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WEST ADELAIDE - Part One: 1895 to 1940
Affiliated: Adelaide and Suburban Association 1895-96; SAFA 1897-1906; SAFL 1907-1926; SANFL 1927-present
Club Address: P.O. Box 164, Cowandilla 5033, South Australia
Home Ground: Broadspectrum Oval (formerly known as Richmond Oval)
Formed: 1892
Colours: Black and red
Emblem: Bloods
Premierships: SENIORS - 1908-09, 1911-12, 1927, 1947, 1961, 1983 (8 total) SECONDS/RESERVES (from 1919) - 1929, 1940, 1951, 1994 (4 total) THIRDS/UNDER 19S (from 1936) - 1943-44, 1968, 1978, 2002, 2004 (6 total) COLTS/UNDER 17S (from 1939) - 1948, 2001-02, 2006 (4 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - Adelaide and Suburban Association 1895-96 (2 total); Championship of Australia 1908 & 1911 (2 total); SANFL Night/Knock-out/Pre-season Series 1955, 1957, 1960, 1962, 1985, 1987 (6 total)
Magarey Medallists: James 'Sorry' Tierney 1908; Henry 'Dick' Head 1909; Robert Barnes 1922; H.Bruce McGregor 1926 & 1927; Robert Snell 1929; Jack Sexton 1931; Ray McArthur 1939*; Ron Benton 1957; Ken Eustice 1962; Trevor Grimwood 1977; Grantley Fielke 1985; Glenn Kilpatrick 1995 (12 Medallists/13 Medals)
All Australians: Jack Lynch 1953; Stan Costello 1956; Neil Kerley 1961; Don Roach 1961; Robert Day 1966; Geoff Morris 1979; Craig Williams 1983 (7 total)
League Top Goalkickers: F.Fitzgerald (31) 1915; P.Phipps (90) 1957; A.Richardson (85) 1998, (66) 1999, (72) 2000 & (84) 2001; D.Bradshaw (97) 2003 (7 total)
Highest Score: 36.21 (237) vs. West Torrens 16.5 (101) at Richmond Oval in round 8 1982
Most Games: 364 by Grantley Fielke from 1979 to 1997
Record Home Attendance: 15,742 in round 5 1969: Glenelg 18.18 (126); West Adelaide 8.9 (57)
Record Finals Attendance: 54,282 for 1958 grand final at Adelaide Oval: Port Adelaide 14.10 (94); West Adelaide 14.8 (92)
Overall Success Rate 1907-2007: 46.6%
* indicates awarded retrospectively by the SANFL in 1998.
With the exception of one all too brief halcyon era between 1908 and 1912 West Adelaide has never been consistently successful but there can be few clubs with so colourful and dramatic a history. More to the point, it is doubtful whether any other club in Australia has managed so regularly and with such consummate effectiveness to shoot itself in the foot.
Despite the fact that a club bearing the name West Adelaide appeared in the SAFA as early as 1887 it was not until 1892 that the present club of that name was formed. Between 1892 and 1894 the side was administered on a very informal basis and only took part in scratch matches. However, by 1895 club spirit and organisation had developed to such an extent that entry into an official competition was sought and secured. During two seasons as members of the Adelaide and Suburban Association West acquired a firm reputation as the strongest club outside senior ranks in the city. Consequently its admission to the SAFA surprised no one.
Unfortunately for West, however, the gap in standard between junior and senior football was considerable. In 1897 and 1898 the club played a total of 31 matches for just a single win and a draw. Many of the defeats were sizeable.
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James 'Sorry' Tierney - click to enlarge. |
In 1899 the SAFA implemented district or 'electorate' football whereby players were obliged to play for the clubs from the electoral districts in which they resided. Many expected this to have a salutary effect on a struggling club like West, but while the competition as a whole evened out, the black and reds remained very much the Cinderella side of South Australian football. Even Sturt, which did not enter the SAFA until 1901, proved more competitive than West, reaching the finals for the first time in only their sixth season. At the beginning of the 1908 season, after eleven years in the competition, West had managed just 20 wins and 2 draws from 127 matches, which represents a paltry success rate of less than 17%. Conditions off the field did not exactly help. The club's training ground in the west park lands was a rough and ready affair bisected by a cattle track, while the players were forced to change and wash in a wooden and iron shed possessing no hot water facility. Clubrooms were an unimaginable luxury, and home matches were shared between the Adelaide and Jubilee Ovals. |
On the positive side of the ledger the club unearthed a succession of champion players during the early to middle years of the century's first decade. Prominent among these were Tom Leahy, the 'prince of ruckmen', who would go on to win a Magarey Medal with North Adelaide in 1913, his brother Bernie, a redoubtable backman, follower James 'Sorry' Tierney, and centreman Henry 'Dick' Head - the last two of whom were West's first ever Magarey Medallists, in 1908 and 1909 respectively.
