Port Adelaide’s history dates back to May 1870 when it was founded as a joint cricket and football club and it played its first football match in North Adelaide in July 1870, a draw against a team called Young Australian.
Older than Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Juventus and three decades older than the New York Yankees, the Port Adelaide Football Club has stood the test of time.
The timeline on the wall in front of you documents some of the club’s major historical highlights – premierships, Magarey Medals, Champions of Australia titles and key moments that have led the club to becoming the most successful league football club in Australia.
You’ll notice the images of the various guernseys next to the eras, including the magenta and blue guernsey worn for the club’s first premiership in 1884, with several iterations until 1901, when finding suitable dye for the guernseys became a challenge.
Since 1902, the club has adopted black and white. And following its Australian Football League entry in 1997, the complimentary use of silver and teal has become commonplace in that competition.
You’ll see in 1899 Stan Malin became the club’s first Magarey Medalist, taking home the second ever medal awarded to the SANFL’s fairest and most brilliant player as voted by the umpires. All together, 19 Port Adelaide players have won a total of 24 medals. More on that at another stop on your tour.
Spend some time taking in the moments on our timeline; the Champions of Australia titles won in the 1910s, the war years where the club won premierships, including in the 40s when it combined with Torrens, the opening of the Port Adelaide Footballers Club in 1964 including a new grandstand, which we are standing in today.
Port Adelaide’s history, and in particular its success, is unmatched by any club in Australia.
36 SANFL premierships, four Champions of Australia titles and after being elevated into the national competition, an AFL flag after only eight seasons in the competition.
Our remarkable success is best demonstrated through our trophy cabinet, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
As you look north along the trophy cabinet towards the honour board, you’ll see every premiership celebrated, from most recent to oldest.
A few of the trophies stand out; the 1951 SANFL jubilee trophy awarded to Port Adelaide as premiers in the 50th year since Australia’s federation and the 1936 Centenary Year trophy in honour of 100 years since South Australia’s proclamation as a colony. Later you’ll see an image of the then Governor Sir Winston Dugan presenting this cup to Port Adelaide captain Jack Dermody.
This trophy cabinet incudes 15 authentic premiership shields, as awarded between 1923 and 1976.
The Thomas Seymour Hill Trophy first presented to Port Adelaide in 1963 is a perpetual trophy, so the life-sized cups you see in this cabinet are replicas, as are the nine ‘old-style’ cups that represent the successes in the 1880s and 1900s when no trophies were awarded to the premiers.
As you move past the trophy cabinet towards the honour board, you’ll see our premiership wall which features photos of each of the teams that won premierships for our club. You’ll note some deliberately blank space left for our next successful sides.
Our honour board includes the key office holders, coaches, captains, leading goal kickers and best and fairest winners for each season since 1870, including for our AFL and AFLW sides.
It’s incredible to think, in the early days John Wald booted two goals to be the leading scorer and in the 1980s and 90s, Tim Evans and Scott Hodges were kicking more than 100 goals per season. Hodges’ 153 goals in 1990 remains a record in the SANFL competition and earned him that season’s Magarey Medal.
The club’s women’s side, which played its first season in 2022 is marked at the far end of the honour board with inaugural coach Lauren Arnell and captain Erin Phillips listed at the top. Phillips followed in her father’s footsteps in playing and captaining Port Adelaide. Her father Greg Phillips is an eight-time premiership player who played 344 games for the club and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2020.
Your next stop is the cabinet behind you where we’ll take a closer look at the club’s foundation and early success until the war years.