Alberton Godfather Alfie Trebilcock devoted to Port Adelaide Power boot-studder Alf Trebilcock, in the changerooms at Alberton, has won the AFL's Jack Titus award for his 45 years' service to football with Port Adelaide. ALFIE Trebilcock has a bottle of Spray 'n' Wipe in one hand, a rag in the other. "These coloured boots, I don't really like 'em," he says. Saying that, they are easy to clean. Makes the job easier. The black boots, I still do them with boot polish. Every now and then I'll give 'em a coat of the old-fashioned Nugget - bring 'em up a bit. But all these coloured things, you just use Spray 'n' Wipe, see. Come up a treat. All ingenuity and infectious smile, Trebilcock is the Port Adelaide boot-studder who, at 71, is the undisputed Godfather of Alberton - a retired butcher from Broken Hill who moved to Adelaide looking for work and found a family in football. For 45 years this white-haired icon has been the man who has scraped the mud from players' boots, hammered new sprigs, stretched and polished the leather and packed them into bags for away games. "The only time I don't have them is when the boys are training or playing," he says. Everyone from four-time Magarey Medallist Russell Ebert and Team of the Century full forward Tim Evans to Power favourite sons Gavin Wanganeen and Warren Tredrea owe their footwear comfort to Trebilcock. A bloke so Port Adelaide he lives in Alberton, a five-minute drive from Power headquarters, and right down to his personalised number plate, "PORT 80." "1980, that was a record-breaking year for this club," he says. We won everything. Won the premiership, the Magarey Medal, the leading goalkicker, most points for, least points against. Everything that was there to be won, we won it. For his dedication, Trebilcock has been awarded this year's AFL Jack Titus Award for conspicuous service to the game. "It is nice to win the award and that, don't get me wrong," he says. But I'm not here to win awards. I'm here for the club, you know? Trebilcock joined Port Adelaide as a boot-studder in 1968, the same year Ebert arrived from the Riverland. It was Ebert, too, who bestowed a nickname used affectionately by subsequent generations at Alberton - "Three Dicks." "It's people like Alfie who make this footy club what it is," Ebert said. He's been a huge part of making it successful. In an era of ankle-high boots and knock-in sprigs, Trebilcock served a seven-year apprenticeship before taking over as the club's No. 1 man. "I said, I dunno, I'm a bloody butcher," he says, with a trademark grin so wide his eyes narrow to slits. Those days, they had a bootmaker do it. It was a technical job. So I said I'll do it for a year and if you're not happy or I'm not happy, I'll say no. If there's something else at the club for me to do, I'll do it. If not, I'll bow out. Well, nearly 40 years later, I'm still here. And the highlight? "2004, that was absolutely ... well, what a win," he says. From '77 I've seen 11 premierships with the Magpies. And 2004 was the big one. We celebrated it just like everyone else - out on the ground, get out there with the players, a few beers, put some champagne in the cup and have a drink. Half embarrassed, Trebilcock confesses to having missed "one or two" games during his career. The most recent, the last game of the season "three or four years back," was through the small matter of a heart scare that forced surgery to insert a pacemaker. "I went to training on the Friday and wasn't feeling the best," he says. It was only a short session, 40 minutes or so. The players finished so I got up to go down and get their boots. Next thing, arse over head. I was at the hospital by 2.30, the pacemaker was in by 6.30. And fit as a fiddle, too. I could've gone to footy that Saturday.