| In 1908 these champions and others combined to produce a
season the like of which West supporters had never previously seen, and which
indeed they would seldom if ever witness again. After qualifying for the finals
for the first ever time the black and reds ousted North Adelaide from
premiership contention in a semi final by 15 points and then surprised everyone
by trouncing minor premiers Norwood
6.15 (51) to 3.6 (24) in the final. The Redlegs exercised their right of challenge the following week and 22,000 spectators saw
a much harder fought affair with West scraping home by 3 points, 7.10 (52) to
6.13 (49).
VFL premiers Carlton then challenged West to a play off for the 'Championship of the Commonwealth', a challenge which West were quick to accept. The match took place at Adelaide Oval in front of a crowd of 13,000, most of whom would have been surprised to see West win, let alone so emphatically. Final scores were West Adelaide 12.9 (81) to Carlton 7.10 (52). Best afield was West rover 'Shrimp' Dowling, with team mates Tom Leahy, Tierney, Bruce and Horgan also outstanding. A contemporary account used the following words to describe West's triumph: |
'Shrimp' Dowling - click to enlarge. |
The success of West Adelaide can be summed up in one word - system.......... The men kept their places, the shepherding was excellent, the ruck first class, and the kicking was good. In only one department of the game did Carlton excel, and that was in high marking.......... West Adelaide worked like a piece of well-oiled machinery, and they achieved a victory of which not only the club and their thousands of loyal supporters but the whole state feel justly proud. [see footnote 1]
The 1909 season proved to be almost as good. After finishing the minor round in 3rd position West were in indefatigable form during the finals downing West Torrens 7.18 (60) to 3.7 (25) in a semi final, Norwood 8.18 (66) to 5.8 (38) in the final, and minor premiers Port Adelaide in the challenge final 7.17 (59) to 6.5 (41) in front of 25,000 spectators. If there could be any criticism levelled at West's performances it was that they had failed sufficiently to translate their general superiority into goals; at the end of the day though, at least as far as the SAFL finals were concerned, this did not really matter as the black and reds were comfortably superior, but a few weeks later in the Championship of Australia match it proved to be West's undoing.
Unusually, the 1909 Championship of Australia play off took place in Melbourne, an indication perhaps of the greater respect which Victorians were developing for South Australian football, a respect based partly on West Adelaide's memorable victory over Carlton the previous year. This time, however, there was to be no repetition, West going down to South Melbourne by 24 points, 6.14 (50) to 11.8 (74). West had at least as much of the general play as their opponents, but just as in the SANFL finals poor kicking for goal let them down.
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Alec Conlin - click to enlarge. |
After losing eight players from their premiership side of
the previous year West slipped down the list to 5th in 1910. This proved to be
just a temporary hiccup, however, for in 1911 the side was back to its best,
winning the first 10 games of the season, and ultimately qualifying for the
finals comfortably in 2nd position. A 21 point semi final win over Sturt
followed, with minor premiers Port Adelaide being bundled aside by 3 goals a
fortnight later in the final. The challenge final saw Port providing more
resolute opposition, but West ultimately got home by 5 points thanks to a late
goal from skipper, Jos Dailey.
VFL premiers Essendon were West's next opponents in the Championship of Australia play off. Held at Adelaide Oval, the match attracted a disappointing crowd of just 6,000 spectators, but those who stayed away missed an enthralling contest. For most of the day there was little between the sides, and the result could easily have gone either way. Ultimately though it was West who had their noses in front at the final bell by just 3 points. Final scores were West Adelaide 8.9 (57) to Essendon 7.12 (54). Dowling, Alec Conlin, Hele, Dailey and Head were among the best for the home side. |
An interesting consequence of West's twin triumphs in 1911 was a decision by the South Australian Brewing Company Ltd. to adopt red and black as the colours on the labels and bottle tops of its West End beer, a practice which continues to this day. (In the immediate wake of this innovation West began somewhat quaintly to be referred to as the bottle tops, a practice which, not surprisingly, did not endure for quite so long.)
