South Australian National Football League
The
South Australian National Football League (SANFL) is the premier league for
Australian rules football in the state of
South Australia. Established in
1877, the semi-professional league now comprises nine clubs representing different areas of metropolitan
Adelaide.
Several clubs share their nicknames with
AFL/VFL clubs. This is purely coincidental: the teams are not named after each other. The SANFL's
Eagles, for example, came into existence almost 90 years before the AFL's
Eagles.
The current
Port Adelaide Magpies club is a spinoff of a former team by the same name which moved up to the AFL (changing its name to the
Port Adelaide Power as it did so.)
Current Clubs
Former Clubs*
West Torrens Eagles*
Woodville WarriorsPre-1877
The early years of football in South Australia were poorly organised and dogged by argument over which set of rules to adopt. In fact, after a match between Port Adelaide and Kensington in 1873, it was remarked that neither side understood the rules clearly, and there was uncertainty over which team had won. However, as they years progressed, there became a growing push for uniformity and structure in South Australian football.
1877-1900
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Port Adelaide's magenta uniform (c.1896) |
In 1877, 12 of South Australia's football clubs met to develop a uniform set of rules and establish a governing body. They formed the South Australian Football Association, the first governing body of its type for football in Australia, and adopted rules similar to those used in Victoria. The inaugural 1877 season was contested by those 12 clubs: South Park, Willunga, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, North Adelaide, Prince Alfred College, Gawler, Kapunda, Bankers, Woodville, South Adelaide and Victorian.
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South Adelaide have worn blue and white since establishment (c.1890) |
Norwood joined the Association the following season in 1878, and went on to win the next six premierships. Norwood, along with South Adelaide and Port Adelaide, dominated the early years, winning 23 of the first 24 premierships between them. However, club numbers were diminishing. South Park, Willunga, North Adelaide, Prince Alfred College, Gawler, Kapunda, Bankers, Woodville, and Victorian all left the Association within the first 10 years. By 1886, the Association had been reduced from 12 to four clubs.
But the Association experienced a resurgence in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The addition of West Adelaide (1887), North Adelaide (1893), West Torrens (1897) and only the demise of Adelaide (1893), meant the Association comprised of six clubs by the turn of the century. In 1898, the Magarey Medal was awarded to the fairest and most brilliant player for the first time (see
#Magarey Medal).
1901-1913
The Sturt Football Club joined the Association in 1901, but performed poorly initially, finishing last in its first three seasons. In 1902, Port Adelaide adopted its now famous black and white colours, and the competition was beginning to take a more familiar form. In 1907, the Association changed its name to the South Australian Football League.
Heavyweights Norwood and Port Adelaide continued their domination of the league, and were joined by West Adelaide and North Adelaide and between them, the four clubs won all premierships between 1901 and 1913. Amazingly, West Adelaide followed three straight wooden spoons from 1904-06 with four out of the five premierships from 1908-1912. This was to be the most successful period in West Adelaide's history.
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Port Adelaide v Sturt, 1914 Grand Final |
World War I
The SAFL managed to maintain competition for the first two years of
World War I, 1914 and 1915, with Sturt winning their first premiership in 1915. But by 1916, clubs were sustaining high losses to war and competition was suspended and did not resume until 1919.
1919-1938
Sturt won the first premiership of the post-WWI era, beating North Adelaide in the Challenge Final replay. Glenelg became the newest addition to the league in 1921 and started poorly with five consecutive wooden spoons. In 1927, the South Australian Football League changed its name for a third time, adopting the now familiar, South Australian National Football League. Meanwhile, Port Adelaide celebrated a golden era during the inter-war years, with 12 grand finals yielding five premierships.
World War II
As with World War I, the SANFL managed to continue competition for the first few years of
World War II. However, by 1942, the war forced all clubs to merge in order to field a side. Mergers were geographically determined with Port Adelaide merging with West Torrens, West Adelaide merging with Glenelg, Sturt merging with South Adelaide and Norwood merging with North Adelaide. This wartime competition continued from 1942-44.
1946-1959
Norwood began the post-war era in superb style winning three premierships by 1950. However, this period was dominated by
Fos Williams' Port Adelaide, winning seven premierships, including an amazing six in a row from 1954-59 (although the 1959 premiership was won under the stewardship of Geoff Motley as Captain-Coach).
1960-1969
Port Adelaide continued their dominance of the competition with three more premierships by 1965. In 1964, for the first time in 60 years, the SANFL admitted two new clubs, Central District and
Woodville. Both clubs performed poorly, and many questioned the purpose of introducing two more teams, in particular Woodville, who were closely surrounded by existing clubs, Port Adelaide and West-Torrens. Meanwhile a new power, Sturt, hit the competition, winning five straight premierships from 1966-70. Sturt shared a fierce rivalry with Port Adelaide whom they played in four consecutive Grand Finals.
