I have followed SANFL, Centrals in particular since 1964. As I remember it there wasn't a set home & away,black shorts white shorts policy in my time following Football.
I'm pretty sure that each team had a preferred shorts colour and would change to the opposite when playing other teams with the same choice. I believe the preferences were
Central District White
Glenelg Black
North Adelaide White
Norwood Black (later Navy, before coloured shorts were introduced in 1975)
Port Adelaide Black
South Adelaide White (not 100% sure on this one)
Sturt Black
West Adelaide Black
West Torrens White
Woodville Black
As you can see from this list it was far better to choose white shorts as you only needed to change a couple of times per season. I remember that Centrals didn't look that good in black shorts and I much preferred them wearing white shorts. It was only away games against North, Torrens and South that they needed to wear them.
Naturally with the introduction of Colour Television in 1975 this custom was discontinued. I think teams chose another colour when there was a clash with some wearing white, but I remember Glenelg in gold, West in Red & Torrens in yellow.
Strangely my records don't show Centrals wearing red shorts until 1988 so maybe they didn't change when there was a clash before this. In 1993 Centrals adopted white shorts as their alternates and since round 21, 1994 have made white their first choice.
Simple really no need to change shorts as we always wear white. A fact that eluded Port Adelaide in one finals game as they wore white until half time.
Deliberate?
Also, Sturt turned up to Elizabeth with white shorts one year (an oversight they had corrected by the start of the League game.)
Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:32 pm
