1984 GF: Port vs Norwood

[Jimmy]

same as the 76 thread...who was there, thoughts? etc etc

i know the legs came from 5th to win it...what were they like during the year and what was the gf like and the lead up? favs for the game? and were the legs given a chance at all?

[Magpiespower]

I was there.

Unfortunately, so was Neville Roberts.

Apart from the infamous Evans v Balme punch-up, the thing I remember most from that day is my Dad having a go at Kym Dillon.

Dillon sat behind us in his Torrens gear for the whole game (not sure if he played in Torrens' reserves premiership or not) but you would have sworn he was red and blue blooded.

He never stopped saying "champagne football" all day long. Actually he did - any time Port kicked a goal or did anything noteworthy.

28 minutes into the last quarter and the grand final lost, the old man finally snapped and told him where to stick his "champagne football" in no uncertain terms.

Can't remember exactly what he said but I'm pretty sure he dropped the f-bomb a few times. If only I could wipe the rest of the day from my memory.

To the actual game - opinion was divided. Port were minor premiers but Norwood were red-hot in the second half of the year after looking like that would miss out on the finals altogether at one stage.

The Legs had a tough finals campaign, coming behind in every match to win. Glenelg fans will always rue the 11.23 kicked on Preliminary Final day.

One of the most out of the blue grand final selections - Max James at full-back to replace the injured Ben Harris.

Max had retired from league footy and played the entire season in the reserves - he was captain. The night before the big game, Max gets a call from Russ telling him he's in.

99 people out of 100 would be stoked to be told they're playing in a grand final. Not Max. He'd spent the whole day digging ditches and was completely knackered. He begged Russ to pick someone else but he didn't.

As fate would have it, Max played in the grand final - his only game for the year and final game for Port.

Pity we couldn't have sent him out on a better note!

[Adelaide Hawk]

Thanks to Jimmy for allowing me to relive some very fond memories.

1984 was novel by George Orwal in which he warned the world of the dangers of totalitarian socialist government. However, not even Orwal could forsee that a team would rise from 5th position to win the SANFL premiership. 1984 was the year of the history maker.

Normally a team who finished 5th would limp into the finals having scraped into the top 5. This was not the case with Norwood. Their 5th ranking was due to a horrible first half of the season, but their rampaging run in the second half of the season meant they hit the finals in top form. Norwood fans could smell success if we could only sustain the effort over 4 weeks of tough footy. Also, Norwood were 3 wins and sizeable percentage ahead of West Adelaide in 6th spot.

Port Adelaide had been top for most of the season and never fell below 2nd, whereas Norwood never made the top 5 until round 15. However, in the weeks leading up to the finals, Norwood had great wins over Port Adelaide (6 goals) and Glenelg whereas Port were showing signs of vulnerability (IMHO) with a huge loss to lowly ranked North Adelaide (13 goals).

In the finals, Port only needed to win the 2nd Semi Final to make the GF and they did this by defeating Glenelg by 39 points. The press were already writing up another Magpie flag. Norwood defeated South in the EF (8 goals), Central in the 1st Semi (13 pts), and Glenelg in the PF (3 goals). In all three matches Norwood came from behind to win.

Norwood had beaten a powerful Glenelg (1975) and a dominant Sturt (1978), and I felt a little cheated in 1982 that Glenelg defeated Port in the PF to stop us having a win over Port. In 1984 I got my wish. At the club on the Thursday night we were able to get our hands on some History Maker t-shirts, and when we got to the game we also saw a number of Port fans wearing 1984 premiership t-shirts. Strange practice really, selling premiership shirts BEFORE the game.

Leading up to the GF I recall the press writing up the Evans v Balme clash, and Evans must have been reading this as he overreacted badly to Balme during the National Athem. All Balme was trying to do was shake Evans' hand but Evans didn't want any part of it. It appeared to be a great psychological boost to the Redlegs and they started better leading 19 points at quarter time.

Keith Thomas' mark in the 3rd term in front of the members stand was an absolute beauty.

Then Port came back to lead by 3 points at 3/4 time. The game was there for the taking and the final term was a real arm wrestle. No side was able to break clear until Thomas peeled of a remarkable goal from the right forward pocket to give Norwood some momentum. Neville "Rocky" Roberts grabbed a loose ball in time on period and kicked his 6th goal to give Norwood an unbeatable 10 point lead. We had it!!!

All day long there were the Port fans behind us giving us hell. When Roberts kicked the match sealing goal I turned to give them some stick ... and they were gone!!!!! Keith Thomas and Neville Roberts starred for the Redlegs and Stephen Clifford and Dwayne Russell were high in Port's best.

Anyway, great day for Norwood fans, incredible night at the club. I walked home around 2am, two steps forward one step backward all the way home.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Dillon sat behind us in his Torrens gear for the whole game (not sure if he played in Torrens' reserves premiership or not) but you would have sworn he was red and blue blooded.

No, I don't think Dillon played for the West Torrens Reserves that day, but all the Eagles players were back at the Norwood club celebrating their win that night. I guess they decided it was the best place in town to party that night.

[Jimmy]

great read AH and mp...its great to get the thoughts of those that were there on the day...

ill dig up some more memorable gf's...

[JK]

AH ... Might be worth getting your hands on a copy of Diss' 84 GF DVD as it also includes all of the post match celebrations in the room and back at Norwood Oval!

Apparently we had in fact planned for CBalmy to get stuck into Evans verbally and then maybe a bit of a push and shove etc immediately AFTER the national anthem ... Story goes the coaches box were somewhat confused by the crowd noise and then realised what was happening, causing N.Blame to remark of his brother "FFS he can't even get that right!!"

I think the quality the Legs had that season, as all premiership teams do (and sadly we lacked through most of the 80's), was the belief that we would always come back, and kept our composure until it was indeed the case .. As you mentioned AH we were behind in all of our finals that season (IIRC we were behind during some point of the 3rd qtr in each game).

For memory Jimmy, the expert tipsters probably gave a 2/3 backing to the Pies and 1/3 our way, with the usual concerns over weary legs etc...

Goes to show the support the Magpies have ... The ground was brimful (50,271 for memory) and I'm lead to believe nearly all non-Port fans in attendance were supporting the Legs, yet Port still had more than half the people in the place cheering for them!!

A day I'll never forget, thats fer sure!!

[Wedgie]

I actually went to every final that year except for the GF and cheered for Norwood since both of my parents were Norwood fans.
The finals series that year was surreal, I can even remember when earlier in the year North and Norwood had lost something like their first 6 games and were playing each other to see who would get a win first, Norwood won and built up incredible momentum from there.
Also, its not as though they did it easy, most if not all of the finals Norwood won were hard fought, close and seesawing affairs.