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PORT ADELAIDE - Part One: 1870 to 1918
Affiliated: SAFA 1877-1906; SAFL 1907-1926; SANFL 1927-1996; AFL 1997-present
Club Address: P.O. Box 379, Port Adelaide Football Club, South Australia 5015
Home Ground: AAMI Stadium (formerly known as Football Park), West Lakes, Adelaide
Formed: 1870
Colours: Black, white, silver and teal blue
Emblem: Power (formerly Magpies)
Premierships: SENIORS (AFL) 2004 (1 total); (SANFL) - 1884, 1890, 1897, 1903, 1906, 1910, 1913-14, 1921, 1928, 1936-37, 1939, 1951, 1954-55-56-57-58-59, 1962-63, 1965, 1977, 1979-80-81, 1988-89-90, 1992, 1994-95-96 (34 total) SECONDS/RESERVES (SANFL - from 1919) - 1923, 1933, 1936, 1947-48, 1952, 1955-56-57-58-59, 1963, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1996 (16 total) THIRDS/UNDER 19S (SANFL - from 1937) - 1946, 1950, 1953, 1962, 1974-75-76-77, 1991 (9 total) COLTS/UNDER 17S (SANFL - from 1939) - 1951, 1955, 1961, 1972, 1994 (5 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - Championship of Australia 1890, 1910, 1913-14 (4 total - record); Patriotic League 1916-17 (2 total); Stanley H. Lewis Memorial Trophy 1962-63-64, 1970, 1977, 1979-80, 1988-89, 1992, 1994 (11 total); SANFL Night/Knock-out/Pre-season Series 1961, 1973, 1989 (3 total); VFL/AFL Night Series 2001-2 (2 total); Dr. Wm. C. McClelland Trophy 2002-3-4 (3 total)
Magarey Medallists: Stan Malin 1899; Jack Mack 1907; Sampson 'Shine' Hosking 1910 & 1915*; W. John Ashley 1914; Charles Adams 1921*; Peter Bampton 1925*; Robert Quinn 1938 & 1945; David Boyd 1956; Geof Motley 1964; Trevor Obst 1967; Russell Ebert 1971, 1974, 1976 & 1980; Peter Woite 1975; Greg Anderson 1986; Scott Hodges 1990; Nathan Buckley 1992 (15 Medallists/20 Medals)
Brownlow Medallists: Nil
Norm Smith Medallists: Byron Pickett 2004 (1 total)
All Australians: John Abley 1956, 1958 & 1961; John Cahill 1969; Greg Phillips 1980; Mark Williams 1980; Tony Giles 1983; Craig Bradley 1983 & 1985; Stephen Curtis 1983; Greg Anderson 1987; Martin Leslie 1988 (12 total)
AFL All Australians: Adam Heuskes 1997; Matthew Primus 2001 & 2002; Warren Tredrea 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2004; Gavin Wanganeen 2001 & 2003; Josh Francou 2002; Brett Montgomery 2002; Chad Cornes 2004 & 2007; Mark Williams (coach) 2004; Kane Cornes 2005 & 2007; Shaun Burgoyne 2006; Brendon Lade 2006 & 2007 (19 total)
SANFL Top Goalkickers: J.Litchfield (13) 1883; R.Roy (22) 1884; C.Fry (32) 1889; J.McKenzie (32) 1890; J.Tomkins (27) 1897; J.Mathieson (30) 1905, (42) 1906 & (33) 1908; J.Quinn (32) 1907; F.Hansen (46) 1910, (41) 1911, (37) 1912 & (39) 1913; J.Dunn (33) 1914; L.Lackman (25) 1919; L.Dayman (86) 1929; A.McLean (80) 1947; R.Johns (70) 1956, (55) 1958, (76) 1962 & (54) 1963; W.Dittmar (74) 1959 & (69) 1960; E.Freeman (81) 1966; T.Evans (87) 1977, (90) 1978, (146) 1980, (98) 1981, (125) 1982 & (127) 1984; S.Hodges (153) 1990, (129) 1994 & (117) 1996; M.Tylor (97) 1992 & (90) 1993 (35 total)
AFL Top Goalkickers: Nil
Port Adelaide's Official 'Greatest Team 1870 to 2000': Click here
Highest Scores: SANFL - 37.21 (243) vs. Woodville 13.4 (82) at Football Park in round 3 1980; AFL - 29.14 (188) vs. Hawthorn 10.11 (71) at AAMI Stadium in round 13 2005
Most Games: SANFL - 392 by Russell Ebert from 1968 to 1978 & 1980 to 1985; AFL - 227 by Warren Tredrea from 1997 to 2008 (correct to the start of the 2009 season)
Record Home Attendances: SANFL - 22,738 in round 11 1977: Port Adelaide 9.17 (71); Norwood 10.9 (69) AFL - 50,275 in round 20 2002: Port Adelaide 12.12 (84); Adelaide 11.10 (76)
Record Finals Attendance: SANFL - 66,897 for 1976 grand final at Football Park: Sturt 17.14 (116); Port Adelaide 10.15 (75) AFL - 97,302 for 2007 grand final at the MCG: Geelong 24.19 (163); Port Adelaide 6.8 (44)
Overall AFL Success Rate 1997-2008: 56.2%
* indicates awarded retrospectively by SANFL in 1998.
