NO day can be more significant in a club's history than its foundation date. This month, April, marks the 154th anniversary of colonial men pondering the need for a "social club" for the youth in the growing Port Adelaide district.
The Port Adelaide Football Club is formed in 1870. History is in the making ... since 1870.
But 124 years later - on December 13, 1994 - there is a date of equal significance to the club's story. Some might argue there is even greater importance to the moment from then president Greg Boulton after he returned from SANFL headquarters at West Lakes. He proudly stood in the social club at Alberton announcing he was holding an agreement with the SANFL to be South Australia's second entry in the expanding national competition. A long battle had been won.
"There will be a Port Adelaide Football Club forever," said Boulton in a landmark statement that has been tested - and proven - through the dark chapter of football political warfare on many fronts from 2010-2012.
In 1870, Messrs Hart, Leicester, Ireland, Rann, Carr and Brigland were walking into the great unknown. They had their cricket club, but "football" was an undefined puzzle of rugby and the new Victorian game. They proved to be visionary.
The influential administrators responsible for securing Port Adelaide's entry into the AFL has been recognised with inclusion in the club's Hall of Fame.
In 1990, Bruce Weber and the board directors he led as club president were grasping the chance to set up Port Adelaide for its greatest opportunity and challenge - a presence in the best Australian football competition. They too were grappling with the unknown. They also had a vision.
It took two bids, millions of dollars and enormous courage against a ferocious tirade of accusations, always summed up by the outsiders as "treachery".
"It took sheer effort," says premiership captain Brian Cunningham who returned to Alberton in 1992 to lead, as club chief executive, the second bid for an AFL licence. "There are moments during the 1990s that speak of the will of the Port Adelaide Football Club, the strength of leadership from Bruce Weber and Greg Boulton and the bravery of every member of that board.
"Few know how difficult that period was; today we see the spoils of that persistence to succeed and of the time and effort put in by the club's leaders. We were meeting every second week - twice a month; once for the general business of the football club; once for the AFL bid.
"Ultimately, it was a great decision to move on an AFL licence in 1990 ... we decided to have a crack. We succeeded."
Amid all the intrigue of what really happened from 1990 - at Port Adelaide and at other hotbeds of South Australian football - there is certainty that Weber's brave call ensured the Port Adelaide Football Club found its place on the national stage.
"It was the best decision; truly forward thinking," says Cunningham. "Now, it looks logical, quite logical - a national football competition for Australian football. And Port Adelaide is part of it."
The alternative, waiting for the SANFL to make a call three years later carried no certainty at all.
Today, the "sliding door" image of what might have been is seen quite clearly at The Parade with Port Adelaide's traditional SANFL rival, Norwood. As Norwood contemplates the need to chase the inevitable 20th AFL licence that will be issued shortly after Tasmania's long-desired entry in 2028, the end result of Weber's ambition cannot be questioned ... at least at Alberton.
It was an opportunity not to be missed, as time as highlighted.
"It should have been Port Adelaide and Norwood from the start," says Cunningham. "The two most-successful clubs in South Australian football on the national stage. Norwood stands as the casualty of that challenging moment ..."
Through the 1970s and 1980s, the vision of a national Australian football competition that took the cream of the game from a century of State-based leagues never advanced beyond erratic night series. They were the equivalent of the European Champions League series ... but not as successful, particularly while the VFL went down one path and South Australia sought to avoid Victorian control of a national competition.
The toothless NFL, that was strongly supported by the SANFL as a counter to the VFL administration, advocated a national competition built on the cream of Australian football.
Port Adelaide and Norwood from South Australia.
"The AFL wanted a club with drawing power, we had that," said Cunningham. "Imagine if it had been Port Adelaide and Norwood ... It would have been fantastic for those two clubs and for the national competition."
Almost half a century later, the AFL is without the rich traditions of Australian football's past outside of Victoria. There is no East Fremantle, the most-successful premiership club from the WAFL; nor West Perth, the biggest challenger from the other side of the Swan River.
The AFL did not embrace Southport, the most-successful club of Queensland's hard-earned grassroots. Tasmania starts from a whiteboard rather than from an old club's heritage.
Expansion since 1987 has worked to the franchise model - new entities - with one exception: Port Adelaide. It remains the only traditional club taken from outside the VFL to build a stronger national competition.
"And we are regarded very well for our presence in the AFL today," Cunningham said. "That might not have been the case at the start and it certainly was not so during those dark years from 2010 during that period when we lost our way. But we have worked our way back to be a highly regarded club, on and off the field. We have justified our presence in a national competition."
And this notable exception to the trend with the traditional Port Adelaide is unlikely to change with the debate on the 20th licence. While Norwood makes its move - that would further test the SANFL's future amid the challenge of an emerging national reserves competition - the AFL Commission will lean towards the completion of its national footprint with a Darwin-north Queensland franchise that will fulfil the dreams of many First Nations elders.
Even those with Norwood's red and blue deep in their veins know the vision for national growth has long gone from taking from Australian football's cradle.
"If there is a 20th team," says Hall of Fame media commentator and Norwood fan Bruce McAvaney, "I'd really love it to be in the Northern Territory. That would complete the jigsaw. I think there will be a time where we will go there.
"Tasmania will take a while .... when that gets up and going, I would have thought the next step should be the Northern Territory.
"I couldn't see Norwood being the 20th team; I say that with my head and not my heart. I think two (AFL clubs) is the right fit for South Australia
“I think to come to Adelaide and basically have another South Australian footy club like Port Adelaide going in, I don’t know if that’s the right thing.
“I can understand ambition from some Norwood people, but I don't think it's got legs, pardon the pun. I don't think it will get off the ground."
Norwood had its chance in 1990. It stood by the SANFL as Port Adelaide took the opportunity offered by a frustrated VFL.
Norwood had its second chance in 1994. It was Greg Boulton and not Norwood president Nerio Ferraro who was invited to sign a sub-licence agreement to join the AFL as the SANFL's representative, a theme struck down in 2014 with the licence returning to the AFL.
Lightning strikes twice, certainly not three times in the same place.
So time has further justified Bruce Weber's vision.
"Bruce and the Port Adelaide board saw where Australian football was going - and how the fans would always be drawn to the biggest and best competition in the game with the best players and best teams," Cunningham said.
Norwood's absence from a national league is a lost opportunity to carry the past to the future.
Port Adelaide's presence, as the outlier to all other AFL expansion plans, is a tribute to a group of men first led by Weber and then Boulton who ignored popularity contests to be leaders, not just for the Port Adelaide Football Club but the game itself.
No wonder all 12 stand with honour in the Port Adelaide Football Club Hall of Fame. Messrs Weber, Boulton, Cunningham, Jim Nitschke, Barry Wilson, Geoff Monteleone, David Judd, Phil Hoffman, Frank Hayter, Ian McLachlan, Robert Hoey and Tony Hobby. They secured the club's best future ... and protected its heritage.
