Port Adelaide great Warren Tredrea says he has no regrets over his infamous ‘bow’ in 2007 preliminary final, despite being hammered from pillar to post
In a week Port Adelaide was supposed to meet North Melbourne, the Power’s premiership captain reflects on the famous bow he made during the 2007 AFL preliminary final against the Kangaroos.
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Port Adelaide great Warren Tredrea admits it was the day his emotions got the better of him.
After battling knee injuries and being told he was “finished, washed-up’’ at age 28, Tredrea accepted a sharp handpass from teammate Shaun Burgoyne, broke away from his North Melbourne opponents and snapped a superb goal from the southwest pocket of Football Park which put the Power 71 points up in the third quarter of the 2007 preliminary final.
With a second grand final appearance in four years secured, he then bowed to the crowd.
And the critics had a field day.
“You are captain of the team, your team is well in front, so you don’t go bowing to the audience,’’ Australian Football Hall of Famer Robert Walls said in his commentary role on Channel 10.
Long-time sports writer Patrick Smith took it a step further, describing Tredrea’s celebration as “an embarrassment’’.
“He ostentatiously bowed to the crowd when he kicked a goal, a disrespectful and undignified gesture that was done to embarrass his opponents,’’ Smith wrote in The Australian.
“It was the worst display of bad sportsmanship.’’
Tredrea this week recalled “copping it from everyone’’ for his unique, spur of the moment celebration.
But he has no regrets.
“Not at all, people laugh about it now,’’ Tredrea said.
“At the time I was being told I was finished, washed-up, which is fine because that is just part of the game.
Tredrea was returning from knee injuries that wrecked his 2006 campaign and saw him miss four games, in two stints, in 2007.
“We were dominating and all of sudden a loose ball comes over the top of the pack, Shaun Burgoyne handballs to me and I remember looking inside to square the ball up and then suddenly being closed in (by Kangaroo Scott McMahon).
“So I threw the ball on my boot and actually miss-kicked it. Instead of a right-foot snap going from right to left, which it should, mine went from left to right, so it was a deadset shank.
“Amazingly it swung in for a goal and in light of where I’d come from, with people saying I was finished and Port being told all year that we weren’t going to be any good, with all these young players like (Justin) Westhoff, (Travis) Boak and (Robbie) Gray in the team, we were going through to a grand final.
“We were a bucketload up midway through the third quarter, there had been a Mexican wave going around the ground five minutes earlier and I got caught up in the moment.
“I did this quick bow, the television networks slowed it down, everyone got a lot of traction out of it and I got called big-headed and arrogant.
“These days you’d be lauded for showing some personality but back then I was hauled over the coals for three days in grand final week.’’
While Power coach Mark Williams publicly defended Tredrea for his actions after the 87-point win, Tredrea admitted he had been berated by his coach with a message delivered on-field by team runner David Arnfield.
“The runner did come out to me and said, ‘set the example’,” Tredrea said.
“But I got caught up in the emotion of things. It wasn’t planned.
“It took me a long time to get over that knee injury, 18 months to get back to full fitness.
“I was written off and then suddenly you are playing okay, your knee’s okay and you’re about to play in a grand final that no-one gave you a chance of playing in.
“Given the circumstances, I don’t regret it. People laugh about it now.’’
Two years earlier, Tredrea – Port’s AFL premiership captain in 2004, eight-times leading goalkicker and Australian Football Hall of Famer – had appear to taunt the same club when he imitated his Arsenal hero Thierry Henry’s “telephone call’’ celebration after kicking a goal.
That celebration was planned as a shout out to a close mate who was watching the game from London.
The Power’s preliminary final demolition of nemesis North Melbourne – it blew the game wide open with six goals without a miss in 11 first quarter minutes – marked the first time it had beaten the Roos in consecutive matches, having also triumphed by 18 points in round two.
It was to be North champion Glenn Archer’s final game while the only downside for Port was a snapped achilles tendon to hard-as-nails defender Michael Wilson which cost him a spot in the grand final.
The Power’s preliminary final joy was to be short-lived as it was trounced by a record 119 points in the grand final by Geelong.
Despite the condemnation, Port copped for its embarrassing performance in the big dance, Tredrea said: “I’d take losing by a record score in a grand final to not getting there at all, as much as that might sound ridiculous to some people’’.
“I played 14 years (in the AFL) and got to play in only two grand finals,’’ he said.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t close the second one out but I look back at other parts of my career, such as 2002 and 2003, when we didn’t even make a grand final when we were arguably the best team of the year.’’