The Port players take a break during their victory over Sturt in the 1910 premiership decider at the Adelaide Oval. (Image kindly supplied by Peter Vasic.)
Club mergers have been a commonplace occurrence in football for almost as long as the game has been played. Sometimes it is a question of 'merge or die', either economically, or in terms of procuring access to sufficient players; at other times, clubs merge simply to enable them to compete more effectively on the field; then again, there are mergers which are really more akin to take-overs, where a stronger club effectively swallows up a weaker or poorer cousin, thereby simultaneously reducing competition and improving its own standing in one fell swoop. Whether a marriage of equals or a form of conquest, however, all mergers have one thing in common: once the process is completed, only one club exists where previously there were two.
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There would be numerous candidates for the title of Port Adelaide's greatest ever footballer. One thinks of names like Hosking, Oliver, R.Quinn, Reval, F.Williams, Motley, and J.Cahill, to name just a few. However, in terms of individual accomplishments, four time Magarey Medallist and six time club champion Russell Ebert would take some beating. (Click to enlarge.) |
The converse of this, the emergence of
two distinct and independent clubs where previously there had only been
one, is almost, but not quite, unheard of. It happened most famously
in 1996, when
the Port Adelaide Football Club, the oldest and most successful in the
SANFL, effectively reproduced itself by a kind of fission: one club,
henceforth to be known as the Port Adelaide Magpies, would continue to
compete in the SANFL, with another achieving elevation to the AFL.
Both clubs traced - and continue to trace - their origins to a meeting
held on 13 May 1870, at which Captain John Hart (president), and messrs.
R.W. Leicester (secretary), G.Ireland (treasurer), J.A. Rann, R.Carr and
L.Bridgland were elected as the inaugural committee of the Port Adelaide
Cricket and Football Club. Both the Magpies and the Power (Port
Adelaide's AFL incarnation) could, as they embarked on their respective
1997 league campaigns, boast of 34 senior premierships, a record four Australian
championships, fifteen Magarey
Medallists winning a total of twenty Medals, a dozen All
Australians, and a 'games played' record holder by the name of Russell
Ebert. Since then, the Magpies have added another couple of senior
flags, plus another three Magarey Medallists, while in 2004 the Power
broke through to claim their first premiership in the AFL, and can now
boast ten players who have procured, between them, a total of eighteen AFL
All Australian places, all of which reinforces the fact that the Power
and the Magpies are now two distinct organisations, with a shared history
but disparate - sometimes even conflicting - aims, ambitions and needs.