It was a case of history repeating itself in 1912 as West thrashed Sturt in a semi final and then twice accounted for minor premiers Port Adelaide to take out the flag. The challenge final, which West won 6.10 (46) to 5.2 (32), was watched by a South Australian record crowd of 28,500. Dick Head, the 'king of centremen', was best afield.
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West were disappointed when negotiations with VFL premiers Essendon to hold a Championship of Australia game fell through; in the opinion of most associated with the club, West's 1912 side was superior in many respects to that of the previous year, and victory in such a game could confidently have been anticipated. As intimated at the outset, the period 1908 to 1912 remains far and away the most auspicious in West Adelaide's history, and the fall from grace was to be unaccountably swift. Between 1913 and 1921 (and excluding the years 1916-18 when the competition went into mothballs because of the war) the black and reds won only 30 and drew 3 of 80 matches, reaching the finals just twice. It was almost as though the club's five years of glory had never happened. Improvement came as suddenly as the deterioration had set in. The apparent catalyst was the appointment of former Port Adelaide great 'Shine' Hosking as non-playing coach in 1922. Hosking was only the second ever West Adelaide coach, his sole predecessor being Jack 'Dinny' Reedman who had been in charge for a single season in 1908. Under Hosking West scraped into the finals with 7 wins from 14 minor round games and immediately struck a rich vein of form in the semi final against West Torrens, winning by 33 points, 16.12 (108) to 11.9 (75). Sadly, the old West failing of inaccuracy in front of goal surfaced in the final against minor premiers Norwood, costing the side whatever chance it might have had of causing an upset. West went down by 33 points after registering an inglorious 2.16 (28) to Norwood's 9.7 (61). |
Johnny Taylor, who made his West Adelaide debut in 1936, and who would captain the club to its 1947 premiership, takes a one hander. |
Almost predictably, an epidemic of internal bickering during the close season saw West effectively cutting its own throat, the major immediate consequence of the squabbling being the departure of Hosking to leave the side once again without a coach.
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Jack Broadstock, one of Westies' greatest sons, albeit that he played just 67 games for the club. |
It took five years for the side to recover, and the improvement coincided with a move to new permanent headquarters at Wayville. It was the first time West had ever had a home ground that it could truly call its own; previously it had always shared its home venues with other clubs. West celebrated by taking out the minor premiership in 1927. Surprisingly, despite having accumulated four premierships up to this point, this was the first time that West had ever finished the minor round on top of the ladder. As things developed, the black and reds had ample cause to be grateful for this achievement, as a 4 point final loss to North Adelaide necessitated their invoking the right of challenge. Second time around they made no mistake, edging home by 13 points, 10.11 (71) to 8.10 (58), watched by a crowd of 33,222. It was to be the last time for twenty years that West supporters would have reason to celebrate. Consecutive 3rd place finishes in 1928 and 1929 brought to an end a decade that yielded considerably less in terms of achievement than might have been expected given the preponderance of talent at the club - players like Bobbie Barnes, Bruce McGregor, Bob Snell, Vic Peters, Harry Lee, Jack 'Snowy' Hamilton, Jack Bishop, Harold Solomon and Chris Bennett, who collectively provided firm proof of the adage that 'champion players do not necessarily make a champion team'. |
Unfortunately, the 1930s were to prove to be even less auspicious for West. Between 1930 and 1940 the side failed to make the finals even once, winning barely 27% of all matches contested, a record bettered even by the league's Cinderella club, Glenelg. In 1933 West suffered the ultimate ignominy of losing every single match played (a total of 17), while from mid-1937 to mid-1938 the side contrived to lose 11 consecutive home matches, easily a club record.
Despite this West Adelaide was still home to a large number of prodigious talents including Bernie Mattiska, Colin Smith, Ray McArthur, Horrie Powell, Johnny, Don and Laurie Taylor, Jack Broadstock, and, all too briefly, 1931 Magarey Medallist Jack Sexton. [see footnote 2]
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Footnotes
1. Contemporary account quoted in Bloods, Sweat and Tears by Merv Agars, pages 6-7. Return to Main Text
2. Sexton's story was one of triumph capped by tragedy. After joining West Adelaide from Glenelg in 1930 he went on to play only 19 games for the club, 16 of them in his Magarey Medal year of 1931. In 1932 Sexton joined Fitzroy where he remained for three seasons, the last two as captain. He returned to South Australia in 1935 as captain-coach of Norwood only to be struck down by pleurisy and pneumonia after playing only 6 games; he recovered sufficiently to resume his coaching duties for the remainder of the season but suffered a relapse and died on 26 October 1935. Return to Main Text