If Fos Williams, Bob McLean, Geof Motley and Russell Ebert laid the foundation for Port Adelaide’s record-breaking success in the SANFL, it was two other club greats who built a platform on that foundation for the club to step onto the national stage – John Cahill and Brian Cunningham.
Affectionately referred to by most as Jack, Cahill’s Port Adelaide career as a player and coach spanned an incredible five decades and included a remarkable 14 premierships, 10 of them as a coach. A member of the Port Adelaide, SANFL and Australian Football Halls of Fame, Cahill’s legacy is summarised on the photo of him on the top shelf of the cabinet. It includes:
- 264 games as a player
- More than 20 years as a club coach
- Four best and fairest awards
- And 29 state games
- Throw in All-Australian honours in 1969
And despite all of his success, Cahill nearly didn’t get to Alberton. Having grown up a South Adelaide supporter, he used his aunt’s address on his football paperwork so that he could play as a junior for the Panthers despite actually living in the Port Adelaide catchment.
When he did eventually get to Alberton, in just his second season at the club he was part of the record-setting 1959 premiership side – the club’s sixth premiership in a row.
And success followed him, even in his last season as a player in 1973, he captained the side, won the best and fairest trophy and led the goalkicking with 59 goals.
The following year, he took over from Fos Williams as the club’s senior coach guiding it to eleven grand finals in 22 years and winning ten premierships.
You’ll see the Stanley H Lewis Memorial Trophy from 1979 sitting in the cabinet, awarded to the best performed club across the various grades of SANFL football – something Port Adelaide has won 12 times, many thanks to Cahill.
Perhaps his finest moment came in the 1994 Grand Final with the side coming from 35 points down against Woodville-West Torrens to charge home with nine last quarter goals to win by 37 points. It came against a backdrop of bitterness in South Australian football towards the club as it pitched for the second time for an AFL licence and Cahill and his charges knew how important it was to keep winning.
You can hear it in his post-match interview.
“I know I’m emotional. Forgetting all that… 77 was great but today against all odds, the courage that the players showed was tremendous Michael…
…old, slow, you know.. all of this. But being dead and buried half way though the year and then believing in ourselves and to come back… and for a coach, all I’ll do now is sit back, hide in the background and let everyone enjoy it because they deserve it.”
Cahill would go on to become Port Adelaide’s inaugural AFL head coach in 1997, appointed by then club chief executive Brian Cunningham.
Cunningham was a former teammate of Cahill’s and a star in his own right. He played 252 games for Port Adelaide, captained the club to three premierships and played in another.
In 1992, he became the club’s Chief Executive Officer, and he played a big part in Port Adelaide gaining AFL entry – in fact in 2023 he was recognised along with the board of directors at the time with induction into the Port Adelaide Football Club Hall of Fame.
You can see a photo of Cunningham in his playing days in the middle of the cabinet.
There were some other key club figures in the 1990s, some recognised here. Stephen Williams – the son of the legendary Fos Williams, took over from John Cahill as SANFL coach and continued his family legacy of success by guiding the club to the 1996, 1998 and 1999 SANFL premierships.
You’ll see a gold replica of the old Southwark or West End Brewery chimney with the black and white “prison bar” guernsey design at the top and the red and blue of Norwood directly underneath. These trophies were given to the SANFL premier of each year. This one was from 1999 – Port Adelaide’s most recent SANFL Premiership.
Painting the brewery chimney with the colours of the premiership team and the runner-up was a tradition initiated after a suggestion by Fos Williams back in 1954. While the Brewery shifted from Hindley Street in the Adelaide CBD to a site on Port Road at Thebarton, the tradition remained. With the brewery’s closure in 2021, the SANFL has continued the tradition more than 70 years on at the top of the Hoffman Kiln at the Brickworks site at Thebarton.
Cahill and Cunningham were key protagonists as Port Adelaide fought for a licence to join the AFL. It was the club’s desire to be the best club in the top competition in the land and after years of sustained success in the SANFL, Port Adelaide would join the AFL from 1997.
While Stephen Williams focussed on continuing to add to Port Adelaide’s trophy cabinet in the SANFL, another Williams did the same in the AFL.
We’ll hear more about that at our next stop when we learn more about the club finally reaching the summit of Australian football, with its inaugural AFL premiership in 2004.