Port Adelaide season preview 2014

Port Adelaide season preview 2014.

After an amazing 2013 that saw Port rise from bottom 4 to finally dip out in the semi-final to the experienced Geelong outft the 2014 season offers much interest for all AFL fans looking at Alberton and plenty of nervous anticipation for those who support the club. Exciting times ahead, I hope.

Not only from a team perspective but for individuals season 2013 was a breakout year. Under coach Ken Hinkley 2014 shapes as a challenging one heading into the city at Adelaide Oval with a tougher fixture, greater focus from opposition teams and something missing from Port fans in the last few years, high hopes.

Ken Hinkley came to the club with a strong idea built on years of assistant coaching experience not only with how he wanted his team to play on field, but how they were to behave off field, how they trained and how they saw themselves. The playing group would have felt the sacking of Matt Primus, all players would see their part in that process and confidence was low. Ken introduced an attitude and set of behaviours that the players clearly embraced. From not leaving dirty dishes in the lunch room for the wonderful volunteer ladies to clean up, to language used around the club, to the coaches deciding during training when the players can and cant go off for a drink. The players were left under no disillusion who was in charge and who was setting the tone for the season ahead.

Adopting two very telling statements of "We will never give up" and "We will get what we deserve" the playing group embraced the training methods under the world class Darren Burgess and delivered on those statements.

Troy Chaplin and Danyle Pearce were moved on, much maligned by Port fans at times and highly rated at others the trading of these two players sent a message to the group. Nobody was safe.

Travis Boak replaced Dom Cassisi as captain and young faces like Chad Wingard, Ollie Wines, Jake Neade and Sam Colquhoun were given the chance to play at AFL level. Two of them, Wingard and Wines, excelled.

Individually Boak stood out as the leader of the club earning his first All-Australian honours along with Chad Wingard who took out the clubs John Cahill Medal for the best & fairest. Ollie Wines played all 22 games and finals in his debut season and Neade showed glimpses of brilliance around the forward half while Colquhoun was the youngest player at AFL ranks last season. ( Surprising given GWS and GC lists! )

Players like Mathew Broadbent, a fitter and stronger Alipate Carlile, Justin Westhoff, Brad Ebert, Angus Monfries and Jasper Pittard had personal best seasons.Jack Hombsch, Tom Jonas,Campbell Heath and Lewis Stevenson all played roles in the back half when needed.Robbie Gray returned from injury and took a while to find his feet, then began to show the class all Port people know he has around goals and in small stints in the middle.Kane Cornes turned the clock back and looks to have given himself at least another year of AFL football under Hinkley and looks set to be Ports first bond fide 300 game AFL player.Jarrad Redden had a mixed season starting well and copping a couple of serious injuries (including a dislocated shoulder) and Matt Lobbe stepped up to the plate, carrying Ports big man duties almost single handedly for the last half of the year.Hamish Harlett began to get his body right and had an amazing purple patch early on, as did Justin Westhoff in the first 5 rounds.

For mine, Boak, Wingard, Lobbe, Monfries, Schulz, Broadbent and Ebert were Ports spine last year. All of them played consistently well.

So what can Port look forward to in 2014?

A forward half that will test most back lines. The far reaching Westhoff, the accurate and courageous Schulz with the likes of Monfries, Wingard, Boak, Gray, Hartlett and Stewart offering plenty of attacking options.

The defense will be built around talls Trengove and Carlile, running talls O'Shea and Pittard while Harlett and Cassisi will be the back line generals directing traffic. I expect Homsch, Logan and Jonas to be given roles throughout the season.

In the middle Ports options all of a sudden run deep. Boak, Ebert, Wines,Broadbent, Wingard, Cornes, Hartlett, Cassisi, Gray new recruits Polec and White. While Andrew Moore and Aaron Young appear to be getting groomed as the Cornes / Cassisi replacements as these two premiership players enter the twilight years.It's hard not to be a little excited by where Port look to be heading.

An interesting selection with Polec as the guy seems to have his critics, already he has noted how he has benefited from the fitness program at Alberton. He was recruited for his finishing by foot. Jono Brown reakons Polec has delivered him some of the best passes in his long career on the Brisbane training track. Lets hope he can take that to the centre on game day. Matt White impressed me in the training drills I have seen him in, he's much more solidly built than I recall of him. He, along with Wines and Harlett give Port some real muscle in the middle.

