Port Adelaide fans vow to keep prison bars in Showdown

The AFL might be able to ban players from wearing the prison bars but dedicated Power fans are a different matter.

When avid Port Adelaide fan Chris McEvoy wanted a prison bars guernsey to wear to Saturday’s Showdown, a club legend stepped in to help.

Seven-time premiership player George Fiacchi was only too happy to lend one of his winning prison bars guernseys to Mr McEvoy, one of the scores of fans expected to don the traditional black and white at Adelaide Oval.

Mr McEvoy, 32, who has cerebral palsy, was delighted to be able to borrow Fiacchi’s guernsey.

“We organised a time to meet up and put the prison bars on him and he was rapt … he was smiling the whole time, it was fantastic to see,” Fiacchi said. “It was great to see how much he appreciated being able to wear some prison bars.”

George Fiacchi with Port fan Chris McEvoy. Picture: Emma Brasier

Fiacchi – who played 236 games for Port Adelaide and won the Jack Oatey Medal for his best-on-ground performance in the 1990 grand final – was critical of the AFL’s decision to not to allow Power players to wear the traditional guernsey on Saturday night.

He urged fans to instead don the prison bars to send a strong message to the AFL.

“It’s not just about the prison bars, it’s about telling the AFL that they need to stop treating Port Adelaide like a franchise club,” Fiacchi said. “We are a traditional football club just like the Victorian sides, and its not the VFL, it's the AFL so they need to treat us all the same. Just because we weren’t from Victoria doesn't mean we don't have traditions.”

Fiacchi will wear his black and white guernsey under his suit jacket in the corporate section at Saturday’s game. “I’m quietly confident you’ll see quite a few prison bars there, and you’ll probably see a hell of a lot more when we play Collingwood, and that will be even funnier.”

In a statement last week, the AFL said it had reviewed the Power’s submission to wear the bars guernsey at the Showdown, but existing agreements between Port Adelaide, Collingwood and the AFL prevented it.

Myles Neal will be wearing the prison bars guernsey, with matching face paint, to support the team he has followed his whole life.

Myles 'Tealheart' Neal with his Port Adelaide Prison Bar Guernsey at Port Adelaide. Picture Matt Turner.

Mr Neal, 32, who runs Port Adelaide Football Club fan page TealHeart, was disgusted by the AFL’s decision to ban players from wearing the prison bars.

“I was definitely upset because it was a lack of respect for the history of the Port Adelaide Football Club,” he said. “We want to show our heritage, and wear the bars for the Showdown.”

His North Adelaide home is decked out with Port Adelaide merchandise and he has a tattoo featuring the club’s 150-year emblem on his leg. “Cut me open, I’d be covered in teal,” he said.