Magpie jumper offer to Power
COLLINGWOOD would be prepared to allow Port Adelaide to wear its prison bar jumper once a season if the Power was prepared to use teal instead of white on the bottom panel of the historic strip.
The Pies are prepared to make ground to allow Port Adelaide to bring its historical jumper back into the AFL but only with certain concessions.
Port Adelaide’s prison bar jumper has a predominantly black top third and then the black and white prison bar panels on the lower two thirds of the playing strip.
The Pies are not prepared to allow the Power to wear black and white prison bars but believe a compromise is the use of teal instead of white in those panels of the jumper.
They believe it would allow the Power to combine the heritage aspects of a proud club that has won 36 SANFL premierships with the modern teal colour of a side in the AFL since 1997.
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch’s broadside at Collingwood last week when News Corp revealed the round 23 submission would not get up has not helped negotiations.
But when the clubs eventually sit down to discuss the issue the teal crowbars will be the official Collingwood offer.
Koch said the Power had been “played” by Collingwood when Pies president Jeff Browne declined the club’s request for round 23 given an iron-clad agreement preventing Port Adelaide wearing black and white.
The agreement allows the Power to wear the jumper in the event of heritage rounds but those rounds no longer exist in the AFL, so Port wants permission once a season for home Showdown clashes.
“Two weeks ago the Collingwood president, Jeff Browne, rang me out of the blue and said, ‘Kochie mate, we’re taking your request really seriously, we understand how important it is to your members,’’ Koch said.
“‘I’ve been canvassing opinions in Melbourne and SA and I’m putting it to my board and I don’t want to get your hopes up but I’m quietly confident we could have good news for you.’
“I’m fuming because we have done the right thing, just quietly gone about it, and I can’t help feel that good nature has been played.”
With both parties now cooling off after that recent spat it is not known if the Power could accept the Collingwood rapprochement but the offer will be made for 2023 and onwards.
Pies president Browne declined to comment when approached about the proposal.
But a compromise position would help both clubs as Collingwood would not be seen as mean-spirited and the Power could deliver a win for fans desperate to retain the prison bar tradition.