After all that good news, the very sudden and late loss of senior assistant Alan Richardson was not only a shock but a loss to the coaching group. Balanced by the return of Phil Walsh from the WCE, this might not hurt as much as first thought.

My best 22 :

F : Monfries Schulz Gray
HF : Wingard Westhoff Stewart
C : Polec Ebert Broadbent
HB : Hartlett Trengove Pittard
B : White Carlile O'Shea

R : Lobbe Boak Moore
Int : Cassisi Wines Cornes Jonas/Hombsch/Neade

Draw :

Home games :
Adelaide,Brisbane,Geelong,Fremantle,Hawthorn,St.Kilda,Bulldogs,Essendon,Melbourne,Sydney,Carlton
Away games :
Carlton,North,West Coast,GWS,Melbourne,Sydney,Adelaide,Richmond,Collingwood,GC,Fremantle

DOUBLE UP TEAMS IN BOLD

I'm expecting big things from this group in 2014 but, as we all know backing up one solid season with another is tough work. Very tough work.

I think Port will be in the mix to finish anywhere from 5th to 9th. If we don't play finals I expect and believe it will be by only a game or two.

Wins at home over Adelaide (we'll split the Showdowns for arguments sake), Brisbane, St.Kilda,Bulldogs, Melbourne and Carlton.
Minimum 6 home wins.

Wins away to Carlton,GWS,Melbourne and Gold Coast. 4 wins.

Confident of 10 wins there with the likes of Essendon, Richmond, West Coast, Adelaide, North and Carlton around the same level as us I would think 13-15 wins is achievable.

Port Adelaide Football Club: We exist to win premierships. Anything short of a flag this year will be considered a failure.   

p.s great write up, Sir B.

sapaul wrote:Port Adelaide Football Club: We exist to win premierships. Anything short of a flag this year will be considered a failure.   

p.s great write up, Sir B.

Thankyou....and, if your club or any other club exists for any other reason than that, you've got it all wrong.  

Excellent write up, Booney.

Any chance of having a crack at a possible SANFL team also?

In the process of doing just that R&B.....

SANFL Line up ( You might not like it R&B )

F : Jake Neade John Butcher Sam Gray
HF : Steve Summerton Mason Shaw Mitch Harvey
C : Tom Logan Ben Newton Aaron Young
HB : Lewis Stevenson Aseri Raikiwasa Tom Clurey
B : Jarman Impey Jonas/Hombsch Sam Colquhoun

R : Renouf (Redden) Campbell Heath K.Mitchell
Int : R.Young J.Johansen H.Slattery Hitchcock

Ah Chee, Amon, Byrne-Jones,Redden, D.Flynn, Russell, D.Butcher, Ben Haren, Biemans, Sawford, Sharrad either injured ( Redden ), first year draftees or development players.

I'm compiling a more comprehensive review of the SANFL side for that forum.

Would have to think if that team stays on the park they will certainly play finals

There aren't too many in the 22 I've named who would not get picked in the other SANFL league sides.

Impey,Slattery and Harvey about the only ones IMO.

On review Slattery may not even make the side ahead of Byrne-Jones and Ah Chee.

Port's meteoric rise last year was almost a carbon copy of the Crows a year before that.

Coaches of both were products of the Geelong coaching system and its success.

Crows had an ordinary year last year, not helped by key injuries.

Port will need to be mindful of a similar fate, but I reckon Hinkley would be across that.

Some of their revelations from last year will need to kick on and can expect some close(r) attention this year. Aka, Wines, Neade, Wingard etc. Hinkley would be across that too.

Thanks Booney.

Apart from Slattery, all AFL listed players have to play before any non-AFL player is selected.

I see Marlon Motlop is happy to accept $400 a game, the same payment as an unproved young player.

redandblack wrote:

Apart from Slattery, all AFL listed players have to play before any non-AFL player is selected.

Is this a ruling of the agreement or just your own demand?

I don't think Port would take much notice of any 'demand' of mine, mate   

No, it's a ruling, I believe. I checked and I think it's the case.

Correct, we wouldn't.   

I'm looking into that caveat too, I cant find anything at this stage.

So Marlon Motlop is an "in" for the Magpies?

Not that I'm aware of. If he is, it hasn't been officially announced or listed on our player listing.

Booney wrote:Correct, we wouldn't.   

I'm looking into that caveat too, I cant find anything at this stage.

I checked.

I think it's an integral part of the original agreement.

