What we’re gonna do right here is go back, waaaaaay back, back into time…
The most severe drought* since the nation was brought to its knees between 1895-1903 entered its twelfth spring.
Sh!t, it was expected to end the year before. Against Sturt, at an unfinished Footy Park, around 5pm, on Saturday, September 25th, 1976, to be exact. But Rick Davies put on the greatest individual performance ever seen in the whole entire history of sport: 21 kicks, 21 handballs, 15 marks and 21 hit-outs. Posting the second quadruple-double in history, after Golden State Warrior “Nate the Great” Thurmond in 1974, The Jumbo Prince led Oatey’s Oldies to a shock 42 point win.
That sh!tshow drew a record footy crowd in South Australia. Officially, it was 66,897. Unoficially, it was about 80,000. The joint was so packed, fans were sitting right on the boundary line farken.
Ain’t nobody got time for dat, especially some dude legit called the Inspector for Places of Public Entertainment (serioulsy, I’m not making this up.) Old mate capped the max crowd to 65k for the 1977 Grand Final. He even made the league install safety railings opposite “vomitories” (whatever the hell they were) inside the great concrete bowl.
Port were minor premiers (again), three games clear of the next best team (again), and beat Glenelg in the second-semi (again) to go straight through to the grand final (again.)
Would we blow it (again?)
Ins & Outs
Carl Fragomeni was ruled out with a busted shoulder. A nuggety Italian back pocket - George Fiacchi before George Fiacchi became George Fiacchi - he’d been a regular since coming over from East Perth. He played in the ’76 grand final and was desperate to atone for that loss and devastated to miss out. At least he won a flag with the Royals in '72.
But we regained Andy Porplycia AKA “The Ukranian Wizard” and Tony Giles AKA “An Unspectacular But Most Efficient Half-Back Flanker” from injury.
Kim Curtis was the unlucky 21st man.
Game Day
This game had it all. Iit was “brilliant, cruel, violent, absorbing, fascinating.” Those are the words of renown cricket scribe Mike Coward, formerly of The Tiser. Back when it was worth reading. Long before Rupert shut down The News, bought The Tiser and turned it into tabloid trash unfit to wipe your arse with.
Glenelg captain Wayne Phillis started the byplay even before the first bounce, deliberately delayed the coin toss. Because, I dunno, mind games? Puzzled umps and photographers were like, wtf?
The Bays got the jump early, racing to an 18 point. But a couple of Port goals in time-on pegged it back to a goal at quarter-time. The epic, see-sawing contest, an action reel of brilliant footy and big bust-ups, didn’t let up for two frenzied hours:
But we hung on. Time ran out. And the drought was over.
There were plenty of heroes: God was Himself; lionhearted John Spry battled hard in the ruck; Brian Cunningham went head-to-head with Kym Hodgeman; Ivan Eckermann kicked three crucial goals on one heavily-bandaged leg; Tim Evans booted seven despite living in la-la land for the most of the day.
None were more heroic than Randall Gerlach.
Gerlach wasn’t even supposed to play this season because of his debilitating kidney disorder. But he came so close to premiership glory in ’76, he just had to go around again. Defying doctor’s advice, he pulled on the boots and laced up the guernsey for one more year. The 1977 grand final was the last of his 110 games for the club before prematurely retiring at 24. He passed away late last year, aged 65.
RIP Randall Gerlach, 1977 Port Adelaide premiership player.
Premiership, premiership! Party time! Excellent!
Another prize awaited the premier: 60 kilos of tiger prawns worth $300 from A. Raptis & Sons. According to Mr. Raptis, terminally diagnosed as a South supporter, tiger prawns were exclusive to Japan and not for sale in Adelaide. So yeah, it was a pretty big deal.
They were called tiger prawns owing to their black-and-white banded tails. Um, have you ever seen a tiger, Mr. Raptis? They’re yellow and black, except for albino tigers. You could’ve called them Magpie Prawns, just sayin.
Anyway, I’m guessing there was a sh!tload of prawns eaten at barbies around the 5015 that summer.
Five pisswrecked Port supporters were arrested by police at the Alberton Oval premiership party.
Next
John Halbert coached Sturt to the reserves premiership in his last game before embarking on study in the US and UK. He returned a year later and took up a senior gig. With Glenelg, of course.
*The 1939-51 drought is a bit skewed because half-arsed WWII bush league for three years
The most severe drought* since the nation was brought to its knees between 1895-1903 entered its twelfth spring.
