Port Adelaide’s long-term view in Shanghai is to leave a legacy for all of Australian football
PORT Adelaide is doing all the heavy lifting in China — and Power chief executive Keith Thomas the spoils of taking Australian football to overseas markets will be for all AFL clubs not his own.
Michelangelo Rucci
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KEITH Thomas has had his “Confucius” moment in China. The Chinese real estate tycoon who has empowered Thomas to bring the Port Adelaide Football Club to Shanghai is the same man who says the Power ultimately must leave China to other AFL clubs.
Port Adelaide on Saturday plays its second AFL premiership game in Shanghai — again with Gold Coast as the opponent at Jiangwan Stadium — with its greatest Chinese benefactor, Gui Guojie, knowing it could take dream for Australian football in China as many as 20 or 30 years to unfold ... just as it did for the game’s founder Tom Wills at home.
The Shanghai billionaire has deep pockets to underwrite the multimillion-dollar project — and Thomas has great patience, even if the Port Adelaide chief executive will be long retired by the time his club’s “China Strategy” is complete.
And if this bold adventure of taking Australia’s Game to the world succeeds, Port Adelaide will not be the major beneficiary of AFL international expansion — just as North Melbourne is no longer the main winner from its 1987 gamble with Friday Night Football, now the game’s most-powerful timeslot.
“This is where Mr Gui has changed my thinking,” says Thomas. “Mr Gui’s view is, to be truly successful in China, it is the game that must win. That requires more clubs to be involved, not just Port Adelaide.
“Mr Gui is encouraging more businesses to be involved in his dream to bring Australian football to China. And he has encouraged us to see more clubs being involved too. It is clear to us that China must work for everyone in the AFL — not just Port Adelaide.”
Hall of Famer Harry Beitzel would be proud of Keith Thomas. Like Beitzel, Thomas is a man of radio and football — and has picked up Beitzel’s vision from 50 years ago to take Australian football to the world to show “the world’s greatest game”.
“This move to China would strike a cord with Harry,” says Thomas. “The past four years in China has given me great confidence — as Harry had many years ago — that we have a game that can be exported. People beyond Australia view our game with amazement; it is a game like no other. I have great confidence — and pride — that we can take it to the world.”
But the cynics remain at home, even after Port Adelaide successfully put on the first AFL game for premiership points outside Australia and New Zealand — and this weekend has (before even the powerful American football NFL could) repeat the feat with commercial Chinese television coverage that will make the Power-Suns match the AFL’s most-watched (as many as 10 million viewers).
“In China, we have seen significant change — people remember last year’s match as a great event. we have taken a big step forward and expect to do the same this weekend,” says Thomas. “At home it is going to take some time. This is still seen as a Port Adelaide initiative ... but it is for the game. Our Australian game.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
EVEN for a coach I look back on that and think exactly that ‘What was I thinking?’
- PORT ADELAIDE coach KEN HINKLEY on his emotional reaction after winning Showdown 44 — and his wife Donna’s reaction.
REALITY BITES
THEME OF THE WEEK
ONE of Port Adelaide’s China engagement executive Andrew Hunter’s memories of the week leading up to the first Power-Suns game in Shanghai is sitting in the city’s police headquarters being questioned on how Australian football fans would behave at Jiangwan Stadium. “Was there history of unruly (and worse) moments between Port Adelaide and Gold Coast supporters,” the Shanghai security men asked.
How Hunter did not burst out in laughter is still amazing.
It might have been different if the game that never (surely not) will be played in China — a Showdown — was put on the road to Shanghai.
The fallout to Showdown 44 has put a strong focus on the words penned in The Advertiser a fortnight ago by NATALIE VON BERTOUCH who notes social media is very much anti-social.
Showdown Medallist, Port Adelaide midfielder-forward ROBBIE GRAY, does not want to react to the incredibly poor remarks put on Facebook as emotions spilled into dark places after the epic derby at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
But Port Adelaide football chief CHRIS DAVIES did leave a strong message on how the keep the Showdown rivalry free of racism, violence and now social media trolling is not a one-way street that ends at Alberton.
“There is no point in looking at this as a Port Adelaide or Crows thing,” Davies said. “Anyone who gets on their high horse thinking it does not (involve their club as well) is only setting themselves up for a fall.
“People will want to make this about the Showdown and Port Adelaide versus the Crows. But no-one can suggest they do not have an unruly element to their supporter base. In this situation, it shows up in a Showdown ... unfortunately.”
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
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