Season 1977

[bulldogs]

Can anyone add to this season. I was only 6yrs old and went to my first GF. Still recall Russell holding the trophy up with a huge grin on his face I no south and west made the finals but not sure who the other team was i think sturt.

[am Bays]

Nah Norwood made the five. Sturt finished 7th - biggest drop IIRC for a premier since 1935.

I think the league finished thus at the end of the minor round:

Port, Glenelg, West, Norwood, South, Torrens??, Sturt, North ??, Woodville ??, Centrals. Not sure where Torrens, North and Woodville finished outside the five but certain of Sturt and Centrals positions.

Like you I was only six and it was the year I first really got into footy. I only ahve vague recollections of 76.

[grant j]

1977 SANFL LEAGUE PREMIERSHIP LADDER at end of minor round



POS TEAMS P W L D F A % PTS
1 PORT ADELAIDE 22 17 4 1 2804 1916 59.41 35
2 GLENELG 22 14 8 0 2676 2089 56.16 28
3 WEST ADELAIDE 22 14 8 0 2286 1952 53.94 28
4 NORWOOD 22 13 9 0 2533 1848 57.82 26
5 SOUTH ADELAIDE 22 13 9 0 2483 2243 52.54 26
6 WEST TORRENS 22 10 12 0 2021 2458 45.12 20
7 STURT 22 9 12 1 2296 2257 50.43 19
8 NORTH ADELAIDE 22 7 14 1 2197 2736 44.54 15
9 WOODVILLE 22 6 16 0 1950 2923 40.02 12
10 CENTRAL DISTRICTS 22 5 16 1 2052 2876 41.64 11

[am Bays]

Thank you, come again....

Gee given how far Port finished a head of us at the end of the minor round we did well to only lose by 10 pts (IIRC) in the GF. Cetainly tehy were deserved premiers given how much they dominated the rest of teh competition

[grant j]

1977 Final series. All matches played at Football Park

ELIMINATION FINAL
NORWOOD 10 13 73
SOUTH ADELAIDE 12 17 89

QUALIFYING FINAL
GLENELG 20 6 126
WEST ADELAIDE 13 8 86

1st SEMI-FINAL
WEST ADELAIDE 9 17 71
SOUTH ADELAIDE 5 6 36

2nd SEMI-FINAL
PORT ADELAIDE 12 12 84
GLENELG 9 5 59

PRELIMINARY FINAL
GLENELG 11 14 80
WEST ADELAIDE 7 12 54

GRAND FINAL
PORT ADELAIDE 17 11 113
GLENELG 16 9 105

[JK]

Have never seen any highlights from it, but have always figured it must have been a pretty good GF given the tightness in the result and decent scores??

[Interceptor]

Have never seen any highlights from it, but have always figured it must have been a pretty good GF given the tightness in the result and decent scores??

Pretty rough and tough from what I remember reading about it.
I think Fred Phillis and Tim Evans were both knocked out?

Sturt slipped pretty badly after being Premiers the year before.
I'm sure AH can tell us more about this season, especially from a Legs perspective

[nickname]

My favourite season as a kid, mainly because as a kid it was our equal most successful season.
This was the season Fos Williams coached us and was accused regularly of overwatering Richmond Oval to slow it down to suit our notoriously slow side. The frightening Ray Hayes, the fearless Kevin Beswick and the sublime Jim Buckley. We rarely lost at Richmond in '76 and '77. How times have changed.

[Adelaide Hawk]

From a Norwood point of view, another frustrating year because we burst out of the blocks in sensational form. Our 1st half of the year was brilliant, and we played unstoppable football with regularity. Then Jim Thiel did his knee and the season began to unravel. Thiel's injury was a football tragedy because prior to that he was a sensation.

After being 9-1 at round 10, with a percentage of 63.28, we ended the minor round at 13-9, with a percentage of 57.82. We had massive wins over Port Adelaide (78), West Torrens (132), North Adelaide (150), and Central District at Elizabeth (77). The score of 33-21 (219) against North remains our highest ever score. We won big and lost small for the entire season.

Rounds 11-13 saw three losses by less than a goal which didn't help. The strangest memory was our round 11 loss to Port by 2 points. In the dying stages, we saw Jim Michalanney belting the ball out of bounds and using time wasting tactics. When the siren rang he threw his arms in the air thinking we had won!! Sure we scored more goals 10-9 to 9-17 but obviously Jim's maths had let him down.

We floundered for the entire 2nd half of the season but a 119 point win over West Torrens in round 22 gave us some hope for the finals. We only lasted one week, getting done by South in the EF.

Saving grace for the season was our night series Ardath Cup victory over East Perth. It came at a price because the last 3 times we won on the Tuesday night, we went down on the Saturday.

