Dear Members and Supporters
What a privilege it has been.
From the first meeting at President Brett Duncanson’s home, where Director Bruce Abernethy said what everyone else in the room was thinking…’there is no way this is going to work!’… I knew that the stakes were high.
This was the great Port Adelaide Football Club, and it was in trouble.
Urgent change was required, and Brett and his Board were contemplating taking on an ‘outsider’ to help navigate the Club through difficult times.
It could not have been an easy decision, and I will never forget their courage, or the confidence they showed in me.
I have reflected quite a bit on those early days, and the journey we’ve been on since then.
We’re not there yet, but we’ve come a long way.
Most importantly, we have proven ourselves capable of consistently and sustainably investing in winning games of footy.
Since 2013 … Ken, his coaching group and our players have competed in eight AFL finals, including two AFL Preliminary Finals, plus three SANFL Grand Finals … four of which were lost by under a goal, as was the overtime Elimination Final in 2017.
The sting of these narrow defeats has only strengthened us, and we now sit ready and eager for another shot at the summit.
We have been bold, and looked outside the square to continue to improve.
Our arrival at the new Adelaide Oval set a new game day experience standard for Australian football.
The Port Adelaide army at full throttle is a chilling, exhilarating experience that we must cherish and never take for granted.
The 2017 game in Shanghai, and being the first professional sport permitted to play for premiership points on mainland China, was a triumph of determination, innovation and resilience for our Club. It proved again that we are capable of anything.
And we are now widely recognized as industry leaders in the delivery of life changing community programs, understanding that by genuinely doing good things for others provides the Club with an even higher purpose for those that represent it, and a source of great pride for those who support it.
But in my view, the most significant development in my time at Port Adelaide has been the coming together of the Port Adelaide family.
Where back in 2011 we were divided, we are now one.
United by the core set of values which define us, and which have been gloriously magnified throughout 2020 as part of the 150 year celebrations.
Port Adelaide is again at full voice.
We must never again allow ourselves to be distracted from our core purpose of winning premierships and making our community proud.
There are too many competing forces, and the road to success is too difficult, for Port Adelaide to be anything but completely as one.
May our anthem forever remind us … Together we are a powerful force.
In closing I would like to thank David and the PAFC Board for your guidance, support and preparedness to have a go!
I think we can be proud of the progress we have made.
To the entire Port Adelaide Administrative and Football team, thank you for giving so much of yourselves to our mission.
It is a relentless, selfless often thankless task to keep driving yourself up the AFL mountain.
Our families often bear the brunt of the absence this commitment invariably creates.
To you and to them … thank you, we could not have asked for more.
And to the people of Port Adelaide … thank you for welcoming me, Patti, Brad and Paige into your family.
As Russell Ebert so eloquently put it when I first walked through the front doors of ASPHQ … ’I’m shocked by this decision … good luck’
I’m sure many of you felt the same way.
We will be forever grateful for your warmth and trust.
So, as I place the pen down for the final time, I feel confident to say that the Club is in good hands and well placed to achieve the success we all strive for.
May you all stay safe through this wretched COVID period and look forward to season 2021 with great anticipation.
I sense we are very close.
See you in the outer next year!
KT
