We've got some very exciting announcements in the coming days. I can't say too much yet, but stay tuned to the club website portadelaidefc.com.au for the latest.
Now, these letters are normally devoted to the very serious business of the Port Adelaide Football Club.
Today’s note is a little different.
I’ve just spent the past half anhour filming a little piece (you can watch it above) aimed at encouraging you to take your place on the Ultimate PAFC Honour Board at Adelaide Oval.
For those of you who may not have heard about it yet, the PAFC Honour Board will be erected in the player’s race at Adelaide Oval, and will be a magnificent pictorial representation of our Club’s proud history. For $100 you can have your name placed on the Honour Board, which will stay in place at Adelaide Oval for at least the next 10 years. I haven’t traditionally been the sort of person who would do this sort of thing. Until I joined Port Adelaide…I didn’t really get it!
But in my two years here I have watched countless people come down to the Club to pay homage to family members whose names are enshrined on the pavers that surround the hallowed Alberton Oval turf. I spoke to a supporter this year who comes to every Magpies game, and religiously stands on his father’s paver with his mates which he says reminds him of the best moments he ever spent with his Dad.
I walk around the ground and see names on the picket fences and in the Grandstands and in the foyer of our Headquarters. All, no doubt, submitted as part of some drive by the Club to raise money to build something new or purchase a player or simply to pay the bills.
But it was when I received my own Port Adelaide Heritage Guernsey this year, which was produced to commemorate our last game at AAMI, that I really understood what this was all about. As I hastily unwrapped the Guernsey from the box and searched through all the printing to find my name (which I feared would be tucked away under the armpit or curled up in a seam!), I looked up to see all of my fellow staff mates who had received their Guernsey at the same time, doing the same thing!
This was more than a donation, much more. This was about belonging. Belonging to something that has provided a life full of wonderful memories, with the promise of many more to come. Belonging to a community of like- minded people. Belonging to a Club that fills your chest with pride when our team comes from behind to win a thriller. Belonging to a Club that means something in our community, because it’s been doing good things in that community for 143 years.
Putting my name on that Guernsey somehow connected me to everything that Port Adelaide is and has been. I’ve got to say, as an old Norwood boy, that’s a pretty special feeling. And the Honour Board represents another wonderful opportunity to say…I was there with my team when we famously returned to Adelaide Oval.
2014 is going to be a year to remember, and when Boaky leads the boys out for that first Showdown, my wife Patti and I will have our names on that Board, alongside every player that has ever played a senior game for the Club and alongside Kochie and his 23 family members (!) as proud members of the exceptional Port Adelaide Football Club.
pafchonourboard.com.au is the place to sign up. Thousands of supporters have already joined and we’d love for you to be there with us.
Cheers,
KT
