Know Your History with Shannon Gill (10/04/25)

All right, so we're going to delve into the most dastardly deed ever done in South Australian footy, yes? The most fractious moment when the iconic club Port Adelaide did the backroom deal to get the AFL licence.

You often talk about what would the WWE do.

This was the greatest heel turn in football history, even though probably Port Adelaide were heels anyway, the bad guy.

But, yeah, last year we talked a lot about...

South Australia being the smart footy state, the style of footy that was intelligent.

But yeah, this year we're going to go into the back rooms.

And I think through this story, there's lots of familiar faces that we've spoken about before that just pop up here and there, Gerard.

So I think, first of all, if you grew up in the 80s or you lived through the 80s, This was probably a high point for South Australian football in a pride sense because they were beating Victoria regularly in state games.

So this was happening.

And at the same time, the idea of a national competition was forming.

They were clearly the number two footy state.

So it made sense that South Australia would be first in.

But there's a certain pride that sits with South Australians about this.

And I'll say to any South Australians listening, make sure you call in and tell us what you thought about this time as well.

In 1987, the VFL expands.

The West Coast Eagles come in.

The Brisbane Bears come in.

Obviously, they'd love South Australia to come in as well.

The SA NFL says, no, we're not paying the $4 million license fee that the other clubs have to pay.

We shouldn't have to pay that.

Now, that's the excuse.

Behind that, there's probably a sense of that's an excuse we're using because they don't really want to come in.

They think they're going to stand alone and keep doing what they've done.

And we beat Victoria in state games, so...

They can go and have their national competition.