LOYALTY, devotion, service. Honour, conviction, success. Pride, passion .... premierships.
In a club that exists to win premierships, Brian Fairclough has his mark on 14 flags - from the lifeblood of the old Port Adelaide when the club had junior ranks in the SANFL to the epitome of the new Port Adelaide that achieved its breakthrough AFL flag in 2004.
Loyal and devoted in his service to 10-time premiership coach John Cahill as his right-hand man during the phenomenal success during the 1970s and 1980s that ensured the club's rise from suburbia to the national stage.
Honourable and strong in his convictions while coaching his teams to extraordinary success, such as the four-in-a-row under-19 flags including the first ever premiership decided on Football Park in 1974.
And incredibly proud of all that is achieved at Alberton by passionate people on and off the field. Brian Fairclough is the symbol of what makes the Port Adelaide Football Club's heart tick and soul breathe.
"I am honoured to be part of this football club ... Port Adelaide made me the best I could be," says Fairclough, now in his sixth decade of service at Alberton as chairman of the life membership committee. He is a club Hall of Famer - and for good reason.
The story begins at Rosewater. "Pennington Gardens, as it was then," says Fairlclough. "Among football people ... all of them."
It was the 1950s, the "Golden Era" as Bob McLean called the decade in which Port Adelaide - under Fos Williams - dominated SANFL football with one of the most talented assemblies of footballers ever seen at Alberton.
Fairclough made his start at Rosewater, playing 109 senior games at centre or on a wing with the best-and-fairest title in 1959 and captaincy in 1965 when he also was coach. He earned calls to the State amateur team in 1958 and 1959 and earned All-Australian selection at the national carnival in Perth. There was another best-and-fairest crown at Semaphore Central, the traditional base of the Port Adelaide Bs.
The call to Alberton was tougher to achieve as a player.
"You were not walking into Alberton Oval in those days asking for a game," recalls Fairlcough. "John Cahill, Jeff Potter, Ian Hannaford ... they could walk into the senior team then. But everyone else ..."
There were moments when Fairclough wore the black-and-white bars in the Bs during the mid-1950s when numbers were stretched at Alberton by injuries or Port Adelaide holding up the State team. But the breakthrough to the seniors was out of reach while Williams chose from the cream of South Australian football, not just the football cradle in the LeFevre peninsula.
"It was impossible to get into that league side when it was so established and successful under Fos Williams," recalls Fairclough. "My pride was filled by playing in a carnival in Perth with the amateurs. I was thinking then, 'How lucky am I?'"
The grander "lucky" moment was at the end of 1971 - after Fairclough had made his mark as a coach in amateur ranks and in the Norwood-North Adelaide football association - drawing the attention of McLean.
"You always felt uneasy if you answered the phone with (long-time club servant) Zoe Robinson saying, 'Mr McLean wants to speak with you' ... I came to wonder with each one of those calls, 'What have I done wrong?'," recalls Fairclough.
That first phone call - in an era of land lines not mobiles - was to offer Fairclough the coaching role with the Port Adelaide under-19 team in 1972.
His first reaction on returning to Alberton, this time as a coach?
"I was overwhelmed," replies Fairclough. "I felt lucky to be in the presence of 'Big Bob' and Dave Boyd and, of course, John Cahill ... it was overwhelming. But their support was so important to me."
Four consecutive premierships with the under-19 ranks should have settled that issue - and put Fairclough on the path to promotion to the senior ranks when the reserves coaching job was left vacant in 1978.
PORT ADELAIDE FOOTBALL CLUB HALL OF FAME
"I applied ... and that was another phone call from Zoe saying 'Big Bob' wanted to speak to me," Fairclough said. "He was direct. 'We are picking the reserves coach tonight ... and we are picking Jeff Potter'. You always knew where you were with Bob."
A year later, Fairclough was not only reserves coach but a selector on the path to being chairman of selectors.
"Now that was overwhelming," says Fairclough. "I am not sure I spoke for the first two years at those selection meetings ... you had to earn your place at Port Adelaide."
Winning premierships does that. In 1980, Fairclough scored his first of two reserves premierships by overcoming a seven-goal deficit at three quarter-time to beat Glenelg ... and lift the air of expectation on the league side.
"I am sure every success at reserves level put more (pressure) on the league side," Fairclough said.
Long-serving league team manager and board member Jim Nitschke ribs Fairclough at their weekly catch-up of how the best player list published in the newspapers - as supplied by team management - suddenly stopped reflecting the best players on the field in reserves games.
"Brian was keeping them a little longer in his team. We took a while to work that one out," said Nitschke. Fairclough dismisses such a theme ever played out while he was hardening would-be league players to live up to expectations at Alberton.
Not in question is the partnership Fairclough built with John Cahill.
"It could not have been better," says Fairclough.
"We would send them up from the reserves and Jack would make them play better than anyone had ever seen. He had them ready to play on Saturdays. It was those days when you had to make sure the door was open to the race - otherwise these players were going to kick it down to play.
"The players loved Jack."
There were opportunities to coach an SANFL league team in his own right, but Fairclough never moved from Alberton.
"I did not want to leave Port Adelaide; I was so entrenched and I loved the place," said Fairclough. "If there is one regret, it is I should have stayed on for Russell Ebert when he replaced Jack after he went to Collingwood (in 1983). I came back to Port Adelaide too late.
"But I am glad I stayed in 1996 when Jack stepped away to start up the AFL program. Working with Stephen Williams was a great experience."
From chairman of selectors in Port Adelaide's foundation years in the AFL, Fairclough swapped the tracksuit as a coach for the suit as a director.
"That was not for me," says Fairclough of his short but significant stint on the club board.
There are two lasting memories from his time on the board.
"We needed to review our work and I was to meet (St Kilda and Hawthorn premiership coach) Allan Jeans," recalls Fairclough. "I apologised for disturbing him after the death of his brother. He told me it was 'an honour to speak to the Port Adelaide Football Club'. That made an impression on me."
Not everyone in Melbourne understood Port Adelaide as Jeans did, recalls Fairclough.
"I had someone ask me one day how our team would cope with big crowds in the AFL," Fairclough said. "I needed to remind him that some our games in the SANFL would have ranked fourth-best nationally had they been put up against VFL crowds."
Fairclough savours two premierships - the 1980 and 1988 reserves titles.
"Any year we won in both the reserves and league is a highlight for me," says Fairclough knowing success in the seconds contributed to premierships with the seniors.
Fairclough regards league premiership wingman Andy Porplycia as the finest he coached at under-19 level and tenacious 181-game rover Paul Belton as the most-dedicated player of his time at Port Adelaide.
"And there was a guy called Nathan Buckley ... he did fine without any coaching," says Fairclough of the Magarey-Brownlow Medallist.
"My proudest thoughts of Port Adelaide is our rise to the AFL. I am not sure there would be a Port Adelaide Football Club - not the Port Adelaide we all know - had we not stepped up to the AFL.
"How lucky am I to have been a part of this club.
The Port Adelaide Football Club offers its deepest condolences to Brian Fairclough for the recent loss of his wife Carmel.
BRIAN FAIRCLOUGH - HALL OF FAME
AS COACH: Port Adelaide under-19 team from 1972-1978 (premierships in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977); reserves in 1979-1982, 1987-1989 and 1992-1995 (premierships in 1980 and 1988); selector from 1979-1982 and 1987-1998 (chairman from 1990-1998).
AS ADMINISTRATOR: Board member 1998-2000; chairman of life membership committee since 2003.
