To our members and supporters,

Today I introduce what I intend to be a regular communication with you, as together we attack our challenges and make the Port Adelaide Football Club strong and successful.

I want you to come here to PortAdelaideFC.com.au for THE FACTS from your club. In this section, I will give you all the information I can as soon as I can.

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your ongoing support. Port Adelaide people are proud and passionate, and are what make our club so special.

You are also the key to getting us to the position where we want to be as we plan for an exciting future at Adelaide Oval.

Two very tough decisions have been made this week, affected a couple of Port Adelaide’s finest servants in Matt Primus and Brett Duncanson.

Both men have contributed enormously to this club over a very long time, and both have put the club first.

Matt has accepted with great dignity the board’s decision not to continue with him as senior coach in 2013.

Brett has volunteered to stand down as president and director at the AGM at the end of the year, to give the club an opportunity to grow further under new leadership.

We are committed to building on the enormous work both of these men have done.

To do that, we need the unity and backing of our members and supporters.

COACHING APPOINTMENT

We are well advanced in formulating a process for the selection of the next senior coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club.

The club will engage a range of opinions to assist with this process, beginning with the formulation of a hit-list of the best available candidates.

There is much public speculation about who we should target, who might want the role, who might not want it.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion on that, but the only thing you should take as fact is that we have one objective: to find and acquire the best person we possibly can to deliver the success we demand.

As we embark on that process, Port Adelaide’s longest-serving assistant coach Garry Hocking has taken up the reins as interim coach for the remainder of 2012 season.

Buddha has embraced the challenge with enthusiasm and commitment and has the support of the entire club.

PRESIDENT’S POSITION

Brett Duncanson will remain as club president until the Annual General Meeting in December, when he will also stand down as a director of the Port Adelaide Football Club.

The club has a Governance Committee that addresses issues surrounding the board, its make-up and function, and it will guide the steps we take from here.

As with the coaching position, there is much speculation about who will be our next president.

Can I make it clear, that the president is elected by - and at the will of - the board of the Port Adelaide Football Club.

No-one can simply “run for president”. They must first be a director of the club and these are elected by members or appointed by the SANFL.

THE MEDIA

At a time of such significant change, there inevitably will be enormous media scrutiny on our club and its every activity. We accept this reality.

However, some of the items you will read and claims you will hear will be drastically negative in tone, questioning your club’s relevance, contribution to the game and even its future.

You need to understand that many of these articles are no more than COMMENT. It is best if you can identify them as such and separate what is news reporting from mere OPINION. Much of this comment comes from sources far removed from the Port Adelaide Football Club. They often have limited knowledge of our activities or history, or the progress we continue to make in turning our club around on-field and off.

YOU know what the Port Adelaide Football Club means to you … and your opinion is the only opinion that matters.

Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to every word or claim in every article. At this time more than ever, we need to prioritise our time and effort.

This communication direct from the club is aimed at giving you the facts.

FOR THE RECORD

We insist on challenging the content of one article.

The Port Adelaide Football Club vehemently refutes content included in an article in The Advertiser on Wednesday 8 August 2012, relating to the 2010 appointment of Matthew Primus as senior coach and commenting on fitness coach Cam Falloon.

We insist on correcting this misinformation.

Contrary to the article, we state again that Matthew Primus was the first choice from an exhaustive selection process which involved a six-man panel including independent members.

Let us be clear that Primus was the unanimous first choice of this panel, not - as the article infers - second to another candidate, Chris Scott.

The article further claims Port Adelaide “could not afford paying out fitness coach Cam Falloon and then hiring Scott and his (fitness) program”.

Again, we wish to make it perfectly clear that at no point in that process did Port Adelaide contemplate replacing Cam Falloon and in no way was the appointment of the senior coach linked to our fitness and conditioning program or resources.

THE BRAND

You may have read or heard about an article which claimed the club is considering changing its name.

This is NOT THE CASE. The claim was attributed to an anonymous source unwilling to put their name to their ridiculous and ill-informed suggestion. This was then readily published without seeking a response or input from your football club.

There is no proposal to change your club’s name.

WE ARE PORT ADELAIDE and WE ARE NOT CHANGING.

FINALLY

After a very tough week, our boys get back on the park and back to business this weekend.

We travel to Launceston to take on one of the premiership favourites in Hawthorn, a great challenge but an opportunity for our players to do what they love to do - represent the Port Adelaide Football Club and its thousands of supporters.

What our team needs more than anything is people like you behind it. We know we can count on you.

Thank you for your support … now more than ever.

Keith Thomas
Chief Executive Officer

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