Good win by Port the other night. Hinkley looks like he's put a good foundation there last year and they've got a lot of confidence to carry it on this year too. How good is Westhoff they used to laugh at him.

The biggest plus for Port last year and now going forward is, IMO, three young men.

The captain, Travis Boak. Plays inside and outside.

Ollie Wines, as tough as they come in and under.

Hamish Hartlett, finally got the body right.

We now have 3 real ball winners, in and under types with strong bodies that we have lacked recently. Sure there is more to the side with talls, outside ball users and of course the coach, but I have no doubt at all that these 3 are the keys to Port winning the ball. It's then up to others to use it.

Well done to all on field, off field and the people who have backed the club and become paid up, passionate and proud.

Port Adelaide - 50,000 members.

    


AFTER reaching its target of 40,000 members last year, the Port Adelaide Football Club has again reached a significant membership achievement by signing up more than 50,000 members just weeks into the 2014 season.

The historic achievement for the club, which has seen its membership figure grow by more than 20,000 since 2010, comes on the back of its successful move to the redeveloped Adelaide Oval at the end of March.

A crowd of over 50,000 spectators attended the historic first Showdown at the ground - a Power home game - where it defeated the Adelaide Crows by 54 points.

Port Adelaide now sits in the top seven of club membership figures and is rapidly gaining on its competition.

Only the Victorian powerhouses Collingwood (71,760 members), Richmond (62,826), Hawthorn (64,140), Essendon (54,537), Perth-based West Coast (53,588) and local rivals Adelaide (53,026) have higher membership tallies.

Port Adelaide's chief executive Keith Thomas hailed the achievement as significant for the club's efforts to embrace its heritage with a fully integrated 'Magpies' football program in the SANFL and aspirations to achieve sustained success in both the AFL and local league into the future.

"This is an absolute credit to our fantastic supporters who have embraced the direction the club is going in," Mr Thomas told portadelaidefc.com.au.

"To take on the big powerhouse clubs of the competition we need a large and unified membership and supporter base.

"That is what this figure represents and will allow us to build on into the future.

"We're working towards sustained success nationally, sustained success here in South Australia and we're doing it together as one Port Adelaide community."

While the club's successful campaign last season and promising start to 2014 has been beneficial to the club, Mr Thomas said the milestone was reached thanks to a concerted effort from the entirety of its football operations.

"Success on-field isn't enough to get this sort of figure, although it definitely helps and Ken Hinkley and Darren Burgess and our entire football department need to take the lion's share of credit for the work they've done to produce the exciting brand of footy they have since arriving at the club," Mr Thomas said.

"Our member services team has worked hard to help as many supporters become members and have been a critical piece of the puzzle.

"Our gameday team has also delivered a fantastic entertainment package at Adelaide Oval before each match at home.

"We need to keep this momentum going on and off the field if we want to become a standard for how AFL clubs should operate and a footy club that more people want to be part of."

Building on an internal philosophy to 'make its community proud', Port Adelaide has ticked numerous off-field boxes.

It was ranked first in the AFL for overall member satisfaction, member connection, member communication and membership arrangements in 2013, and also rated highly in media and digital growth and performance and sponsor brand recall and recognition.

Breaking the 50,000-member barrier will have significant benefit to Port Adelaide off field this year, with plenty of growth potential along its journey into the future.

The more than 20% growth on last year's total membership figure equates to an almost $2 million uplift in club revenue, while the club is also set to benefit on game days after more than doubling its number of 11-game season ticket holders since 2012.

Now focussed on the selling of three-game and general admission memberships in addition to continuing sales of other reserved seat categories with blockbuster games like this weeks' 2004 premiership commemoration against Brisbane, ANZAC Round against Geelong in Round 6 and night blockbusters against Hawthorn, Essendon, Sydney and Carlton, there is plenty of value still available for more members to join.

And with its world class stadium - labelled by some as on par with the MCG for football grounds in Australia - the club is determined to reach its next milestone quickly.

"We won't be complacent and rest on this achievement because we know there are still plenty of Port Adelaide supporters out there who haven't yet signed up," Mr Thomas said.

"What we hope is that they've seen what we did in our first game at Adelaide Oval in Round 2, because it's just the start of what we'll be doing at games this year.

"We're making going to the footy a fun family day out and the feedback we've received already has been very positive.

"I know everyone involved here - especially our players - has been really impressed with that first Showdown, so we're determined to keep bringing members on board this year and taking them on the Port Adelaide journey."