It’s February already, our internal trial is next week followed by a trip to the Gold Coast for our first official practice match on Friday 25th Feb.

So, what’s happening at the Club:

We refreshed over the break, did our best to dodge COVID like you, and the football group returned to training on 10th January.

The playing group have worked hard and based on what I see and hear, are incredibly driven – the fact that 75% of our group did PBs in their recent testing tells me how hungry our group are to improve.

In the next week there will be plenty of updates and news on football so I’ll leave that for others.

Our admin team enjoyed a slightly longer break,  given next Christmas and New Year we’ll be in full AFLW season mode with Alberton Oval buzzing with activity.

On AFLW, Juliet Haslam is hard at work building a team around her, with Naomi Maidment joining as List Manager, and stay tuned for more positive announcements in the coming weeks. We’re committed to building a program that brings in the best people to give us the best chance of winning because that’s what we’re here to do at Port Adelaide.

COVID management is ever present for us, as we enter season three, with our mindset needing to be can we use it as a competitive advantage?

The clear message from the AFL already is that the season will continue regardless of how many players might be out in a particular week due to COVID so we have to minimise this risk week in week out.

If I contract COVID and have to work from home for 10 days, frankly who cares, but if Ollie Wines contracts it and misses two weeks of training or games then our onfield performance will be compromised, so we’re doing all within our control to minimise that risk.

With that as our priority, the admin team have been working remotely and some events through this pre-season phase that involve players, we unfortunately have to postpone.

The traditional family day, which we all love, is the first example where given the closeness to the start of the season and the importance of having our best team to select from, we’ve decided not to open it up for our members and supporters.

The other factor is both the Fos Williams Family Stand and the RB Quinn Stand are both construction zones currently as we work furiously to have both completed by the end of March, so we don’t have any suitable facilities either to accommodate a large crowd.

The internal practice match, which is next Friday 18th February, will be streamed live for members on our website so stay tuned for details on that.

I apologise that we can’t open our 2022 season with the traditional intra-Club and Family Day. We are disappointed too, and I know the players are missing the connection. It’s one of our favourite days of the year.

At the same time, I am excited because I know what’s coming when we re-open the new ‘Precinct at Alberton’ soon and welcome you back.

I can visualise now the people sitting upstairs on the deck, enjoying breakfast or lunch and watching our team train on Alberton Oval as we prepare for the coming game. It will be an amazing venue and one you’ll be very proud of.

Plus, the Alberton Oval transformation is well underway.

The changeroom upgrade to the Fos Williams Family Stand is on-schedule to be ready for our first SANFL Game in April, and then of course the arrival of our AFLW team mid-year.

And as I said above, The Precinct at Alberton (the old Port Club) – it’s going to be incredible and it is on schedule for an April grand opening.

The project has grown from a downstairs only upgrade, to what is now virtually a complete re-build upstairs and down. The grand entrance leading into the PAFC Museum with the biggest trophy cabinet in the Southern hemisphere (yep!), the new Port Store which you’ve all visited already of course and then the staircase leading up to the magnificent hospitality area looking out over the oval and the best views of the city and hills – it’s going to be incredible!

Oh, and yes, I’m still chasing some $ to help finish it off, so anyone who has a motivation to do more and help create this fantastic legacy for our community, please contact me personally at ceo@pafc.com.au – I’d love your help.

In relation to the high-performance centre and transformation of the broader precinct with the training ground, landscaping and car parks, we are currently finalising the plans and documentation to go to tender in April.

We are also working through the plan and decision on when to start the build, and organising the temporary facilities our football and admin teams will need across the 14-15 month project build time.

We are confident we’ll be able to do all of that at Alberton Oval still which is important to us.

This $30m re-development of Alberton Oval is a generational project. One that will transform the facilities for the Port Adelaide Football Club and our current and future AFL and AFLW players as well as our members, fans and our local community into a unique high-performance sport and community precinct we will all be extremely proud of.

Our first home game is Round 2 of the AFL season v Hawthorn on Saturday 26th March, and we’ll have some announcements soon on something special that day to honour Club legend Russell Ebert. Importantly, in the conversations we’re having with the Stadium and Government, I’m confident that by then we will be at full capacity at Adelaide Oval (and if not, only very minor restrictions compared with the last two seasons).

For our members, I know how important sitting in your allocated reserved seat is and I’m even more confident that you will all be able to return to your favourite seat in 2022.

The Prison Bars guernsey conversation is happening.

We believe strongly that our request to wear our heritage guernsey against our traditional rival (as other AFL Clubs have done so proudly in recent years) is entirely reasonable and we know how important this is to our people. Heritage makes a better game.

Next week is our AGM plus we’ll announce our financial result for 2021 and there are some positive updates on that back of that which continue to build on our bold strategic vision, Chasing Greatness and our progress against this.

We’ve got an exciting 2022 in front of us, and I look forward to sharing the journey with you … and yes, I’ll shout you a drink in the new ‘Precinct at Alberton’ and you can tell me I was right in the picture I painted above.

Cheers,
Richo