1964 - 1990

[robranisgod]

Robran in 1971 was the equal of Davies in 1976.
He wasn't bad in 1972 when he was tagged by Woite for 2 1/2 quarters and then Ebert for 1 1/2 quarters and took them both to the cleaners.

RiG, do you have on hand Robran's stats from the 71 and 72 grand finals?

I have found "unofficial" stats that says that Robran had 30 kicks, 10 handballs, 12 hitouts and 10 marks in the 1971 Grand Final.

Thanks for that, RiG. 40 touches and 10 marks on a wet day, not a bad effort.

52 touches if you count his 12 hitouts, which in itself isn't a bad stat for a midfielder.

And once again not trying to decry Davies game at all, it was unbelievable but Robran was a much better user of the ball by foot.

As great as Davies was, his game was a one off, whereas it was almost par for the course for Robran.

[Wedgie]

Saw this on Facebook and found it interesting. The 1970 zones:

FB_IMG_1636095240442.jpg

(172.31 KiB) Downloaded 51 times

[Wedgie]

1959 for a comparison, you could live on Prospect Rd and be in Woodville area!

FB_IMG_1636098350965.jpg

(254.24 KiB) Downloaded 49 times

[DOC]

How did Port, Glenelg, Sturt and Norwood survive with those small area's?

[FOURTH ESTATE]

Always knew the boundaries where I lived as a kid.
I could almost play for 4 different clubs.
Was in the Port Adelaide zone. 100 metres up the road I was in West Torrens, 2km down the road - Central District. 2km in the other direction I was in North Adelaide.

Didn't want to play for any of those clubs only the Bays

[Aerie]

B4A6442D-4189-47C2-872F-946510501E7D.jpeg (622.75 KiB) Viewed 7499 times

Zones from 1954, before Woodville and Central.

[Magellan]

Thanks Aerie, very interesting.

Just looking at North's zone - whatever happened to 'Burford Gardens'? Never heard of it.

[Spargo]

Thanks Aerie, very interesting.

Just looking at North's zone - whatever happened to 'Burford Gardens'? Never heard of it.

Now Dry Creek.

[Magellan]

Thanks Aerie, very interesting.

Just looking at North's zone - whatever happened to 'Burford Gardens'? Never heard of it.

Now Dry Creek.

Ta. Makes sense, based on the map. I bet the Burfords weren't too happy about the change in name, though.

[Hondo]

Hoping someone might remember ..

Regarding Neil Craig as a player. He played his last game at Sturt as a player (and captain) in 1986. He played his first game for North in 1988.

What did he do in that year off in 1987? Wikipaedia and other online sources say he was at North from 87-90 and this seems to have become the established fact. However, I recall he stepped away from footy or at least the SANFL in 1987 and did not join North until 1988.

Can anyone remember?

[Magellan]

Hoping someone might remember ..

Regarding Neil Craig as a player. He played his last game at Sturt as a player (and captain) in 1986. He played his first game for North in 1988.

What did he do in that year off in 1987? Wikipaedia and other online sources say he was at North from 87-90 and this seems to have become the established fact. However, I recall he stepped away from footy or at least the SANFL in 1987 and did not join North until 1988.

Can anyone remember?

I reckon you're right. Definitely wasn't at North in 1987 in a playing capacity, and I'm quite sure he wasn't there in any off-field role (I'm sure @RobranisGod can confirm), and came on board in 1988 (https://nafc.com.au/history/search?type ... 22ecf7d429). I seem to recall he was involved with the SA Sports Institute possibly around that time?

[am Bays]

Hoping someone might remember ..

Regarding Neil Craig as a player. He played his last game at Sturt as a player (and captain) in 1986. He played his first game for North in 1988.

What did he do in that year off in 1987? Wikipaedia and other online sources say he was at North from 87-90 and this seems to have become the established fact. However, I recall he stepped away from footy or at least the SANFL in 1987 and did not join North until 1988.

Can anyone remember?

