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NORTH ADELAIDE - Part One: 1881 to 1939
Affiliated: South Australian Junior Football Association (SJFA) 1885; Adelaide and Suburban Football Association (ASFA) 1886-7; SAFA 1888-1906; SAFL 1907-1926; SANFL 1927-present
Club Address: PO Box 194, Prospect 5082, South Australia
Home Ground: Prospect Oval, Menzies Crescent, Prospect
Formed: 1881 as Medindie; renamed North Adelaide in 1893
Colours: Red and white
Emblem: Rooster
Premierships: SENIORS - 1900, 1902, 1905, 1920, 1930-31, 1949, 1952, 1960, 1971-72, 1987, 1991 (13 total) SECONDS/RESERVES (from 1919) - 1925, 1928, 1932, 1934, 1964-65, 2005-6 (8 total) THIRDS/UNDER 19S (from 1936) - 1937, 1942, 1948-49, 1954, 1961, 1966, 2005 (8 total) COLTS/UNDER 17S (from 1939) - 1939-40, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1969-70, 1987, 1997, 2005, 2007 (12 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - Championship of Australia 1972; Stanley H. Lewis Memorial Trophy 1966-67, 1971-72, 2005-6 (6 total); SANFL Night/Knock-out/Pre-season Series 1968 (1 total)
Magarey Medallists: Phil Sandland 1901; Tom Mackenzie 1905 & 1906; Tom Leahy 1913; Harold 'Dribbler' Hawke 1937; Jeff Pash 1939; H.Ron Phillips 1948 & 1949; Ian McKay 1950; Barrie Barbary 1960; Don Lindner 1967*; Barrie Robran 1968, 1970 & 1973; Tony Antrobus 1983; Andrew Jarman 1987; Brenton Phillips 1993; Josh Francou 1996; James Allen 2007 (15 Medallists/19 Medals)
All Australians: Haydn Bunton 1956; Don Lindner 1961; Andrew Jarman 1986 & 1987 (4 total)
League Top Goalkickers: A.Daly (54) 1903 & (30) 1905; P.Lewis (58) 1923; K.Farmer (105) 1930, (126) 1931, (102) 1932, (112) 1933, (106) 1934, (128) 1935, (134) 1936, (108) 1937, (112) 1938, (113) 1939 & (123) 1940; W.McKenzie (67) 1954; D.Sachse (90) 1967; J.Roberts (111) 1987; D.Hargraves (68) 2002 (18 total)
North Adelaide's Official 'Team of the Century': Click here
Highest Score: 34.22 (226) vs. South Adelaide 6.12 (48) at Adelaide Oval in round 5 1972
Most Games: 389 by Michael Redden from 1978 to 1992
Record Home Attendance: 19,120 in round 5 1958: Port Adelaide 14.14 (98); North Adelaide 8.10 (58)
Record Finals Attendance: 56,525 for 1973 grand final at Adelaide Oval: Glenelg 21.11 (137); North Adelaide 19.16 (130)
Overall Success Rate 1907-2007: 51.5%
* indicates awarded retrospectively by SANFL in 1998.
The date: Sunday 15 October 1972. The place: Adelaide Oval. The occasion: the Australian Premiers Final between North Adelaide (SANFL premiers) and Carlton (VFL premiers). 23,213 spectators screamed themselves hoarse as the Roosters, having trailed by 5 points at the last change, and despite coming home into the breeze, applied Victorian style pressure to their opponents during a torrid final quarter to emerge victors by the narrowest of margins and claim the title 'Champions of Australia'. North champion Barrie Robran gave an irrepressible display which in some ways was the pinnacle of his career, and gave rise to an unprecedented tribute from quintessentially one-eyed Victorian TV commentator, Louie 'the Lip' Richards, who dubbed Robran "the new king of football." [see footnote 1]
The whole North Adelaide team were 'kings of football' that day, and it is arguable that South Australian football itself has never achieved a more noteworthy triumph. Certainly, whatever else is said, it was the North Adelaide Football Club's finest hour, albeit that subsequent developments in the game would render it almost meaningless. (A selection of contemporary reports of this match can be found in the Great Games section, or by clicking here.)
