Counting down Port Adelaide’s 50 Greatest Players in club’s 150 years: starting with 50-41

Last week an Advertiser panel, including four club greats, named Port Adelaide’s 150 Greatest Players since 1870. Now the panel is ranking the top 50. And the first 10 includes some huge names.

Josh Francou, who ranks at 44 in Port Adelaide’s 150 Greatest Players list, during his playing days.

• Port Adelaide’s 150 Greatest Players revealed
• How The Advertiser’s selection panel picked Port’s Greatest 150
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What makes a great Port Adelaide footballer?

That was one of the first questions The Advertiser ’s panel to determine the club’s 150 Greatest Players had to answer during a selection process that began in January.

Some people will claim it is merely about a player’s on-field performances.

The selection panel, featuring club greats Warren Tredrea, Brian Cunningham, Tim Ginever, Bob Philp, historian Mark Shephard, media manager Daniel Norton and The Advertiser reporter Matt Turner, believed much more needed to be considered.

When assessing the list of 1554 footballers to feature for Port since 1870 before naming the 150 Greatest last week, the group factored in not only a player’s output, but their impact on success, selflessness, longevity, achievements and passion for the guernsey.

On Friday, advertiser.com.au begins its countdown of the top 50, starting with the players the panel ranked 50-41.

The group includes three men who won Magarey Medals while with Port, four members of the club’s Greatest Team, a Brownlow runner-up and an eight-time premiership defender.

Ranked at 50 is Paul Northeast, whose eight flags is second only behind Geof Motley and the Gowans twins for SANFL grand final success.

“When you look at the criteria of passion, loyalty, selflessness, premierships, he ticks those boxes and then some,” Turner said.

There are three Magarey winners among the next four – 1975 medallist Peter Woite (49), 1986 recipient Greg Anderson (47) and 1967 victor Trevor “Bubbles” Obst (46).

Cunningham said Woite, who was also on the bench in Port’s Greatest Team, was a terrific player who “had passion for the club and still has”.

Ginever described Anderson’s Magarey season as incredibly dominant.

“He was the best player in the competition that year by a mile at 20 years of age,” Ginever said.

As for Obst, former teammate Philp said he was “a great player and good clubman”.

Nestled among that group at 48 is Russell Johnston, a dual premiership captain and the ruckman in Port’s Greatest Team.

Another ruckman from that all-time side, Lloyd Zucker, comes in at 45.

Philp, who was kept out of the senior team by Zucker early in his career, said he was a highly influential player and “there’s no one who had more passion or was more selfless”.

At 44 is former hard-nosed Power midfielder Josh Francou.

Francou finished third in the 2001 Brownlow Medal and a year later was runner-up and an All-Australian.

Serious knee injuries in 2003 and 2004 cost him a spot in the Power’s premiership side – and almost certainly a position higher up this list.

“He was huge for us in the early 2000s,” Tredrea said.

One place ahead of him is four-time 1950s flag winner Roger Clift.

“He’s one of the best centre half-backs to ever play for Port Adelaide,” Philp said.

“A team man, club man … and a real Port Adelaide person.

“He was another Greg Phillips and controlled the whole backline.”

Rounding out the first 10 are a back pocket in Port’s Greatest Team, Dick Russell (42), and 1988 acting premiership captain and All-Australian Martin Leslie (41).

The panel deemed that Leslie made a significant contribution to the Magpies before joining Brisbane.

“He’s incredibly loved, if you look at his selflessness, his passion and how he was rated by the club,” Ginever said.

The panel judged those among the 150 on their playing contributions to Port, not what they have done at other clubs, or as coaches or administrators.

Tredrea, Cunningham, Ginever and Philp have left the room and virtual meetings when their names have been discussed.

Shephard has brought vital knowledge and statistics on the club’s earliest stars, although their cases have been difficult to gauge due to no one on the panel having seen them play and limited information about their careers.

Comparing eras, let alone players, is tricky but with the club believing the 2004 premiership is the pinnacle in it history, that has been taken into account.

Whittling the list down has proven incredibly difficult and many worthy candidates, including stalwarts of the club and close friends of the panel, have been squeezed out of the 150, let alone the top 50.

It will only get trickier from here.

Next week we will reveal the players ranked 31-40.

Originally published as Counting down Port Adelaide’s 50 Greatest Players in club’s 150 years: starting with 50-41