Clubs of the South Australian National Football League
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CLUBS OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE by JOHN DEVANEY Published in Great Britain by Full Points Publications © John Devaney and Full Points Publications 2014 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission. Every effort has been made to ensure that this book is free from error or omissions. However, the Publisher and Author, or their respective employees or agents, shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or damage occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of material in this book whether or not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission, breach of duty or default on the part of the Publisher, Author or their respective employees or agents. Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Clubs of the South Australian National Football League ISBN 978-1-291-88338-1 1. Australian football—Encyclopedias. 2. Australian football—Clubs. 3. Sports—Australian football—History. I. Devaney, John. Full Points Publications Table of Contents Title Page No. Introduction 5 Adelaide - 19th Century 7 Adelaide 11 Bankers 12 Central District 12 Gawler 59 Glenelg 60 Kensington 114 North Adelaide (Hotham) 116 North Adelaide (Medindie) 117 Norwood 170 Port Adelaide 215 Royal Park 297 South Adelaide 298 South Park 351 Sturt 352 Victorian 408 West Adelaide - original 409 West Adelaide 410 West Torrens 453 Woodville - original 485 Woodville 486 Woodville-West Torrens 510 For Ratlegs Introduction he South Australian National Football League was originally known as the South Australian Football T Association. It is the oldest Australian football competition in the world, established in 1877 a few weeks prior to its Victorian counterpart. For much of its history, the SANFL vied with the Western Australian Football League as the nation’s second strongest and most important senior grade football competition. However, the last three decades have seen its status diminish considerably. In 1982 the VFL, with its own self-preservation and continued viability in mind, forced one of its member clubs, South Melbourne, to relocate to Sydney, thereby potentially gaining access to the most lucrative market in Australia. The league expanded further in 1987 with the addition of clubs based in Brisbane and Perth, while in 1991 the SANFL, after bravely trying to maintain its profile and significance for several seasons, finally accepted the inevitable and applied for and was granted a license to field an Adelaide-based team, the Crows, in a competition which had been misleadingly renamed the Australian Football League the previous year. In 2014 the AFL comprises eighteen clubs, the majority of which remain based in Victoria. Of the eight non- Victorian clubs, one has its roots in Victoria, while another brazenly persists in claiming it has. In doing this, its principle aims are to attract a Melbourne-based following from former supporters of the defunct Fitzroy Football Club, and to benefit from the preferential status which the league continues to accord, in numerous ways, to members of the original VFL A Melbourne-centric quasi national competition might well benefit the game in Victoria in some measure, but there can be no doubt that football has suffered greatly in the other states which for over a century were also considered to constitute football’s heartland: South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Half a century ago virtually all of South Australia’s elite footballers played out their entire careers in the SANFL, and public interest in the game was 5 significantly higher than it has since become. Nowadays, the SANFL is essentially just a feeder competition for the AFL, a state of affairs which will be reinforced in 2014 when the Adelaide Football Club starts fielding a reserves team in the league. This development constitutes a major watershed for a competition which for many decades enjoyed elite status, and it is with this in mind that I have decided to record and, ignoring the unfashionable nature of the word, celebrate the uniquely colourful, exciting and distinctive story of one of the most historically important sporting competitions in Australia. In doing so, I have chosen to use the various clubs which comprise, and have comprised, the league as my lenses. Each of these clubs provide a unique slant on the SANFL’s birth, growth, development and decline, whilst collectively, I hope, creating a single, largely coherent, highly evocative picture of an institution which may have seen its day, but without which top level football as it currently comports itself could not possibly have existed. John Devaney May 2014 6 ADELAIDE - 19th Century Formed: 1860; disbanded 1873; reformed 1876; merged with Kensington 