THERE is one glaring question that no one seems game enough to ask: How, when Port Adelaide has received more than the extra $4 million it was promised to move to Adelaide Oval, will it still lose $2 million this season?

This campaign to discredit the SANFL and blame it for Port’s financial predicament must cease.

A short lesson in history might be appropriate.

There have been six major players in this quantum shift to bring AFL football back to Adelaide Oval; the state government; the AFL, the SACA, the SANFL, Port Adelaide Football Club and the Adelaide Football Club.

Four of those parties were desperate to move to Adelaide Oval, regardless of what damage was done to the autonomy and heritage of the SANFL.

It followed that over some years there were many confidential negotiations that neither the Crows nor the SANFL were party to.

The word treachery springs to mind.

The Crows and the SANFL would not willingly leave their established bases at West Lakes, particularly when the SANFL held an unassailable agreement with the AFL to host AFL matches at Football Park.

However, everything has its price and when the government withdrew any previously promised funding for Football Park, the Crows were guaranteed over $3 million extra per season and the SANFL were assured a share of the extra revenue from Adelaide Oval through the Stadium Management Authority, an accord was reached.

Of course the Crows already had good corporate support at West Lakes - Port not so - but Port Adelaide selected the corporate inventory it wanted to sell at Adelaide Oval and effectively got a clean stadium. This agreement incidentally was reached on July 13, 2013.

There were no hastily signed “we-didn’t-have-time-to-think” contracts signed on the eve of this footy season.

History tells us that the move has been an unparalleled success financially and culturally. However, Port Adelaide has still struggled to attract enough of the corporate support or revenue from its members that it needs to sustain its ambitions.

So it is looking hungrily at the other forms of revenue that are generated by the stadium on match days.

Adelaide also, despite its positive balance sheet, wants more but has not been so vocal or visible about it.

It’s reminiscent of the big brother pushing his little brother forward to ask for more. Still, at least the Crows are operating within their means.

The SANFL should not be rendered irrelevant to South Australian football as many in the Port camp suggest.

It is the SANFL that is responsible for all forms of football in this state.

While the AFL lavishes millions on the lowers levels of football in Victoria, the SANFL has to sustain our league clubs, umpiring, junior development and community programs.

It is not a top-heavy, fat corporate glutton. It is efficient and effective and deserves the revenue that it has been promised from Adelaide Oval.

For without the SANFL there would be no Crows, no Port Adelaide Power and very possibly, no SACA.

It is the SANFL and the SACA that carry the liability of the Adelaide Oval if the crowds stop coming.

Of course, there is another question that could be asked: How much money does the SACA make from AFL matches at the Oval?

Best left for another day.

The Victorian clubs have started releasing their financials. Melbourne, a struggling club will announce a small profit.

North Melbourne, that lost soul in the world of football demographics, will make a “substantial profit”.

It is even rumoured that those perennial battlers, the Western Bulldogs will make a profit. How can Port, when it has received every cent it was promised, and more, not show a profit?

In 1990, the treachery of the Port Adelaide Football Club threatened the very existence of the SANFL and changed football forever in this state. It has got everything it has asked for, yet it is still not enough.

The SANFL, so vital to football in SA is once again threatened by corporate avarice. It cannot be subverted.