In recent years, in fact, Port Adelaide's AFL incarnation appears to have begun a process that might be described as a gradual dilution of its SANFL roots and heritage - or, more correctly, of distancing itself from its origins as an individual club within the SANFL. For example, whereas the club's official website used openly and unabashedly to celebrate all aspects of its 130 year-plus history, it now focuses almost exclusively on the AFL era, presumably with the intention of thereby appearing more attractive and accessible to potential supporters from outside its traditional support base. Whatever one thinks of the rectitude and appropriateness of this policy, it has clearly been something of a success, with an increasing number of proud Power supporters simultaneously boasting allegiance to SANFL clubs other than Port Magpies. |
If the point has been somewhat laboured it is nevertheless important, for two key reasons. First of all, it emphasises the fact, which the club's supporters will insist on, and others scornfully deny, whilst inwardly anguishing over, that 'Port Adelaide' (in whatever manifestation) is unique. Secondly, and as a direct corollary of that uniqueness, it has suffered many attempts to undermine and dilute its impact and effectiveness, the latest and arguably most invidious of which was the imposed 'divorce' of 1996, which effectively declared, "OK, you have won your cake, but you are sure as heck not going to get to eat it all". (The word 'divorce' is actually somewhat misleading, as it implies a separation that, at least to a certain extent, is willfully entered into; what happened in 1996 was much more akin to the enforced splitting up of families that one associates with military conquest or warfare.)
| In a sense, the club's uniqueness (for
which read 'unique level of success'), and the jealousy and loathing this
has tended to generate, have been mutually reinforcing for well over a
hundred years, but in order to perceive everything in context we need to
go back to that initial meeting of Friday 13 May 1870. Those of a
superstitious bent might well have wondered what they were starting, but
it is extremely doubtful if anyone present at the meeting would have had
even the vaguest inkling that the acorn they were planting would grow
one day into a multi-million dollar oak tree which tapped into the
emotions, aspirations and energies of several hundred thousand adherents.
The meeting, and hence the Port Adelaide Football Club itself, had its genesis in an informal discussion between Rann, Leicester and Ireland on the North Parade early in 1870; the three men shared a concern about the lack of social facilities in their district, and saw the establishment a cricket and football club as an ideal way to begin to rectify the situation. As winter was approaching when the club was formed, it was football which got underway first, with Port Adelaide engaging in its inaugural match against a team calling itself 'the Young Australians' on Tuesday 24 May 1870. The venue for the match was a stretch of ground known as 'Buck's Flat', which formed part of the Glanville Hall Estate, owned by the club's founding president, Captain John Hart. Port Adelaide's initial colours were blue and white, and the team's captain in this first ever fixture, which was played in gale force winds, and was ultimately drawn, was J.Wald. Others to represent Port Adelaide during the early years included future club captain Will Fletcher, Tom Prideaux, Tom Tulloch, Will Tait, George Gliddon, Sam Tyzack, 'Boss' Middleton, and Harry and Tom Smith. |
Goalmouth action from Alberton Oval in 1968. Port's Spencer is opposed by Weir and Murphy of Sturt. (Click to enlarge.) |
Football in Adelaide at this time was played according to a variety of different sets of rules, with the Old Adelaide and Kensington sets being the most popular. There were variations between the different rule sets in terms of things like whether or not a player running with the ball had to bounce it, whether, and under what circumstances, a mark could be claimed, and even what a team needed to do in order to score a goal. For the Port Adelaide players, this entailed a continual process of adaptation - as well as, by all accounts, considerable confusion. After a game between Port Adelaide and Kensington at Buck's Flat on 5 July 1873 it was reported that "neither side understood the rules clearly" (see footnote 1), and there was even some uncertainty as to which team had won. This uncertainty derived from the fact that the only 'goal' of the game, kicked by Kensington, had struck the cross bar (see footnote 2) before traversing the goal line, an occurrence which, under many of the rule sets in vogue at the time, would have meant the goal being disallowed, as all parts of the physical structure of the goals were deemed to be 'dead'. Under the rules in force on this particular day, however, the two goal posts and cross bar were held to be part of the field of play, and so a ball striking either and proceeding over the goal line resulted in a goal. Kensington was thus adjudged to be the winner of the game.
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Port Adelaide's 1884 premiership combination, the club's first. (Image kindly supplied by Peter Vasic - click to enlarge.) |
As the 1870s wore on,
football rapidly became better organised and more popular, and by 1877
Port Adelaide was one of several clubs anxious to see a measure of
uniformity and structure introduced. The most critical
requirement of all, it was felt, was a single, universally acknowledged
set of rules, and with this in mind, a meeting was arranged, open to all
football clubs in the colony, for Monday 30 April 1877. A total of
twelve clubs, including Port Adelaide, sent two delegates each to the
meeting, at which it was resolved to establish an Association to
oversee football in the colony, the first organisation of its type in
Australia (see footnote 3).
