Dear Members and Supporters,
The AFL’s annual membership numbers came out yesterday, confirming Port Adelaide’s AFL audited member number for 2020 of 46,820, down 10.3% from 2019.
When the season shut down in March, we were launching into our 150 year celebrations with a R2 Showdown in the Prison Bars and five additional blockbusters scheduled for Adelaide Oval before heading to Shanghai in May!
At that point in time we had shown some good form in the pre-season, our senior coach was enjoying what he was seeing and we had beaten the Gold Coast Suns before anyone realised how much better they were going to be this year.
But I don’t think anyone at that stage, apart from Kenny perhaps, was predicting that we would spend all of season 2020 on top of the ladder and be competing for two home finals with two rounds to go.
Then the virus hit, and the season went into lock down.
What happened next was simply remarkable.
No games for ten weeks, and no certainty as to whether the season would re-start and certainly any chance of our members being able to attend a game at Adelaide Oval for the season.
The ASPHQ, Port Club and the Port Store were closed.
The Magpies were withdrawn from the SANFL.
There would be no interaction with the players or coaches, who have been living in quarantine conditions since March.
Real economic hardship for the entire community.
Despite all of this, 96% of the Port Adelaide faithful pledged their full membership payments for 2020. 96%!!!
Merchandise has been flying out the door at record levels since re-opening in June.
Letters and calls of support for the Club have been flooding in.
Simply, the mindset of our people has been to do anything they possibly could to support the Club in its hour of need.
As a result, Port Adelaide will complete 2020 bruised like everyone else, but significantly better than it looked in April.
The Club is positioned, through the sacrifice of many, to handle anything that 2021 can throw at it.
And most importantly we have a team that is up to its eyeballs in a fight for the 2020 AFL premiership in this our 150th year!
Our intention is to do what we’ve done all year. We will keep moving forward together, and deal with whatever comes our way.
Now as we find ourselves in Member Recognition Round, we just didn’t want to miss this opportunity to say thank you.
We have put together a range of Member initiatives this week to show our appreciation, including signed guernsey give-aways, a virtual post-match event from the inner sanctum of our changerooms and one lucky member will be winning themselves a brand new car thanks to our major partner MG.
Your unwavering support, when everything was on the line and ever since has been humbling.
Once again, as a Club, we have shown how powerful unity can be.
Let’s enjoy the run home.
See you at the footy.
KT