1881; disbanded 1882; reformed and merged with North Park 1885; assimilated the original West Adelaide Football Club 1888; assimilated North Adelaide/Hotham 1889 Disbanded: 1893 Colours: Black, red and white Senior Grade Premierships: 1886 (1 total) SAFA Top Goalkickers: J.Young (14) 1877; R.Stephens (17) 1886 (2 total) arly football in Adelaide was played under a variety of guises, with conformity not being reached until the E establishment of the South Australian Football Association in 1877, when a close approximation to the rules then in force in Melbourne was adopted. A major driving force behind the formation of the Association was Nowell Twopenny, captain of the Adelaide Football Club, the oldest in South Australia. By the time of the inception of the SAFA, the Adelaide Football Club already had a long, and somewhat chequered, history. Formed in 1860, it initially only played matches internally, typically between groups of players sharing a particular characteristic, achievement or place of residence. On 12 August 1861, for example: The adjourned match between the Past and Present Collegians and other members of the Club was continued on the North Parklands on Saturday afternoon. A very cold wind was blowing during the whole of the time, and accompanied by several sharp showers of rain. Undaunted by the threatening aspect of the weather, the spectators, consisting chiefly of ladies and horsemen, assembled in great force, and the ladies, with true courage, kept guard of the prizes they had presented in spite of the cold and 7 pitiless rain. Upwards of 40 players arrived. Play commenced shortly after 2 o’clock, Mr. O’Halloran being captain of the College side, and Mr. Cooper captain of their opponents. With hearty goodwill the players went to work; in about an hour the College party gained a goal. Elated with their success they were rewarded with another goal after about two hours exertion. The ladies distributed the prizes, some of which were very elegant, to the following players: Messrs.T.O’Halloran, G.O’Halloran, N.Knox, T.Illury, Richardson, H.Gouge, Taylor, W.Uren, Morphett, T.Hosier, G.Schlinke, S.Lawrence, H.Giles, Soward, Bonnin, Payne, Jacob, Wooldridge, Addison, N.O’Halloran, Hallett, Chambers, McEllister and Bastin. The ‘spills’ were more frequent than on other occasions, in consequence of the slippery conditions of the ground, and at the conclusion of the game nearly every player bore traces of having had a fall. No mishap, however, worth mentioning occurred, except that in the course of the afternoon a horse, belonging to one of the spectators, bolted across the playground. Master Gwynne immediately rode in pursuit, but just as he reached him one of the players ran between the horses causing them to fall and throwing Master Gwynne; however, nobody was hurt.1 The first ever game between Adelaide and a rival club (Modbury) was recorded as taking place in 1862, but no details of the match survive. It is known, however, that the two teams met again the following year, on a strip of land near the Modbury Hotel, when “the game was kept up with the greatest spirit and good feeling, and so equally were the sides matched that not a goal was obtained”.2 Most of Adelaide’s matches were played according to the club’s own set of rules, which initially at least were the most popular of all.3 However, when during the early 1870s 1 South Australian Football: the Past and the Present by C.K. Knuckey, page 9. 2 ibid., page 11. 3 Many of Adelaide’s players were former pupils of St Peter’s College, where a form of football similar to that in vogue at the Harrow Public School in England was played. The Harrow game was - and is - based on dribbling the ball along the ground, but it also contains elements central to the Australian 8 another set of rules, those of the Kensington club, began to gain more widespread acceptance, Adelaide faced something of a crisis, and indeed in 1873 the club felt compelled to disband. Sadly, this volatility was something that would plague the club throughout its short history. Having reformed in 1876, Adelaide was afforded something of a lifeline the following year by the establishment of the SAFA. On the field at least the club was competitive, not to mention highly regarded for its open, and visually appealing style of play. In the SAFA’s inaugural season, Adelaide came third, and was the competition’s highest scoring team, albeit that it seems to have played more games than many of its opponents: SAFA Premiership Ladder - Season 1877 Goals P W L D For Ag. South Adelaide 13 10 1 2 23 1 Victoria Club 14 10 1 3 30 5 Adelaide 16 10 3 3 31 13 Port Adelaide 15 9 4 2 23 13 Woodville 16 5 9 2 14 18 South Park 17 5 10 2 16 21 Kensington 15 3 10 2 12 36 Bankers 15 0 15 0 4 31 In subsequent seasons, Adelaide’s level of performance declined significantly.