NOW one of the longest-running community programs in the AFL, the Aboriginal Power Cup will advance once again in 2016 through the development of another Port Adelaide program – Powerful Futures.
Launched by David Koch last week, Powerful Futures is a tailored school-to-work program which works with corporate Australia to provide opportunities to graduates of Port Adelaide’s in-school youth and Aboriginal programs.
Little has changed in the structure of the Aboriginal Power Cup in 2016.
It will still operate as a joint football-academic curriculum - football opportunity is tied to participation in the classroom - major corporate backers like Santos, the SA Aboriginal Sports Training Academy and South Australian Government are on board again, the competition will still be linked with the Power's other Aboriginal strategies.
The one expected change will be in participation numbers - which have risen continually since the Cup starting nine years ago, and are set to jump again with more schools and students joining in.
“The goal of this year’s Aboriginal Power Cup is to best prepare students for a successful working life when they leave school,” Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas says.
“Through the Aboriginal Power Cup we want to provide students with the skills, resilience and motivation to stay the course at High School to give them the best opportunity for future success.
“The beauty of football is that it is such an engaging team sport that inspires boys and girls right across South Australia [and] the Aboriginal Power Cup will again use football as a tool to engage young Aboriginal secondary school students in their education and provide pathways to workforce participation.”
All-Australian forward Chad Wingard is an ambassador of the program and expects the success of the Aboriginal Power Cup won't be truly felt until years into the future.
However, he says the short-term results are there to see.
"[The] Aboriginal Power Cup, I think, will be a long-term success story because if these kids can get into the workforce because they've stayed in school we'll have really done our job," Wingard says.
"The most important thing is to get kids to finish year 12 - that's really what sets you up for life.
"If I wasn't drafted as a footy player, I think my chances of succeeding somewhere else would have been heaps better because I graduated from high school, and I think the Aboriginal Power Cup has helped kids to realise that there are heaps of good things to come from working hard and achieving that goal too.
"The footy is the big thing for them - they love footy - but they know that the need to rock up, work hard and keep improving in the classroom to get that opportunity. The kids understand that and I think they love the chance to do both [in-class and on-field]."
The Aboriginal Power Cup begins in Term 1 and runs through until the culmination of the program with the 9-a-side football carnival leading up to Port Adelaide's home game against the West Coast Eagles.
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