I also think 1977 was the year the SANFL changed from 1 field umpire to 2 mid-season.

[JK]

Rounds 11-13 saw three losses by less than a goal which didn't help. The strangest memory was our round 11 loss to Port by 2 points. In the dying stages, we saw Jim Michalanney belting the ball out of bounds and using time wasting tactics. When the siren rang he threw his arms in the air thinking we had won!! Sure we scored more goals 10-9 to 9-17 but obviously Jim's maths had let him down.

LOL I believe "Piano" was a teacher too, let's hope Maths indeed wasn't one of the classes he taught!!

[Jimmy_041]

I went to both Collingwood v North Melbourne GFs

Phil Carman got suspended for 2 games for knocking Michael Tutt's head off and missed both GFs - silly twat

Phil Manassa's run in the replay - a beauty

[FlyingHigh]

Have never seen any highlights from it, but have always figured it must have been a pretty good GF given the tightness in the result and decent scores??

Agree CP, looking at the scores and some of the stories (didn't Fred Phillis line up on Tim Evans?), you'd think it would be regarded as one of the classics. Gee, 73-80 saw some great GF's.

[JK]

Have never seen any highlights from it, but have always figured it must have been a pretty good GF given the tightness in the result and decent scores??

Agree CP, looking at the scores and some of the stories (didn't Fred Phillis line up on Tim Evans?), you'd think it would be regarded as one of the classics. Gee, 73-80 saw some great GF's.

Is that right about Phillis and Evans?? If so, which one was away from their more customary position?

[am Bays]

Phillis was moved to Full Back by Nicholls early on in 1977.

Cornes kicked 70 odd goals IIRC that year playing between on ball and Forward Pocket (mainly) as the taller option and Copping as leading forward.

With players being played out of position (in their mind) issues came to a head in late 78 when player dissatisfaction with the coach came to the fore - a pretense to post Crows history at the Bay???

Aenother interesting anncdote from 1977 is that of teh 20 players named in the state side (May) five each came from Port, Sturt, Norwood and Glenelg - the big four anyone???

.

[Leaping Lindner]

Phillis was moved to Full Back by Nicholls early on in 1977.

Cornes kicked 70 odd goals IIRC that year playing between on ball and Forward Pocket (mainly) as the taller option and Copping as leading forward.

With players being played out of position (in their mind) issues came to a head in late 78 when player dissatisfaction with the coach came to the fore - a pretense to post Crows history at the Bay???

Aenother interesting anncdote from 1977 is that of teh 20 players named in the state side (May) five each came from Port, Sturt, Norwood and Glenelg - the big four anyone???

.

And remind me how they went......

[Jimmy_041]

Phillis was moved to Full Back by Nicholls early on in 1977.

Cornes kicked 70 odd goals IIRC that year playing between on ball and Forward Pocket (mainly) as the taller option and Copping as leading forward.

With players being played out of position (in their mind) issues came to a head in late 78 when player dissatisfaction with the coach came to the fore - a pretense to post Crows history at the Bay???

Aenother interesting anncdote from 1977 is that of teh 20 players named in the state side (May) five each came from Port, Sturt, Norwood and Glenelg - the big four anyone???

.

You mean the big 3 and Glenelg

[am Bays]

Good Fishing and so quick on the bite too boys

Well the following year was the first Grand Final since 1962 theat neither Port or Glenelg played in a Grand Final...

So maybe we had claims for a brief 20 year period....

LL I believe they lost, mind you if Robran wasn't off whinging about a sore knee it might have been different....

Don't worry LL, by 1990 Dick Jones had annointed North as one of the big four replacing Sturt!!!

[Leaping Lindner]

Good Fishing and so quick on the bite too boys

Well the following year was the first Grand Final since 1962 theat neither Port or Glenelg played in a Grand Final...

So maybe we had claims for a brief 20 year period....

LL I believe they lost, mind you if Robran wasn't off whinging about a sore knee it might have been different....

Don't worry LL, by 1990 Dick Jones had annointed North as one of the big four replacing Sturt!!!

There was another Robran in pretty good form at the time and he indeed made the state squad but not the final team. Mind you he was good but he was no Peter McInerney

[am Bays]

Trevor Grimwood??? Who got it right the state selectors or the umpires???

Mind you number 25 was a very under-rated player.

[Leaping Lindner]

Trevor Grimwood??? Who got it right the state selectors or the umpires???

Mind you number 25 was a very under-rated player.

Exactly. Why wasn't Grimwood in state team? He'd had a good 76 (West B&F) and was in equally good form in 77. Mind you I didn't go to the game. I figured if the State Selectors can't take the game seriously neither should I.
#25 was a good honest player. Not great and be honest not a state player by any stretch of the imagination.