- May 8, 2001
- 5,667
- 818
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- CDFC (SANFL), Port Melb (VFL)
Hi Footy fans...
It was 30 years ago that the game of Australian football underwent one of its most drastic and somewhat painful changes. At the end of 1989, the old enemy over the border in the east cemented it's place as the overall power in the game and the Victorian Football League as it was at the time was no more. It evolved into the national entity we know today as the AFL. With that, everything changed for South Australian football. Within a year, turmoil was brewing. From the rogue Port Adelaide bid to the eventual creation of the Adelaide Football Club and the ensuing years, the SANFL was never going to be the same. Fast forward to now and history looks as though it is going to, in a way, repeat itself. The AFL has sealed the deal and next year, two state leagues will become one as the competition once known as "the Association" and a league created from established north-eastern state clubs merge. You heard right, the VFL and the NEAFL are coming together, albeit for the benefit of the AFL's reserves sides. How this affects the SANFL is all up for debate especially in regards to the Crows and the Power going forward, but for second-tier football, there's some interesting times coming very soon.
Welcome to the Round 10 edition of the SANFL Wrap-Up.
We kick off this week's wrap with two doses of Friday Night Mayhem, the first of which takes us to the Hisense Stadium in Richmond for a battle of the inner-west against the inner-south, the Bloods facing the Double Blues. This was the return match from Round 3, when football returned to the suburbs but with the COVID scare abound very few people turned up as the Blues took advantage of a wayward Bloods outfit to win by eight points at Unley. Neither side came out on top last weekend, with the Bloods going down at Elizabeth and the Blues doused by the Eagles at Woodville. The Blues still had a mathematical chance of playing finals football at this point, while the Bloods are striving to at least escape the clutches of the Dogs and the wooden spoon. The Blues would score the first three goals to the Bloods' single miss when play commenced, but a pair of late goals to Westies allowed them to stay in touch as the visitors held a five-point lead at quarter-time. After that third Sturt goal, they went into a lull that would last for more than a quarter of football. The Bloods would take advantage of the sudden halt to the Blues' engine room, kicking 3.1 to lead by 14 points at the half-time break. The Bloods seemed to have all the momentum as they added 2.1 in the third term's early minutes. But when the Blues finally landed a major in the ninth minute, that was the beginning of the Blues' revival. That goal along with a further 3.1 to the Bloods' two missed opportunities saw the home sides' lead back to within a kick, West by four points. In fact, that single miss by Sturt in the third term would end up being their only score blemish for the evening as they eventually overran the Bloods, keeping them to 1.1 whilst scoring three goals for themselves to take a seven-point victory. James Battersby was Sturt's best afield with his 26 disposals, West would named Jordon Boyle as their best with 27 disposals, nine marks and four tackles.
The second Friday night game was across the other side of the city in the inner-east, the Redlegs taking on the Eagles at the Coopers Stadium in Norwood. The Eagles reigned supreme in their last outing against each other, pummeling the Redlegs by 65 points at Oval Avenue in Round 3. The Eagles were all over the shop with their goal-kicking in the first half, but improved their accuracy in the second half while the 'Legs could only manage 4.7 in one of their worst outings for Season 2020. Speaking of lousy days out, last weekend's game against the Roosters was another to forget as they went down by 52 points at Prospect. The Eagles had no such problems with the Double Blues at home, winning by 37 points. Early on the Eagles seemed like they still hadn't skipped a beat, they would go into the quarter-time huddle with a 13-point lead after scoring 3.3 to 1.2 to begin the night's proceedings. But to the shock of the visiting fans, the Eagles then hit a wall. Restricted to just 1.2, the Redlegs would ram home 7.2 for themselves to be up by just under four straight kicks going into the sheds at half-time. A 23-point lead at the break, the Redlegs suddenly looking the goods. Perhaps it was a good time to get a loss out of their system, but I mentioned last week about the fact they hadn't found their absolute best side. Their forward power has been lacking as of late and a Norwood side that is still well within striking distance of an Elimination Final berth had found a weak spot. The lack of attacking zone targets was well evident in the third term as the Eagles were held to a single behind, the Redlegs adding a further 2.4 to stretch the lead to 38 points by three quarter-time. Eagles fans are no doubt hoping for swift recovery ahead of their date with the Roosters next weekend, the Redlegs running out 40-point winners on the back of a 4.4 to 2.2 final quarter. Nik Rokahr was a mid-field ball magnet, racking up 34 disposals and taking 13 marks to take best on ground honours for Norwood, while the Eagles named Joseph Sinor as their standout with 25 disposals and four tackles.
