Dear Members and Supporters,

There are some moments in this job which are simply unforgettable.

Over the past three weeks, as both Port sides were frantically battling a very nasty bout of viral meningitis and an even more sapping loss of winning form, your club proudly launched three important, future shaping initiatives:

Team China and Port Adelaide – an international partnership
For the very many of you who attended the March from the Mall ahead of the Sydney game, you would have seen a large group of young travelling Chinese university students proudly parading around in their Red ISC tracksuits, waving flags and chanting “Power! Power!” at the head of the marching throng!

These were members of the Port Adelaide-sponsored Team China, who had arrived in Australia the night before, trained with our boys on Adelaide Oval, visited the spiritual home base at Alberton, taken a trip up to Cleland National Park to hold koalas and then fronted up on game day to march to the ground and then complete 3,000 or more high fives as they romped around doing their lap of honour at half-time.

Not bad for a group, of which only two had ever ventured outside of their home province of Guangzhou prior to this trip!

What I loved was how welcome we made them feel.

The players, led by Jackson Trengove, embraced them for a group team photo, our marchers happily pushed them to the front of the line and our 50,000 supporters at the game gave them a rousing welcome when they came on the ground.

It was fantastic to watch.

When you think about what our Chinese Engagement Strategy is all about - to create friends and connections with the Chinese community, so that one day we might be able to grow our club and the game of AFL in China - the exercise could not have been more successful!

Thank you for your generous, unconditional support of this incredibly grateful group of young men.

WillPOWER in the APY Lands
Last week we also launched another very significant program. In 2015, with the help of significant federal government funding, Port Adelaide will deliver its WillPOWER program in remote communities throughout the APY Lands.

Flanked by our extraordinary Power Community Ltd team, and including our Aboriginal programs ambassador Gavin Wanganeen, we climbed on board a tiny eight-seat, twin prop aircraft and flew four hours north to a little place called Fregon to announce the program with federal minister Nigel Scullion.

In Fregon, and most of the other communities in far north SA, school attendance is a major issue as the communities struggle with a range of issues including cultural differences, family disputes, geographical obstacles and so on.

In some places daily school attendance is under 50%, with a very high drop-out rate after Year 7.

Our program aims to reinforce that going to school can provide both fun and opportunity to these beautiful young children.

We will utilise our highly regarded team of Paul Vandenbergh, Narelle Long, Byron Pickett and Wade Thompson, supported by Chad, Jarman, Gavin, Brendon, Karl and any other player we can roster on, to connect with these kids in a way that very few others can.

We believe we can support the hard-working teachers up there and make a difference, and we can’t wait to crank up that flying lawnmower again, and get the program started!

UniSA partnership
Then, just to reinforce the diversity of activity we have undertaken to broaden the scope and capacity of the club, our chairman David Koch and the vice-chancellor of the University of South Australia Mr David Lloyd launched a partnership between our organisations that we hope will ultimately place us both at the cutting-edge of sports science and coaching in the coming years.

Three joint initiatives were announced including the establishment of an Applied Masters course headed up by our own Darren Burgess, and two collaborative research and educational programs to compliment both our Chinese and Aboriginal engagement activities.

Think about these things for a moment – Chinese community engagement, remote community education and cutting-edge sports science with one of Australia’s leading universities - all whilst building and retaining a top-tier football program, in both the AFL and SANFL competitions.

Never has our mantra of We Exist To Win Premierships and Make Our Community Proud resonated so strongly.

The Maggies
And while we’re talking footy for a moment, I noticed the legendary Buddha Hocking up to his old tricks earlier this week.

Hot on the heels of a spirited win against our very worthy old foe Norwood, our SANFL senior coach was doing his level best to hose down premiership expectations for the Magpies.

I quietly suggested to him that whilst inferring that the Magpies were only there to support the AFL program was a novel idea, sitting on top of the table a win and ample percentage clear of the next team with one game remaining probably didn’t help his argument!

Better to just fess up to the fact that we are, as always, pretty keen to keep winning – the old Port Adelaide way!

The idea of the Magpies back in the finals for the first time since 2008 is more than just mildly exciting for our supporters - we’re actually jumping out of our skin to get into some fair dinkum September action!

Needless to say Garry is relieved that he has been given permission to dream…just a little!

The Power, and Black and White Friday Night
Likewise with the Power, it’s incredibly tight, and every game counts right now.

This Friday night blockbuster at Adelaide Oval will be something very, very special and you don’t want to miss the final minor round instalment of our incredible game day experience.

There is too much action to list, but take my word, everything will be bigger and better this week!

We only ask two things of you.

First, if you can’t make the game, as disappointing as we know that will be, please make sure you pass your ticket onto a friend or family member – it’s so important we have another massive crowd at the Oval on Friday night and we don’t want a single spare seat in the house!

Second, make sure you put on your Black and White gear – your old Maggies scarf or beanie, your black and white guernsey or jumper, or just a plain old black and white jacket – and bring your most passionate Port voice when you head in to see us take on Carlton and celebrate the incredible feats of our most successful team ever, the 1914 Invincibles!

But more than that, just come in and be part of the final celebration of an incredible first year at Adelaide Oval, before we get stuck in to the really serious stuff.

September.

See you on Friday!

KT