Sh!t, it was expected to end the year before. Against Sturt, at an unfinished Footy Park, around 5pm, on Saturday, September 25th, 1976, to be exact. But Rick Davies put on the greatest individual performance ever seen in the whole entire history of sport: 21 kicks, 21 handballs, 15 marks and 21 hit-outs. Posting the second quadruple-double in history, after Golden State Warrior “Nate the Great” Thurmond in 1974, The Jumbo Prince led Oatey’s Oldies to a shock 42 point win.
That sh!tshow drew a record footy crowd in South Australia. Officially, it was 66,897. Unoficially, it was about 80,000. The joint was so packed, fans were sitting right on the boundary line farken.
Ain’t nobody got time for dat, especially some dude legit called the Inspector for Places of Public Entertainment (serioulsy, I’m not making this up.) Old mate capped the max crowd to 65k for the 1977 Grand Final. He even made the league install safety railings opposite “vomitories” (whatever the hell they were) inside the great concrete bowl.
Port were minor premiers (again), three games clear of the next best team (again), and beat Glenelg in the second-semi (again) to go straight through to the grand final (again.)
Would we blow it (again?)
Ins & Outs
Carl Fragomeni was ruled out with a busted shoulder. A nuggety Italian back pocket - George Fiacchi before George Fiacchi became George Fiacchi - he’d been a regular since coming over from East Perth. He played in the ’76 grand final and was desperate to atone for that loss and devastated to miss out. At least he won a flag with the Royals in '72.
But we regained Andy Porplycia AKA “The Ukranian Wizard” and Tony Giles AKA “An Unspectacular But Most Efficient Half-Back Flanker” from injury.
Kim Curtis was the unlucky 21st man.
Game Day
This game had it all. Iit was “brilliant, cruel, violent, absorbing, fascinating.” Those are the words of renown cricket scribe Mike Coward, formerly of The Tiser. Back when it was worth reading. Long before Rupert shut down The News, bought The Tiser and turned it into tabloid trash unfit to wipe your arse with.
Glenelg captain Wayne Phillis started the byplay even before the first bounce, deliberately delayed the coin toss. Because, I dunno, mind games? Puzzled umps and photographers were like, wtf?
The Bays got the jump early, racing to an 18 point. But a couple of Port goals in time-on pegged it back to a goal at quarter-time. The epic, see-sawing contest, an action reel of brilliant footy and big bust-ups, didn’t let up for two frenzied hours:
- Bruce Light was reported
- Kym Kinnear got knocked the f@%k out
- Fred Phillis king-hit Tim Evans in the goalsquare
- The big brawl at half-time was sparked by, colour me shocked, Graham ‘Studley’ Cornes
But we hung on. Time ran out. And the drought was over.
There were plenty of heroes: God was Himself; lionhearted John Spry battled hard in the ruck; Brian Cunningham went head-to-head with Kym Hodgeman; Ivan Eckermann kicked three crucial goals on one heavily-bandaged leg; Tim Evans booted seven despite living in la-la land for the most of the day.
None were more heroic than Randall Gerlach.
Gerlach wasn’t even supposed to play this season because of his debilitating kidney disorder. But he came so close to premiership glory in ’76, he just had to go around again. Defying doctor’s advice, he pulled on the boots and laced up the guernsey for one more year. The 1977 grand final was the last of his 110 games for the club before prematurely retiring at 24. He passed away late last year, aged 65.
RIP Randall Gerlach, 1977 Port Adelaide premiership player.
Premiership, premiership! Party time! Excellent!
Another prize awaited the premier: 60 kilos of tiger prawns worth $300 from A. Raptis & Sons. According to Mr. Raptis, terminally diagnosed as a South supporter, tiger prawns were exclusive to Japan and not for sale in Adelaide. So yeah, it was a pretty big deal.
They were called tiger prawns owing to their black-and-white banded tails. Um, have you ever seen a tiger, Mr. Raptis? They’re yellow and black, except for albino tigers. You could’ve called them Magpie Prawns, just sayin.
Anyway, I’m guessing there was a sh!tload of prawns eaten at barbies around the 5015 that summer.
Five pisswrecked Port supporters were arrested by police at the Alberton Oval premiership party.
Next
John Halbert coached Sturt to the reserves premiership in his last game before embarking on study in the US and UK. He returned a year later and took up a senior gig. With Glenelg, of course.
*The 1939-51 drought is a bit skewed because half-arsed WWII bush league for three years
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