View Full Version : SANFL club Victorian ????????
Who is this club that where runners up in 1877 & 1880?
How old is Centrals?
Did Woodville ever win a flag?
Go the Skull !!!
J.I.T.C
THE DOC..
Blues_Brat
22 May 2001, 00:40
I think the Victorians disbanded (or was it Norths orginal name??) I know Torrens used to be called the "Natives" originally so it wasn't them and thats the only club I know for a fact had a different name.
Centrals and Woodville entered the league in 1964. However I think they formed in 1958 and played in the reserves til then.
Woodville never took out a flag. Although under Malcolm Blight they came damn close in 1986. Poor kicking cost them the preliminary final that year. Had they gone on to the grand final they would've won, as North Adelaide played a piss poor game.
Uncle Steve
22 May 2001, 09:52
Originally posted by Blues_Brat
I think the Victorians disbanded (or was it Norths orginal name??) I know Torrens used to be called the "Natives" originally so it wasn't them and thats the only club I know for a fact had a different name.
Centrals and Woodville entered the league in 1964. However I think they formed in 1958 and played in the reserves til then.
Woodville never took out a flag. Although under Malcolm Blight they came damn close in 1986. Poor kicking cost them the preliminary final that year. Had they gone on to the grand final they would've won, as North Adelaide played a piss poor game.
From memory:
North Adelaide had several forerunners, Victorian was one of them, Medindie was another.
Torrens was not originally called 'Natives'. A breakaway club from Port Adelaide called itself 'Port Natives'. When Torrens was formed, most of the Natives joined Torrens.
There was a club called Woodville as far back as the late 1800s; whether or not it was the same club which entered SANFL ranks in the '60s I do not know.
Woodville did win the last Escort Cup over Port in 1988 under Russel Ebert. The club had a few reserves wins also; over Port in 1973 and over Central in 1987. Woodville's reserves were remarkably strong in the mid-80s, second only to Norwood; their coach at the time was John Reid who later breathed life into South and is now with the Adelaide Clowns - the friendship he formed with Blight during his tenure at Woodville may have gone a long way towards luring him into the Clowns' coaching position.
I do not recall the final scores in the '86 prelim final, but I do not remember Woodville as being especially inaccurate in that game. IIRC it got reasonably close in the last quarter but the Bays kicked away.
North was awful in the Grand Final...
Macca19
22 May 2001, 11:45
Originally posted by Blues_Brat
I think the Victorians disbanded (or was it Norths orginal name??) I know Torrens used to be called the "Natives" originally so it wasn't them and thats the only club I know for a fact had a different name.
Centrals and Woodville entered the league in 1964. However I think they formed in 1958 and played in the reserves til then.
Woodville never took out a flag. Although under Malcolm Blight they came damn close in 1986. Poor kicking cost them the preliminary final that year. Had they gone on to the grand final they would've won, as North Adelaide played a piss poor game.
Yup....Medindie and Victorians were North names. Port Natives were TOrrens before they became Torrens.
The only reason Central Districts and Woddville joined the SANFL was because of Port Adelaides outright dominance in that period of time before the two new clubs were accepted. They entered those two clubs into the league to shorten the boundaries of Ports recruiting zone. One of the more well known stories was that Malcolm Blight was (and still is) a huge Port Magpies supporter. He lived over the fence of Ports goalkicking star Rex Johns. He would travel to Alberton on most weekends to watch Fos Williams and co in action. Fos Williams was Blights hero. In fact the zone boundary was the fence that seperated Blight and Rex Johns backyards. So Malcolm Blight should really of been a Port legend!!! But thems the breaks!! We had enough legends back then, dunno if there was any room for another one :D
Blues_Brat
22 May 2001, 15:41
Interesting about the 2 new clubs being formed to cut Port's dominance.. carving them out of Port's zone does lend credence to that. However I thought the main reason for introducing new clubs was that the league (and everyone else in high places) massively overestimated Adelaides population growth (ironically Adelaide's current estimations in terms of future population is a slight decline) and that it was deemed necessary to have 10 clubs to cater for the population.
20/20 hindsight is a fantastic thing. Having a team in the new-ish northern suburbs was a great idea, but Woodville in the already over-catered for western suburbs was not.
Too many plans for the future are made on bad judgement (can someone say 'ground rationalisation'?) everyone knows now that 8 clubs is the way to go.
CDFCLad
22 May 2001, 15:58
I think Woodville were over 100 years old. They just joined the SANFL in the '59 reserves season. Could be wrong, but that was the impression I've always had.
Centrals were formed to cater for the growing expanse of the Northern Suburbs, but yeah we did seem to encroach on Ports territory. To this day Salisbury is still hotly contested territory between the two. My cousin played for Centrals u/19's and one of my mates played for Port U/19's and they lived two streets apart.
Personally I'd still like to see another team entered. It would be a shame to see North go under, all rivalries aside.
Thanks everyone for the info.
Go the Skull !!!
J.I.T.C
THE DOC..
Uncle Steve
23 May 2001, 05:55
Originally posted by Macca19
The only reason Central Districts and Woddville joined the SANFL was because of Port Adelaides outright dominance in that period of time before the two new clubs were accepted. They entered those two clubs into the league to shorten the boundaries of Ports recruiting zone.
Nice theory, but can you provide any evidence to support it? Please do. Preferably from an impartial source, i.e. not "Dynasty" or any other popular tripe written by Port people for Port people.
The SANFL does not need to introduce new clubs to give it license to muck around with recruiting zone boundaries. I very much suspect that your claim is an urban legend.
Port Adelaide 1870
25 May 2001, 00:43
Uncle Steve,
Blues Brats had the definitive answer to your question on Woodville andCentrals
Re: the Port Natives. a group of disgruntled players, supporters and officials split off the PAFC in the early 1890's.. they played in a lower grade until 1897 when they entered the SAFA as West Torrens.
PA1870
Port Adelaide 1870
25 May 2001, 00:58
1877 was the first year of SAFA football.
inaugrual members were.
Port Adelaide
South Adelaide
North Adelaide ( not the North Adelaide as plays today)
Adelaide
South Park
Kensington
Victorian
Willunga
Prince Alfred College
Gawler
Kapunda
Bankers
Woodville
several although members...did not play
Port wore Blue and white in its first 7 years
Norwood were formed and admitted into SAFA in 1878
Port changed to pink and white in 1878, presumably to avoid a clash with South Adelaide, also blue and white, formed 1876
Norwoods first season in 1878 proved successful, a number of Boom recruits were pinched from Victoria and other SAFA clubs.
PA1870