SA Footy

norwood to play finals at norwood in the early 70's ? that should never have been allowed, it should have been played at a NEUTRAL ground, fortuneately they didn't make a g.f by having home ground advantage, imagine in the present climate & they had to play elsewhere so central played at elizabeth i'd suggest all hell would break loose (unless we all knew at the start of the season that the highest ranked side got to play a home final)

I do know that it was a pre planned thing in 1973. Obviously they did not want two games at Adelaide two days in a row. Perhaps it was part of the feud between the SANFL and the SACA.

spell_check wrote:I do know that it was a pre planned thing in 1973. Obviously they did not want two games at Adelaide two days in a row. Perhaps it was part of the feud between the SANFL and the SACA.

Maybe something to do with the two extra finals games in 1973 owing to the new final five system?

Magpiespower wrote:

spell_check wrote:I do know that it was a pre planned thing in 1973. Obviously they did not want two games at Adelaide two days in a row. Perhaps it was part of the feud between the SANFL and the SACA.

Maybe something to do with the two extra finals games in 1973 owing to the new final five system?

Yes, but from 1975-1990 matches were played on seperate days at the same venue - Football Park. My thinking was that they did not want two games in 1973-74 on the same weekend at Adelaide. I think both matches of the first two weeks were played on the same day, in 1973-74.

I always thought that it was the next best venue at the time and I
assume that since Sunday football in SA hadn't commenced, the SANFL had
no other option.

North played carlton for the Champions of Australia in 1972 on a Sunday, I could never understand why we didn't have Sunday finals at Adelaide the next year, rather than play at Norwood on a Saturday.

It's an interesting question that's got me thinking.
Just asked one bloke I thought would know, Mike Coward, but he didn't.
Why give Norwood, who finished fifth, home ground advantage in a final against Port (fourth) when only 17,000 people could attend; while Sturt and North are playing at Adelaide Oval, a ground that could hold three times that number?
And it happened again in the semi-finals the following week. Got me baffled.

Probably because the Qualifying Final was seen as the more important/senior final.
I said 'probably' only because the VFL staged its Qualifying Final at the MCG for this reason.
No-one knows because an official reason was never given.

Harry the Horse wrote:Just asked one bloke I thought would know, Mike Coward, but he didn't.

A loyal Norwood supporter is our Mike! Silence was worth more than words.

I'm really surprised that nobody was able to answer this. Here are the reasons:

1973 was the first year of the final 5 in the SANFL
They played all finals on a Saturday at that time, so they needed a second ground in order to play 2 finals on the same weekend.
As Football Park wasn't ready, they elected for Norwood Oval, being the more central location.
The Elimination and 1st Semi Finals were the lesser of the two games in status, Adelaide Oval was the favoured football venue at that time, so those games were played at Norwood Oval. This was announced prior to the start of the season.

Yes, all these reasons WERE given by the SANFL when the announcement was made.

It had nothing to do with giving a team an advantage. The season earlier, Norwood made the finals for the first time since 1965, so they were no certainties to make the finals in 1973.

Interesting to note someone suggesting the final be moved from Norwood Oval because Norwood were in it. We would have looked a bit silly trying to move the 1964 GF from Adelaide Oval because it was South Adelaide's home ground.

At the time of the match, history reported that Norwood would have been better off playing Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, rather than at Norwood. To that time, Norwood and Port had played 56 times at Norwood Oval, Norwood won 28, Port 27, and one draw. At Adelaide, the two sides had clashed 25 times, Norwood winning 15, Port 9, and one draw.

No such thing as a home ground advantage in a final. Norwood defeated Port in the EF because they were the better team, and North defeated the Redlegs in the 1st semi for much the same reason.

I like the conspiracy theories better.

Dirty, thieving, stinking Norwood cheats...

They should have played them at Panther Park.

Nice work Hawk, tks for the clarification

Leaping Lindner wrote:They should have played them at Panther Park.

was panther park around then ?

bayman wrote:

Leaping Lindner wrote:They should have played them at Panther Park.

was panther park around then ?

If not, it wasn't far away. By the mid 70s, I think the league and reserves still trained and played at Adelaide Oval, but their juniors trained at Panther Park.