There was just one Saturday afternoon game for the weekend as the action heads down south to the Flinders Uni Stadium in Noarlunga for the SANFL's "Distance Derby" and the Mayor's Cup game between the Panthers and the Bulldogs. The Panthers left it until late in their last clash with the Doggies at Elizabeth, going from leading by 15 points at the final change to running off to a 44-point victory. The on-and-off (mostly off) game of the Dogs was well and truly on display as they pushed the Panthers, who were having a difficult time finding the big sticks but then blasted off in the last term. The Panthers put a three-week funk behind them last week with their 41-point win against the premiers at Brighton Road, while the Dogs finally broke through for their first win of the year. An uncharacteristically fine August day greeted the 1000 SA footy-heads in attendance as South opened with a 5.7 to 2.1 opening term to lead by four goals at the quarter-time siren. The Dogs managed to reel the deficit back to within a single straight kick by first half's end, outscoring the Panthers 4.3 to 1.3. At the long break, South were still up but now it was back to one goal. The Dogs were pushing hard again, but as has been the case this season, sustaining the rage has been the problem and when play resumed, the Panthers class shone through once more. After evening the scores with the first goal of the third term after just two minutes, the Dogs were quickly back in a rut as the Panthers again like the first quarter, peppered their attacking zone for a return of 4.6 to Centrals' two goals. The gap was back out to four goals for the home side. The Panthers finished off with a 4.3 to 2.2 last term to win by 37 points and lay claim to the Mayor's Cup trophy for 2020. Ben Heaslip was South's best on ground with 23 disposals, five tackles and two goals, the Bulldogs named James Boyd as their best with 27 disposals and six marks.
The final game for the weekend takes us to the Prospect Oval for some Sunday afternoon footy, with the Roosters hosting the Tigers. In one of the contenders for game of the year, the Roosters outlasted the fast finishing Tigers by just three points at Glenelg. Inaccuracy on goal by the Roosters almost brought them unstuck, the reigning premiers made a late run but couldn't make up the gap. The Tigers had been surging back up the ladder until last week's encounter with the Panthers, who put them back into fourth position after handing them a 41-point loss. Confidence was no doubt on the Roosters side, they disposed of the Redlegs by 52 points in their match last weekend. The accuracy issues that almost saw North bomb out in their last encounter was now in the Tigers' camp this time, but would go into the quarter-time break with a 13-point lead with their score of 3.7 to two goals. The bug jumped camps for the second quarter, the Roosters spurning a swag of chances to go in front by the break. They kicked 2.4 to the Tigers' three goals as the deficit crept out to 15 points by half-time. The Tigers fired up in the third term, taking their lead out to 27 points going into the final stanza. The hunger was back, the desperation was back, their attack on the body was top notch. But they were going to be up against it in the final term, injuries to key personnel decimating their interchange bench as well as the wind being with the visitors for the closing quarter. The Roosters did mount their final assault, the Tigers were absolutely spent in regards to attack. They only managed one behind for the final term and it was up to their defenders to stem the North tide... and they did. North scored 4.2, but it was three points short of a victory as the Tigers escaped with a two-point win. Luke Partington chalked up 27 disposals and laid seven tackles to be named Glenelg's best afield, the Roosters named Harrison Wigg as their best with 29 disposals.
FINAL SCORES IN ROUND 10 OF THE SANFL...
Friday August 28
Sturt 10.1 (61)
West Adelaide 8.6 (54)
1,505 @ Hisense Stadium, Richmond
Norwood 12.12 (84)
Woodville-West Torrens 6.8 (44)
2,068 @ Coopers Stadium, Norwood
Saturday August 29
South Adelaide 14.19 (103)
Central District 10.6 (66)
1,034 @ Flinders University Stadium, Noarlunga
Sunday August 30
Glenelg 10.11 (71)
North Adelaide 10.9 (69)
Prospect Oval -- crowd number unknown
INJURIES
South -- Lonergan (back)
Glenelg -- Motlop, Agnew (ankle)
REPORTS
None known at time of post.