I reckon you're right. Definitely wasn't at North in 1987 in a playing capacity, and I'm quite sure he wasn't there in any off-field role (I'm sure @RobranisGod can confirm), and came on board in 1988 (https://nafc.com.au/history/search?type ... 22ecf7d429). I seem to recall he was involved with the SA Sports Institute possibly around that time?

Definitely at SASI then

This may have something to do with it https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3569225/ but most of the data was collected in 1986 in the lab in SSS at FUSA.

My guess writing his M SC dissertation (I know first hand what a pedant RT Withers was) and working in a pre-olympic prep year for Seoul.

[robranisgod]

Robran in 1971 was the equal of Davies in 1976.
He wasn't bad in 1972 when he was tagged by Woite for 2 1/2 quarters and then Ebert for 1 1/2 quarters and took them both to the cleaners.

RiG, do you have on hand Robran's stats from the 71 and 72 grand finals?

I have found "unofficial" stats that says that Robran had 30 kicks, 10 handballs, 12 hitouts and 10 marks in the 1971 Grand Final.

Thanks for that, RiG. 40 touches and 10 marks on a wet day, not a bad effort.

52 touches if you count his 12 hitouts, which in itself isn't a bad stat for a midfielder.

And once again not trying to decry Davies game at all, it was unbelievable but Robran was a much better user of the ball by foot.

As great as Davies was, his game was a one off, whereas it was almost par for the course for Robran.

I have finally found Barrie's stats for the 1972 Grand Final. He had 21 kicks, 12 marks, 10 handballs, 8 hitouts and 1 goal whilst being tagged for 2 1/2 quarters by Peter Woite and when he had ran him into exhaustion he was tagged by Russell Ebert for the last quarter and a half.
I still don't think that we will ever see Robran's like again.

[Magellan]

I have finally found Barrie's stats for the 1972 Grand Final. He had 21 kicks, 12 marks, 10 handballs, 8 hitouts and 1 goal whilst being tagged for 2 1/2 quarters by Peter Woite and when he had ran him into exhaustion he was tagged by Russell Ebert for the last quarter and a half.
I still don't think that we will ever see Robran's like again.

Thanks for following that up, RiG.

[GWW]

RIG - do you have any details on how Robran went in State Games?

I've heard his effectiveness was limited due to having to play at CHF in quite a few of the games (I think that's what Russell Ebert mentioned in an interview).

[stampy]

in 1973 the elim and first semi were played at norwood oval, the legs participated in both of them.

why would the sanfl program finals there when norwood were playing, very unfair imho.

surely other grounds could have been used, alberton, woodville or richmond come to mind.

anybody have any clue why this occured?

[RB]

in 1973 the elim and first semi were played at norwood oval, the legs participated in both of them.

why would the sanfl program finals there when norwood were playing, very unfair imho.

surely other grounds could have been used, alberton, woodville or richmond come to mind.

anybody have any clue why this occured?

Port were pretty unhappy about it I think.

No idea why they chose Norwood (or why they didn't have the Norwood games at Adelaide, and the QF and 2SF at Norwood) but this was before Sunday matches, double headers, or Football Park were a thing, so they had to play somewhere.

[DOC]

1973 was the first year of the final 5. All games were played on Saturdays then. As they should be now. And at the same time. I digress.

I guess Norwood was used as it held the most spectators.

[robranisgod]

in 1973 the elim and first semi were played at norwood oval, the legs participated in both of them.

why would the sanfl program finals there when norwood were playing, very unfair imho.

surely other grounds could have been used, alberton, woodville or richmond come to mind.

anybody have any clue why this occured?

Port were pretty unhappy about it I think.

No idea why they chose Norwood (or why they didn't have the Norwood games at Adelaide, and the QF and 2SF at Norwood) but this was before Sunday matches, double headers, or Football Park were a thing, so they had to play somewhere.

The common sense thing to do back then was to play the Elimination Final at Adelaide and the Qualifying Final at Norwood and then play the First Semi Final at Adelaide and the Second Semi Final at Norwood. But common sense has never been a given for footy administrators.

