Dear Members & Supporters,
On behalf of everyone at the Port Adelaide Football Club, I’d like to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude for your support in 2023.
The off-season and pre-season phase prior to Christmas sees us well prepared on and off the field for 2024.
From an AFL perspective, our players returned on Sunday night after a gruelling six-day camp on the Gold Coast.
It was a great opportunity for the new recruits to immerse themselves in our program and for the entire group to connect, learn and bank some serious kilometres in the legs before the New Year.
Congratulations to our new leadership team led by Connor as captain and Zak as vice-captain. This group set the training standards on camp and with ongoing support from Trav and Ollie our Club could not be in better hands.
Our players and coaches will now enjoy a well-earned break before returning to training on Monday 8th January.
The AFLW program has continued behind the scenes in preparation for next year. A very warm welcome to Piper Window and Alissa Brook who join our post-season AFLW recruits Kirsty Lamb, Molly Brooksby, Shineah Goody and Lauren Young as new additions through the AFLW Draft on Monday night.
Our partnerships team have been busy with some big announcements coming in the new year, and membership is well up on the same time last year which is extremely pleasing. We can’t thank you enough for your support.
That support is reflected with another strong financial result in 2023 ($2.006m net profit). This allowed us to fully fund our football programs whilst further reducing historical debt and importantly accelerating the strategy to develop commercial assets and non-core revenue, building the long-term financial strength and resilience of the Club.
The current stage of the Alberton Oval re-development is due to be complete and fully operational for our football program from the second week of January. We look forward to opening the facility to members for the first time at Family Day on Saturday 10th February 2024.
It’s been a big year at the Club and our people have earned a very well-earned break over the next few weeks. Before we know it, we’ll be back and there is much to look forward to in 2024.
The year gets off to a flyer with the AGM on Friday 9th February, Family Day at Alberton Oval on Saturday 10th February, and then the Season Launch & Hall of Fame event on Thursday 15th February where we’ll induct four more Port Adelaide champions into the Hall of Fame and add another team. We then have two AFL practice matches scheduled for Alberton Oval, versus Adelaide on Friday 23th February (5:00pm start) and Fremantle on Friday 1st March (7:30pm start). We’ll provide more details on ticketing for these games early next year.
The AFL fixture starts at home on Sunday 17th March v West Coast and provides early feature games with six of the first eight weeks at Adelaide Oval, including Gather Round in Round 4 on a Friday night.
I’d also like to thank our Board and members of the various sub-committees for their commitment to the Club across the year. These are all volunteer positions, and the Club is fortunate to have a highly skilled group of people willing to give their valuable time to support and guide the Club.
On behalf of everyone at the Club, thank you for your support in 2023.
Have a great Christmas and New Year.
Cheers,
Matthew
