Not All Black and White by David Penberthy

Author:David Penberthy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2017-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

11

What have you turned into?

It should have been one of the best years of my footballing life. In 1997 I finally had my chance to play on the national stage for the team I loved. The announcement was made in 1996 that Port would be entering the AFL the following year as Port Power. After years of struggle, the Port Adelaide Football Club, the greatest and most successful club in the history of South Australian football, had at last been granted what it always deserved – a licence to field a team in the national competition.

I would be a part of the very first Port Power AFL team.

It was pretty exciting; it felt like justice had finally been done. For all of us Port people it felt so long overdue, given that the Crows’ original entry to the comp had been driven out of a desire to block Port from going into the AFL. I was looking forward to it, but I still wish it had happened earlier. I felt much more comfortable about the idea of playing with Port in the AFL than I had with the Crows. If Port had entered the AFL first I would have done anything to play for them. The really nice thing was that, all these years on, so many Port people still wanted me to be there, even though I was starting to get on a bit. They saw me as part of the club’s culture, and part of its huge success, with those seven flags I had been involved with between 1988 and 1995.

The club held a fan day ahead of the 1997 season so that all the Port faithful could come out to see the unveiling of the AFL squad. Everyone was on a high. We were all coming off the excitement of the 1996 SANFL premiership win, and hoping to replicate that success as soon as possible on the national stage. It meant so much to me that the grassroots Port fans, and the club itself, were insistent that I had to be a part of that first AFL team. There was even some speculation that I could be the first captain, not that it was something I yearned for or wanted. I was just stoked they wanted me to be part of it all so much. I never dreamed of being captain or anything like that. I just wanted to play good footy for the team I loved.

The Advertiser ran a nice story by Michelangelo Rucci about that Alberton fan day:

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