LEAGUE LADDER
-----------------------------------------
W-WT -- 16pts (8-2-0), 59.2%
North -- 16pts (8-2-0), 54.6%
South -- 12pts (6-4-0), 54.8%
Glenelg -- 12pts (6-4-0), 50.5%
-----------------------------------------
Norwood -- 10pts (5-5-0), 49.6%
Sturt -- 8pts (4-6-0), 47.3%
West -- 3pts (1-8-1), 43.4%
Central -- 3pts (1-8-1), 41.4%
-----------------------------------------
WOMEN'S B&F AWARD SHARED
It took a few days after the fact, but the 2020 SANFL-W Best & Fairest Award has dual winners with West Adelaide's Rachelle Martin sharing honours with North Adelaide 2020 premiership player Anne Hatchard. After initially being award solely to Martin who polled 15 votes from 10 games, with two of them taking max votes and not polling in three, an oversight was detected. Hatchard's Round 5 outing against Sturt saw her rack up a record-high 42 possessions, but somehow avoided polling a vote. It would emerge that a case of mistaken identity had taken place, the max votes going to another Roosters player in near identical long sleeves. So a few days later, with the votes for Hatchard recounted, the scores between herself and Martin were levelled and the award was a shared honour. Amazingly, they would also share the KIA Coaches' Award with 48 votes each.
VALE NEIL SACHSE
SANFL and the South Australian football community is mourning the passing of State and North Adelaide champion Neil Sachse.
Along with his brother Dennis, Neil was part of the fabled Roosters team of the early 1970s that won back to back premierships and in 1972 defeated Carlton to claim the title of Champions of Australia. Neil played 94 games in the red and white as a relentless and powerful utility. He played five times for South Australia including a best on ground performance against Western Australia at Football Park in 1974. The following season Neil transferred to Footscray but in his second VFL match was left a quadriplegic after a heavy collision at the Western Oval. The devastating injury rocked the football world and led to greater awareness and protocols around spinal and head injuries.
Neil committed his life to raising awareness of disability and spinal injury. His foundation raised millions of dollars for research and education and he was tireless in his efforts. ”Neil was a wonderful player who had his football career tragically cut short,” SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson said. ”However, he remained a pioneer, committed and tenacious in his pursuit for research and understanding of spinal injuries through his foundation for which our game is the benefactor. He will be deeply missed.” Neil passed away after a short illness. SANFL expresses its deepest sympathy to Neil’s wife Janyne and sons Ben and Sam and their families.
The above was taken from the SANFL Website.
Next weekend in Round 11...
Saturday September 5
Central District vs. Norwood; X-Convenience Oval, Elizabeth @ 2:10pm
Sturt vs. South Adelaide; Peter Motley Oval, Unley @ 2:10pm
Glenelg vs. West Adelaide; ACH Group Stadium, Glenelg @ 4:10pm
Sunday September 6 @ 2:40pm
Woodville-West Torrens vs. North Adelaide; Maughan Thiem Kia Oval, Woodville
So until next weekend... see you at the Footy!
It was 30 years ago that the game of Australian football underwent one of its most drastic and somewhat painful changes. At the end of 1989, the old enemy over the border in the east cemented it's place as the overall power in the game and the Victorian Football League as it was at the time was no more. It evolved into the national entity we know today as the AFL. With that, everything changed for South Australian football. Within a year, turmoil was brewing. From the rogue Port Adelaide bid to the eventual creation of the Adelaide Football Club and the ensuing years, the SANFL was never going to be the same. Fast forward to now and history looks as though it is going to, in a way, repeat itself. The AFL has sealed the deal and next year, two state leagues will become one as the competition once known as "the Association" and a league created from established north-eastern state clubs merge. You heard right, the VFL and the NEAFL are coming together, albeit for the benefit of the AFL's reserves sides. How this affects the SANFL is all up for debate especially in regards to the Crows and the Power going forward, but for second-tier football, there's some interesting times coming very soon.
Welcome to the Round 10 edition of the SANFL Wrap-Up.
We kick off this week's wrap with two doses of Friday Night Mayhem, the first of which takes us to the Hisense Stadium in Richmond for a battle of the inner-west against the inner-south, the Bloods facing the Double Blues. This was the return match from Round 3, when football returned to the suburbs but with the COVID scare abound very few people turned up as the Blues took advantage of a wayward Bloods outfit to win by eight points at Unley. Neither side came out on top last weekend, with the Bloods going down at Elizabeth and the Blues doused by the Eagles at Woodville. The Blues still had a mathematical chance of playing finals football at this point, while the Bloods are striving to at least escape the clutches of the Dogs and the wooden spoon. The Blues would score the first three goals to the Bloods' single miss when play commenced, but a pair of late goals to Westies allowed them to stay in touch as the visitors held a five-point lead at quarter-time. After that third Sturt goal, they went into a lull that would last for more than a quarter of football. The Bloods would take advantage of the sudden halt to the Blues' engine room, kicking 3.1 to lead by 14 points at the half-time break. The Bloods seemed to have all the momentum as they added 2.1 in the third term's early minutes. But when the Blues finally landed a major in the ninth minute, that was the beginning of the Blues' revival. That goal along with a further 3.1 to the Bloods' two missed opportunities saw the home sides' lead back to within a kick, West by four points. In fact, that single miss by Sturt in the third term would end up being their only score blemish for the evening as they eventually overran the Bloods, keeping them to 1.1 whilst scoring three goals for themselves to take a seven-point victory. James Battersby was Sturt's best afield with his 26 disposals, West would named Jordon Boyle as their best with 27 disposals, nine marks and four tackles.
