therisingblues wrote:It looks to me as though there are two types of Port supporters now. There are those that just want the magpies to die and hold no reservations about throwing that line out just to prove that this whole "Magpies in trouble" business is beneath them, because they are big AFL followers so screw the SANFL. Michaelangelo Rucci wrote a piece in the Advertiser to this effect.
The other sort are the ones that still love their Magpies and they're the ones still arguing for their existence in the SANFL.
I think it is only natural that some people would go along with the glamour, the glitz, and the silly little icons on the telecasts that wiggle every time something happens, that the AFL supplies. Sturt and North were fortunate not to have a club in the AFL bearing their club's name, syphoning off supporters that otherwise (as history shows) swarmed around the determined core groups that saved those two clubs.
At Sturt we had club legend Sandy Nelson that stood in the Harry McKay stand, gathered a few hundred supporters around him and swore that we weren't going to die. North had (to my understanding. I was in Japan and internet illiterate at the time) Wedgie who organised a march to save the roosters. Around these determined souls thousands of others followed and the clubs were saved.
But owing to their unique situation, all the people of influence at Alberton are too busy with the Power, and not too concerned with the Magpies. The obvious solution for them would be to merge the two clubs called Port into one club called Port, or just let the coccoon that is currently faltering in the SANFL to die off.
Reading this thread it appears most have little or no sympathy for them, preferring to wave misdeeds of the past as valid reasons to not save them now. They tend to forget that the arrogant mob who authored those misdeeds are the same ones that manouvered to join the AFL, the same ones (in most likelihood) that don't give a **** about the Magpies now.
And that is the mob you should be angry at. Not the considerably smaller group who still follow the Magpies as their primary football interest.
I still believe that if we cut the Magpies out of the SANFL it would be a big loss. Each time the SANFL had to give up a team to the AFL it became a little weaker, this would weaken it even more. Now I know a lot of people have valid reasons, stemming from a concern that Port are receiving an unfair advantage, but a lot of people seem motivated by revenge, and they should be taking their revenge out against the mob who really don't care what happens to the Magpies.
However, the main ones who'll get punished are those that have continued to follow the Magpies in spite of their recent poor form. Without reservation, these are the true Magpie fans and have shown much more loyalty to the SANFL than those who only follow the Power. It is truly ironic that these loyal fans should have to bear the burden of crimes perpetrated by their flippant AFL cousins.
That is a brilliant post and pretty much sums up my thinking ...
