Brendan Lines 18/6/2020

Port Adelaide is making some serious noise during its time at the top of the AFL ladder, overnight the club’s petition to wear the famous ‘Prison Bar’ guernsey raised over 17 000 signatures, buoyed by the support and recent form on the field, General Manager of Football Chris Davies has today hit back at recent criticism toward South Australia from ‘over the border.’

Port Adelaide Football manager Chris Davies – Image: Daily Telegraph

It’s rare the worlds of football and politics collide, but this morning at Alberton Port Adelaide’s Football manager hit-back at Victorian premier Daniel Andrews saying ’Maybe he’s got some things on his plate to worry about.’

A former South Australian first-class cricketer, Davies hinted perhaps Mr. Andrew’s own political ‘spin’ might not add up to his Victorian compatriots.

“Daniel might be the best spinner to come out of Victoria since Shane Warne, minus the 700 Test and 300 One-Day international wickets,” he said.

Davies went on to highlight the work done by the South Australian government allowing two thousand fans into last week’s Showdown.

“Clearly last week with what our Premier and the South Australian Government was able to do getting two thousand people into the Adelaide Oval was a fantastic thing, let’s hope that footy can continue to bring people back through the turnstiles,” Davies said.

“Victoria has got to carry it’s weight at some point soon.”

But Port Adelaide is firmly focused on the sphere of football as the club now prepares to travel to the Gold Coast hub to join rivals Adelaide and WA opponents West Coast and Fremantle on Friday.

Davies says Port will leave twelve players from its list back in Adelaide.

“We’ll leave twelves players here that will concentrate solely through that period on their development,” he said.

“We’ll have enough coaches and high performance staff, Doctors and those types of people around them to make sure they are well looked after.”

Surprisingly, Ryan Burton will not be one of those players remaining at Alberton, Davies says Burton will complete his rehabilitation from knee surgery on the Gold Coast.

“He’ll (Burton) do his rehab up there, just in the hope if there is potential for him probably in that last game against Brisbane,” he said.

With recent easing of border restrictions coming into effect earlier this week and full opening scheduled for July 20th, Davies is certain it won’t affect the clubs preparations too much, as the future rounds of the 2020 fixture remain pending.

“We’re going to have to remain flexible through this period in order to make sure when borders open up wether they be South Australia or WA that the AFL will capitalise on making sure the fixture fits,” he said.

“There will be no point fixturing the next four or five weeks for our borders to change to the point where Victorian teams can come into South Australia, I think the AFL are doing the right thing.”

The biggest wave coming out of Alberton this morning is the club’s case to the AFL to wear the ‘Prison Bar’ guernsey at all future showdowns.

A campaign that began last night through a petition, as chairman David Koch put forward the club’s position.

“We don’t believe what we are asking for is unreasonable and we look forward to submitting our official proposal to the AFL soon,” he said.

As the number of signatures climbed above 17 000 this morning the club’s case appears to be gaining the traction it needs publicly, Davies says the club’s recent performance leaves nothing on the table in stating its case.

“I think we did the guernsey everything we possibly could on Saturday night, I think it’s the AFL’s decision to make,” he said.

“As we have said over the past couple of weeks it is an important moment for the club to stand up and make sure we present something to the AFL that has them compelled to allow us to wear it in showdowns into the future.”