It was the prospect of no football that made me think about why I love football.

Even before I started getting paid to talk about it, I loved talking about it. I sometimes worry that my passion for sport isn’t healthy, like I should be taking more of an interest in other things like politics or literature or TikTok. But invariably I come back to sport.

I have to go backwards to go forwards.

I was sitting on the loungeroom floor of my Grandparents house in Plympton, Adelaide when I made the decision to be a Port supporter. I still remember the exact moment when the thought popped into my head. It was the 1997 AFL season, Port’s first in the competition and what would coincidentally be the Crows’ first premiership year. It was round four and along with my dad, my brother, three uncles, one aunty and however many cousins that were crammed in the room, we were watching the first ever Showdown.

I can’t recall the incident but something happened early in the contest that caused my then 72 year old die hard Crows supporting Nanna to slap her knee in disgust. Nanna was/is the bedrock of our extended family; she remembers every single birthday of a clan numbering near 40 people in total and was the keeper of the famous family ice cream cake recipe (she’s since disclosed the secret to a select Granddaughter who’s name will be omitted for her own protection). She isn’t prone to outburst, but she loves her Crows.

And what a time to be a Crows supporter; Tony Modra was the superstar full forward of the competition (no mean feat when you consider there were three blokes named Lockett, Dunstall and Ablett rolling around), Andrew McLeod was introducing the concept of floating instead of running and redefining the half back position in the process and a 22 year old mullet sporting bull named Mark Ricciuto was putting the fear of god into opposition midfielders.

But back to Nanna’s loungeroom.

The Showdown is on and Nanna has just slapped her knee in frustration. Whatever prompted that response from her also set off a domino of frustrated cries that seemed to circle the room like a sad Mexican Wave. Because everyone else in there was a Crows supporter too.

And that’s when I had the thought

It’d be pretty funny if I started going for the other team… I’d be the only person in the room not supporting for the Crows. It’ll be hilarious!

And so at the very next opportunity, I clapped and cheered for a Port goal for the first time…

It didn’t go down well.

Vague recollections of uncles threatening me harm, disapproving looks from Nanna and a general sense that my decision to support the new kids on the block wasn’t well received. I was kicked out of my prime position front and centre to the TV and forced to watch from what they’d probably classify as the “cheap seats” of the loungeroom. But…. I had the last laugh that day as Port won by 11 points despite Modra’s bag of seven. A game most remembered for Rod Jameson belting seven shades of you know what out of Scott Cummings, was my first cheering on the silver, teal and black and white.

People often ask whether I support Port Adelaide in the SANFL as though that’s the only possible explanation as to why I would support Port. I don’t, I never did. My dad is a South Adelaide supporter, whenever I think about South Adelaide I invariably picture former South Australian Premier Mike Rann from that SANFL ad in the early 2000s saying “Go Panthers” in a voice you’d never hear at any suburban footy oval.  I played a bit of underage footy for North Adelaide but I didn’t feel any particular affinity for a local team and still don’t. Port is my team and has been for the last 23 years.

I could sit here and rattle off all the moments of fandom I’ve had over the past couple of decades following the club or I could do follow what all the greats do when they run out of new ideas and create a “Best Of…” album, so here it is.

“Liam’s Greatest Hits of Supporting Port”

#1 2004 AFL Grand Final

I didn’t go to the game. I was down at a mate’s shack in Ardrossan that weekend. That morning we went into town, bought clothes from the local op shop and an optimistic amount of alcohol. There were eight of us and the breakdown was five Crows supporters, two Port supporters and one Collingwood supporter which for the purposes of the Final was six Lions supporters and two Port supporters. Resplendent in ill fitting pants and corduroy jackets knocking back tinnies of VB I cheered hard from Josh Carr’s opening goal to Stuart Dew’s sealer in the fourth quarter. Had the Lions won a fourth consecutive premiership I still would’ve had a cracking weekend but I wouldn’t have had my high horse to ride around on. As it turned out, I rode that horse for the rest of our time at that shack. Thanks boys.

