Graham Cornes: The Glenelg v Port Adelaide SANFL grand final is a classic contest of good against evil

It’s not the Port Adelaide that we’ve known over the years. But despite the need for the SANFL to address the inequity, Sunday’s grand final will pit two traditional clubs against each other to battle for football’s ultimate prize.

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What makes a great football club? It’s a question that footy scribes have grappled with for well over a century.

Is it longevity? Is it premiership success? Is it a jumper? Is it status within the local community? Is it the people within? Perhaps it’s all of the above.

Port Adelaide and Norwood share a similar timeline. So does South Adelaide and North Adelaide.

Port Adelaide, North Adelaide and South Adelaide were all foundation members of the South Australian Football League in 1877. (The “National” part of the SANFL nomenclature was added in 1927.)

Norwood joined in 1878. Norwood, South and Port won 23 of the first 24 premierships.

In 1901, South Adelaide would have been regarded as a great club. Not so much now. Central District didn’t join the SANFL until 1964.

Its greatness was established when it appeared in every grand final between 2000 and 2011, winning nine.

But the glory and the greatness fade unless you can regularly repeat those successes.

Port Adelaide is the only one of those foundation clubs that has regularly reproduced periods of dominance.

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Coach Stephen Williams talks to Port Adelaide players after they were forced to move to Ethelton in 1997.

After the 1990 upheaval and subsequent formation of the Port Adelaide Power to enter the AFL, the Port Adelaide Magpies seemed doomed.

Banished to Ethelton in 1997, the team — under Stephen Williams — miraculously appeared in the next three grand finals, winning two.

But which team was the real Port Adelaide?

The identity crisis was solved when the two teams became one club in 2011.

The greatness was restored, although neither the Power or the Magpies have won a flag since then.

You may hate them — in fact they challenge you to hate them — but you can’t deny the record. It’s a great club, albeit one that chooses to be identified on a national, even global scale these days, rather than being confined to those suburbs west of the Cheltenham Cemetery.

Glenelg cannot claim the premiership successes of Port Adelaide, nor can it claim its history. It can lay claim to periods of dominance, but 33 years without premiership success and periods of crisis when the club almost folded are stark reminders that greatness is also built on longevity.

Nevertheless, the Glenelg Football Club’s relevance is how important it is to the community.

The AFL and its two South Australian teams dominate the hearts and minds of the football public, but they don’t represent a community like the Glenelg Football Club does.

The Tigers didn’t officially enter the SAFL until 1920, although there is a report of a Glenelg Football Club playing its first match, ironically against the Adelaide Football Club, on May 15, 1880.

Still, its impact on those communities that occupy the tract of land from The Patawalonga to Marino Rocks has been significant.

People, as much as premierships, make a great club. They are not necessarily born into those clubs. Neil Kerley went to Glenelg after being at West Adelaide and South Adelaide.

The greatest men within the Port Adelaide Football Club — Fos Williams, Bob McLean, even John Cahill — came to Port Adelaide from other clubs. Russell Ebert came from Waikerie.

Coach Neil Kerley being chaired off by Graham Cornes and Fred Phillis after Glenelg won the 1973 grand final.

I loved the Glenelg Football Club the moment Neil Kerley stood in front of me holding a Glenelg jumper in a gnarled fist. Such was his power and aura he made the club great and inspired a new generation of Glenelg footballers

He swept into the club in 1967, setting new standards and demanding new attitudes.

The jumper was to be honoured and never shamed.

Never shirk a contest and never let your opponents know you were hurt.

Before Kerley, Glenelg had been a great social club, but the players didn’t really expect to play finals.

After he arrived, we didn’t expect not to.

He was there 10 years and Glenelg played in five grand finals. But we won only one. I have the perverse record of playing in eight grand finals, only one of which we won.

The great Peter Carey has the best record of any Glenelg player. He played in 10 grand finals, yet won only three.

Allan Crabb, right, in action for Glenelg in 1954.

There is no football justice in that, although I’ve learned over the years that Port Adelaide, all too often, defy the laws of football justice.

My favourite Glenelg player, Allan Crabb, never played in a premiership.

Tall, eloquent and heroic, he had flown in the Battle of Britain during World War II.

He was runner-up twice in the Magarey Medal, was awarded the 1949 medal posthumously, captained the Bays, but never won a flag.

So on Sunday, Port Adelaide play Glenelg in the SANFL grand final.

It’s the classic contest of good against evil. It’s not the Port Adelaide that we’ve known over the years.

The fusion of the Power and the Magpies has distorted the identity of the club to all but the Port Adelaide fans, who can shift their allegiance conveniently between a black, white and teal jumper and a black and white one.

With the resources of the AFL club behind them, bolstered by AFL-listed players and fuelled by the demands of a chairman that they win premierships, the Magpies are formidable opponents.

It hardly seems fair.

Two weeks ago, an Adelaide AFL reserve team trounced Norwood in the first semi-final. I sat there seething at the inequity of it all. In the following match on the same day, Glenelg and Port Adelaide played out an epic semi-final, with the Magpies winning by four points.

It was a great game, but the prospect of a Port Adelaide-Adelaide SANFL grand final threatened to destroy my faith in the game and the competition that I so love.

The crisis was averted momentarily when Glenelg beat the Crows last week, but whatever the result on Sunday, the inequity of it can’t be disguised and action needs to be taken to address it.

But suspend the politics of it all momentarily. At 3pm Sunday, two traditional clubs face off against each other.

One, undoubtedly by all standards a great club, the other’s greatness defined by its people, its communities and fleeting moments of dominance. Fully-committed coaches and players desperate for premiership success will battle for football’s ultimate prize.

On May 29, 1880, a Port Adelaide team of 20 players played a team of 24 Glenelg players on what is now Camden Oval.

Port won by a goal and that Glenelg team simply faded from the history books. If there is a football god, please don’t let it happen Sunday.

Originally published as Graham Cornes: The Glenelg v Port Adelaide SANFL grand final is a classic contest of good against evil