Affiliated: SANFL 1991-present

Club Address: P.O. Box 31, Woodville, South Australia 5011

Home Ground: Woodville Oval (some home matches also played at Thebarton Oval)

Formed: 1990, through the merger of the Woodville and West Torrens Football Clubs

Colours: Blue, green and gold

Emblem: Eagles

Premierships: SENIORS - 1993, 2006 (2 total)  RESERVES - 1992-3, 2000-1, 2004 (5 total)   UNDER 19S - 1996, 1998, 2000 (3 total)   UNDER 17S - 1993, 1998-9-2000 (4 total)   OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - Stanley H. Lewis Memorial Trophy 1993 & 2000 (2 total); SANFL Night/Knock-out/Pre-season Series 1993-4 (2 total); Living Health/'Be Active' Cup (minor premiers) 2000 & 2006 (2 total)

Magarey Medallists: Nil

League Top Goalkickers: S.Morphett (99) 1991; C.Kluzek (72) 2000; M.Passador (79) 2006 (3 total)

Eagles' Official 'Team of the Decade - 1991 to 2000': Click here

Highest Score:  30.14 (194) vs. North Adelaide on 16 April 1994

Most Games:  232 by Gavin Colville from 1996 to 2008 (correct to the start of the 2009 season)

Record Finals Attendance: 42,719 for 1993 grand final at Football Park: Woodville-West Torrens 17.20 (122); Norwood 7.7 (49)

Overall Success Rate 1991-2009: 61.5%

Andrew Rogers

Few decisions made by the SANFL over the years have been more controversial than that which saw the introduction in 1964 of two new league football clubs, Woodville and Central District, thereby taking the total number of clubs in the competition to ten. Many had argued that, given the resources and population of the state, eight clubs rather than ten should be viewed as an optimum number, and that spreading the talent more thinly would only lead to a diminution in the overall standard and a broadening of the gulf between strong and weak.

Critics of the decision to admit Centrals and Woodville to league ranks were, if anything, more dubious about the latter's claims to such status. The inclusion of Centrals, it was acknowledged, would have the beneficial side effect of bolstering the game's development in Adelaide's northernmost suburbs, an area which hitherto had possessed no clubs of league status, and where the population was known to be rapidly increasing. Woodville, on the other hand, was situated in a part of central Adelaide where the population was declining and which was already home to two established league clubs, West Adelaide and West Torrens. The inclusion of a third league club in such an area  would certainly appear difficult to justify, and while this is not the appropriate place for a detailed analysis of the rights and wrongs of the situation, a brief comparison of the fortunes of West Adelaide and West Torrens prior to and after the SANFL's expansion in 1964 would appear to bear out the scepticism of those who originally condemned that expansion.

As the following tables clearly demonstrate, the performances of West Adelaide and West Torrens worsened appreciably after the inception of the ten team format, while perhaps the most charitable thing which could be said about Woodville is that they were never really a force.

There were some who still doubted the side's pedigree, however, suggesting that the combination of a fervid grand final atmosphere and a finals hardened opponent in the shape of Norwood would ultimately prove too overwhelming. In the event, though, it was the Redlegs who were overwhelmed; the Eagles assumed control from the very first bounce, with Andrew Taylor having a goal on the board inside the opening minute, and thereafter never relaxed their grip en route to a resounding 73 point win. The cornerstones of the victory included Jack Oatey Medallist Steven Sziller, who roved splendidly and tenaciously all afternoon, ruck rover Wayne Weidemann, who clearly outpointed Redleg dangerman Garry McIntosh, half back flanker Jamie Tape, who booted his only goal of the season during the 2nd term, and effervescent wingman Shane Breuer, playing his final game for the Eagles before heading to Geelong.   

The Eagles in 1994 were arguably an even stronger combination than a year earlier, but the vagaries of football are such that the best and strongest teams do not invariably end up winning premierships.  Because of the way in which Australian football competitions are structured, a single lapse in concentration can mean the difference between securing the ultimate prize, or seeing a whole season's worth of effort, sweat, dedication and fortitude disappear down the proverbial drain.   When the Eagles kicked the opening 6 goals in the 1st quarter of the 1994 SANFL grand final against Port Adelaide the last thing that looked to be on the cards was a lapse in concentration, and even when the Magpies added a couple of late goals to reduce the quarter time margin to 22 points there was nothing in the pattern of the game to suggest what was to come.  Neither was there in a 2nd term which saw both sides add 2.3, or even indeed in a 3rd quarter which saw Port, despite a measurable lift in intensity, cohesion and controlled aggression, manage only 2.6 to the Eagles' 1.2.  Suddenly, however, and quite inexplicably, during the final term Port Adelaide found easily its best form for the entire season, with the Eagles coincidentally ploughing previously unprecedented depths, and what had been a tight, hard fought contest was transformed into a veritable procession, with the Magpies doing virtually as they pleased to rattle on 9.3 to 1.2 and win with an ease that was as arrogantly consummate as it was confounding.  The disbelief which engulfed everyone connected with the Eagles was to take the better part of five years to dissipate fully. 

