SA Footy

Prior to the formation of Sturt in 1901, the Unley area must have been considered part of another club’s territory. South Adelaide or Norwood perhaps? Does anyone know?
It would be interesting to know what reactions were prevalent at this time.

Indeed, I would be interested to learn the history of how the various clubs / leagues reacted each time there was a ‘new kid on the block’. Given today’s sensitivity to re-zoning, I can’t help wondering whether emotions ran as deeply during the 1800’s & 1900’s.

Depending on the availability of historic resources (or family folklore), this could be a fascinating insight into how the rich fabric of OUR league has been woven.
Painful, prejudiced, jealous, maybe even spiteful ‘warts and all’ accounts of the SA game’s evolution would make great reading.

Whatever you’ve got, post away.

This is a very basic run down
When the electorate system was introduced in 1897 South were allocated the area of Sturt - and there was a huge fight over it. They were appeased with that and the area of East Adelaide as well. Then when Sturt was introduced (South naturally enough objected again) South were basically left with just East Adelaide. It's no coincidence that South's decline as a power began soon after. It got so bad that in 1905/6 there were calls for South and West to merge and become Adelaide. South and West had the area of Adelaide split in half (imagine King William Street as the dividing line).
Prior to 1897 it wasn't an issue as you could basically play for whoever you wanted no matter where you lived. For example John Reedman - an early South champion - lived in Gilberton which was well in North's area. He didn't move and that's how he ended up at North when the Electorate system became compulsory in 1899.

I know as a North supporter that the introduction of Woodville raised some eyebrows. There was the ludicrous situation that if you lived on the west side of Prospect road you were zoned to Woodville despite living a mere two to three minute walk from Prospect Oval.

Great topic Sabre. Hopefully plenty of people contribute to this.

If I've got the story straight, the original Adelaide Football Club (SA's oldest) twice suffered
break away groups who called themselves South Adelaide. Fortunately they merged.
As Leaping Lindner alluded to above, South really have been pushed from pillar to post.
Thanks to Full Points Footy for the following insights :

In 1897 the SAFA voted to introduce an electorate system of player registration, whereby players would be required to play for the club in whose electoral district they resided. The system was loosely implemented that very year, but only on a voluntary basis. However, from 1899 it became compulsory and, over the longer term, the big loser was the South Adelaide Football Club.
Initially, however, although the club lost a large number of highly talented and experienced players, including the likes of 'Dinny' Reedman, Jack Kay, Ern Jones, and Edward MacKenzie, the overall impact was negligible, as there were also a number of significant gains. Principal among these was the arrival from Norwood of the leading goalsneak in the colony, Anthony 'Bos' Daly, who promptly proceeded to help himself to 32 goals for the season as South procured the 1899 premiership courtesy of a 5.12 (42) to 2.2 (14) challenge final victory over Daly's former associates from the Parade. Unfortunately, however, in 1900 he was on the move again, this time to West Torrens, and although the blue and whites were still sufficiently strong to play off for the premiership (losing by 13 points to North Adelaide) the 'halcyon era' was very definitely over.

Over the course of the next decade, particularly after Sturt was admitted to the competition in 1901, the effects of the electorate system would truly begin to hit home. South Adelaide was the only club to vote against Sturt's admission - hardly surprising when you consider that the newcomers were to be allocated a major slice of South's territory, which would see them able to claim as many as a dozen former Blue and White players in their debut season.


South Adelaide's zone was actually centered on east Adelaide, one of the few areas of the city where the population was not expanding; moreover, with limited finances at its disposal, the club did not have ready recourse to alternative methods of recruitment. (Sturt, for example, had a major beneficiary in the shape of John Frederick Dempsey, whose money was used as bait to lure large numbers of top quality players to Unley from interstate; these players, known as 'Dempsey's Immigrants', would effectively sow the seeds of the Blues' first ever premiership in 1915.) The situation rapidly became self-perpetuating, and would continue, with only fleeting interludes, for most of the remainder of the twentieth century.

Leaping Lindner wrote:I know as a North supporter that the introduction of Woodville raised some eyebrows. There was the ludicrous situation that if you lived on the west side of Prospect road you were zoned to Woodville despite living a mere two to three minute walk from Prospect Oval.

It still happens today that the Fitzroy Football club is allocated to Woodville West Torrens....

Sojourner wrote:

Leaping Lindner wrote:I know as a North supporter that the introduction of Woodville raised some eyebrows. There was the ludicrous situation that if you lived on the west side of Prospect road you were zoned to Woodville despite living a mere two to three minute walk from Prospect Oval.

It still happens today that the Fitzroy Football club is allocated to Woodville West Torrens....

Didn't know that Fitzroy play in the Sanfl.