1970-1979
Sturt began the 1970s by defeating Glenelg in a rain-effected Grand Final by 21 points. North Adelaide secured back-to-back premiership victories over Port Adelaide in 1971 and 1972 and defeated VFL premier Carlton by one point in the end-of-season
Champions of Australia match. Port Adelaide continued their success, winning two premierships themselves (1977, 1979), and finishing lower than 3rd only once for the decade. Other premiership winning clubs in the 1970s were Sturt (1970, 1974, 1976), Glenelg (1973), and Norwood (1975, 1978). The SANFL made the biggest shift in its history, moving all operations to the new Football Park in 1974. Central District and North Adelaide played the first ever match at the ground on May 4, 1974. The first SANFL Grand Final was played at the Ground the same year, the first away from Adelaide Oval (Sturt versus Glenelg). In front of a crowd of 58,042 people, Sturt won by 15 points despite kicking into a stiff breeze in the last quarter after leading by just 5 points at three-quarter time. The 1975 season was highlighted by Glenelg's score of 49.23 (317) against Central District. In fact, the winning margin of 238 points was larger, at that time, than the previous highest score ever recorded by a side in a single game. In 1976, Sturt defeated Grand Final favourites Port Adelaide by 41 points in front of a record Football Park crowd of 66,897. Norwood won the 1978 premiership in their centenary year by beating Sturt in the Grand Final by the narrowest of margins - one point - after Sturt had lost just one game for the entire season. During the 1970s, football in South Australia experienced an increase in players moving across the border to play in the higher standard VFL competition.
1980-1989
The exodus of quality players to the VFL continued in the 1980s and inevitably the quality of competition began to drop. Sensing the change, in 1981 the SANFL submitted a bid to enter a composite South Australian team in the VFL, but were rejected. Following this failed attempt, the SANFL introduced a Player Retention Scheme in 1988. The aim of the Scheme was to provide financial incentives to top players to remain in South Australia. While this Scheme saw a short-term increase in the quality of the competition, attandences soon began to drop again.
Meanwhile, on-field, night football came to the SANFL in 1984 with floodlights installed at Football Park following a long battle with nearby residents. The heavyweights Port Adelaide, Norwood and Glenelg dominated the competition, winning eight premierships between them.
1990-1999
The 1990s was the most turbulent decade in the history South Australian football. The SANFL continued to resist the temptation to enter a side in the AFL. However matters came to an abrupt head on July 31, 1990, when the
Port Adelaide Football Club, feeling it was subsidising the other SANFL clubs, made an independent bid to the join the AFL. The shock announcement took everyone by surprise and instigated the most controversial period in South Australian football.
The SANFL was left with little option but to submit its own bid to enter the AFL. In a thirty-minute meeting the SANFL formed the Adelaide Football Club, a composite side made up of players from all SANFL clubs. While Port Adelaide had by far the largest supporter base in South Australia, they could not compete with the SANFL's offer of a composite club and the use of Football Park.
In November 1990, following a vicious legal battle, the AFL announced the Adelaide Football Club had been granted the licence and would enter the competition in 1991.
After a tumultuous summer, the Adelaide Crows debuted in 1991 wearing the state colours of navy blue, red and yellow. While the Adelaide Crows enjoyed crowds of over 40,000 every week and dominated local media coverage, crowds at local SANFL matches plummeted. The 1990s was the first decade in the SANFL's history that it was not South Australia's premier football event every weekend.
In 1997, Port Adelaide finally achieved their goal of joining the Australian Football League under the new nickname, the Power, as the 'Magpies' nickname was already used by the AFL club Collingwood. After just missing out on the finals in their first season, the Power finally made their first finals series in 1999.
The Crows were the first of SA's two clubs to taste premiership success in the big league, winning back-to-back cups in 1997 and 1998.
Locally, Port Adelaide Magpies dominated the competition winning seven premierships in the 1990s.
2000s
The first decade of the
21st Century has been dominated by
Central District Bulldogs, who have won five of the six premierships so far. Only
Sturt has managed to take a premiership off Centrals, in
2002. The Eagles have been consistent runners-up to the Bulldogs, including a 125-point thumping in the 2004 Grand Final.
See Also
List of SANFL PremiersSources*http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/
*http://www.iafc.com.au/
*http://www.footysa.com
The possibility of expanding the SANFL to include a team from
Darwin, Northern Territory and the
Northern Territory Football League has been raised over the past 10 years.
Although SANFL crowds now compete heavily with the 2 AFL national league clubs, the SANFL had a total attendance of 303,354 in 2005, with a respectable average of 2,974 per game.A crowd of 24,207 attended the 2005 SANFL Grand Final between Central District and Woodville-West Torrens at
AAMI Stadium.[
1]
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1929 Magarey Medal. |
The
Magarey Medal is awarded to the fairest and most brilliant player in the SANFL each season and is the oldest of its type in Australia.
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2004 Magarey Medal. |
The medal is named after William Ashley Magarey, a former SANFL administrator. In 1897, Magarey became chairman of the South Australian Football Association, as it was then known. In 1898, in an effort to stamp out rough play and improve respect of umpires, Magarey instituted the medal to be awarded to the player deemed by umpires to be the fairest and most brilliant for that season. The inaugural winner of the medal was Norwood's Alby Green. Magarey died in 1929, but his name lives on and the Magarey Medal is still awarded to the
fairest and most brilliant SANFL player each season.
Sources*http://www.sanfl.com.au/
*
Wikipedia listing of SANFL clubs*
Wikipedia listing of SANFL players*
Official SANFL website*
FootySA.com*
SAFooty.net SANFL discussion forums*
Legends of SANFL fan site*
Unofficial Eagles Fan Site*
The Power From Port - Unofficial Port Adelaide Power and Magpies Football Clubs WebsiteClubs
*
Central District*
Glenelg*
North Adelaide*
Norwood*
Port Adelaide*
Sturt*
South Adelaide*
West Adelaide*
Woodville - West Torrens
