Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas admits ‘uneasy’ feeling among supporter base but wants fans to stay the journey with them
Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas admits there is unease among his club’s supporter base after a turbulent six months but has urged them to stick by the Power in its bid to crack a record 65,000 members this year.
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PORT Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas admits there is unease among his club’s supporter base after a turbulent six months but has urged them to stick by the Power in its bid to crack a record 65,000 members this year.
Thomas said their concerns have been heard — from the moment the Power crashed out of last year’s finals race, traded fan favourite Chad Wingard and lost Jared Polec, to dealing with the recent disappointment of Ollie Wines’ shoulder injury and Jack Watts’ Oktoberfest video.
But the Power boss says he welcomes the discussion and hopes an expanded ‘access all areas’ member convention next weekend is a meaningful way of showing it.
The club held its first member convention last year and sold out 750 spots in 40 minutes. This year’s event, which is closed to the media, has been expanded to cater for 1000 members at the Entertainment Centre and comes a day after Port’s family day and internal trial game.
“When you talk to a Port Adelaide person there is an intensity about it, and it would be fair to say that I reckon our members are uneasy at the moment,” Thomas told The Advertiser this week.
“There is still disappointment about 2018 when expectations were higher for all of us, we traded players — and popular players — then as we roll into February we had the (Wines) skiing incident and Jack Watts situation.
“So it’s an uneasy environment because we have a really well-informed, well-educated and engaged membership. And that drives our desire to be as open and accessible as possible — because our people demand it, they care.
“When we talk about our relationship with our members we want to bring an authenticity to it because they won’t let us get away with anything else and that’s fair, we accept that.”
Thomas describes the member convention as offering a “depth of information they can’t get anywhere else” with coach Ken Hinkley, president David Koch, football boss Chris Davies, list manager Jason Cripps and key players all addressing the crowd.
“It gives them an opportunity to sit there and hear from all the leaders of the club at a level that before has been impossible,” he said.
“They’ll hear from our senior coach talking about gameplan, a need to change our gameplan because there were issues last year and how do we fix that? What do we learn from West Coast and Collingwood? How will the new rules change the game and how do we plan for that?
“And from Jason Cripps about what is our list strategy? You trade Wingard so where does that leave us? Where are we? So you hear from the guy who is making that happen, you get under the bonnet in a unique way.
“There’s AFLX, AFLW, conversations around a national reserves competition, what does it all mean to Port Adelaide?
“It’s the most obvious example for those who are interested and want to know, we give them that opportunity. And there is risk in that, when you’ve got coaches talking about how we’re going to play the game and utilise two rucks … that’s pretty significant and they (members) hold us accountable to that.
“We hope that is a statement from the club of recognition about how educated and informed our members are.”
Port Adelaide will again launch its season at a combined function with its hall of fame evening on March 6.
“Here’s a situation where we will bring all of our playing group to an event where we celebrate our history, our premierships and legends of our sport,” Thomas said.
“It gives us a chance to tell the story, because we’re always thinking about as we press forward and become a modern, professional and elite sporting organisation, how do you pay homage to the past?
“And this moment can be past and present players in the same room as our members and supporters.”
Port Adelaide has also brought forward its member recognition round from Round 23 to Round 1 to thank to its ‘true believers’.
The Power’s first two home games are against big-drawing Victorian clubs Carlton and Richmond and then North Melbourne that will feature the first match against Polec and Jasper Pittard in Anzac Round.
Port’s membership passed 50,500 this week and Thomas has an eye on last year’s club-calculated all-time record of 63,500.
“Certainly 60,000 plus is the target but we would love to hit 65,000,” he said.
“We think there is a lot to look forward to, the Adelaide Oval experience is fantastic, our approach to our relationship with our members brings a lot of value, we have a really good schedule and our game-day experience is second to none.
“We want to be at that level (of membership) as a footy club.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
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