The main concern of the delegates at this initial meeting was to agree on a uniform set of rules of play. Agreement on the shape of the ball (oval) was readily reached, as was acceptance that the goal posts should be deemed to be "of unlimited height", with no cross bar. Much more contentious, however, was the issue of whether the rules to be adopted should be orientated more towards rugby, which was favoured in Sydney, or the indigenous game developed in Melbourne. In the end, after much discussion, it was decided that, in order to facilitate the playing of intercolonial matches, the rules of the SAFA should closely mirror those which prevailed in Melbourne. In the event, the finally published rules were almost identical to the 'Victorian Rules of Football' agreed in 1874 between delegates of the Albert Park, Carlton, Geelong, Melbourne, North Melbourne and St Kilda clubs, with the major difference being a stipulation by the SAFA, missing from the Victorian rules, that teams should consist of twenty players, unless otherwise agreed beforehand. |
Of the eight clubs which contested the inaugural SAFA premiership in 1877, only Port Adelaide and South Adelaide have maintained an unbroken involvement ever since. Port Adelaide won 9 and drew 2 of its 15 fixtures in 1877 to finish in 4th place on the ladder. It scored 23 goals, the same number as premier South Adelaide, but conceded 13 compared to South's 1.
| Port was certainly not an overnight
success in the SAFA. By the time it broke through for its first flag
in 1884, the club which was to develop into its arch rival, Norwood
(admitted to the Association in 1878), already had half a dozen premierships to its
name. By the time of the 1884 premiership the Port Adelaide players
were taking to the field wearing magenta jerseys, navy knickerbockers, and
magenta and blue cap and hose. This was actually the club's second
change in uniform: from 1878 to 1882 the team had worn an eye-catching
rose pink outfit with white knickerbockers. The famous black and
white playing uniform did not arrive until 1902.
Another key development during Port Adelaide's early years came in 1881 with the leasing from the Queenstown and Alberton District Council of the Alberton Oval, which except for the 1975-6 seasons has been the club's home base ever since. Initially, the oval was leased for an annual rental of 10 shillings, with the sole condition being that it had to be maintained and used as a cricket and football ground. After its 1884 premiership win, Port Adelaide slumped to 3rd place the following year, and an unprecedented 4th, and last, in a somewhat atrophied 1886 competition. In each of the next three seasons, Port finished in 2nd position on the ladder behind Norwood, losing the 1889 premiership in a play-off, before finally tasting success for the second time in 1890. The 1890 season also saw the Magentas, as they were known (see footnote 4), earning the title of 'champions of Australia' after overcoming the challenge of VFA premier South Melbourne on the Adelaide Oval. Port came from behind to win 7.10 to 6.13 (with behinds being recorded, but not counting), thanks in large part to the performance of John McKenzie, whose 5th goal for the match during the dying moments also proved to be the winner (see footnote 5). |
Port Adelaide's famous magenta and blue playing uniform, shown c. 1896. (Image kindly supplied by Peter Vasic - click to enlarge.) |
After starting so promisingly, the 1890s developed into something of a horror decade for the Port Adelaide Football Club. It was a time of grim economic depression, with working class areas such as the port being hit harder than anywhere else. Many Port Adelaide players were forced to leave South Australia in search of work, while in 1894 a group of dissidents jumped ship to form a new club, Port Natives, the antecedent of the West Torrens Football Club. Most of these dissidents were players who had been unable to get a game with Port, and so their departure was not looked upon at the time as a disaster. Two years later, however, Port Natives finished higher on the SAFA ladder than a Port Adelaide team that had difficulty in fulfilling its fixtures each week, so dire had the player shortage become, and so impoverished was the club spirit as a consequence.