The second Friday night game was across the other side of the city in the inner-east, the Redlegs taking on the Eagles at the Coopers Stadium in Norwood. The Eagles reigned supreme in their last outing against each other, pummeling the Redlegs by 65 points at Oval Avenue in Round 3. The Eagles were all over the shop with their goal-kicking in the first half, but improved their accuracy in the second half while the 'Legs could only manage 4.7 in one of their worst outings for Season 2020. Speaking of lousy days out, last weekend's game against the Roosters was another to forget as they went down by 52 points at Prospect. The Eagles had no such problems with the Double Blues at home, winning by 37 points. Early on the Eagles seemed like they still hadn't skipped a beat, they would go into the quarter-time huddle with a 13-point lead after scoring 3.3 to 1.2 to begin the night's proceedings. But to the shock of the visiting fans, the Eagles then hit a wall. Restricted to just 1.2, the Redlegs would ram home 7.2 for themselves to be up by just under four straight kicks going into the sheds at half-time. A 23-point lead at the break, the Redlegs suddenly looking the goods. Perhaps it was a good time to get a loss out of their system, but I mentioned last week about the fact they hadn't found their absolute best side. Their forward power has been lacking as of late and a Norwood side that is still well within striking distance of an Elimination Final berth had found a weak spot. The lack of attacking zone targets was well evident in the third term as the Eagles were held to a single behind, the Redlegs adding a further 2.4 to stretch the lead to 38 points by three quarter-time. Eagles fans are no doubt hoping for swift recovery ahead of their date with the Roosters next weekend, the Redlegs running out 40-point winners on the back of a 4.4 to 2.2 final quarter. Nik Rokahr was a mid-field ball magnet, racking up 34 disposals and taking 13 marks to take best on ground honours for Norwood, while the Eagles named Joseph Sinor as their standout with 25 disposals and four tackles.
There was just one Saturday afternoon game for the weekend as the action heads down south to the Flinders Uni Stadium in Noarlunga for the SANFL's "Distance Derby" and the Mayor's Cup game between the Panthers and the Bulldogs. The Panthers left it until late in their last clash with the Doggies at Elizabeth, going from leading by 15 points at the final change to running off to a 44-point victory. The on-and-off (mostly off) game of the Dogs was well and truly on display as they pushed the Panthers, who were having a difficult time finding the big sticks but then blasted off in the last term. The Panthers put a three-week funk behind them last week with their 41-point win against the premiers at Brighton Road, while the Dogs finally broke through for their first win of the year. An uncharacteristically fine August day greeted the 1000 SA footy-heads in attendance as South opened with a 5.7 to 2.1 opening term to lead by four goals at the quarter-time siren. The Dogs managed to reel the deficit back to within a single straight kick by first half's end, outscoring the Panthers 4.3 to 1.3. At the long break, South were still up but now it was back to one goal. The Dogs were pushing hard again, but as has been the case this season, sustaining the rage has been the problem and when play resumed, the Panthers class shone through once more. After evening the scores with the first goal of the third term after just two minutes, the Dogs were quickly back in a rut as the Panthers again like the first quarter, peppered their attacking zone for a return of 4.6 to Centrals' two goals. The gap was back out to four goals for the home side. The Panthers finished off with a 4.3 to 2.2 last term to win by 37 points and lay claim to the Mayor's Cup trophy for 2020. Ben Heaslip was South's best on ground with 23 disposals, five tackles and two goals, the Bulldogs named James Boyd as their best with 27 disposals and six marks.
