1978 Interstate Challenge - Sturt v North Melbourne

[MagareyLegend]

I am after information on the game between Sturt & North Melbourne at Football Park in early September (?) 1978 which I believe was a challenge match between the minor premiers from SA & Victoria.

I have just been fortunate to see a good quality beta video of the 1st half of this game - all the Sturt & North Mellbourne stars were playing and you see Barassi coming out at quarter time to talk to his players. Blight had kicked 6 up to hlaf time on Hargraves.

At half time before the thing shuts off it shows about 5 imnutes close up of the the West Torrens league players out in the middle inspecting the ground including a very young Bruce Lindsay and a realtively young Rocky Roberts and coach Neil Kerley.

I think Torrens played in the elimination final later that day v Glenelg (or Port).

[Leaping Lindner]

It was the curtain raiser to the 1978 Elimination Final. Our reserves were shunted off to Adelaide Oval to play. Which is where I was before catching the bus to Footy Park and getting there about 1/2 way through the second quarter.

[MagareyLegend]

LL - I thought so - I could hear them commentating that Reserves game in the background - they mentioned Diorio & Lokan.
What was the Sturt v NM game for? Did it mean anything?

[Leaping Lindner]

LL - I thought so - I could hear them commentating that Reserves game in the background - they mentioned Diorio & Lokan.
What was the Sturt v NM game for? Did it mean anything?

It was played during the break to keep both teams in match form presumably.
It meant both sides lost their respective Grand Finals

[hearts on fire]

Jeeze, some of you blokes on here are getting on a bit.......

[Adelaide Hawk]

Nth Melb 6-2 9-5 16-9 20-12 132
Sturt 3-3 7-7 10-8 11-10 76
Best
NM: Blight Alves Tanner Keenan Greig Schimmelbusch
S: Winter Burgan Mutton Reed Graham Klomp
Goals
NM: Blight 11 Icke 2 Alves Tanner Davis Cassin Huppatz Nettlefold McCann
S: Winter 2 Bagshaw 2 Barton 2 Davies Sims Mutton Hargreaves Klomp

Sturt lost Gary Hardeman with an ankle injury during the match.

1978: Norwood and Hawthorn premiers ... has a certain ring to it

[Adelaide Hawk]

LL - I thought so - I could hear them commentating that Reserves game in the background - they mentioned Diorio & Lokan.
What was the Sturt v NM game for? Did it mean anything?

Both clubs were worried about playing only 1 finals match in 3 weeks before playing the GF. You could understand Sturt's situation because they'd had a stand out season, but North Melbourne had lost 6 games for the year and only scraped into the minor premier spot by a small percentage.

Hawthorn had beaten North the previous time they'd played and went on to beat them again in the 2nd Semi and Grand Finals. For years after that, Barassi still refused to admit that maybe Hawthorn may have been the better team.

[topsywaldron]

Goals NM: Blight 11

Just a lazy eleven?

Reckon he might have ruined Strut's confidence for the GF, Brian Adamson thanks you Blighty.

[spell_check]

Dad says that Blight had three opponents on him and he still won the ball.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Dad says that Blight had three opponents on him and he still won the ball.

Blighty seemed to enjoy coming back to Adelaide with North Melbourne to play an SANFL club. He also booted 9 against Norwood in the 1975 Champions of Australia match. I think it was Blighty's way of extracting revenge for his lack of team success at Woodville.

[Mark_Beswick]

So other than these players you listed, who else played for both sides in this game A.H?
STURT
WINTER, David Bruce DB 2
SIMS, Trevor James DB 1
REED, Graham John DB 0
MUTTON, Gary E DB 1
KLOMP, Robbert Jan DB 1
HARGREAVES, Peter James DB 1
GRAHAM, Michael Wayne DB 0
DAVIES, Evan Ricki DB 1
BURGAN, Anthony Paul DB 0
BARTON, Robert Leslie DB 2
BAGSHAW, Paul Lynton DB 2

NMelb - Other than those in the Best and Goals you listed?

[Adelaide Hawk]

Sorry Mark, all I have on that game is the match details and a quick write up of the game. Don't know if there were any stats in the paper. The only players I can add to the list from the write up is Gary Hardeman (Sturt) and Mick Nolan (North)

[spell_check]

I have the behinds in the scorers of that match if you want them too Mark:

N.Melb: Blight 11.0, Icke 2.1, Tanner, Cassin 1.2, Alves, McCann 1.1, Davis, Huppatz, Nettlefold 1.0, Sutton, Burns 0.1, Rushed 0.3.
Sturt: Winter 2.2, Bagshaw, Barton 2.0, Klomp 1.4, Sims, Mutton 1.1, Davies, Hargreaves 1.0, Heinrich, Burgan 0.1.

And the best players is of course to the interpretation of the reporter as you'll see with the different names to those that AH provided:
N.Melb: Blight, Glendinning, Schimmelbusch, Alves, Nolan, Tanner
Sturt: Barton, Burgan, Mutton, Davies, Klomp, Wark

[MagareyLegend]

Umpires: Mark Coombe & Rick Kinnear

Players Noted:

STURT
1 Howard
3 Winter
4 Sims
6 Burgan
8 Bagshaw
9 Heinrich
12 Leonard
13 Hardeman
14 Reed
15 Wark
19 Graham
20 Casey
22 Klomp
24 Davies
26 Hargreaves
28 Barton
34 Wiseman
36 Downes
39 Mutton

NORTH MELBOURNE
1 Keenan
2 Alves
3 Cassin
4 Glendinning
5 Sutton
6 Icke
8 Crosswell
10 Huppatz
11 J Burns
14 Davis
15 Blight
16 McCann
17 Melrose
20 Schimmelbusch
21 J Byrne
22 Nolan
25 Tanner
27 Greig
35 Nettlefold
38 Ramsay
46 Smith
47 Jarrett

Noted matchups:

Hargreaves v Blight
Crosswell v Bagshaw
Winter v Glendinning
Davies v Nolan/Keenan
Greig v Graham (on one leg kicking left foot only due to right thigh injury)
Casey v Davis

[Interceptor]

First 15 minutes up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1SZj2bdLCo

[McAlmanac]

First 15 minutes up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1SZj2bdLCo

Memo Daisy Day - who is "Arves" for North Melbourne?

Huppatz to Blight for a goal - enough to gladden the heart of any old Woodville supporter.

[Mark_Beswick]

Does anyone know who the 20th player for sturt was - I see 19 listed above