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Arch Hosie, a stalwart at Alberton for 14 seasons from 1890. |
At the end of the 1896 season the club committee undertook strenuous efforts to rectify the situation, and several new recruits were enticed to join. However, without doubt the biggest single reason for the club's meteoric improvement in 1897 was the conscious and deliberate cultivation by both the committee and the team's on field leaders of a revitalised club spirit, whereby playing for Port Adelaide became a genuine source of pride, something to be cherished, valued and never taken for granted. Players like club skipper Ken McKenzie, Arch Hosie, 'Nicky' Corston, Jimmy Tomkins and James 'Welshy' Davies, who had lived through some or all of the barren period of the mid-1890s, must have felt that they had crossed to a new club entirely as the Magentas became the first SAFA team since Adelaide in 1886 to win the premiership the year after finishing bottom. It was conclusive proof, if such were needed, that football at the top level is as much a game of the mind as the body; moreover, in retrospect it might be regarded as an important benchmark in the development of what might be termed 'the Port Adelaide spirit'. On numerous occasions to come, Port Adelaide would triumph, against the odds, against ostensibly more talented opposition, largely on the basis of its fanatical determination, self belief and ability to perform at maximum intensity for an entire game. |
Another key factor in Port Adelaide's emergence as the most successful major football team of the twentieth century was the inception by the SAFA of electorate football. Initially introduced on a voluntary basis in 1897, the electorate system stipulated that players were required to play for the club from the electoral district in which they resided; this rule became compulsory two years later, and suddenly Port Adelaide had automatic access to many of the finest footballers in the colony. For a youngster growing up in the predominantly working class suburbs in and around the port football was at once a release and, potentially at any rate, a ticket to a better life, if not economically - Australian football in South Australia would not begin to reward its players with anything more than a pittance for many years yet (see footnote 6) - at least in terms of notoriety within the community. Moreover, the football club itself became part of the essential fabric of that community, helping define and sustain it. As Bernard Whimpress pointed out in the early 1980s, "the Alberton Oval and the sprawling shopping centres around the Black Diamond Corner have always meant something sure, something close to the heart" (see footnote 7). Although one might take exception to the word 'always', the point is clear; moreover, it would arguably be perfectly valid to add 'the Port Adelaide Football Club' itself, as distinct from its home venue, to the list, although it is doubtful if supporters from other clubs would be much inclined to share the sentiments.
| The years around the turn of the century saw Port Adelaide
display uncharacteristically inconsistent form as one generation of players was
slowly superceded by another, and the impact of the electorate system was only
gradually felt. In 1898, the club participated, along with Norwood and
South Adelaide, in the first full-scale SAFA finals series, ultimately being
placed 2nd after losing the final by 4 goals against South. Over the next
couple of seasons Port underwent a spectacular nosedive which was in the nature
of a final, irksome irritation prior to its systematic, inexorable emergence
in the years leading up to World War One as one of the greatest teams
in Australian football history.
On 1 January 1901, Australia officially became a nation, and in response to that development the country underwent a brief kind of blossoming, as if awakening to the extraordinary scope of the possibilities that now confronted it. This blossoming impinged on virtually every aspect of life - art, business, politics, education - as people throughout Australia explored the implications of belonging to one nation, and began, by implication rather than design, to manufacture a shared identity and, in certain respects, a shared set of perceptions and attitudes. |
Jack Woollard, captain of Port's 1910 SAFL premiership and championship of Australia winning combination. (Click to enlarge.) |
Arguably the most significant impact of all, however, was in relation to the field of activity in which the infant nation would soon exhibit a degree of excellence beyond all others: sport. As far as Australian football was concerned, this meant the emergence of probably a greater general awareness and appreciation of the game in its national context than at any other time in history, for not only was the transfer of players between states at an all time high, so too was the practice of teams embarking on interstate tours; moreover, the main ostensible purpose of the inauguration by the ANFC of regular interstate championships series, or 'carnivals', beginning in Melbourne in 1908, was to establish football as a quintessentially Australian (indeed, given the participation of New Zealand in the inaugural carnival, Australasian) preoccupation. In that aspiration, it failed, for reasons which lie outside the immediate scope of this entry, but which are covered elsewhere in the site; however, as anyone who has pursued a dream will tell you, there is a sense in which the journey itself can be more gratifying and interesting than actually arriving at one's destiny. Such was certainly the case for the Port Adelaide Football Club, whose journey in the opening decade and a half of the twentieth century mirrored, in microcosm, that of the nation as a whole: exhilarating, intermittently rewarding, but ultimately forced along an undesirable, if perversely ennobling, cul-de-sac.
The original Alberton Oval grandstand.
