Record win

[Hawka]

Highest ever margin by a hawks team
5th highest margin in afl
but what do we take outa it?
if we played like this agianst the pies we would beat them..not by 160 points of course :P it would b closer lol

[bomberboy0618]

The AFL is flowered. Great win but seriously, help the Power out. They are dead as a club.

[CrowsFan]

I think the Power deserve the 3 first picks in the draft this year instead of GWS...

[AFEV]

I think the Power deserve the 3 first picks in the draft this year instead of GWS...

But then GWS will suffer similar losses next year.
Everyone will want to leave Port at the end of the year, and nobody will want to join them. Coupled with the weak draft I can't see it getting a lot better in 2012 :-X

[pyronerd]

The AFL is flowered. Great win but seriously, help the Power out. They are dead as a club.

we knew that 4 years ago when they announced that there would be 2 more teams :-X

[hawk_88]

I am all for equalisation policies for the AFL, the AFL's health as a competition is based on the socialist policies.

However, we have to be smart about it. We can't jump at shadows.

Port have been poor, but the reasons are as much in the mind and off the field than anything else.

There is no doubt that a lack of resources, particularly coaching staff, is adversely effecting them. However you just have to think back to the first SA derby this year. They played fantastic footy and are capable of doing it again.

The draft system is a fair equaliser on the field. The AFL giving grants to some clubs (9 of 16 from last year) is (to a point) fair equalisation off the field.

If the club beyond that fails, it is due to poor coaching, poor administration and poor playing. In a competition you have to accept some clubs will worst that others due to nothing but incompetence. Throwing extra draft picks at them is a short term fix and rewarding incompetence.

15 years ago Hawthorn and Melbourne were very close to merging. For those who can't remember, the Melbourne Hawks almost happened. In that 15 years Hawthorn, through good administration has brought the club up to a very strong financial state, to the point where we are considered "fat cats". Hawthorn didn't have a large lapsed supporter base to fall back on, rather it actively built it up.

Melbourne, albeit it a slower, have removed the debt that has been crippling them long term.

5 years ago Port was averaging crowd numbers about 35,000. Now it has to put banners across half the seats so the empty stadium doesn't look so pathetic. Given the strong history and large supporter base of the Port Adelaide Magpies, you can only attribute the financial state of the club to poor administration, not a lack of fans or anything "out of their control".

[ossie85]

Agree hawk, very well said.

[PowerBug]

"there's history here in the making" - Every single weekend. :(

[Ziplock]

5 years ago though, port weren't such an atrocious team. I find it really worrying- the draft picks gws take could nail their coffin.