THERE’S NO DOUBTING these statistics – Gavin Wanganeen is still regarded Port Adelaide’s best ever AFL player.
While he’s not quite up there in terms of Port’s best player of all time (that honour still falls to Russell Ebert), he’s still miles ahead of all 155 players to have worn a Power guernsey in the national competition.
More than half of those polled in the BIG PORT SURVEY earlier this year said Wanganeen was the best player of the club’s 19-season AFL era.
Just under a quarter of the remaining respondents said Warren Tredrea – the club’s first AFL premiership captain and four-time best and fairest – was the Power’s second best.
Kane Cornes, Robbie Gray and Chad Cornes rounded out the top five.
It’s tough arguing with Wanganeen as the club’s best player of its AFL period.
Originally from Port, he was recruited by Essendon after playing in the 1990 SANFL Premiership and would go on to win an AFL flag and Brownlow Medal with the Bombers.
But the lure of home – and his first club – brought him back to Alberton for the 1997 season where he was Port’s first AFL skipper.
He relinquished that role in 2001, but would play career-best football to win the 2003 John Cahill Medal and play a defining role in the Power’s all-conquering 2004 finals campaign.
A former captain himself, Tredrea is a four-time John Cahill Medallist and the Power’s all-time leading goal kicker.
Kane Cornes (four) and Robbie Gray (two) are also John Cahill Medallists and dual All-Australians, Chad Cornes is the highest-ranked player to never be crowned the Power’s best and fairest.
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