Dear Members and Supporters, 

We seem to have been very busy and quite high profile in the month that has elapsed since the AFL Grand Final.

Virtually everything we have been involved in will be of real significance to the long-term future of the Club, so I thought it may be worth spending a minute or two reflecting on some of those big moments. 

Firstly, we were absolutely thrilled to be able to pen a deal to extend the tenure of Ken and his family here with us at Port Adelaide. The senior coaching position of an AFL Club is not an easy gig, but as we think back to 2012 when Ken and Donna first arrived in
Adelaide, there can simply be no doubting the profound changes that have taken place at our Club. From 14th position, we have enjoyed three years of finals participation and significant growth in the past five years. Several of those finals have been absolute epics, including this year’s heartbreaker!!

We also successfully transitioned to Adelaide Oval and this year historically orchestrated the first AFL game for premiership points on mainland China. Somehow in the process, to quote Jon Ralph of the Herald Sun in Melbourne, Port Adelaide has become a destination Club.  

Attracting any senior AFL player to your Club is generally a highly competitive process. As we entered the trade period this year, our list management team had a very clear plan as to how they wished to improve the team’s prospects for the next campaign. Our recent body of work in attracting players of the caliber of Dixon, Ryder, Polec, White, Monfries and several others…and then being able to help them to further their careers and almost invariably improve, says a lot about our culture, our selections and our development program. It is also very helpful when chatting to talented, in demand players such as Tom Rockliff, Steven Motlop and Jack Watts…all of whom were searching for an environment that would help them grow further. To land all three was beyond our expectations, and of course as recently as today, we welcomed delisted free agent Trent McKenzie – another exciting addition to Port Adelaide. I know we all share in the excitement of being able to welcome these terrific young men and their families to our Club. 

I was equally proud of the way in which we handled the inevitable trade departures. I may be the worst possible person to talk to when it comes to letting players go, so I leave that to those better qualified to make these decisions. But to see fantastic servants of our Club such as Matthew Lobbe (life member), Jackson Trengove, Brendon Ah Chee, Aaron Young, Jarman Impey, Logan Austin all provided with great opportunities to play more AFL footy at other Clubs was both sad but also satisfying. These guys can all play, and I suspect will prosper with more game time. They handled their transfers with absolute class. Equally so retiree’s Angus Monfries and Nathan Krakouer and our most recent delisted players Matthew White, Jesse Palmer and Brett Eddy. It is a tough industry, where difficult decisions are always being made. I commend everyone involved for working through these moments in the best possible manner. 

Off-field, we are working busily to replace Renault as our Joint Major Partner. These are big partnerships, and the pool of suitable candidates is invariably relatively small…but we are in several active conversations and hopefully we will have some good news sometime before the commencement of the JLT series. 

And how about that pre-season opportunity!! Port Adelaide v Adelaide at the Alberton Oval, March 10, 2018. Mark that date down.

This will be a celebration of AFL football with our heartland community. It will be a day for our local football clubs, schools, businesses, residents and of course all Port Adelaide supporters to come together to enjoy a taste of what is to come in season 2018.

We’d like to thank the AFL for providing the Port Adelaide Football Club with this opportunity to launch an ongoing campaign to show support for our community. It’s going to be a very big day! 

The season fixture looks ok. Some big home games, and for our intrepid travelers… a journey to Shanghai, two big games at the G, a couple of looks at the third-best stadium in Australia, another SCG encounter, a trip to Tassie and a night in Ballarat all sounds like a lot of fun I reckon!

We guarantee those of you planning to get to Shanghai…it’s going to be even better this year. More cultural exchange and things to see, but even more importantly more food, drink and shade at the Adelaide Arena at Jiangwan Stadium. Our planning is so much more advanced this year, I’m sure it will be another historic moment for us all. 

For those of us on the administrative side of things, we’re starting to look over our shoulder for when the players and coaches start to turn up again for work! It’s always a daunting moment. Our tongues are hanging out, and they are as fresh as a daisy!

But with their arrival back at Alberton, comes a renewed sense of anticipation and purpose. It’s been a strong post-season, and we are looking forward to drafting the next batch of hopefuls and welcoming all the new guys to our Club.

I know they are going to love it as much as we all do.  

And finally, thanks to the 34,648 of you who have already signed up as members for 2018…what an incredible response to our earlier than usual membership campaign. Your ongoing support will never be taken for granted and as we progress towards our fourth consecutive year of 60,000 plus members, our promise to you is that our focus on ensuring that you absolutely love every experience with the Club is again razor sharp. We have many exciting new member initiatives planned for next year already…but more of that later. 

I can sense that we’re all looking forward to what lies ahead…understanding of course that only hard work and dedication will drive us to where we want to go. 

From where I stand, we’re off to a pretty good start. 

KT

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