This is going to be a great year for watching the Port Adelaide Football Club play footy and continue to deliver a premium football and entertainment product at our brand new home ground in the heart of the city.
As I welcome all of you to this year’s football season, I also extend my welcome to our joint major partners Renault Australia, EnergyAustralia and Foodbank.
What a fantastic way it was to get our year going by announcing EnergyAustralia as our new joint major sponsor on the last day of January in the Adelaide Oval’s Riverbank Plaza.
EnergyAustralia is a great national brand and to have them appearing on both our Power and Magpies guernseys this year is a positive step on the path to making ours one of the greatest sporting clubs in Australia.
Renault was a wonderful supporter of our football club last year and it’s great to have them on board again along with Foodbank, which will have its Power to End Hunger campaign backed by EnergyAustralia in 2014.
Make no mistake, the signing of EnergyAustralia this year and Renault’s sponsorship renewal at the end of last year shows the regard our football club is starting to develop in the corporate world, and it’s thanks to the hard work of the board, our staff, coaches, players and, most importantly, all of our supporters for getting behind the club last year and laying the foundations for us to launch our latest tilt!
It all comes together at the Adelaide Oval as we return to the ground we called home in 1975 and 1976 and start playing footy in the heart of the city.
Since becoming chairman at the end of 2012 I have seen the progress of the stadium’s construction first hand and I can say, having experienced the thrill of test cricket at the Oval at the end of last year, it is going to be the football experience you want and deserve!
We will make our mark on the Adelaide Oval this year. It is a place of unparalleled success in South Australian footy where we set an Australian record of six premierships in a row from 1954 to 1959, won 20 flags in total and this year celebrate the centenary of our undefeated 1914 season.
With that rich heritage supporting us, we will make the Adelaide Oval a fortress of black, white and teal; not only this year, but beyond.
And the entertainment will be fantastic. Whether you’re a casual observer or season ticket holder through to one of our valued corporate customers, every seat in the house will give prime viewing of the Power this year. I know that Ken and Travis – both of whom have really stepped up their leadership of our football program again this year (that’s something we should all be excited about too) – can’t wait to get out there.
While the move to the Adelaide Oval is an important step in our evolution to a national and internationally-leading sporting club, it has been equally as important for us to preserve and reinforce our roots in the community.
I know last year there were the naysayers who said we didn’t care about the Magpies, that we were paying their preservation as a football identity lip service and that we were going to ditch our proud heritage in SANFL football at the first opportunity.
I tell you this – under my watch we will not throw that proud heritage away.
The Magpies and that famous black and white guernsey mean so much to our people. Why else would we get more than 45,000 supporters at the final game at Football Park last year when we wore our traditional guernsey? Our heritage of success in the SANFL is something we don’t take for granted. It is something we pay respectful homage to and something that we will always fight for.
The integration of our football programs is a small, but significant step to furthering our ‘one club’ project and making this a true Port Adelaide Football Club. Our players only play for one football club now – ours.
That’s so important for our player culture. Blokes like Hamish Hartlett now identify themselves as Magpies – who would have dared to imagine a Westies boy doing that?
Yes our talent programs look different now and will again in 2015, but the critical point is that we have fought to retain the right to work within our football heartland, developing the game we love and the young players who have been our reason for being since 1870 – after all, we were formed as a sporting and social club for young men in the Port district and we must continue to offer programs in both our heartland and beyond our traditional borders.
I’m excited to see what Buddha Hocking’s Magpies do this year and will be out at Alberton at every opportunity I have again to see them play. I encourage everyone to purchase a Magpies membership and do the same!
Our goal is to make Port Adelaide a football club that everyone can feel welcome at – whether at the Adelaide Oval, Alberton or at any of our club functions and events. We want every man, woman, child and family who wants to experience our club to feel safe and excited when they see Travis Boak win the toss or Chad Wingard celebrate a goal, and so we encourage all our supporters to barrack hard for the boys in a respectful and positive manner.
We have the most passionate supporters in the league, but we also have a reputation for fairness and a positive approach to our nation’s great game. Let’s keep up the good work together.
We are only just reaching the start of exciting new chapter as a football club as we approach our 144th year of football in South Australia.
There are many things to be excited about this season and I look forward to meeting with you at the games or around the club.
I’m sure you will join with me in wishing Ken Hinkley the best of luck in his second year as our senior coach and Travis Boak the same in his second year as our captain.
See you at the footy,
David.
David Koch has been the chairman of the Port Adelaide Football Club since 2012. Follow him on Twitter at @kochie_online.
Become a Port Adelaide 11-game reserved or Essential Power member to guarantee your seat at the historic first showdown at the Adelaide Oval, plus all four night games throughout the year. Visit weareportadelaide.com.au or call 1300 GO PAFC (1300 467 232) to join today!
Purchase your Magpies home game, season ticket or We Are Port Adelaide upgrade with your Power membership and see the Maggies in action throughout the 2014 SANFL IGA League season. Visit weareportadelaide.com.au or call 1300 GO PAFC today and support the club in South Australian footy!
The integration of our football programs is a small, but significant step to furthering our ‘one club’ project and making this a true Port Adelaide Football Club. Our players only play for one football club now – ours.
That’s so important for our player culture. Blokes like Hamish Hartlett now identify themselves as Magpies – who would have dared to imagine a Westies boy doing that?
Yes our talent programs look different now and will again in 2015, but the critical point is that we have fought to retain the right to work within our football heartland, developing the game we love and the young players who have been our reason for being since 1870 – after all, we were formed as a sporting and social club for young men in the Port district and we must continue to offer programs in both our heartland and beyond our traditional borders.
I’m excited to see what Buddha Hocking’s Magpies do this year and will be out at Alberton at every opportunity I have again to see them play. I encourage everyone to purchase a Magpies membership and do the same!
Our goal is to make Port Adelaide a football club that everyone can feel welcome at – whether at the Adelaide Oval, Alberton or at any of our club functions and events. We want every man, woman, child and family who wants to experience our club to feel safe and excited when they see Travis Boak win the toss or Chad Wingard celebrate a goal, and so we encourage all our supporters to barrack hard for the boys in a respectful and positive manner.
We have the most passionate supporters in the league, but we also have a reputation for fairness and a positive approach to our nation’s great game. Let’s keep up the good work together.
We are only just reaching the start of exciting new chapter as a football club as we approach our 144th year of football in South Australia.
There are many things to be excited about this season and I look forward to meeting with you at the games or around the club.
I’m sure you will join with me in wishing Ken Hinkley the best of luck in his second year as our senior coach and Travis Boak the same in his second year as our captain.
See you at the footy,
David.
David Koch has been the chairman of the Port Adelaide Football Club since 2012. Follow him on Twitter at @kochie_online.
Become a Port Adelaide 11-game reserved or Essential Power member to guarantee your seat at the historic first showdown at the Adelaide Oval, plus all four night games throughout the year. Visit weareportadelaide.com.au or call 1300 GO PAFC (1300 467 232) to join today!
Purchase your Magpies home game, season ticket or We Are Port Adelaide upgrade with your Power membership and see the Maggies in action throughout the 2014 SANFL IGA League season. Visit weareportadelaide.com.au or call 1300 GO PAFC today and support the club in South Australian footy!
