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Former Port Adelaide Magpies SANFL premiership captain Tim Ginever hopes the Power will be able to wear their ‘prison bar’ jumper beyond next week’s Showdown, as a war of words continues between Port Adelaide and Collingwood President Eddie McGuire.
The jumper that has black and white stripes running down the middle of it, honours the heritage and tradition of one of Australia’s strongest clubs, this year celebrating his 150th year having been founded in 1870.
The club is set to seek formal approval to wear the jumper again beyond next week’s Showdown against Adelaide, Chairman David Koch confirmed on Thursday.
Ginever, who played 314 games and played in seven premierships with the SANFL club from 1983 to 1997 before going on to coach for four seasons from 2006 to 2009, said he would love to see the jumper given a more prominent showing in AFL games this year and beyond.
“I’d absolutely love to see it,” Ginever told Sports Drive on Thursday.
“I think it’s a terrific nod of the head to the heritage and history of the footy club. For the club to be able to wear that and I’d love to see it at the Adelaide Oval every week quite frankly if they were able to play their home games in it I would be absolutely stoked.”
“Hopefully that day can come. It’s such a powerful looking guernsey.”
The AFL club hasn’t worn the jumper since the 2014 elimination final against Richmond at the Adelaide Oval, with the same colours albeit different pattern to that of Collingwood.
Pies President Eddie McGuire told Channel 9’s Footy Classified on Wednesday night that Port “knows the response” the Magpies would give, claiming Koch “doesn’t have the guts to tell his supporters” his request wouldn’t be ticked off.
Asked if the AFL could approve the jumper request beyond this season, McGuire said: “They can’t. Well they can – if they want to go to court.
Ginever said more clarity was needed around the legal ramifications of the jumper being worn by the Power in AFL football.
“I’d love to know what those legal matters are. I keep hearing about documents signed and the like, but nobody’s ever seen it or it’s never been produced by the AFL, so I’m not really sure where it sits,” he said.
“It would be great if there was an ability to sit around the table, nut it out and say look this isn’t actually going to affect you guys and the Collingwood football club.”
The 54 year old said the jumper had more than just history, with the ability to raise much needed revenue through merchandise sales for the club in a year where the Magpies will not feature in the SANFL competition.
“When we wore it in 2014 for that final we played against Richmond, there was a million dollars of sales made on it in the following week,” Ginever said.
“That’s how important it is. In a land with the haves and have nots of being able to make a quid out of this AFL game, that guernsey if you put it in to a monetary term is very important revenue wise as well.”
“I’d love to see something struck around the table where all parties agree and there’s ability for Port Adelaide to not have any impact on Collingwood whatsoever, but to have that guernsey in the AFL.”
Givener also spoke about former team mate and fellow Magpies legend Greg Phillips’ induction in to the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
“He’s had this uncanny ability to be switched on but still enjoy the game. He could still have fun while still being a serious competitor,” he said.
“When he came back (from Collingwood) I got to play in his last four premierships. Just to see the way he went about his preparation was fantastic. He was bringing so many other players in to the game. He knew when to mark, he knew when to punch. He was doing third man up before third man up was invented.
“He used to have a lot of fun, and I used to love being there with him.”
IMAGE: Port Adelaide Football Club.