A Power reborn in search of respect

New-look Port Adelaide announces Renault as its major sponsor. From left, coach Ken Hinkley, captain Travis Boak, chairman David Koch, Chris Bayman of Renault and vice captain Brad Ebert. Picture: Hamish Blair. Source: Herald Sun

SIXTEEN years have passed since the Port Adelaide Football Club first sent a team on to the biggest stage in Australian football, the MCG.

Then it had respect from its SANFL domination, national admiration for having risen from suburbia to the AFL and was filled with ambition.

Tomorrow, the Power returns to the MCG.

Now it has to rebuild respect after five years of decline in the AFL, regain admiration from its disillusioned fans and prove it has a future.

There is one significant similarity between the Port Adelaide Football Club of 1997 and today - the arrival at football's pantheon, the MCG, comes after a summer of dramatic change.

New president, new board, new coach, new coaching staff, new captain, new players ... there's almost more change than in 1997.

But for all the work off the field in the past six months to reposition the PAFC, the real challenge for change has to unfold in the next six months from the players.

Unlike many of those John Cahill took to the MCG in March 1997, none of the current Power group - except the Port-entrenched Ebert cousins, Brad and Brett - really knows the pain and disdain the club endured for almost a decade to fulfil its charter-driven ambition to play in the AFL.

New-arrival midfielder Kane Mitchell was born in Perth in December 1989 as the then PAFC board decided to join the VFL.

He may not fully understand the turmoil his new club went through to make it to the AFL, but he does appreciate the challenge the Power has to stay in the big league.

"We've taken a couple of steps in the right direction during the pre-season  ... we're all about earning respect on and off the field," said Mitchell, one of 12 new players at Alberton.

This is a club of tradition and culture - it has a history of success

"We've been working hard off the field - now the ball is in (the players') court to take another step in earning respect."

New coach Ken Hinkley recognises what the PAFC was, particularly when it entered the AFL in 1997 and won the 2004 flag.

It forms his agenda in setting the benchmarks for what the Power has to be again.

"This is a club of tradition and culture - it has a history of success," says Hinkley.

His appointment was messy as it seemed to drag through a musical chairs events in which the candidates - rather than the chairs - kept disappearing.

Hinkley famously insists he was not the "last man standing" but will be remembered as being the "right man standing".

So far, Hinkley's pre-season work in re-establishing discipline among his players, order in his football department and faith from a disillusioned supporter base is without fault.

But coaches are judged on results in premiership action.

"I have a group that is driven to make sure this club climbs up the ladder again," says Hinkley, whose reputation is of a man who hates losing.

He admits he cannot even accept losing to his 15-year-old son. This has translated to his players.

"This group is sick to death of being average," he says.

Hinkley's first list is raw.

"We've lost 600-plus games of experience," said Hinkley, who arrived at Alberton as free agents Troy Chaplin and Danyle Pearce were clearing their lockers. "That at some stage is going to affect you.

"What we have lost, we have replaced with players of outstanding character. They are quality people. They are blokes who will play the Port Adelaide way."

For much of the past three years few Port traditionalists have recognised the "Port Adelaide way" in their team. The frustrating sideways movement of an inept gameplan had the comics wondering when Port would change its nickname to "the Crabs".

Koch, the Sydney-based television personality, has invested his reputation on leading the PAFC to success. As a man who made people watch him on breakfast television, he knows the Power must satisfy the fans again. And not just the Port fans.

"Now we have to deliver - we want Port Adelaide to be fun to watch," says Koch.

"We want the team to play a style the Port Adelaide fans will be proud of. We want to bring back the swagger in Port Adelaide - and we want to justify that swagger in how we go about our business."

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