Port Adelaide Football Club
The Port Adelaide Football Club was first founded on 20 April 1870 and played its first match on 24 May 1870 at Buck's Flat in Glanville. Based in the north-western suburbs of Adelaide, its traditional supporter base is among the working-class residents of Port Adelaide and its surrounding areas; a strong rivalry naturally ensued with clubs of the wealthier suburbs, such as Norwood and Glenelg.
In 1877, Port Adelaide was a founding member of the South Australian Football Association (later renamed the SANFL). Port Adelaide won its first premiership in 1884. Its colours and mascot changed several times in the early years; shortly after the turn of the century it had settled on a distinctive "prison bar" strip in black and white with the nickname "the Magpies". Its 1914 team went through the season undefeated and then defeated Victorian champions Carlton in a match mooted as deciding that year's "Champions of Australia". In the 1950s, under coach Fos Williams, the club was exceptionally dominant, winning seven premierships, including six in a row.
Throughout the 20th century, the Victorian Football League became richer than its interstate counterparts (notably the SANFL and the WAFL) and consequently the quality of its players and play increased. Port Adelaide's dominance of the SANFL led to frequent calls, of varying degrees of seriousness, for it to join the VFL. The VFL expanded into Perth, Sydney and Brisbane during the 1980s and then renamed itself the Australian Football League in 1989. Moves for Port Adelaide to join the expanded competition reached an initial peak in 1990 when the Port Adelaide Football Club entered into discussions with the AFL. However, when news of the negotiations broke in late July 1990, strong opposition to the move emerged from within South Australia and, in particular, the other SANFL clubs. These clubs took court action to delay Port Adelaide's move, and this allowed the SANFL to gain support for their new alternative proposal to field a "combined team" in the national competition. As a result the license was granted to the SANFL, denying Port Adelaide's attempt, and in 1991 the Adelaide Football Club entered the Australian Football League.
The agreement between the SANFL and the AFL included a five-year moratorium on the entry of a second club from South Australia, and thus Port Adelaide was prevented from joining the national competition in the immediate future. Nevertheless, the club continued to plan for an eventual entry into the AFL. On 14 December 1994 this was realised, with the SANFL announcing that Port Adelaide was to be granted the second South Australian license for the Australian Football League. This was endorsed by the AFL in May 1996, and Port Adelaide entered the AFL as part of a sixteen team competition in 1997.
Read more about this topic: Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL), History
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