#2 My only piece of Port memorabilia

As much as I love sport I’ve never been particularly taken with the idea of sporting memorabilia. Despite growing up with Tony Greig pumping cricket paraphernalia down my throat every summer, my collection is sparse. The one piece I do proudly display however is a signed Port guernsey from the 2011 season. Quick refresher, 2011 was the Gold Coast Suns first season in the comp and most assumed they’d be a moral to win the wooden spoon despite the recruitment of Gary Ablett Jnr. Port ran them close though. Both team won just three games for the season but thankfully the Suns lack of firepower meant their percentage was terrible saving Port it’s first ever wooden spoon. But back to the guernsey.  I’d just returned from two years living in London which hadn’t been overly profitable. I was at a sportsman’s breakfast at the Adelaide Rowing Club before the Test Match against India at the Adelaide Oval. My single digit bank balance meant that I wasn’t paying much attention to the silent auction taking place until on a trip to the bathroom I noticed that there was only one bid on a signed framed Port guernsey, so I topped it by $5 assuming I’d be outbid shortly afterwards. I wasn’t. I won. Which meant I had to reluctantly pull out the credit card but I did it with a smile. That year an official Port guernsey was retailing for $95. My mate’s dad who’d done the framing told me it cost $200 to frame a guernsey. I paid the grand sum of $115. To paraphrase the great Darryl Kerrigan A hundred and fifteen bucks… you couldn’t buy the materials for that.

#3 The Hard Nuts

I was not a particularly gifted or talented footy player. Not a great kick, didn’t read the game overly well and for my pipsqueak height I wasn’t lightning quick but I loved the niggle and the physical side of footy. And so it went with my favourite Port players over the years. Damien Hardwick; I loved him when he was at the Bombers so you can only imagine how pumped I was that he was bringing his hard edge no nonsense style to Port in 2002. Byron Pickett; the 2004 Norm Smith medallist who’s mere name on a team sheet must have terrified opposition players. But Josh Carr was my guy. I’ve always respected players who could put opponents off their game with words and very few caused the level of frustration that Carr did. But he knew his actions could cause reactions and he never hid from the fight. Whether wearing a left hook from Jonathan Brown or being thrown across a car by Mark Ricciuto outside the Ramsgate Hotel, Carry was up for it. And he was a bloody good footy player.

#4 Commentating with the Captain

Round two of the 2018 season I experienced a moment I never dreamed would occur. It was the Easter long weekend and I was sitting in Triple M’s usual commentary box at the SCG, I was running through my last minute notes ahead of the Swans hosting Port. My usual co-caller Brad Seymour was attending a pre-match function and our boundary rider former Swan Troy Luff was off making coffees. Then in strode Tredders. Sydney legend Jude Bolton was our usual expert commentator except this day his commitments to Channel Seven meant that Warren Tredrea had been flown up from Adelaide to fill the role. If you’d told me back in 2004 while I was drunkenly celebrating Port’s premiership down in an Ardrossan beach shack that one day I’d be calling a game of footy with the bloke now holding the premiership trophy aloft I’d have told you to go have a lie down. Instead what transpired over the next three hours was one of the great privileges of my media career. Tredders had a presence about him that only power forwards of the game seem to have but he was generous with his insight and a pleasure to broadcast alongside.

#5 Shanghai Nights

Port’s China experiment as far as I’m concerned is the envy of every other club in the AFL. Other supporters will criticise that it’s a pointless exercise that does nothing for the club or the game. I disagree. What other club gives it’s players the opportunity to travel internationally and play a game for premiership points every year? What other club is actively trying to grow the game and it’s supporter base beyond Australia’s borders? Last year I got to travel to Shanghai to broadcast the game for Triple M and commentate with another Port captain, Dom Cassisi. I’d never met Dom previously but it didn’t take long to see why he was appointed captain of the club. Smart, well spoken and loved by his then teammates (a night at a bar with Dean Brogan, Chad Cornes and Jarrad Schofield proved that) he was brilliant company. The sheer size of Shanghai is overwhelming, it’s the third largest city in the world and for David Koch and co to have navigated all the logistical hurdles to actually put on an AFL game in the third biggest city in the WORLD is remarkable. Calling the footy alongside Dom in China is a memory that won’t soon fade.

I don’t know when footy is coming back but I hope it’s soon. In the meantime I’ll be comforted by names like Connor Rozee, Zac Butters, Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades and the knowledge that those kids will be ready to fire as soon as the next ball is bounced.  

Carn the pearrr… 

Liam Flanagan is the host of Triple M Sydney’s Rush Hour and AFL commentator