Port Adelaide’s decision to break with a 149-year tradition with co-captains highlights how Power’s ambitions suffer from Magpies’ past

Port Adelaide has not always had its captain wear No. 1 or always won premierships in the “prison bar” jumper. Many traditions at Alberton are filled with myth.

12/05/18 - AFL - Round 8, SHOWDOWN - Port Adelaide v Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval. Travis Boak leads his team down the race after the win. Picture SARAH REED

• Wines, Jonas make history as Power’s first co-captains
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• Rucci: Port’s next fight for traditional right

Tradition is a wonderful “intangible” in sport. It can be a defining edge on new rivals, as the Port Adelaide Football Club (“Since 1870”) has often played on the Adelaide Crows.

But tradition also creates myths — and often traps sporting clubs when there is need for change or to be progressive.

The Power’s call to opt for co-captains — Ollie Wines and Tom Jonas — breaks a 149-year record of the Port Adelaide Football Club always having one skipper. It ends a tradition … a distinctive part of how Port Adelaide has presented itself while seeking to emphasise it is an authentic football club in an AFL era of “brands” and “franchises”.

But there is much myth in this.

Port Adelaide captain Geof Motley — in the No. 17 jumper — in the 1966 SANFL season. He proved the Port Adelaide Football Club did not need its skipper in the “traditional” No. 1 guernsey to be successful.

Port Adelaide captains have not always worn No. 1. That tradition began in 1924. Geof Motley stayed in his No. 17 jumper after Fos Williams retired (at the end of 1958) — and the Port Adelaide Football Club continued to be successful with Motley completing the six-in-a-row dynasty in 1959. He led the Magpies — in the No. 17 jumper — to seven SANFL grand finals with three flags.

A change in tradition did not stop Port Adelaide being successful because — even in No. 17 — Motley was a great leader.

Even John Cahill stayed in his No. 14 jumper as captain in 1968, until Williams demanded the “tradition” of Port Adelaide skippers wearing No. 1 be restored (after a nine-year lapse with Motley).

Another Port Adelaide tradition — that will create a headache next season in the club’s 150th year — is the theme of the “prison bar jumpers”.

Here is another myth. When Williams arrived at Alberton in 1950 to save the Magpies from themselves, the Magpies wore the Collingwood-style solid black-and-white vertical stripes.

Port Adelaide football team in 1951, minus the ‘prison bars’.

They won the 1951 SANFL premiership, to end a 12-year drought. A change in tradition saved Port Adelaide.

And then Fos — and his off-field leader Bob McLean — put the Magpies in the prison bars again. As Motley once said, it is not the jumper — but the men who wear the guernsey — who create traditions.

Tradition — the No. 1 jumper for the captain, the prison bar jumper — is not the key issue at Alberton today as the fall-out grows from opting for dual skippers.

The big question — and only relevant point — is how Port Adelaide (or any AFL club) explains why two leaders are better than one. The Power, Crows, Sydney, GWS Giants and Gold Coast are endorsing this theme now. Even Melbourne, the game’s first club.

Legendary Port Adelaide footballer Geof Motley unveils the Geof Motley Race at Adelaide Oval with outgoing Power captain Travis Boak in 2014. Picture: SARAH REED.

In an era of large leadership groups — sometimes with as many as eight “leaders” — it would seem wise and prudent to have one skipper to make the “captain’s call”.

But this is the era of decisions by committee.

Port Adelaide is preferring to be “progressive” rather than “bound by tradition”.

But let’s be clear on tradition at Alberton. It is often cast aside … and, in the old days at least, Port Adelaide remained successful. Today, in the AFL, the challenge is to become successful … with two captains.

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