy). The professionalism. The attitude, the reluctance to accept failure. The determination to win; the expectation to win. It was a fantastic feeling.
"I have great memories of Greg Phillips who was a fantastic assistant coach.
"And what a start-up year for the club. We were equal second after round 17 in our first season. That is remarkable for a new team in the best football completion in Australia. We are playing for a finals spot in that last game - the one against St Kilda when Princess Diana died.
"What a fantastic club. Great culture. Everyone was there for each other."
And even with these feelings, Rombotis opted to seek a trade at the end of the first season - after playing nine games.
"Bad decision," Rombotis says on reflection. "I had a lot of injuries that season. I wanted a change. But I should never have left. I was at a fantastic club with great history ... I should have stayed."
Rombotis was expecting to be traded to Carlton.
"And I wanted to go to Carlton," Rombotis said. "The clubs had agreed ... problem was the Carlton player in the trade did not pass the medical (as Adrian Whitehead endured nerve and tendon damage to the foot he broke against Geelong in round 20, missing all of 1998).
"I had Richmond and St Kilda knocking ..."
Rombotis moved to Richmond in a trade that brought Chris Naish to Alberton. He played 13 senior games in three seasons at Richmond and closed his AFL career at 48 games (23 goals) - and at the age of 23.
"And at 25 I was on a new stage - the auction stage of real estate," says Rombotis.
That stage has extended to the boxing ring as Australia's version of famed American Michael Buffer with Rombotis priming all to "get ready to rumble" at the Anthony Mundine-Danny Green fight in 2017.
"The adrenaline rush from football is there in real estate during an auction too," says Rombotis. "This year marks 25 in real estate for me.
"I am proud to be part of Port Adelaide's history - and proud of the way the club has grown in the AFL. The pre-game is pretty special. That night against Gold Coast (to close the season) was a deafening experience. I loved it."
