SANFL interstate expansion!

[SimonH]

The 60th anniversary of what was potentially a remarkable turn in the expansion of our local comp passed unremarked earlier this year. Unremarked by me, 'cos I didn't know about it until now.

On 13 June 1953, Norwood played North Adelaide at the SCG in what was apparently the first—and still the only—interstate match ever played for premiership points in the SANFL.

Apart from the qtr-by-qtr scores which are up at the link above (North won by 24 points), there are few details about how the game itself unfolded. Nor is there a huge amount of info on why there was no follow-up, other than presumably because the ANFC lost interest (see below). Would love to hear anything anyone else knows on the topic.

A search of the wonderful trove.nla.gov.au reveals that the game got plenty of soft publicity in the lead-up, the funniest of which was a piece on the day itself exciting the New South Welsh with the news that the umpire officiating would be Ken Aplin, about whom "many keen judges claim he is Australia's best central umpire". It remains forever unknown how many rushed the gates to see Mr Aplin blow the whistle. A Sydney Morning Herald article from Thu 11 June 1953 tells us that both sides were flying in that morning before training on the SCG the same day. Commercial aircraft would have still been a slightly novel way of travelling at the time.

A brief article from the Sunday Herald 18 January 1953 (5 months before the match) confirms what it was all about from an organisational perspective: "THE Australian National Football Council will continue the effort to popularise the Australian Rules game in Sydney. It will apply for use of the SCG for Saturday, June 13, and it proposes to put on a competition match between last season's Adelaide grand finalists, Norwood and North Adelaide. Does this mean that Melbourne clubs are not prepared to continue to have their teams play competition games a long, long way from home?"

Even though references to the result of the match in the Sydney press are hard to come by, the Narandera Advertiser proudly reports on 18 June 1953 that it has been forwarded a copy of the record of the game, which apparently 20,000 people paid 2510 pounds to see. In today's money, that'd put the Foxtel Cup prize money in the shade, I'd reckon!

[bays2011]

[FlyingHigh]

Interesting stuff.
Something else I read recently was that Sir Donald Bradman in the late 1960's thought that an interstate competition should be established, but apparently those that ran footy gave it short shrift. Not sure if this was the ANFC, VFL, SANFL, or if he had a proposed structure. Does anyone know more about this?

[therisingblues]

Is that the Ken Farmer era?
I think Adelaide University library has every Advertiser ever published on micro film. Surely there was a write up on the game if anyone could be arsed checking.

[robranisgod]

Is that the Ken Farmer era?
I think Adelaide University library has every Advertiser ever published on micro film. Surely there was a write up on the game if anyone could be arsed checking.

Ken Farmer retired from coaching North after the 1952 Grand Final victory, but he did coach North once more and it happened to be in the 1953 game at the SCG. For some reason the North coach couldn't make the trip to Sydney.

I have alays been stunned by the fact that the North vs Norwood game drew 20,000 to the SCG way back then. The Sydney Swans don't always draw 20,000 to their games today.