Dear members and supporters.

It’s been another interesting couple of days for our great club. As usual there is significant interest and speculation in all things Port Adelaide, and part of the challenge is identifying which elements of this commentary are real and important and which parts are simply noise. Hopefully, this update will provide you with some clarity.

On Field

I was sitting with the CEO of the West Coast Eagles on Sunday and he made two very pertinent points during the afternoon. Firstly, he reinforced a view shared with me by many other clubs recently - that West Coast considers that our list has enormous potential and upside. Its age profile is well positioned and if we can get our best players on the track more regularly, our performances will improve dramatically. The second point he made was that when his club finished last in 2010, the assessment of their list was very similar to ours today … all doom and gloom. Things can and do change quickly!

His comments got me thinking: are there other clubs which have had periods like we are having now and have recovered?

Can you remember what people were saying about Hawthorn in 2005 when they finished 16th with five wins? What about Collingwood the same year, when they also finished with five wins? Or Carlton in 2005, 2006 and 2007 when they couldn’t win more than four games in a season.

Even today, we are far from alone in being the subject of wide ranging and extreme opinions. The point is, a club is never as good as it looks and it is never as bad as it looks either!

Age, maturity, injuries, as well as talent all have a huge influence on our team’s performances week in, week out.

I thought our guys tried very hard on Sunday, but we simply were not good enough to beat a very capable finals aspirant. We currently have 17 injuries to our list, and our depth is being severely tested. But this coming Saturday - at AAMI Stadium - we have a fantastic opportunity to go to war again against Brisbane, and for our youngsters to experience the fire that is AFL football so that it sears into their minds what it takes to play at this level, as they go into another critical pre-season.

Crowd Numbers

Firstly, thank you to those who turned up at AAMI Stadium yesterday and roared the house down when our team really started to mount a challenge in the second half. But less than 14,000 just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid. To be honest, it’s somewhat embarrassing, because it could look as if we’ve given up on the team and the club.

I know that’s not true!

Last Wednesday evening our member information night was attended by 600 people and we discussed the state of the club together for just over three hours. There was a lot of frustration in the room, but there was also a moment where this passionate group of supporters turned their attention to how they could help their club. They discussed volunteering, paying a levy to ensure we could afford the right coaches and other initiatives.

While we appreciate the intent of these gestures, I made the point on the night that the best way to help the club is to turn up to our games and show the world that we have not stopped supporting this team, or lost faith in the club’s ability to turn this around. Port Adelaide has always been at its best and most dangerous when it’s up against it. The players have a responsibility to fight, and so do we as supporters!

The best support you can offer is to turn up at our games if you are able. We play Brisbane from 1.40pm at AAMI Stadium on Saturday, and the boys would love to see you there.

Presidential Process

There’s been a lot of noise in this area, so let’s clear it up.

We have a Governance Committee which is working through a process to field nominations for Brett’s board position, for when it is vacated later in the year.

Over the past two weeks, members of the Governance Committee have been in discussion with a number of potential candidates.

As CEO, I will have no significant involvement in the appointment of a board member and no involvement at all in the selection of the President, which is a matter for our directors. This process will be conducted in house, in the appropriate manner, as you would expect from your board.

We will keep you posted as this process unfolds.

We Are Port Adelaide

Once again, we are dealing with discussion and commentary about the identity - and future - of the Port Adelaide Football Club.

Let me be clear once again - We Are Port Adelaide and we have no intention of changing that!

Others can speculate and comment, but we are committed to strengthening our identity as the Port Adelaide Football Club - with teams in the AFL and SANFL.

The OneClub reunification has been all about bringing our club together and in doing so removing the ambiguity that has caused us some damage along the way.

Our supporters have responded overwhelmingly in favour of this strategy, and we believe that it is the best way to build a membership base to underpin our long-term success.

It is already doing that. We have increased our membership beyond 37,000 in 2012, but we are the first to admit that we need to engage more supporters and get them on board as paid-up members from next year and beyond.

We know those supporters are out there. They have been with us before. Our challenge is to bring them back to our club. We believe that will be done by being strong and proud of who we are. We do not believe that this excludes a wider audience from warming to our club and its values.

People identify with brands that are strong and consistent. That is a part of our mission. While our on-field performance is not what we want it to be, Port Adelaide has an exciting future particularly when its AFL games move to Adelaide Oval in 2014.

I remind you that AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has made it clear that it is his belief that the competition is best served by two teams in Adelaide, with one of them being Port Adelaide.

Coach Selection

This process is going well. The selection panel is confirmed and will be announced this week. Work has already commenced on the criteria required and that will be finalised this week. As we confirm details of what we’re looking for, the search for candidates will begin.

Again, the process of interviewing candidates will be kept very much in house, mostly out of respect for the interviewees and their clubs.

As I have said previously, I’m hopeful that we can get this done before AFL grand final week.

I hope to see you at the footy on Saturday,

Keith Thomas
Chief Executive Officer

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