Collingwood president Eddie McGuire stands in way of Port’s 150th celebrations
Eddie McGuire is no stranger to the hot seat and he is in it again after a stubborn refusal to allow a slice of history 150 years in the making.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire is in the hot seat once again as the Magpies president fights to stop Port Adelaide from wearing their original guernseys in 2020.
McGuire has stood firm since Port brought up the plan to wear the strip they had for a majority of their history, which was black and white in a prison bar style, similar but closer together than the Collingwood Magpies jumpers.
Port Adelaide Football club was established in 1870 but didn’t adopt the Magpies nickname until 1901.
Once granted an AFL license for the 1997 season, the club took on the Power moniker, adding silver and teal to the black and white they’d held since the 1902 season.
The club’s original uniforms were blue and white for the first 32 years of the club’s history.
But the Power reserves still play in the traditional black and white as the Magpies, which Port have had for a majority of its history.
Collingwood were founded in 1892 and the club owns the trademark to the black and white colours and the Magpies name.
McGuire urged the Power to be “creative” with their designs but he wouldn’t budge on allowing Port to wear the guernsey during their 150th celebrations despite having the prison bar guernsey for 95 years of its history.
“We understand the tradition of Port Adelaide, we understand it to be one of the great teams in the AFL and in Australian sport in general,” McGuire said on SEN radio this morning.
“Is the prison bars important? Of course it’s important to Port Adelaide. Does it need to be black and white? Maybe it doesn’t, you could be creative, use the teal, use the magenta which was one of your original colours.
“Use the black, use the white, use the silver, there’s plenty of ways of doing these things but let’s come up with something.”
McGuire has insisted that he’s not trying to pick a fight but it’s important to the club to stand up for their colours.
He said Collingwood would help come up with a solution.
“Rather than just always narking and trying to pick a fight, let’s do something that’s creative that can be great for Port Adelaide, that doesn’t offend Collingwood, that brings the team together that makes it a fantastic situation for the club going forward,” he said.
“There’s a lot of ways of doing things if you open your eyes and don’t just go down nark highway and try and poke us all the time.”
Port need to submit a design to the AFL within a month for next years’ merchandise suppliers.
Fans are also keen for the prison bar design to be worn in showdowns and in the ANZAC round in the future.
Inaugural Port Adelaide AFL president Greg Boulton even fired back saying the traditional jersey “must be recognised” in the celebrations in a story in the Adelaide Advertiser.
McGuire has been standing strong all week, shutting down the Power’s attempts to get to use the design.
“Everyone has to calm down on this. It’s another dog whistling exercise,’’ McGuire stressed.
“Port Adelaide Football Club have asked on a number of occasions for permission to be able to wear the colours.”
Yesterday on Triple M, McGuire said the side should “just change the colours”.
McGuire said a white strip with teal-coloured bars would be a “nod to where they’re going and a nod to where they’ve been.”
David Koch, the president of the Power, said McGuire was supportive of tradition in the AFL, despite standing in the side’s way.
“We’ll pay homage to the prison bars in a range of different ways — we haven’t really decided firmly in what ways — and we hope we can have a respectful discussion with Collingwood and the AFL on how we use it into the future,” Koch said.
The last time the Power wore their traditional strip was in the 2014 elimination final win against Richmon, but they plan on plenty more uses in the future.