IN FRONT of 700 Port Adelaide players, officials, staff and supporters on Saturday night, chairman David Koch delivered a stern warning to the rest of the AFL: "we're coming to get you".
On the back of an amazing rejuvenation on and off the field, Koch said life would get tougher for the club next year as rival sides started "throwing everything at us".
He said the Power had to remain focused on the future and continue to push the envelope in terms of innovation. However, he insisted the ride for the club's supporters had only just begun.
"We're starting to realise we could be at the start of something really special here and ... the best of the journey is yet to come," Koch said.
"Sure this season exceeded our expectations … we had record memberships, record merchandise sales, we've had AFL-leading increase in home ground attendances, television audience and digital traffic.
"This year owes us nothing in the year ahead … from next week I don't want to hear us referring to this year and resting on our laurels.
"We are Port Adelaide and we are coming for you - we're coming to get you both on and off the field."
Koch even managed to fit in a thinly-veiled jab at cross-town rival Adelaide into his speech, claiming he didn't want the Power to look back at 2013 as the Crows had on 2012.
"I don't want to be one of those clubs that keeps referring back to the past, that keeps saying, 'oh we were one kick away from this'," he said, in reference to the Adelaide's five-point preliminary final loss to Hawthorn last year.
The favourite figure at Alberton insisted the Power had to cash in on their success by converting it into "hard-earned sponsorship dollars".
The club's surge up the ladder in 2013 made a significant impression on joint major partner Renault, which announced a two-year extension of its sponsorship deal with the Power.
Koch thanked Renault for maintaining its commitment to Port in March this year when the ASADA investigation into Australian sport could have easily spooked the company.
"Renault were about to sign on as joint major partner when the ASADA investigation was first announced," he said.
"For Renault to hold its nerve at that time and have faith in the Port Adelaide Football Club and more broadly Australian sport is a true credit to them. They signed within a week and Port Adelaide will never forget that and their belief in us as a club."
But the club needed more, Koch said.
The Power almost reached the preliminary final on the competition's third smallest football budget in 2013.
"Imagine what sort of resources we can give to this amazing bunch of blokes if we get sponsorship right?" he asked.
"I am indebted to our current sponsors for their support … but to be frank, we need more of you and we need to be charging a fair market rate for our sponsorships.
"Financially we're certainly not out of the woods, far from it. Nailing our fair share of the national sponsorship market will go a long way to plugging the gap."
