Adelaide Oval Grand Finals 1898-1973
Lest we forget. More people have watched Australian football at Adelaide Oval than cricket.
Footy began to be played at the oval in 1877 and following the formation of the South Australian Football Association (SAFA) the same year when the major games were known as ‘association’ football. The term ‘league’ football was introduced in 1907 when the SAFA changed its name to the South Australian Football League (SAFL).
From 1877 battles for premierships began but these were not decided by grand finals as they are now. Indeed for the first twenty-one years the premier club was that which had won most games for the championship season. By this means the Norwood Football Club headed the list eleven times (1878-83), 1887-89, 1891, 1894); South Adelaide had six wins (1877, 1885, 1892-93, 1895-96); Port Adelaide three (1884, 1890, 1897) and the Adelaide Football Club one (1886).
As can be seen from these figures Norwood was the outstanding club in South Australia and in 1888 it became ‘Champion of Australia’ by defeating the Victorian Football Association premier South Melbourne three matches to nil at the Kensington Oval.
In some respects the first grand final at Adelaide Oval might be considered to have occurred on 5 October 1889 when Norwood met Port Adelaide in what the Adelaide Observer described as ‘a unique event in the annals of South Australian football’ as it was the first time two teams had tied for premiership honours with 14 wins 2 losses and a draw at the end of the season. However, the first of the regular grand finals was that of 1898 following the establishment of a finals system.
The problem was that there were frequent chops and changes. In 1899, for instance, the SAFA secretary D.T. Lawes released the following notice:
On the completion of the first round the six clubs shall be divided into two sections, to be called A and B section. Section A shall consist of clubs that are first, second, fourth and sixth in the first round. Each club in section A shall play each other once, and each club in section B shall play each other once, and the clubs having the best percentage in each section shall play a match, and should the winner of such be the winner of the first round, then such club shall have won the premiership. Should the club which wins such match not be the winner of the first round, then the club winning such match shall play another and final match for the premiership against the winner of the first round, provided the winner of the first round shall gave gained at least two points in the first two matches of the second round. In the event of any clubs tying on percentage in either round the position of such club shall be determined by the proportion of points kicked for and against such club.
Clear as mud!
By 1901 such a competition was abolished in favour of a season that consisted of three rounds. The first two rounds were deemed as being the first half and the leading team became minor premiers. In the so-called second half of the season each team met each other once and the winner (if different) would play the minor premiers for the championship. This system was soon condemned, however, because it enabled clubs to hold back in the first half of the season and concentrate their efforts on the end of the season.
A new system was therefore devised in 1902 with each team to play one another twice, with the four leading teams going on the take part in the third or major round. The first and third teams, and the second and fourth teams then played in the semi-finals and the two winners met in the final. If the minor premier was successful in both of its matches the season ended with three major round games – the two finalists taking first and second places. Should the minor premiers be defeated in any of its games, however, it had the right to challenge the winner of the final for the premiership contest.
Challenge finals continued until 1931. In the period 1903 to 1906 the minor premiers won the premiership three times but only once – by North Adelaide (1905) was this achieved without the aid of a challenge final. In 1904 Port Adelaide won the minor premiership, lost its semi-final to South Adelaide, then challenged Norwood for the championship, but was unsuccessful.
From 1907 to 1911 no minor premier went top but the eventual winners all had to win three finals games to take the pennant. In those five seasons all clubs finished on the premiership ladder according to the number of wins they registered, but in 1912 West Adelaide with ten wins headed Port Adelaide with thirteen. Port went through the 1912 minor round undefeated with twelve wins and West finished in second place, having won seven games and lost five; however West then beat Sturt once and Port twice to win the premiership.
The last three seasons before the competition was interrupted by the First World War saw the minor premiers Port (1913-14) and Sturt (1915) triumph. After the war the minor premiers won each of the next twelve premierships although they depended on winning the challenge finals in seven of those years (1921, 1924, 1926-30).