[FOURTH ESTATE]

Crowds for 1973 final series

Elimination Final Norwood 23.13 def vs Port Adelaide 17.13 17,734
Qualifying Final Sturt 12.17 def North Adelaide 12.11 26,803

1st Semi North Adelaide 13.17 def Norwood 13.12 17,749
2nd Semi Glenelg 20.13 def Sturt 11.10 34,140

Preliminary Final North Adelaide 25.18 def Sturt 9.21 34,495

Grand Final Glenelg 21.11 def North Adelaide 19.16 56,525

Biggest Grand Final crowd since 1968 - 57,811


Norwood defeated Port in the last minor round game 11.13 - 6.8 on a wet boggy Norwood oval in which it rained continually all day. They were one game behind Central District. They needed to win and rely on North Adelaide defeating Central at Elizabeth.

Both games were tight affairs with the Legs holding a slight lead most of the day and led by 21pts at the last change 8.9 - 5.6.

The Bulldogs at home were looking to cause an upset as they led by 4pts at 3/4 time in wind swept conditions at Elizabeth 4.10 - 3.12.

Norwood extended their lead in the last to run out by 35pts while the Bulldogs could not hold off a fast-finishing North Adelaide to go down by 16pts and thus drop out of the finals race for 1973.

Glenelg's 57pt win in the Second Semi Final was a surprise to most pundits as a much closer game was expected as they had only beaten the Blues at Unley only a month earlier by 11pts in a very entertaining game. Most People expected a Glenelg - Sturt Grand Final

The Tigers beat the Double Blues 4 times in 1973 only for the Double Blues to reverse the result it in 1974 by going 4-0 against the Tigers.

R2 Glenelg Oval GL 22.19 def St 18.11 (Bays led all day)
R11 Adel Oval GL 14.14 def St 11.17 (Sturt led all day until last qtr)
R19 Unley Oval GL 19.18 def St 17.19 ( Bays led most of the day in a very tight game)
2nd Semi Adelaide Oval GL 20.13 def St 11.10

The Double Blues did not have a good finals series just scraping in 6pts after trailing most of the day to the Roosters in the Qualifying Final.
They were run over by the Bays after qtr time outscored 18.6 to 6.8. then then ran into a rampant North Adelaide to go down by 93 pts in all the Double Blues were outscored in the finals 57.42 - 32.48

While their good was good and could beat anyone on any single day they saved their worst for the finals with 3 well below par performances.

The Bays well what can I say, one of the most dominant performances ever seen in a single season. That is a story for another day.

One of the surprising results of 1973 was the Bulldogs beating Port Adelaide 3 times including a victory at Alberton Oval.

R1 Eliz. Oval CD 17.15 - PA 13.17
R10 Adel Oval CD 24.14 - PA 12.13
R20 Alb Oval CD 15.14 - PA 6.14

1973 was Port's worst season since 1969 with only 11 wins they only managed 9 in 1969. Other than 1969 the last time they only managed less than 9 winning games in a season was 1949 with 7 wins.

In 1973 their record was as follows

Glenelg 0-2
Sturt 1-1
North Adelaide 2-1
Norwood 1-3
Central District 0-3
West Adelaide 2-0
South Adelaide 2-0
West Torrens 1-1
Woodville 2-0

After 18 games the Magpies were 11-7 with a % of 53.25 and in 4th place 2 games behind the Roosters and with a round 19 clash at Prospect the Double chance was still alive but a dramatic last quarter half fade out resulting in a 55 pt loss ended and any hopes of a top 3 finish were over. Rounds 19 & 20 were not much better with a 54pt loss to the Bulldogs and 35pts to Norwood.

I can imagine that the Magpies would not have been happy about heading back to Norwood a week later. As the away team Norwood did have to wear white shorts from memory.

Once knocked out of the finals they did manage to win the Coca-Cola cup over West Torrens. A competition played for teams that did not make the finals from memory. John Cahill's last game as a player and last time the competition was held. Played before the Preliminary Final.