Ruben Carter wrote:To believe that Sturt or any other SANFL club would have been competitive against serious VFL clubs in a real competition (not 'carnival' type games) prior to 1990 is a tad niaive IMO. But that's for another thread.
I'll take the bait
if you think the Port side of 1980, the Sturt side of the late 60s, North of the early 70s, Westies of 83 and the Bays of 85 wouldn't have been competietive agaisnt VFL sides of their respective era's you are vey much mistaken.
This is based on the players who played in those sides (particularly Port of 1980 and Glenelg of 85) who then went to the VFl and AFL and had better careers than most.
Similarly South Fremantle's side of 1980 would have been more than competieitve as well when you think it had the likes of Stephen Michael, Brad Hardie and Maurice Rioli running around
I'm confident they would've played finals, Yes the best sides of the VFL were better than the best sides of the SANFL and WANFL (as it was known back then) but our better sides would have beaten their worst sides and would have finsished any where from eight to fourth.
This is not just my opinion this is the opinion of someone who went from North Adelaide in the early 80s and then over to Saint Kilda to play and was shocked at how the poor the skill of some of the players were and how un-professional they were.
So yes Rick Davies is more than eligible for the title Mr September