10. Aboriginal Academy Combine
Gavin Wanganeen, Byron Pickett, the Burgoynes - they are just a few of the many Aboriginal stars to come out of the Port Adelaide football factory over the years, and the club has taken this proud heritage of work with Aboriginal players and within language groups around South Australia to launch the club’s innovative new Aboriginal Academy along with the SA Aboriginal Sports Traning Academy. The next step will take place at Alberton on Saturday with the club’s first Aboriginal Combine. There young Aboriginal talents from around SA will converge on Port Adelaide’s spiritual home to be put through their paces in a trial to be part of this year’s academy intake - it will be exciting to see what talent is unearthed!
9. Tram and Footy Express
OK, we know, not everyone gets excited about public transport, but we think there’s a lot to be proud of when you see Port Adelaide branding plastered over two of the city’s electric trams (and an obvious synergy between trams and the Power). Yes, we know not everyone will be catching trams to the Adelaide Oval for games, but we do know the vast majority of punters will be taking advantage of the free public transport into the city. It takes 30 minutes from Tea Tree Plaza via the O-Bahn, just over an hour from Woodcroft and Mount Barker, and with the added bonus of active train lines from Seaford, Gawler, Outer Harbor and Belair, there’s never been a faster option to get into town on the cheap. We loved the vibe around Melbourne with supporters packing the trams and lining the streets during the finals and can’t wait for our people to replicate it here in Adelaide!
8. Legends Game
With so many famous names from the club’s rich history playing in the curtain-raiser Legends Game, this is one thing you sure don’t want to miss. Starting at 2:15pm, the game, played between teams wearing the Power’s home and clash guernsey, will feature former captains Greg Phillips and David Brown, SANFL premiership heroes like George Fiacchi, Darren Mead and Rohan Smith and AFL Grand Final champions like Byron Pickett, Darryl Wakelin and Toby Thurstans. Make sure you’re there to see it!
7. Getting into the rooms
You can’t understate this moment. When the club gets the keys to the Adelaide Oval change rooms, it will gain access to the best facilities its players have ever had available to them. With state-of-the-art recovery equipment, medical, lecture, training and warmup areas, the players won’t want for anything. Stay tuned for first pictures in the lead up to the game.
6. Live at the Drive
Wowee! Live music comes back to War Memorial Drive following four games in the 2014 AFL Premiership Season. Opening up the year is the first Live at the Drive with You Am I and Spiderbait rocking the city’s new premier entertainment precinct from 8:00pm. Tickets cost just $32 for club members and $42 for non-members. Make sure you get your tickets here.
5. March from the Mall
One of the more terrifying sights as an enemy soldier in the Napoleonic Wars was to be on the wrong side of a French column as it marched towards you endlessly screaming ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ (long live the Emperor!)…
Now, we’re not saying our supporters are going into battle, nor are we going to insist Vive l’Port becomes our supporters’ new battle cry - although Renault might like some French essence seeping into our fan culture - but when you have a couple of thousand people powering down from Rundle Mall in a sea of teal, black and white … well you can imagine any opposition supporter would be slightly apprehensive about the cauldron of sound they’re about to be objected to in the new Adelaide Oval
It will be amazing. We can’t wait to hear you!
4. Selection
And we can’t wait to see which soilders Ken Hinkley and the coaches choose to go into the real battle against the Crows. While we don’t know who will come into the mix to play a lively Adelaide side, which will come out all guns blazing following their loss to Geelong on Thursday, we do know that our boys love to win - not just against the Crows, but every game that they take on. Make sure you’re logged on to portadelaidefc.com.au at 6:00pm on Thursday night to see both teams first. It will be an exciting time.
3. A nice surprise
This one is a secret, but footy puritans, passionate Port Adelaide people and footy fans generally will love the special announcement we’ve got in the pipeline during the week. We reckon it ranks about third in the mix of our week’s activities but when you look at what we rate at positions 1 and 2, we think you’ll be just as pumped (and curious) to find out what number 3 will be.
2. Open Training
Make sure you get along to our open training session on Friday from 10:00am when the boys get their final run on the ground. It doubles as an opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the Oval on an empty morning while watching the players have their final shake down before the game.
To watch training, make sure you enter via the South Gate (off War Memorial Drive) and where you will be directed to Level 1 seating in the Riverbank Stand, just near the players' race. It will be a great way to spend your Friday morning!
1. The game itself
Enough said.
It will blow you away. It's going to be just a football game. This will revolutionise gameday entertainment in Australian sport. Having seen first hand the months and years of planning that has gone into making this historic first Balfours Showdown a reality, it's fair to say everyone involved at the club is champing at the bit to get into the Adelaide Oval and make the years of anticipation and preparation become reality.
This game will be more like a carnival than what we're used to with a standard rock-up-and-watch footy game. Stay tuned to portadelaidefc.com.au next week for our full listing of action and entertainment around the ground during the day.
Hopefully the match result will match the experience leading up to it!