The nineteenth century had seen Port Adelaide achieve sporadic success (three premierships) interspersed with sustained periods of mediocrity, and even downright ineptitude. The first few years of the twentieth century would see the club acquire a new consistency, and with it the seeds of a reputation for pushing the boundaries, for always seeking to transcend what common sense said was possible.
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Angelo Congear |
That 'boundary pushing' could also occasionally land the club in trouble. In 1902, for instance, the Port players and committee objected to the appointment of umpire Kneebone for the club's semi final match against South Adelaide. Consequently, a letter was sent to the Association informing it of the club's intention to forfeit the match, whereupon the Association ruled that the club did not have such a right, and disqualified Port for the remainder of the season. It would seem that Port Adelaide was a club where principle outweighed even ambition, although the fact that the club remained highly ambitious was clearly evidenced in 1903 with the opening of Alberton Oval's first grand stand. That same season witnessed the tangible realisation of some of that ambition as the team now known as 'the Magpies' overcame the setback of an 8 point final loss to South Adelaide to turn the tables on the same opposition a week later in the challenge final. (Both matches were played under the jurisdiction of umpire Carris.) It was the start of a five season sequence during which the club never failed to contest the premiership deciding match, but only once, in 1906, was it successful in actually lifting the flag. Once again, as in 1903, it was indebted to the challenge system, for after securing the minor premiership it put on an abject display in the 1st semi final, amassing 12 scoring shots without a goal in going under to North Adelaide by 22 points. A fortnight later, in front of 20,000 spectators, it played off for the flag against the same opponents, and on this occasion it managed to replicate its minor round form with a comfortable 9.12 (66) to 5.9 (39) victory. |
Clearly, Port Adelaide had a good side, but the lack of genuine champion players left it some way short of greatness. Between 1907 and 1912, however, this deficiency was rectified in the most emphatic and noteworthy way imaginable as players of the calibre of Sampson 'Shine' Hosking, 'Angie' Congear, Jack Woollard, Frank Hansen, Harold Oliver, Jack Londrigan and Jack 'Spud' Ashley fronted up for the black and whites. If Port had a problem, however, it was one that would be all too familiar to the club's supporters of a century hence, namely an unfortunate and inexplicable tendency to shoot itself in the foot come finals time. In 1907, for example, the Magpies won the minor premiership with a 10-2 record but then conspired to lose twice, and heavily, to Norwood in the major round. Two years later events followed a similar pattern as the most formidable team of the minor round suddenly found it within itself to perform like wooden spooners against Norwood and West Adelaide in the finals.
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In 1910, however, it was a different story. Inspired by the famous 'three-Cs' first ruck combination of Callinan, Curnow and Congear, and with Magarey Medallist 'Shine' Hosking in consistently effervescent form, the Jack Woollard-led combination gained not only the SAFL premiership, but the championship of Australia, and the genuine admiration of football fans throughout the country. A mid-season tour of Western Australia produced a series of performances of such captivating brilliance that renowned East Fremantle identity Dolph Heinrichs had "no hesitation in naming this Port Adelaide team as the best club 18 that has visited WA, and I am not forgetting Collingwood's two visits, nor those of Essendon, Fitzroy and St Kilda" (see footnote 8). Back home the Magpies experienced an untroubled year, losing only twice in 13 minor round games before enjoying a 3 match clean sweep in the finals that culminated in a 19 point defeat of Sturt in the premiership decider. In doing so they managed the rare feat of securing South Australian football's celebrated 'trifecta' of premiership, Magarey Medal and top goal kicking award (won by Frank Hansen, with 46 goals). |
The great Harold Oliver, in flight against Sturt at the Adelaide Oval. (Click to enlarge.) |
If Port's supporters imagined their club had turned the corner, however, they were in for a rude awakening: in both 1911 (1 loss) and 1912 (unbeaten, and a percentage of 67.23) the side secured the minor premiership, only to crumble when the heat was applied in the finals. After the Magpies lost the 1912 challenge final to West Adelaide, club secretary James Hodge allegedly proffered the rueful - and very 'un-Port Adelaide' - observation that "this is the sixteenth time we have been second and we are getting used to it" (see footnote 9). Earlier in the year, the club had embarked on its seventh interstate tour in eight years (see footnote 10), this time to Tasmania where, on 3 July, it defeated a TFL representative side by 13 points, 7.13 (55) to 6.6 (42). The quality of the TFL side can perhaps be gauged from its achievement a few days later in scoring a comfortable 16 point win over a Melbourne team that, later in the season, would only narrowly fail to qualify for the VFL finals. Results such as these only serve to exemplify and emphasise the comparative evenness of standard of league football in the four major states (plus arguably Broken Hill) during this era.
