Being the class clown I always found that saying Woodville got the most laughs...Woodville..bloody hell, to a 12 year old living in the Sturt dominated area of Clapham that might as well have been on another planet! To shut up all of the idiots at school I decided to barrack for the underdogs in next week's game, the Norwood Redlegs. No way are they going to beat the mighty Sturt machine I was told as the laughs roared out again...but it was REB who laughed last that weekend as the Blues got the point and the Legs the pennant.
I didn't end up going to a game for a few years after that and for some reason it was Sturt v Port at Unley Oval in 1982. Anyone who was at that game will tell you that it was a fantastic game with Sturt winning and there wasn't enough room to swing a Cat at Unley because there was 18,000 fans at the game. I soon started attending matches regularly.
I saw the Aishes, Robertses, Thomases, McIntoshes for the good guys up against players of the calibre of Ebert, Davies, Graham, Evans, Cornes, Carey and many others. Then there were the players you just loved to watch Luders, Wilson, Dettrich, Antrobus and the Jarmans. Every club had star players and it was wall to wall fans whenever you played against another big club and good crowds for most games unless you played Woodville, Centrals or Torrens. Who needs the bloody VFL? Not us Gunga Din.
Then in 1987 the 5hit hit the cooler. The VFL was in deep diggery do and wanted to expand the comp to prop up struggling clubs with licence fees from the new 'franchises'. They hit pay dirt with WA and the West Coast Eagles were born. Of course SA had more balls than those in the West and we stood alone. The VFL went North young man and the Bears came out of hibernation.
To get back at us for having some independence, The VFL and Channel Ten started showing live VFL matches in direct competition to our local competition. A lot of us, including me, started paying a lot more attention to the VFL and I started following the fortunes of my favourite club, Geelong a lot more closely. Besides, I got to watch this guy called Ablett play and he was (and still is) the best player I had ever seen play the game. Still, I went to watch the Redlegs most weeks.
The inevitable occured when Port's bid was trumped by the SANFL and the Adelaide Football Corporation was born. I can remember that first game, I was actually cheering for the Crows (because I hated Hawthorn) in that match and laughing at the mighty Hawks copping an almighty hiding at the Park. However, I stood by my Cats because as a Norwood fan I just couldn't bring myself to barrack for Glenelg..er, the Crows. Rod Jamieson, David Marshall? Pfft. Please.
The SANFL took a bit of a hit and the crowds I was used to were the first casualty. Still, the Port v Norwood games could still draw a big crowd and plenty would turn up at the finals and the granny, once again we had trumped the West because the WAFL fell apart like Gary Glitter's alibi. The Legs took a dip too and missed the finals, something I thought would NEVER happen but we bounced back by the mid nineties to challenge Eagles and Port and Centrals for highest honours, typically finishing third like we did so many times the decade before.
Then the VFL..er..sorry AFL got it's way again. They finally back-doored Fitzroy, who couldn't draw a crowd if they had lingerie models playing for them and as Port had the runs on the board they finally got their innings. So now there were two SA teams in the league. At first the SANFL didn't appear to suffer but as the seasons went by more and more young players were disappearing into the draft, more than used to head off to Victoria than when the SANFL though that a retention scheme was needed to take keep talented players in SA.
Now the standard was gone, or at the very least noticeably slipping. I started losing my religon and going to SANFL games less. I still went to games but these days I had one ear on the Cats score as we were getting done by the Kangaroos yet again. Now that I live interstate these days, I just don't have the same interest in the SANFL, I don't know the Norwood players or their opponents any more, old Brian is dead and bloody Balmey is at flaming Collingwood. The only good thing about the modern SANFL to me is that Port are no longer a walk up start but it is just a change of teams and that same dominance is still there, only the Dogs fans laughably maintain that this current era is the equivalent to Port's efforts of recent decades..perhaps closer to Norwood's efforts in the 19th century may be a more accurate comparison but remember asswipes, we won a lot more than 5 in 6 and we got in first
As my youth has faded away so has one of my most cherished youthfull pursuits, my love of the SANFL. Before I say goodbye or even worse, turn into a Tiser journo, let me say 'thanks for the memories' and 'GO THE REDLEGS'.
regards,
REB
We may be heathens but at least we are educated heathens. LONG LIVE THE SANFL!!
