List of Port Adelaide Football Club captains

The following is a list of players who have captained the Port Adelaide Football Club at a game of Australian rules football in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 1997, the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and earlier iterations of competition between 1870 and 1996, and the AFL Women's (AFLW) since 2022.

History edit

Tradition dictates that the captain of the Port Adelaide Football Club wear the number one guernsey – this started when Clifford Keal wore the number as club captain for the first time in 1924.[1] The tradition was cemented, at least in the view of then-secretary Charles Hayter, when in 1929 he received a letter from a junior Kilkenny player requesting a number one Port Adelaide guernsey as he had just become captain of his underage team.[2] Hayter granted the wish of the junior and provided him with a number one Port Adelaide guernsey.[2] Since 1924, there have been few exceptions to the tradition. The most notable exception was Geof Motley, who followed the captaincy of Fos Williams. Following his appointment as captain-coach, Motley elected to continue wearing the number 17, and continued to do so for the remainder of his career.[1] When Motley handed the captaincy to John Cahill in 1967, at the insistence of coach Fos Williams, the tradition of Port Adelaide captains wearing the number one guernsey resumed.[1] When co-captains were appointed for the 2019 season the No. 1 guernsey was temporarily retired, but it was re-instated the following season when the club returned to appointing a single captain.[3]

List of Port Adelaide captains edit

SANFL/AFL edit

Foundation era
No Year Captain
1 1870 John Wald
2 1870 George Dale
3 1871 Fred Stone
4 1872–1973 George Middleton
5 1873 H.Sparnon
6 1874 John Rann
7 1874 Charles Wells
8 1875 Robert Sandilands
9 1876 William Fletcher
South Australian Football Association era
Year Captain
1876–1879 William Fletcher
10 1880 John A.Atkins
11 1880 Joseph Carter
1881 William Fletcher
12 1881 J.H.Sandilands
13 1882 Nathaniel Frayne
14 1882 Charles Kellett
15 1883 Ernest Le Messurier
16 1883–1885 Richard Turpenny
1885 Charles Kellett
17 1886–1889 William Bushby
18 1890–1894 Ken McKenzie
19 1895 Alfred Miers
1896–1898 Ken McKenzie
20 1899–1900 Harold Phillips
21 1901–1904 Archibald Hosie
22 1904–1905 Jack Quinn
23 1906 Jack Fletcher
24 1906 Lewis Corston
South Australian Football League era
Year Captain
1907 Lewis Corston
25 1908 Ted Strawns
26 1908–1909 Mick Donaghy
27 1910 Jack Woollard
28 1911 George Dempster
29 1912 Clifford Cocks
30 1912 Sampson Hosking
31 1913–1914 Jack Londrigan
32 1915 Alexander McFarlane
World War One
1919 Alexander McFarlane
33 1919 Horrie Pope
34 1920 John W. Robertson
35 1920 Bert Olds
36 1921 Harold Oliver
37 1922 Samuel Howie
38 1923 Clement Dayman
39 1924–1925 Clifford Keal
40 1926 Maurice Allingham
South Australian National Football League era
Year Captain
41 1927 Peter Bampton
42 1928–1931 Victor Johnson
43 1932–1933 Sydney Ween
1934 Victor Johnson
44 1935 Robert Johnson
45 1936–1937 Jack Dermody
46 1938 Ned Hender
47 1939–1940 Robert Quinn
48 1940–1941 Allan Reval
Patriotic League begins
49 1942–1944 Llewellyn Roberts
Patriotic League ends
1945–1947 Robert Quinn
50 1948 Llewellyn Roberts
51 1949 Reginald Schumann
52 1950–1958 Fos Williams
53 1959–1966 Geof Motley
54 1967–1973 John Cahill
55 1974–1978 Russell Ebert
56 1979–1982 Brian Cunningham
1983–1985 Russell Ebert
57 1986–1990 Russell Johnston
58 1991–1993 Greg Phillips
59 1994–1996 Tim Ginever
Australian Football League era
Year Captain
60 1997–2000 Gavin Wanganeen
61 2001–2005 Matthew Primus
62 2006–2008 Warren Tredrea
63 2009–2012 Domenic Cassisi
64 2013–2018 Travis Boak
65, 66 2019 Ollie Wines/Tom Jonas
66 2020–2023 Tom Jonas
67 2024–present Connor Rozee

AFL Women's edit

Dates Captain(s) Notes
2022 (S7)–2023 Erin Phillips [4]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Rucci, Michelangelo. "Port Adelaide's decision to break with a 149-year tradition with co-captains highlights how Power's ambitions suffer from Magpies' past". www.adelaidenow.com.au. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Gossip of the Game". The News. Vol. XIII, no. 1, 898 (HOME ed.). Adelaide. 15 August 1929. p. 14. Retrieved 11 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "Tom Jonas to lead Port Adelaide as captain in 2020". www.portadelaidefc.com.au. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Phillips named inaugural Port Adelaide AFLW captain". Port Adelaide Football Club. 1 August 2022.