WEARING the black and white bars is an honour bestowed upon few but longed for by many.
Thursday night will see many pulling on the iconic guernsey for Port Adelaide for the first time and there is no greater way to learn what it takes to represent the club than coming up against its greatest rival, Norwood.
It is a fact not lost on SANFL coach Matthew Lokan ahead of the season opening game at the Parade this week.
“It’s a really big test for us on Thursday night against Norwood,” he said.
“We’ve got a number of players who haven’t played for our club yet and for them to get their first game at the Parade against our traditional rivals in Norwood is really exciting.”
Port Adelaide was a notable absentee from the SANFL in 2020, the first time the league’s most successful club has failed to participate in a season since it was a founding member of the original SA Football Association in 1877.
AFL COVID-19 rules prohibited clubs from participating in state league competitions, forcing the club to withdraw from the SANFL for the year.
That meant then first-year players like Jackson Mead, Dylan Williams, Trent Burgoyne and Jake Pasini never got to represent the club in an official game, while many of its SANFL contracted players left to continue their careers elsewhere.
With a host of new young AFL-listed talent and several fresh contracted players, Lokan said there was plenty of excitement at Alberton about returning to the SANFL competition.
“Obviously having 12 months out because of COVID-19, it’s exciting for the playing group to be part of the SANFL in 2021,” he explained.
“Last year was a big year and a lot of our second-year players haven’t played any footy for our football club.
“It means a lot to our club with our history and tradition in the SANFL competition to be back involved so that’s certainly exciting.
“For us and our supporters to be able to get back out to play games at Alberton is something we’re really looking forward to.”
Before the club can get back to Alberton it will need to get past the Redlegs on Thursday night.
Lokan is expecting a big test but he is confident he has the cattle to win.
“That’s the way Port Adelaide is,” he explained. “We expect to win premierships and we expect to be competitive.
“How the season plays out, time will tell but we certainly come into the competition with high expectations.
“The last time we played in the SANFL was in a grand final so we come in with high expectations.”
Since that 2019 Grand Final, where Port Adelaide went down to Glenelg, there have been more rule changes that have impacted the club’s ability to recruit and retain players.
The SANFL Commission also announced on Tuesday that it would not adopt the AFL’s medical substitute rule, and that any AFL substitute that took to the field would not be allowed to play in the SANFL competition on the same weekend.
That means that Port Adelaide and Adelaide will have different rules to the other AFL clubs who have secondary teams playing in the VFL and WAFL.
Despite the restrictions, Lokan expects his side to compete against any team it faces.
“We’ve certainly got some things in our way in terms of the reduction of list sizes and the AFL side playing a sub now, which takes one out of our SANFL side but we go into every season expecting to be competitive and knowing we’ll have a good side each week,” he said.
“All we want as a football club is that we get to play under the same rules as the other competitions and the AFL system.
“Regardless, we still think we’re good enough to compete. The guys we’ve brought in as our SANFL contracted players are definitely good enough to play at the level and we’re really excited about what the season holds for us this year.”
Port Adelaide will face Norwood at the Parade on Thursday at 7:40pm in Round 1 of the SANFL season.