The final game for the weekend takes us to the Prospect Oval for some Sunday afternoon footy, with the Roosters hosting the Tigers. In one of the contenders for game of the year, the Roosters outlasted the fast finishing Tigers by just three points at Glenelg. Inaccuracy on goal by the Roosters almost brought them unstuck, the reigning premiers made a late run but couldn't make up the gap. The Tigers had been surging back up the ladder until last week's encounter with the Panthers, who put them back into fourth position after handing them a 41-point loss. Confidence was no doubt on the Roosters side, they disposed of the Redlegs by 52 points in their match last weekend. The accuracy issues that almost saw North bomb out in their last encounter was now in the Tigers' camp this time, but would go into the quarter-time break with a 13-point lead with their score of 3.7 to two goals. The bug jumped camps for the second quarter, the Roosters spurning a swag of chances to go in front by the break. They kicked 2.4 to the Tigers' three goals as the deficit crept out to 15 points by half-time. The Tigers fired up in the third term, taking their lead out to 27 points going into the final stanza. The hunger was back, the desperation was back, their attack on the body was top notch. But they were going to be up against it in the final term, injuries to key personnel decimating their interchange bench as well as the wind being with the visitors for the closing quarter. The Roosters did mount their final assault, the Tigers were absolutely spent in regards to attack. They only managed one behind for the final term and it was up to their defenders to stem the North tide... and they did. North scored 4.2, but it was three points short of a victory as the Tigers escaped with a two-point win. Luke Partington chalked up 27 disposals and laid seven tackles to be named Glenelg's best afield, the Roosters named Harrison Wigg as their best with 29 disposals.
FINAL SCORES IN ROUND 10 OF THE SANFL...
Friday August 28
Sturt 10.1 (61)
West Adelaide 8.6 (54)
1,505 @ Hisense Stadium, Richmond
Norwood 12.12 (84)
Woodville-West Torrens 6.8 (44)
2,068 @ Coopers Stadium, Norwood
Saturday August 29
South Adelaide 14.19 (103)
Central District 10.6 (66)
1,034 @ Flinders University Stadium, Noarlunga
Sunday August 30
Glenelg 10.11 (71)
North Adelaide 10.9 (69)
Prospect Oval -- crowd number unknown
INJURIES
South -- Lonergan (back)
Glenelg -- Motlop, Agnew (ankle)
REPORTS
None known at time of post.
LEAGUE LADDER
-----------------------------------------
W-WT -- 16pts (8-2-0), 59.2%
North -- 16pts (8-2-0), 54.6%
South -- 12pts (6-4-0), 54.8%
Glenelg -- 12pts (6-4-0), 50.5%
-----------------------------------------
Norwood -- 10pts (5-5-0), 49.6%
Sturt -- 8pts (4-6-0), 47.3%
West -- 3pts (1-8-1), 43.4%
Central -- 3pts (1-8-1), 41.4%
-----------------------------------------
WOMEN'S B&F AWARD SHARED
It took a few days after the fact, but the 2020 SANFL-W Best & Fairest Award has dual winners with West Adelaide's Rachelle Martin sharing honours with North Adelaide 2020 premiership player Anne Hatchard. After initially being award solely to Martin who polled 15 votes from 10 games, with two of them taking max votes and not polling in three, an oversight was detected. Hatchard's Round 5 outing against Sturt saw her rack up a record-high 42 possessions, but somehow avoided polling a vote. It would emerge that a case of mistaken identity had taken place, the max votes going to another Roosters player in near identical long sleeves. So a few days later, with the votes for Hatchard recounted, the scores between herself and Martin were levelled and the award was a shared honour. Amazingly, they would also share the KIA Coaches' Award with 48 votes each.
VALE NEIL SACHSE
SANFL and the South Australian football community is mourning the passing of State and North Adelaide champion Neil Sachse.
Along with his brother Dennis, Neil was part of the fabled Roosters team of the early 1970s that won back to back premierships and in 1972 defeated Carlton to claim the title of Champions of Australia. Neil played 94 games in the red and white as a relentless and powerful utility. He played five times for South Australia including a best on ground performance against Western Australia at Football Park in 1974. The following season Neil transferred to Footscray but in his second VFL match was left a quadriplegic after a heavy collision at the Western Oval. The devastating injury rocked the football world and led to greater awareness and protocols around spinal and head injuries.
Neil committed his life to raising awareness of disability and spinal injury. His foundation raised millions of dollars for research and education and he was tireless in his efforts. ”Neil was a wonderful player who had his football career tragically cut short,” SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson said. ”However, he remained a pioneer, committed and tenacious in his pursuit for research and understanding of spinal injuries through his foundation for which our game is the benefactor. He will be deeply missed.” Neil passed away after a short illness. SANFL expresses its deepest sympathy to Neil’s wife Janyne and sons Ben and Sam and their families.
The above was taken from the SANFL Website.
Next weekend in Round 11...
Saturday September 5
Central District vs. Norwood; X-Convenience Oval, Elizabeth @ 2:10pm
Sturt vs. South Adelaide; Peter Motley Oval, Unley @ 2:10pm
Glenelg vs. West Adelaide; ACH Group Stadium, Glenelg @ 4:10pm
Sunday September 6 @ 2:40pm
Woodville-West Torrens vs. North Adelaide; Maughan Thiem Kia Oval, Woodville
So until next weekend... see you at the Footy!
