Port Adelaide’s 150th anniversary in 2020 will need to bring back the blue-and-white hoops — and the fans should embrace the move

Revelations that Port Adelaide intends to wear a blue-and-white hoops jumper next season for its 150th anniversary celebrations should not have surprised the club’s fans — they should demand it.

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Port Adelaide’s battle to honour its heritage in next year’s 150th anniversary celebrations is becoming just as difficult inside the clubhouse with its fans as outside with the AFL and Collingwood.

Reports — launched by former Magpies league forward Dwayne Russell on radio SEN on Monday — that Port Adelaide would wear its first jumper, the blue and white hoops of 1870, rather than the black-and-white “prison bars” to celebrate the club’s start has created considerable discontent in the supporter base.

Port Adelaide honoured its first club jumper — the blue-and-white hoops of 1870 — in the AFL heritage round in 2005 in a Showdown against Adelaide at Football Park. The inaugural club jumper will need to be returned to action on May 24 next season to honour the club’s first game from 1870.

It also has forced the Port Adelaide Football Club to deliver a response, if only to calm members and fans who sense the white flag of surrender has been raised in the face of Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s protests and defiance.

“Important not to get spooked by the rumours,” Port Adelaide declared on its social media account on Monday night. “Our 150 anniversary plans are advancing well. We very much understand what’s important to the Port Adelaide family.

All will be revealed soon.”

Port Adelaide will — and should and must — wear the blue-and-white hoops from 1870 in 2020, dusting down the heritage jumper seen in 2005 in a Showdown. The appropriate date next year is Sunday, May 24 — to mark the 150th anniversary of the club’s first game against the “Young Australians” at Glanville.

Every Port Adelaide fan should accept if the 150th anniversary is to truly acknowledge the club’s heritage, this original jumper has to be paraded in 2020. Finding the appropriate game at Adelaide Oval for May 24 next year is the next challenge.

The supporters’ online appeal to “Bring Back The Bars” now has more than 8200 signatures.

The reality is the so-called “prison bars” are not coming back for every Port Adelaide AFL game in Season 2020.

At best, Port Adelaide might get to wear the “traditional” black-and-white jumper designed in 1902 for one Showdown next season.

The grand plan — a wish of many at Alberton — for the guernsey becomes the Power’s battle gear for every Showdown from next season remains a difficult and delicate balancing act with McGuire, not the AFL, to appease.

Travis Boak and Port Adelaide in the prison bar guernsey in 2014. Picture Sarah Reed.

Another reality is Port Adelaide is not giving up — certainly not in 2020 — wearing its current black jumper with the white-and-teal “V”. As club chief executive Keith Thomas told The Advertiser: “We love our current guernsey — we are wedded to that.”

Port Adelaide fans will learn much of their club’s 150-year story next year.

And there is much to learn about the so-called “prison bar” jumper. Designed in 1902, the “bars” — or the wharf pylons from the Port Dock as many Port Adelaide fans would prefer — were worn five different style until 1944.

Port Adelaide opted for black-and-white stripes — a replica of the Collingwood jumper — until the end of 1951, the first of Fos Williams’ nine premiership seasons at Alberton.

In 1952, then club boss Bob McLean brought back the “bars” that have remained the club’s SANFL uniform — and could not be taken to the AFL in 1997 as Collingwood insisted it could be the only national league club with black-and-white stripes.

Port Adelaide in blue-and-white hoops next year? Certainly on Sunday, May 24. There is no point in celebrating 150 years of club history if the first jumper is ignored.

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