White Line Women with Sabrina Summers

If ever there was a woman deserving of a double life membership of a football club it’s Margie Gill. A regular sight around the Club rooms of the Power, I sat down with Margie for a chat as she continued to collate boxes of ticketing and car park passes to be distributed shortly to corporate members for the forthcoming 2010 season.

Born in New South Wales, and arriving in South Australia at around five years of age, Margie knew nothing of football. In fact her first exposure to footballers was living in a house with cats named after Port Adelaide players – “Fos” after the Port Adelaide Club legend Fos Williams, who led the Magpies through twenty-one seasons; “Judy” after Tom Garland, who topped the Magpies goal kicking list in 1954 and “Macca” after Harold McDonald, the “tiny giant-killer” who played in the 1950s.

When she was older, Margie would come down to the home ground at Alberton, a periphery suburb of Port Adelaide, to watch her then husband play games for Port Adelaide Football Club and so began her passion.

When Margie’s marriage ended, volunteering for the Port Adelaide Football Club became something she “threw [herself] into”, more than just a social outlet but something that helped her fill her mind. She recalls how little support there was back then for traumatised women going through a marriage break-up and so volunteering for Port Adelaide Football Club became her purpose.

Margie would bring the kid’s down to the footy each weekend as she had no money and “going to the footy was cheap back then” for their weekly family entertainment and continued to volunteer for the Club.

At the time, Margie together with other ladies involved with the Club, would bake cakes and donate them. They would then set up cups and saucers in the Bob McLean room and serve morning tea for the ladies at quarter time to raise funds. When I asked Margie to describe the types of roles she has done over the years as a volunteer, she said, “Everything!” She sold raffle tickets, would help run bingo on week nights and when her two children went off to join the army, she “threw [herself] in more”.

Margie too was instrumental in the process of assisting Port Adelaide Football Club move into the AFL. She recalls in 1990 when the Crows went into the AFL just how “against Port Adelaide” the media were. It was not a pleasant time.

By 1996, although the bid for Port Adelaide to enter the AFL was looking promising, Margie wasn’t so sure and was racked with the thought, “What if they don’t get in?” She felt she wouldn’t forgive herself if she didn’t do all she possibly could to assist, so Margie formed a group called the “Friends of Port Adelaide” and in conjunction with the PAFC Board they executed a range of activities to gain momentum and support for the application.

In fact, Margie helped organise a petition of over 30,000 signatures that formed part of the Port Adelaide Football Club’s original submission to the AFL. She also recalls some of their more clandestine activities like bombarding radio station 5aa’s switchboard with calls whenever a radio personality was heard to say anything derogatory about Port Adelaide. Collectively the “Friends of Port Adelaide” sewed, painted, printed and hung dozens of banners all over South Australia in pubs, clubs, anywhere that would hang them.

Margie even remembers the night when she was rung close to midnight by a member of the public to inform her that the banner strung up across a bridge in Port Adelaide was falling down (her phone number was on the banner) so she and a friend headed into town in the dead of the night and were seen to crawl precariously across the bridge in the dark to reinforce the banner.

And still, throughout this time, Margie continued as a volunteer not just at the Port Adelaide Power but also for the SANFL team the Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club. She considers herself “wholly and soul-ly involved” in both Clubs. Sometimes she scolds herself and thinks she should “get a life” but mostly her sentiment returns to the fact that it’s nice to belong to and feel a part of a “family Club like this.”

Highlights of Margie’s years as a volunteer for Port Adelaide certainly include her involvement in the 2004 Premiership win. She hired a bus to get to Melbourne and remembers filling it and travelling across with a “random selection of people” that simply shared the same passion. Upon arriving at the MCG she was seated behind “a big, fat and loud man” and had obscured vision of the game but kept thinking to herself, “All that matters is that I’m here for the team. If we can just win, I’m happy to just sit here quietly, no matter if I don’t get to see a thing.” She describes the 2004 as “just beautiful” and cannot to this day watch the grand final replay as she gets “too emotional” about the day and the lead up. Margie donated hundreds of hours of her time on the journey to the grand final assisting with ticketing and event co-ordination. She was delighted to be presented with a mini-replica of the Grand Final trophy by then CEO Brian Cunningham, in recognition of her service, an honour bestowed otherwise only on players and staff.

Margie’s involvement in the Port Adelaide Football Club has evolved and deepened over the years and she puts part of this down to the positive change towards embracing women in football, particularly since Port Adelaide entered the AFL. Women are valued for more than the cakes they can bake and donate to fundraise. She’s delighted that the Power now has a woman on its Board and believes firmly that “women can do that sort of thing [senior management] with more logic [than men] despite the stereotype that women are too emotional” because they are very good at “thinking outside the square.”

Margie’s message to the women of HerFooty is simply that “women CAN get involved in any aspect of football that they wish now.” Women are just as good picking up the tactics and plan of the game and “being as passionate as a fellow in wanting the boys to do their level best.” Her greatest frustration, and when you’ll see her most outspoken, is watching a player who has so many skills when he is not using them to his full ability because “the thing about women is … that we do [always use our skills to the best of our ability].”

Margie is happy to share her story on the HerFooty website because it promotes the active participation of women of all types in the game and she knows just how much football has brought to her life.

Join Sabrina as she gets up close and personal to bring you White Line Women - motivating stories of women in and around Aussie Rules football.

From AFL employees, to journalists, to footballers’ wives, to AusKick Mums to Club volunteers – each woman shares the reasons behind her passion for the game and how it has influenced her life.

 If you know of a special woman you’d like us to interview, please email us here at info@herfooty. 

 A little bit about Sabrina:

Sabrina Summers is a self-confessed footy fanatic and has followed the AFL since being introduced to Carlton by her step-father at the tender age of seven.

Sabrina’s career has seen her live in WA, SA and NSW yet she has always managed to remain a regular footy attendee in whichever state she resides.

AFL Grand Final week is always a highlight on her calendar and she has been lucky enough to see three grand final games live at the MCG.

Sabrina is thrilled to join us each week to share some amazing stories about some truly empowered women.