Dear Members & Supporters,

An update ahead of a special day at Alberton Oval on Saturday. 

Erin Phillips retirement

Erin Phillips will play her last game of AFLW tomorrow at Alberton Oval as part of the annual AFLW Pride Round. There will be a big crowd to send her off and plenty of family of course (apparently Erin’s ticket request this week exceeded 50!)  

Erin has been a trailblazer for women's sport and her legacy appropriately is stamped at Port Adelaide with her final AFLW game. Her list of cross-code sporting achievements are endless. 

We are thrilled that Erin closes her sporting career where it all began. Running around on Alberton Oval as a kid kicking a footy and emulating her heroes who at that time were her legendary dad and his teammates at Port Adelaide. 

Tomorrow is our last AFLW game for the season and our performances have fallen a long way from our expectations, particularly in the second half of the season. 

This off-season will be an important for our AFLW players and program.

AFL List Management

We farewelled four players in Sam Hayes, Jake Pasini, Orazio Fantasia and Scott Lycett who have all been great teammates and given excellent service to the club.

I’d like to make special mention of Scott Lycett who announced his retirement from the AFL after 146 games and an AFL Premiership with West Coast.

Scott's story is significant in that he is the last of the traditional kids who grew up in the Port Adelaide country zone (Eyre Peninsula, Ceduna), came through the old SANFL pathway and played for the Magpies in U19 and Reserves Premierships. He was then drafted to the West Coast Eagles where he built a successful career becoming an AFL Premiership player in 2018 before returning to Port Adelaide in 2019. He’s been a warrior for us over the past five seasons and a highly valued teammate.

I vividly remember seeing Scott playing at the Mortlock Shield Carnival in Port Lincoln in the late 2000’s as a 14 year old, playing in the same game as his lifelong great mate Sam Gray.

Good luck to Scott with what’s next. I know his body will enjoy a very well-deserved rest.

We welcome four important additions to our AFL playing list in Esava Ratugolea, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Ivan Soldo and Jordan Sweet. In 2023 we had some obvious challenges as the season wore on and the strategic trading for this quartet enhances the depth in these areas and importantly frees up other players around them.   

AFL coaching program

There are three changes to the AFL coaching program which have been confirmed today.

Tyson Goldsack has been promoted as assistant coach to the AFL coaching panel, Hamish Hartlett appointed as the club’s SANFL senior coach and Jason Williams joins as development coach, incorporating the Next Generation Academy program.

Together with Ken Hinkley as Senior Coach, Josh Carr (midfield), Luke Kelly (assistant midfield coach) Chad Cornes (forward line) and then a player development program led by Matthew Lobbe, we are well prepared to continue the growth and improvement of our playing group in 2024.  

AFL Reserves Competition

The media discussions over recent days are not new news.

Our discussion with the AFL is if they are serious about equalization across the 18 AFL Clubs, a second-tier competition has to be a component. All AFL players should have the same platform to play and develop when they are not in the AFL team which is consistentacross the competition.

Currently, we have 14 AFL clubs operating within one model, and four outside of that in the SANFL and WAFL. This creates further inequities for clubs and also compromises the state leagues impacted.

For a professional sports league with the scale of the AFL now, we must find a better way.

The tiers of the game below the AFL have not changed significantly as the AFL competition itself has continued to expand and grow, plus with Tasmania’s impending introduction to the AFL, now is the right time to re-set this model for the future.

The Port Adelaide Football Club is an AFL club.

We have a rich history in the SANFL. This success and the passion of our people saw Port Adelaide earn the opportunity to elevate into the AFL as the only genuine community football club from outside of Victoria which wasn’t either a composite team or relocated Victorian team.

We are the same Port Adelaide Football Club established in 1870, the fifth oldest club in the AFL behind only Melbourne (1858), Geelong (1859), Carlton (1864) and North Melbourne (1869). We are and always will be incredibly proud of that.

The Port Adelaide Football Club is now in the AFL and our responsibility is to ensure our players have the best opportunity to perform and develop to ultimately help us achieve our ambitions in the AFL competition.

Port Adelaide has always been bold and forward thinking. We continually evolve to ensure we live to the ambition of our people to be the best.

A national reserves competition we believe is the next evolution for Port Adelaide on that journey.

If it turns out that a national reserves competition is best for Port Adelaide, I’d expect that we still play home games at Alberton Oval, and in our traditional prison bars guernsey when we choose. All of that is detail that can be worked out once the big changes like competition structures are addressed.

Vale Barry Wilson

Last month we lost one of the great behind-the-scenes people who make the Port Adelaide Football Club so special, Barry Wilson.

Barry’s contribution to the club spanned more than 70 years, starting as a player in the ‘seconds’ and later contributing as a key member of the Board when the club was pushing to join the AFL. Barry was also responsible for establishing the group we fondly refer to as “Dad’s Army” who do so much around the Club. I still remember vividly the ‘Port Adelaide interrogation’ I received from Barry as part of my induction which included joining Dad’s Army for their traditional Monday lunch. He was a passionate Port Adelaide person who leaves a wonderful legacy. Our thoughts are with wife Dawn and his family.

Conclusion

In the short term, our players will be back before we know it. Our 1st to 4th year players return on November 27, while the remainder of our squad return the following week on December 3.

Before then Geoff Parker and his national recruiting team will again try to find a diamond in the rough at the AFL Draft on November 20 and 21.

But the here and now belongs to Erin. I encourage you get to Alberton tomorrow as we farewell a champion of Australian and international sport. 

Cheers, 
Matthew