Former Port Adelaide captain Gavin Wanganeen wearing the club's traditional colours in 2003. Source: The Advertiser
PORT Adelaide will wear its traditional black-and-white jumper as the Power closes AFL action at AAMI Stadium in late August.
"We will leave AAMI Stadium the same way we entered in 1974 - wearing black-and-white," Port chief executive Keith Thomas told The Advertiser.
It will be just the third time Port wears its black-and-white "prison bars" in the AFL - and this time Collingwood president Eddie McGuire is not protesting.
The Power will end its AFL story at AAMI Stadium - before moving home games to the new Adelaide Oval - against Carlton in round 23 in a game that is still to be assigned a date by the league.
The black-and-white jumper will be the centrepiece of a weekend of celebrating the Port Adelaide Football Club's success at "Football Park", in particular the 13 SANFL league premierships.
"The significance of those premierships, particularly in the 1980s and '90s, is that they propelled us from the SANFL to the AFL - and we want to celebrate that success as we leave the ground," Thomas said.
Port also will boost its bottom line, while leaving a stadium that ultimately failed to appeal to its fans and generate the revenue an AFL club needs.
The Power will put the names of 1600 members on the jumper. They will have to pay $260 for the honour and a replica of the one-off guernsey.
Thomas yesterday rejected the Power would seek to use the black-and-white jumper more often.
"Our future is with the Power jumper - it has its own story, its own traditions we're building in the AFL," Thomas said.
"But we will go back to the prison-bar jumper for special events. Leaving AAMI Stadium is clearly one of those."
McGuire, who has fiercely protected Collingwood's extraordinary right to be the only club wearing black-and-white jumpers in the AFL, has accepted the Power celebrating its historical link to the same colours.
Port president David Koch said: "As a traditional football club like us, Collingwood understands the significance in honouring our past and how this jumper is important to our members."
The Power's previous black-and-white adventures in the AFL were during "heritage rounds" in 2003 and 2007 when Port recognised its 1914 Champions of Australia success and winning the SANFL centenary premiership in 1977.
"We recognise the prison-bar jumper and AAMI Stadium go hand-in-hand and we should recognise this as we leave the ground," Koch said.
"We won a remarkable 13 premierships at this ground. It is very fitting we wear that jumper in our last home-and-away game at AAMI Stadium."
The Power's linking of its departure from West Lakes to the city in the black-and-white jumper comes with the approval of a Magpies premiership captain in Tim Ginever and the man wanting to be the Power's next premiership captain, Travis Boak.
"Although a lot of the players in that premiership era did not play for Port Adelaide in the AFL, it is moments like these that make you feel proud that you helped Port Adelaide reach its destiny of playing in the national league," Ginever said.
Boak said: "We want to honour the past Port Adelaide players who played a significant role in our rise to the AFL. As soon as I came to the club (from Victoria) I immediately understood how the club's rich tradition is linked to that black-and-white jumper. We will be proud to wear it when we farewell AAMI Stadium."
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