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Jack Londrigan, skipper of Port's famous 1913-14 sides. (Click to enlarge.) |
At last, in 1913 the Magpies got things the right way around, recovering from their 'worst' minor round performance since 1909 (albeit that it was still good enough to secure the minor premiership) to hit their straps conclusively during the finals. The exhilarating style of football of which the team was capable was largely responsible in attracting a sizeable crowd of 22,000 to the Adelaide Oval where North Adelaide, after putting up a creditable tussle, were duly despatched to the tune of 14 points. For the fourth season in a row, Frank Hansen topped the SAFL's goal kicking list, but the elusive trifecta was missed after North Adelaide ruckman Tom Leahy was favoured by the umpires ahead of Port champion Harold Oliver in voting for the Magarey Medal. The Magpies added the 1913 club championship of Australia title to their CV with an emphatic 63 point demolition of Fitzroy on the Adelaide Oval. Wily and slippery rover Ang Congear booted 5 of Port's 13 goals in a best afield display. Port Adelaide's 1914 season was one of the most remarkable in Australian football, indeed Australian sporting, history, and can be read about in some detail here. |
The loss of key players to war service or, in the case of Harold Oliver, to the family orchards in South Australia's Riverland region, ultimately undermined Port Adelaide's bid for three successive flags in 1915. However, initially at least it was business as usual with an effortless 10.10 (70) to 4.8 (32) destruction of a strong South Adelaide side on the Adelaide Oval, and thereafter the side did not taste defeat until the round 11 game against West Adelaide on 31 July at the Jubilee Oval. Indeed, the team's previous loss had actually occurred 30 games and more than 25 months earlier, on 21 June 1913! Unfortunately, the habit of losing proved infectious: the Magpies ended the minor round with an unexpected 2 point loss to a weak West Torrens side, before capitulating to both West Adelaide and ultimate premier Sturt in the finals. It was a dismal way to bring their halcyon era to an end, and it would be another four years before they would be granted the opportunity to rectify matters as, from 1916-18, the SAFL suspended operations because of the demands of the war.
Where now?
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Footnotes
1. From a contemporary account reproduced in South Australian Football: The Past and the Present, 1860-1965 by C.K. Knuckey, page 21. Return to Main Text
2. Goals, at the time, typically had a cross bar, which the ball had to travel under in order to register a goal. Return to Main Text
3. Three weeks later, Victoria followed suit with the formation of the Victorian Football Association. Return to Main Text
4. During the nineteenth century, Port Adelaide was referred to, variously, as 'the Magentas', 'the Saltwaters', 'the Portonians', and even the somewhat derogatory 'Mudholians'. Return to Main Text
5. See Champions of Australia by Max Sayer, page 8, for a more detailed account of this match. Return to Main Text
6. As late as 1934, the Glenelg players' reward for winning the grand final against Port Adelaide was five rabbits a man, and this kind of thing was by no means atypical. If a player wanted to earn a living playing football, he first established a 'name' for himself playing in a competition like the SANFL, VFL or WANFL, and then 'went bush', where employment as playing coach of one of the wealthier country clubs might elicit payments up to ten times as lucrative as back in the city. Return to Main Text
7. The South Australian Football Story by Bernard Whimpress, page 144. Return to Main Text
8. These comments were made some thirty-five years after the event, and were reproduced by Jack Lee in his history of the East Fremantle Football Club, Celebrating 100 Years Of Tradition, page 65. Return to Main Text
9. Quoted in The South Australian Football Story by Bernard Whimpress, page 145. Return to Main Text
10. These tours had taken in Broken Hill (1905), Sydney (1907), Melbourne for the interstate carnival (1908), Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo (1909), the WA goldfields region and Perth (1910), Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup, and Sydney and the Blue Mountains (1911). Return to Main Text