Former Port Adelaide player Alipate Carlile points to meeting for change

Generally, 99.9 percent of plans, schemes, call them what you like, are gibberish, forgotten far quicker than that piercing headache takes to disappear.

In 2011, Port Adelaide had its worst season in 141 years, finishing 16^th with only three wins.

The next year was marginally better, although coach Matthew Primus parted company with the Power and assistant coach Garry Hocking took over for the last four games.

Something had to give.

"We just said, 'no, this has got to change because it's (our careers) not going to last forever," Alipate Carlile said from Adelaide this week of the player meeting after the bitterly disappointing 2012 season.

During an interview then, Carlile had spoken about "a chip on the shoulder".

"It was a build-up over the previous two years where, I think, we had won only eight games, it just got to a point where the (younger) players had served their apprenticeship and we all got sick of it (losing) together," he recalled.

Gun midfielder Travis Boak took over the captaincy from 2004 premiership player Domenic Cassisi, Ken Hinkley was the new coach and the club returned to finals for the first time since 2007.

"Everything clicked, the boys trained a lot harder then we ever had and it was a changing of the guard, fitness staff, coaches, the club really backed us in to turn it around and it was an amazing year," Carlile said.

The Power beat Collingwood at the MCG, before falling to perennial finalists Geelong in the semi-final.

The proud Port Adelaide was back.

"Personally I'd reflect on those 2013-14 seasons as my best years because they were the most enjoyable in terms of the playing group," Carlile said.

"The players we had, the footy was more enjoyable than when I was, individually, playing better footy, so they're the ones I cherish a fair bit more than the other ones."

Playing at the MCG against the biggest club in the land is a long way from the kid whose family own a farm near Wangaratta.

Born to a Fijian mum (Asenaca) and Corowa-born dad (Bill), Carlile was one of five children.

He played mainly basketball and soccer, but played in a thirds flag at Wangaratta Rovers in 2003, just as the club's many greats, including five-time Morris medallist Rob Walker, were retiring.

"Robbie actually used to teach me at school (Galen Catholic College, Wangaratta) and I'd see how hard they all worked at footy training," Carlile explained.

"Robbie and Mick Walker and Ross Hill, guys like that, they showed me from a young age what level you had to reach and while I didn't play the same position as them, I played at fullback like Matt Allen and followed what he did, I learnt off all of them."

Carlile played 34 games for the Murray Bushrangers in 2004-05 and three senior games for Rovers, two in the first year and just one, against North Albury, in 2005.

A few months later, he was drafted at No.44 by the Power.

He debuted in a thrilling loss against St Kilda the following season.

"All I can remember is some of the banter, it was interesting, all on-field banter, it was pretty good fun," he said.

Former Collingwood player Heritier Lumumba is currently suing the Pies and AFL over alleged racial abuse, but Carlile said the banter never went too far.

"I never copped it (racial abuse)," he said.

"With all the racial stuff, I can see the devastating impact on the people who cop it, but also their families and communities.

"We're right in the midst of calling it out and making sure the boys have the confidence to stop it there and that's filtering down slowly to the lower grades over here.

"I was always getting called fat, but that (talk) was part and parcel of the game."

In 2007, Carlile was dropped for the preliminary final against North Melbourne.

"To be honest mate, I probably wasn't up to it," he declared.

The Power lost the grand final to Geelong by 119 points and plenty say it took years to recover.

"Looking back on it, I probably see different points over the next couple of years where we really struggled, so it caused some (issues) not only with the players and the coaching staff, but the club itself," he offered.

Carlile played 167 games, finishing third in the 2010 best and fairest.

He played on some of the game's biggest names, including Brendan Fevola ("he was just a classic, I remember him running me down when I did something stupid"), but it was a stress fracture which eventually forced his retirement, at just 29, in 2016.

"They rang other specialists around the world and they had only seen a hip like mine in 80-year-old grandmothers," he laughed loudly.

Carlile is now Port's multicultural programs manager, introducing many youngsters to the game and supporting their education.

"We had an Islamic girl whose parents are pretty strict and it was assumed she would take over the family business, but through our assessors she found the courage to say she wanted to be a lawyer. She's now being mentored for law school, with her parents support, and that really fills our cup," he said proudly.

It's a big weekend for Carlile, wife Jo (who played netball for the Sydney Swift and Adelaide Thunderbirds) and their two youngsters.

The Port tackled Brisbane in Friday night's preliminary final, while Jo's brother, John Sutton (South Sydney's 2014 premiership captain), is the runner in Saturday night's grand final qualifier against Penrith.

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