Port Adelaide great Greg Phillips puts family ties before football loyalties ahead of AFLW grand final
Greg Phillips made his name in league football as a Port Adelaide great. He now proudly wears the Crows colours for the love of his daughter Erin — and women’s football
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By appearances, Greg Phillips seems a confused football fan as he swaps jumpers day by day. But no one can question the loyalty of the proudest dad in the AFLW.
On Sunday, Phillips will wear a Crows jumper at the AFLW grand final at Adelaide Oval in support of his beloved daughter, Adelaide co-captain and women’s league superstar Erin.
Last Saturday, the ex-Port Adelaide and Collingwood champion defender rolled up at Adelaide Oval among a flock of Crows’ fans wearing a Hawks guernsey — to support his son-in-law Shaun Burgoyne.
“You follow the blood,” says Phillips, who turned 60 on Tuesday. “You put your heart where the blood is.
“No matter where Erin and Shaun play, they will have my support … you follow your blood,” added the SA Hall of Famer as the family gathered at his West Lakes home to form their army of support for Erin in the AFLW grand final against Carlton.
But it is not easy for Phillips to win over the Port Adelaide fans who cheered him as a Magpies premiership captain during his 343 SANFL games in two stints from 1976-93.
“I was at the club (at Alberton) the other day and two ladies said it was ‘disgraceful’ that I wear the Crows’ colours,” said Phillips, a winner of eight SANFL league premierships at Port Adelaide.
“I offered to buy them a lemon squash. They would not have it. I went to hug them. They ran away from me.
“Yeah, the Port fans — those 60-plus — get into me. But I’m a big boy, so it doesn’t worry me.
“I get it … I couldn’t get over Port Magpie fans who went to support the Crows in 1991 and never came back when the Power started. I understand rivalry — and loyalty.”
Erin Phillips thought she would face the same disapproving reaction when she opted to sign with Adelaide — rather than Collingwood, where Greg played 84 VFL games from 1983-86 — for the inaugural AFLW season in 2017.
Greg Phillips recalls the moment his daughter became a pioneer Crow: “When Port Adelaide did not go in the AFLW, Erin came to me asking, ‘Dad, what would you think if I play for the Crows?’
“I think Erin felt she would be letting me down a bit by joining the Crows,” added Phillips, who in 1976 washed away his childhood support for Sturt to join the dreaded rival Port Adelaide from his family base at Port Lincoln.
“I told her to go for it at 100 miles an hour. She was 31. It was her dream to play football.
“I told her to make the most of it. It was her dream … and I wanted her to know I was at ease with it. I was excited for her.”
When AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan brought forward the AFLW launch from 2020 to 2017, Greg and Erin Phillips were dreaming of being Port Adelaide’s first father-daughter pairing.
It had a sentimental touch to it as Greg considers himself a trendsetter in the 1980s for being the first SANFL footballer to bring his daughter on to the field for the lap of honour after a grand final.
“And it could have been the first Crows’ father-daughter pick too — we could have both been inaugural Crows, 27 years apart,” Phillips said.
“There are times I look back at 1991 when I was in the first Crows’ training squad with a bit of sadness.
“It still wasn’t a professional, full-time AFL. I was on $40,000 a year as the Port Adelaide (SANFL) captain and the Crows were offering $1200 a game. And I had a hotel (at Port Adelaide) to run. It was either my football or my pub that was going to suffer if I joined the Crows.”
Phillips has three daughters — Erin, Amy (married to Shaun) and Rachel. All have played senior netball. One was the natural footballer being denied the chance to play at the senior level — until the AFLW began.
Phillips has no doubt that had the AFLW existed 20 years ago, Erin would have ignored an international basketball career (that has taken her to the US, Poland and Israel) to focus solely on football.
“And I understand why,” Phillips said.
“Erin was always at the front of our house kicking a footy. If they were digging up the road, Erin would be taking the witches hats, putting them on the front lawn for goals and having shots.
“I remember (Port Adelaide premiership coach) Jack (Cahill) seeing Erin with a football at our training sessions at Alberton Oval and saying she was the most skilful 12-year-old kicking a footy.
“There was the day (wife) Julie and I packed up the kids after a team barbecue at Alberton and getting home, having messed up who would get Erin in the car.
“We left her there. Forty minutes later, I was back at Alberton and fond Erin tackling the boys and kicking goals in a game in pocket.
“She didn’t want to come home. Footy is what she always wanted to do.”
But there was no game to play after Erin turned 14. She might have been a world-class tennis player had Australian great Evonne Goolagong Cawley handed Phillips a scholarship during trials at Memorial Drive 20 years ago.
“She would have been a good tennis player but she didn’t get the scholarship — and there was no football. So it was basketball,” Phillips said.
Erin Phillips has played against men — and held her own — in charity matches, such as the Little Heroes Slowdowns at Adelaide Oval. Her talent has sparked debate on whether a woman could play AFL — and she has closed the question by saying there is no need to have that ambition when her dream leaves in the AFLW.
Even an old football warrior such as Greg Phillips is a devotee of women’s football — and not simply because his daughter is the game’s star. He is coaching the SMOSH West Lakes A-grade women and helps the under-14 girls team that includes his nieces, Ashley and Chloe.
“When the AFLW started, I thought women’s football would be touch and go to be successful,” Phillips said. “I thought this would be a 10-year project. But you have to see how these girls love the game. They might be three out of 10 for their skills but you cannot question their endeavour, their love for the game. It is unbelievable.
“I see it with Ashley and Chloe. They will be so-so about going to Little Athletics or basketball. But they have the boots on for footy training before I can even find the car keys.
“There is something about women’s footy. They are having fun. But it is the respect women have for each other when they play the game.
“I went through footy with people saying ‘when would I have a son so Port Adelaide could have another Phillips in the team’. I have three beautiful daughters — and I would not swap any of them for anything in the world.”
Erin Phillips senses her father is riding this grand final with more tension than herself.
“Dad’s more nervous for me than I am,” she said.
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