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The North 'class of 1905' - a premiership year. |
Football in the northern districts of Adelaide dates almost from the sport's inception in South Australia during the early 1860s. However, the club which would eventually go on to reach the absolute pinnacle of Australian football achievement in 1972 began life in 1881 as the Medindie Football Club. Known as 'The Dindies', Medindie was a foundation member in 1885 of the South Australian Junior Football Association, before spending the 1886 and 1887 seasons competing in the Adelaide and Suburban Football Association. The club then had an undistinguished five season career in the SAFA before altering its name to North Adelaide and adopting the now familiar red and white colours in 1893. The name change did nothing to improve the team's on field fortunes, however, in an era when South Adelaide, Norwood and Port Adelaide were very much the 'big three' of South Australian football. As the turn of the century approached, however, there were indications that the gap between the top and bottom sides in the SAFA was narrowing, a state of affairs reinforced by the compulsory introduction of Electorate football in 1899. [see footnote 2] |
In 1900 North Adelaide broke through to secure a first ever premiership, defeating warm favourites South Adelaide in the final, 4.3 (27) to 1.8 (14). The red and whites were to remain a force for the next six seasons, collecting further premierships in 1902 and 1905 and narrowly failing against Port Adelaide in the challenge final of 1906 after earlier thrashing the same side in a semi final, 5.4 (34) to 0.12 (12).
North were ably served during this period by 1901 Magarey Medal winning centreman Phil Sandland, pacy defender Norm Clark (who went on to have an illustrious career with Carlton as both player and coach), wingmen Jack Rees and Norman Pash, and much-travelled ruckman/defender Jack 'Dinnie' Reedman, who captained the red and whites between 1901 and 1905.
| In a pattern which was to become monotonously familiar in
future, North's fortunes faded somewhat during the second half of the decade,
before a gradual resurgence in the years leading up to the onset of World War
One culminating in successive final defeats against Port Adelaide in 1913 and
1914. The latter of these was by the extravagant margin for the time of 79
points; even more ignominiously, North's total for the day was a mere 1.8 (14) -
a scoreline which would come back to haunt the club some three quarters of a
century later.
The SAFL went into recess between 1916 and 1918 because of the war, but the return of football in 1919 was to prove quite sensational, with North Adelaide very much in the thick of the action. After finishing in third place after the home and away rounds the Northerners faced minor premiers Sturt in the first semi final and recorded a convincing win, 7.18 (60) to 3.5 (23). The final pitted North against West Torrens, and in one of the most dour matches imaginable the two sides played out the Australian football equivalent of a scoreless draw in soccer, totalling just 2.3 (15) apiece. The replay was again a tightly contested affair, but this time the red and whites ultimately managed to keep their noses in front by 5 points, 6.2 (38) to 5.3 (33). |
North's 1914 team enjoy a lemon time rest. There was to be no enjoyment for the players come grand final time, however. |
Twenty-six scoring shots in four hours of football represents a score every nine minutes or so - not, on the face of it, crowd-pleasing stuff. However, there are different forms of excitement in football, and spectators at the SAFL finals series of 1919 certainly got more than their money's worth in terms of heart-stopping, close to the wire action. (Detailed reviews of the 1919 final and final replay can be read here.)
The thrills continued in the challenge final, in which North met Sturt once more. Incredibly, the result was another stalemate, with both sides registering 5.9 (39). For the first and only time in the history of football in the three major footballing states two finals matches in the same series had been drawn. A week later in the challenge final replay yet another draw appeared on the cards at times, but in the end the debilitating effects of five hard finals matches probably proved North's undoing, and they went down by 5 points, 2.6 (18) to 3.5 (23).