The true test of an Australian football club's pedigree comes at finals time, however, and when the ante was upped in season 2000 the Eagles were found wanting, albeit not by much.  Second semi final opponents Central District had yet to record a senior SANFL premiership and it may have been that this instilled in them an extra hunger and, when the pressure intensified during the 2nd half, a greater resilience.  In any event, the Bulldogs won a high standard, thoroughly absorbing tussle by 18 points, 15.9 (99) to 12.9 (81).

Season 2002 brought a marginal decline in fortunes as the Eagles finished 4th after comfortably overcoming West Adelaide in the elimination final but succumbing by 2 points to Norwood in the 1st semi.  The side improved by one place in 2003, bowing out to West Adelaide by 30 points in the preliminary final after earlier accounting for Sturt.

For much of the 2004 season, the Eagles seemed well on course for a possible second senior flag.  After qualifying for the finals comfortably, they easily accounted for Sturt on the first weekend of the finals, before doing everything but win against Central District in the 2nd semi.  Another impressive win over the Double Blues in the preliminary final then catapulted the Eagles into their third grand final in five seasons, with most observers expecting a tough, bruising, closely fought match.  Alas, it was anything but, as Centrals raced to the biggest win in SANFL grand final history, 23.15 (153) to an almost unimaginably dire 4.4 (28).  The Eagles were not just beaten, they were thoroughly and emphatically humiliated, with the only bright spot being the fact that there were only 24,207 spectators - the smallest grand final crowd since 1930 - there to see it.  

The 2005 season brought an immediate chance of revenge for the Eagles, who once again faced Centrals in the grand final, but although they were much more competitive than a year earlier, they ultimately succumbed by 28 points, prompting many observers to suggest that they would be forced to undergo a period of rebuilding before being in a position to mount a realistic premiership challenge once more.  Such predictions proved completely ill-founded, however, as the Eagles surged to the 2006 minor premiership with an authority and a conviction that saw them irrevocably installed as flag favourites.  After that, a 2nd semi final loss to Central District was disappointing, but in hindsight it can be seen as serving a purpose in reminding the players of the enhanced intensity of finals football.  A hard fought 7 point win over North Adelaide in the preliminary final served to reinforce the lesson, and in the grand final re-match with Centrals the Eagles were simply irrepressible, dominating right from the opening bounce en route to a resounding 76 point victory.  Final scores were 17.19 (121) to 7.3 (45), and if the bitter memories of four grand final losses to the Bulldogs had not been entirely obliterated, they had at least been assuaged.  

In 2007, the Eagles' general performance level discernibly dropped a notch or two, and although they made the finals comfortably enough, they were unable to get past North Adelaide in either the qualifying final or the preliminary final, and in the end had to be satisfied with 3rd place on the ladder.

The 2008 season belatedly produced the slump that many had predicted for the previous year with the Eagles ultimately missing the finals for the first time in a decade but they were back in the September fray a year later, ultimately finishing fourth.

Mergers have become a sad but inevitable part of football life, but there have arguably been few as painless as that between the erstwhile West Torrens and Woodville Football Clubs.  Commencing from a position of perceived equality (unlike, for example, the Brisbane and Fitzroy arrangement which, whatever the 'official' stance, and notwithstanding the attitudes of certain less enlightened and more desperate former Fitzroy supporters, was in effect a takeover) the two previously disparate organisation have welded, almost seamlessly, into one, achieving significantly more in just over a decade and a half - even allowing for the débacle of the 2005 grand final - than either Woodville or Torrens managed in the preceding 40 years (see footnote 1).  That said, there is sound reason to hope, perhaps even expect, that the years to come will prove to be even more productive, profitable and exciting, and that the legacy of Bills, Blight, Clingly, Hank, Head, Huppatz, Lindsay, Low, McKellar, Mills, Pontifex, Simunsen et al will endure for as  long as the sport of Australian football is played.   

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Footnotes

1.  Between 1991 and 2007, the Eagles won a total of fifteen premierships across all four grades, which is more than any other club.  (Totals for other clubs: 14 Port Adelaide/Port Magpies; 12 Centrals; 7 North Adelaide; 6 Norwood, West Adelaide; 4 South Adelaide; 3 Sturt; 2 Glenelg.) Return to Main Text