Port Adelaide’s membership is not being won over by push for dual Power captains

Port Adelaide has to choose a successor to Travis Boak for its AFL captaincy. And the Power membership has made it clear it wants one captain, not dual skippers.

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Not since 2009 has Port Adelaide had such a dilemma with its AFL captaincy.

Then it was the coach (premiership coach Mark Williams, no less) and the board at odds on Williams’ recommendation for Shaun Burgoyne to be the Power’s successor to Warren Tredrea. Dom Cassisi became captain.

Now it is the football department (more so than the coach Ken Hinkley) and the Port Adelaide traditionalists on the prospect of dual captains at Alberton — Tom Jonas and Ollie Wines, it appears. This would mark the end of the club’s 149-year-old tradition of a solo captain.

It was a poor sell at the club’s annual meeting at Alberton on Friday night when club president David Koch asked the membership: What if the football department thinks it is in the best interest of the team for dual captains?

Koch’s leaning on Sydney — incorrectly declaring the Swans are the most-successful AFL club of recent times — was not quickly nor eagerly accepted by the 200 members at the meeting. Sydney has had co-captains since 2006 (and won just one flag with expanded leadership). Hawthorn and Geelong have won seven flags in the past 11 years — and each had just one skipper.

Port Adelaide had a seven-man leadership group last season, but the search for one successor to Power skipper Travis Boak could end up with two captains for Season 2019 — a theme not endorsed by the club membership. Picture: Sarah Reed

West Coast won last year’s AFL flag with one skipper, South Australian-drafted defender Shannon Hurn. He is not the Eagles’ best player, but he is the team’s best leader.

The same might be said of Jonas, also a defender, at Port Adelaide.

Hinkley’s attempt to lighten the mood — at a member’s session filled with frustration and uncertainty — by speaking of “one, two orthree” captains was a lead balloon that fell as fast as the Power’s final hopes in the last month of the 2018 home-and-away season. It was, with Koch’s Sydney theme, a major misread of sentiment in the room.

The message is clear from the member and fan base: Pick one captain. Just one skipper wearing the No. 1 jumper. Clubs greats such as SANFL premiership captain Tim Ginever and recently deposed board member George Fiacchi have the same view.

And if there is no lone successor from the large leadership group at Alberton, perhaps the next question is: Why did Travis Boak abdicate?

The search for Boak’s successor does stoke the ashes of the critiques written and uttered late last season that questioned the Power’s on-field leadership. The football department’s eagerness to explore two captains is giving more credence to the stinging reviews of the Power’s leadership during the crash from fourth to 10th in the last six games last year.

Port Adelaide’s membership had a clear tone during Friday night’s meeting. The fans still have a sour taste from last season — and they are waiting to be convinced (and energised) on what is to come this year.

Dual Port Adelaide AFL captains will not change this uneasy mood for the better.

So the new-look Port Adelaide board has to make a call, as it did in 2009: Back the football department or listen to the membership.

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