It did not take long for the team to find its way to the winner's rostrum, however. After finishing the 1920 home and away series as minor premiers North comfortably accounted for West Torrens in the first semi final before trouncing Norwood 9.15 (69) to 3.3 (21) in the final in front of a then record 31,000 spectators.
Earlier in the season the club had embarked on a two match tour of the eastern states during which a 13.15 (93) to 9.11 (65) win had been recorded against New South Wales, and a 7.15 (57) to 9.6 (60) loss sustained at the hands of a powerful Ballarat Football League combination. [see footnote 3]
Despite having accumulated the respectable total of thirteen senior premierships North have never really managed to establish themselves as the competition's outstanding side over a prolonged period of time. All too frequently the team has fought tooth and nail for several seasons to reach the top, only to nose dive spectacularly back to anonymity almost before the fizz has gone from the premiership champagne. North of 1921 were as ordinary as their predecessors of the year before had been outstanding, and they failed even to make the finals. During the remainder of the decade, despite reaching the premiership play off on three occasions (in 1923, 1926 and 1927) the side proved unable to clinch another flag.
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Action from Prospect Oval in 1927. North's Jim McDowall (no. 19) contests with Wilson of Norwood in a game which North won comfortably. The red and whites lost the challenge final that year to minor premiers West Adelaide. |
Prominent players for North during the 1920s included Tom Leahy, nicknamed 'the prince of ruckmen', Percy Lewis, Percy Furler, Albert Fooks, Cec Curnow and Darby Crawford.
Wishing no disrespect to any of these champions, however, a player was to make his debut in 1929 who was to go on to outshine them all; indeed, in the entire history of South Australian football it is doubtful whether there has been a more highly celebrated figure. Ken Farmer - later to be popularly referred to, in South Australia at any rate, as 'football's Bradman' - kicked 62 goals in 1929, a highly respectable total for the time, but, by the standards which he was shortly to establish, a comparatively modest one. In each of the following eleven seasons Farmer was to manage at least 100 goals a year, and when he retired at the end of the 1941 season he had amassed an Australian record (which still stands) 1,419 goals in what was at that stage a South Australian record 224 games. [see footnote 4]
In 1930 Farmer gave the first sustained evidence of his rare talent, kicking 105 majors as North strode impressively to the premiership. A loss to Sturt in the first semi final proved to be nothing more than a minor hiccup. Exercising the right of challenge earned by winning the minor premiership North battled their way to a 4 point triumph over Port Adelaide in the challenge final before a crowd of 23,609. Farmer kicked 4.0 out of the victors' total of 9.13, and he was ably assisted on the day by the likes of Harold 'Dribbler' Hawke, Furler, Mangeldorf, Drew and Barrett. The finals series of 1930 was the last to be conducted under the challenge format, with the Page-McIntyre system replacing it the following year.
The change in finals format had no immediate effect on North's supremacy. Farmer bagged 126 goals in 1931 including 6 in the grand final as the red and whites swept all before them to take out consecutive premierships for the first ever time. Their victims on this occasion were Sturt, and the 38 point winning margin afforded clear evidence of their superiority.
Thereafter, however, the 1930s followed a similar pattern to the previous decade. North did manage to reach the grand final in 1932, losing to Sturt, but in the remaining years of the decade the best they could manage was 3rd place in 1936. Coincidentally, 1936 was also the year that Farmer kicked 134 goals to set a new SANFL record for the most goals kicked in a season, a record which was to endure until 1969.
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Footnotes
1. 'The Advertiser', 16/10/72, page 17. Return to Main Text
2. As the name implies, Electorate football meant that players were obliged to represent the club in whose electoral district they resided. Return to Main Text
3. In those days the BFL was occasionally strong enough to overcome the might of the VFL in representative football. Return to Main Text
4. Farmer's original non-inclusion in the AFL's Hall of Fame, which was instigated in 1996, remains a footballing travesty. Return to Main Text