- Sep 23, 2012
- 3,747
- 5,675
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Sturt, Ozark Mountain Daredevils
I was there in 76 and at one stage the announcer asked the crowd to stand up and take a step to their left so they could fit more people in! Couldn't quite work out the maths on that one.1976 Grand Final
21 kicks, 21 handballs, 15 marks, 21 hitouts. Try telling Rick Davies he needs to attend a Collective Minds camp.
Two years later, the SANFL Grand Final saw a Sturt side which, in the public imagination at least, occupied the role of 'David' fronting up to Port Adelaide's 'Goliath' in front of an all time record crowd officially given as 66,897, but almost certainly at least 10,000 more. It proved to be one of the most memorable afternoons in South Australian football, with Davies' deceptively casual 21-kick, 21-handball, 15-mark, 21-hitout performance the most eye-catchingly significant feature of the Double Blues' eventual 41-point win. "From the beginning of 1974 to the end of 1976 he (Davies) controlled every match he played in", recalled teammate Phil "Sandy" Nelson years later. "For those 60 or 70 games he had football by the short and curlies. Very few people could do that. Rick did it."
The crowd spilled out onto the ground inside the boundary line all around the oval. Saw an old video on You Tube of spectators hanging off the time clock!