Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas remains defiant in tough times as Sam Powell-Pepper saga proves

PORT Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas is the man who gets things done at Alberton. In the the good times and in bad, writes chief sports writer Reece Homfray.

Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas speaks on the Sam Powell-Pepper issue at a press conference at Alberton. Picture: Kelly Barnes

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KEITH Thomas has fronted the media in some big and difficult moments in his time as Port Adelaide chief executive.

He fronted up in the devastation of losing popular player John McCarthy on an end of season trip to Las Vegas in 2012, the abhorrence of racial abuse towards Paddy Ryder and Eddie Betts at a game in 2017, and the disappointment of Jarman Impey’s drink driving car crash in 2016.

On Thursday at Alberton it was to defend the character of one of his players, Sam Powell-Pepper, and you could sense this was deeply personal.

That’s the football club and Port Adelaide way. Staunchly loyal and fiercely protective of their own and that instinct is only heightened when the player in question is 20 years old.

“I know the person that he is,” Thomas declared of Powell-Pepper who is serving a three-game ban by the AFL for being drunk in public and making inappropriate contact with a female at a nightclub on April 8.

He chose to withhold the exact nature of the contact between Powell-Pepper and the woman, but still hold a press conference knowing the questions would come and they did.

He remained calm, firm, direct and defiant.

While that decision leaves the incident open to interpretation, what Thomas didn’t shy away from was that Powell-Pepper should never have put himself in that situation in the first place.

“Any AFL player out at 3am on Hindley Street is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

“We don’t shy away from it, not good enough, we don’t accept it,” he added.

What he also could not accept was irresponsible reporting of the issue which he believed set an unfair narrative and tone of an incident that the police were not asked to investigate by the female or the AFL’s integrity unit, but could unfairly stain Powell-Pepper’s reputation forever.

As a father with children in their 20s, Thomas said he was acutely aware of the damage this could do.

At Port Adelaide, president David Koch is so often the public face of the club. He is the flamboyant TV host and spokesman who with a platform to deliver his message does so whether the club always approves or not. His profile has helped put Port Adelaide back on the national agenda.

But word is behind closed doors Thomas is the man who gets things done at Alberton. In good times and in bad.

And on Thursday we saw that after Thomas took aim at Channel 7 for what he claimed was irresponsible and potentially destructive reporting of one of his players.

Thomas said many things but the clearest message he sent was that if you want to go after one of his players or staff, you’ll have to go through him first.

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