Port Adelaide’s singular focus on China needs to change to avoid missing out on an AFLW Showdown
Port Adelaide decided it needed no distraction from its China Strategy when it passed up chasing an AFLW licence. The Power now needs to grasp both opportunities.
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Hindsight makes for a fascinating tone at Alberton today when the Port Adelaide Football Club reflects on the AFLW.
The Power in 2016 was eager to turn the script on AFL expansion in Adelaide by seeking the first national women’s team licence in SA. It then became singularly “focused” on China leaving the Crows to fight for a licence the AFL was reluctant to place in SA for the inaugural season in 2017.
Port Adelaide is now destined to get the last of the AFLW licences aligned to each of the 18 AFL clubs, most probably in 2022.
Club president David Koch can dismiss the critics — some even within his club — that being an AFL pioneer in China will deliver more growth to Port Adelaide than being a trailblazer for women’s football.
Koch told The Advertiser a fortnight ago that China was delivering $6 million to the Power’s books — 10 per cent of the club’s revenue. AFLW would not do this, despite the women’s league delivering sponsors who are eager to be part of women’s football after ignoring the men’s game.
Koch will insist China — where Port Adelaide has “clear space” in chasing commercial backers — allows the Power to find a sustainable business model. AFLW at best would have been a break-even venture for Port Adelaide.
“We’ve built revenue streams (in China) that are not dependant on on-field performances,” Koch said. “We’ve given the club a sustainable business model. And we have done it in a way that can set up the club for a generation.”
Koch will note China allows Port Adelaide to generate more cash to invest in its football program ... and AFLW would not have done such. It is quite possible that setting up an AFLW football program could have taken resources from Ken Hinkley’s budgets — a no-no at Alberton today.
Port Adelaide made a choice to find its future in China rather than be at the forefront of Australian football’s biggest opportunity for diversity.
The financial argument at Alberton is difficult to dismiss ... even with the benefit of hindsight for how the Adelaide Football Club has defied all the doubt held at AFL House about women’s football in SA.
It seems many underestimated the power of South Australian Erin Phillips, the multi-sport superstar waiting to follow her father Greg into a Port Adelaide Football Club jumper.
So the AFLW script in SA football will mirror that of the AFL. Adelaide first. The Crows win two national flags. Port Adelaide gets its AFLW licence years later. And the Showdown gets a female chapter.
Showdown WI in the AFLW has much to live up to considering the storyline in the men’s game.
The AFL opted for the opposite theme in WA where Fremantle was granted the first Perth-based AFLW licence after being (like Port Adelaide) second in the AFL sphere. Perhaps the AFL was giving the Dockers hope of clawing back some of the WA market from the bigger and more successful West Coast.
Port Adelaide simply passed it up. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au