Port Adelaide board faces anger of past Magpies on Power reserves controversy
PORT ADELAIDE president David Koch is under fire from Magpie greats as the future of the SANFL club remains under threat.
PORT ADELAIDE president David Koch is under fire from Magpie greats and current players - including Magarey Medallist Jeremy Clayton - as the future of the SANFL club remains under threat.
Clayton and Magpies vice-captain Steve Summerton have taken to social media to blast Koch and club chief executive Keith Thomas for not standing up to the SA Football Commission that is demanding Port choose between a Power AFL reserves team in the SANFL or keeping the full-scale Magpies.
Koch last night led a board meeting at Alberton to consider the reality their hands are tied on this debate because the Magpies do not have permanent tenure in the SANFL. The league's directors could on November 1 - when the two SA-based AFL licences are expected to be sold to the AFL for $15 million - revoke the Magpies' licence.
The Magpies' part in the SANFL would then be replaced by a stand-alone Power AFL reserves team.
Port's board last night considered an SANFL offer to:
PLACE all excess Power players in the SANFL league competition from next year.
KEEP the Magpies reserves and under-age teams and recruiting zones for only 2014.
In 2015, Port would then mirror the Crows - with an AFL team and a reserves side in the SANFL league competition. The AFL clubs would have no recruiting zone and rely on SANFL clubs for "top-up" players.
Port's board is unlikely to declare its position until the Magpies have played last SANFL game - against Glenelg at Glenelg - next Saturday.
Clayton, who retired from the Magpies last year after 125 games and with five club champion titles, attacked Koch on Twitter on Thursday saying: "Are you and the leaders of the footy club, going to roll over to the sanfl commission? 140 years of history gone! For what?"
More cutting was 2010 club champion Summerton on Facebook where he questioned the right of Power players to wear the traditional Magpie jumper in the SANFL.
"A Power reserves team will be a team full of blokes not playing for the prison bars, but playing only to try and get themselves noticed by the AFL side," wrote Summerton.
"There's a massive difference."
Summerton also attacked any plan to shut down the Magpies' under-age teams and recruiting zones in the city and on the Eyre Peninsula.
"To think that a young lad, either local or from the West Coast, can't dream of growing up and one day playing for the mighty Port Magpies is a disgrace.
"The integrity of the SANFL is now dead."
Summerton also called for the SANFL premiership flags to be removed from the Power changerooms saying: "Put them in the Magpies rooms - you didn't win them, the Magpies did."
Port's official response last night was to acknowledge Summerton's "passion and emotion". But the club added Summerton was speaking without knowledge of the negotiations to preserve the Magpies in the SANFL.
Clayton challenged Koch on Twitter to stop answering easy questions to the fans and to deal with "the tough ones in regards to the Magpies future."
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