ACROSS an association with Port Adelaide that has spaned more than 30 years, David Arnfield has etched his name into the history books as one of the great characters to have graced the halls at Alberton Oval.

Arnfield began his time with the club as the fitness coach for the under-17s in the early 80s, progressing through to the seniors in that role and working as the runner through the Magpies glory years and the beginning of the club’s journey in the AFL.

Speaking with Tim Ginever on episode two of Timmy’s Tyrepower Time Machine, the pair delved into some of the consequences ‘Arnie’ faced from the playing group due to his hardnosed approach to pre-season training and his evolution into one of the game’s great irritants.

“You’d push us to breaking point and when people break they do silly things,” Ginever recalled about his former training tormenter.

“When you broke us, and you did break us, you had to be punished.”

After one ruthless training camp held in Mannum, Arnfield was left tied to a pole on the main street while the team enjoyed a night at the pub, but Ginever warned things could have gone much further awry if he had not intervened.

“I saved your life,” he told Arnfield.

“Wayne Mahney saw a boat and he wanted to put you in that boat and push that boat out into the middle of the Murray River and see where it takes you.

“You were very lucky!”

“I’ll never forget that because you said ‘You can’t do that, he might drown’,” Arnfield recalled.

“To which Wayne said ‘At least we won’t have to train in the morning’.”

Later in his tenure at Port Adelaide, Arnfield was deployed as the runner on game day. A role in which he would partly deliver messages to Port’s players and partly take it upon himself to frustrate that day’s opponent.

One day at Glenelg, an Arnfield sledge got under the skin of the Bay’s Ross Gibbs, who grabbed him by the collar and a scuffle soon erupted, leading to Dwayne Kretschmer kicking the Port Adelaide runner.

“(Kretschmer) karate kicked me and got reported – he got two weeks,” Arnfield remembered.

“What happened was (Mark) Viska kicked the ball across goal – the ball was in our forward line – and he’s hit Scotty Hodges on the chest in the goal square.

“It was like he aimed for him. There was no Glenelg player. He just went bang.

“I was out there at the time so I had to say something to him – ‘That was a nice kick’ – Gibbsy was there and he didn’t like it.”

Arnfield made it clear his trademark niggle and annoyance was not done just for the sake of it, it was gamesmanship where he would pick his spots in order to give his side the upper hand.

“The golden rule of sledging is you’ve got to be on the move, you can’t be standing still,” he joked.

“Invariably you’ve got to be in front, or close to being in front, to get the momentum – you can’t be sledging if you’re getting belted.”

Another notorious incident came in the winter of 2009.

Port Adelaide hardman Josh Carr was standing Brisbane’s Jared Brennan on the wing when the Lion’s enigmatic utility snapped and dragged him to the ground before headbutting him.

Arnfield was first on the scene and made sure the umpire was aware of the misconduct, celebrating with Carr when a 50m penalty was awarded that resulted in a Power goal.

“That turned out well,” he remembered with a smile.

“Carry was great, he was such an acrimonious, annoying player and I would just keep firing him up.

“I’d go to his opponent and say ‘He hasn’t touched it, you’ve got him’ and you’d just see the rage.

“There was certainly a technique involved with it. You’d target blokes you’d know were going to break.

“Some guys you’d rattle their cage and let them go, but there are other players that you knew if you said a couple of things it would take their mind off of things and that was an advantage.”

Listen or watch the full episode of Timmy’s Tyrepower Time Machine above for more humorous tales from one of Port Adelaide’s great characters.