Port Adelaide Football Club (AFL Women's)

Left: 1918 Port Adelaide team from the clubs 'Ladies Football Match' against a team representing Thebarton held on Alberton Oval.[3]
Right: This match helped raise funds to construct the Port Adelaide Workers Memorial (pictured).[3]

The earliest recorded instance of the Port Adelaide Football Club fielding a Women's side was in 1918 for a match played on Alberton Oval to raise funds for the Port Adelaide Workers Memorial against a team representing Thebarton.[3] Port Adelaide was captained by Eileen Rend.[3] In 1951 Port Adelaide awarded Ruby Dewar with life membership at the club, the first SANFL club to bestow the honour upon a woman, with club secretary Bob McLean praising her contribution saying that she had over 29 years "organised probably more than 100 functions for us — balls, dinners, competitions — as convener of the women's social committee."[4] Port Adelaide has given 17 women life membership at the club.[5] On 8 March 2004 Jenny Williams organised a Women's Showdown as a curtain raiser to Port Adelaide's home game at Football Park.[6] The Port Adelaide Women's side won the match 16.5 (101) to Adelaide's 1.1 (7) with Erin Phillips considered a unanimous best on ground.[6]

On 16 December 2015 Erin Phillips entered into an agreement with Port Adelaide to be their marquee AFL Women's (AFLW) signing on the contingency the club received a licence for that competition.[7] However, due to the logistical demands placed on Port Adelaide's administration and staff associated with the club's China program, which sought to ensure the club had sustainable revenue streams, the club was deemed not capable to bid for an AFLW licence for the 2017 AFL Women's season.[8] Subsequently, the Adelaide Crows signed Phillips as a rookie.[9] After this Port Adelaide turned its attention towards entering a Women's side in the SANFL Women's League (SANFLW) competition but this approach was rejected by the South Australian Football Commission.[10] In May 2021, the AFL Commission announced that the remaining four clubs without AFLW teams would be admitted to the competition by the end of 2023, with the clubs to bid for entry order.[11] Port Adelaide's bid to enter the competition was successful, with the AFL Commission deciding all four clubs would debut in the AFLW in the 2022/23 season.[12] On 26 October 2021 Port Adelaide appointed Juliet Haslam as the clubs head of Women's football.[13] On 3 February 2022 Port Adelaide announced Naomi Maidment as the clubs inaugural AFLW list manager.[14] On 17 February 2022 Rachael Sporn was appointed to an Operations Manager role to organise the logistics of running an AFLW program at Port Adelaide.[15]

• Chairman: David Koch[18]
• Chief executive: Matthew Richardson[18]
• Football operations: Chris Davies[19]
• Board members:
  • Kevin Osborn (deputy chairman)[18]
  • Cos Cardone[18]
  • Darren Cahill[18]
  • Holly Ransom[18]
  • Jamie Restas[18]
  • Andrew Day[18]
  • Kathy Nagle[18]
  • Christine Zeitz[18]
  • Rob Snowdon[20]

Current major sponsors

• GFG Alliance[21]
• KFC[21]
• MG Motor[21]