The Page system, adopted from Victoria in 1931, saw the challenge final abolished and a different order of deciding the final four. The teams placed third and fourth at the end of the minor round now met in a knock-out first semi-final while the top and second placegetters met in the second semi-final. This meant that the top two placegetters had a double-chance in the major round. The winner of the first semi-final then met the loser of the second semi-final in the preliminary final. The winner of the second semifinal advanced straight into the grand final where it played the winner of the preliminary final. This system remained in place until 1973 when (again following Victoria) the final five was introduced.
Under this scheme the monopoly of the minor premiers winning the flag was initially broken as the season’s top side did not triumph until Port won the 1936 grand final. Overall the minor premiers maintained their ascendancy in just over half the grand finals contested with twenty-two wins in forty-two years although there could be few complaints when West Torrens (1953) and South Adelaide (1964), both second to Port Adelaide on percentage at the end of the minor round, claimed the top honour. More problematic were North-Norwood’s premierships in 1943-44 in the wartime competition when their sides won only five and three games in the respective minor rounds compared to Port-Torrens ten wins in each of those seasons.
In 1973 the introduction of a final five meant playing additional elimination and qualifying finals before the first and second semi-finals, preliminary final and grand final. Minor premier Glenelg won the first premiership under this system.
Seventy-two grand finals have been contested at Adelaide Oval, the missing years being 1904 when the grand final was played at the Jubilee Oval on a site near the present-day Barr-Smith Library in the University of Adelaide, and 1916-18 when league football went into abeyance due to war. Premierships won by the respective sides are as follows: Port Adelaide 20, North Adelaide 11, Norwood 10, Sturt 10, West Adelaide 7, South Adelaide 5, West Torrens 4, Glenelg 2, Norwood-North 2, Port-Torrens 1.
In 1898 South Adelaide won the first grand-final under the district or electorate-based system (introduce in 1897) where players had to live in their club zone. Although the South Australian Register was enthusiastic
Individually and collectively they were the best team and their exhibitions when they were playing ‘all out’ was a real treat for their united play, long kicking and clever passages were delightful to witness and of such character as to richly deserve the final honour which rewarded them.
the club was nearing the end of its most glorious decade when it won six premierships.
North Adelaide reaped immediate benefits from the district system to win the 1900 premiership, rising from bottom to top in one season. When it defeated South Adelaide in the grand final the win was hailed as a victory for football. At three-quarter time the match was evenly poised with North leading 1.2 to five behinds but the younger club was the favourite of the crowd of 7000 and received a rousing cheer when they entered the arena for the last s term. Even though South tied the score at one stage North kicked three goals to one in the last quarter to win by thirteen points.
The closing moments of the game were watched by Governor and Lady Tennyson who left the races early to see the finish but the men who mattered were captain Ernest Jones (Australia’s fast bowler) and his lieutenant Jack ‘Dinnie’ Reedman (also a Test cricketer) both of whom in an ironical twist played against the side with which they had enjoyed outstanding success. Why Jones led the side instead of Reedman was a mystery given that Reedman had been South’s captain. In 1901, however, he took over as North’s leader and remained at the helm for the next five seasons during which time the club was never out of the finals, and won the 1902 and 1905 premierships.
Norwood’s greatest era was behind it but a future state premier, Lionel Hill, led the ruck in its first grand final win in 1901 by four points after a thrilling encounter with Port Adelaide. The margin was the same in the club’s next title success, again over Port, in the 1904 grand final at the Jubilee Oval but it had an easy win over the Magpies in 1907 in what became the first league football premiership in front of the then record crowd of 25,000. It defeated Carlton for the Championship of Australia the same year.
Port Adelaide gained the minor premiership in 1902 but went no further following one of football’s major controversies which erupted over the club’s refusal to play under umpire Kneebone in a semi-final match against South Adelaide and led to it being disqualified by the SAFA for the remainder of the season. It then began to make its presence felt, however, by winning its fourth premiership in 1903, four more in the next dozen years and appeared in seven grand finals in succession.
In 1912 Port won twelve minor round games but lost twice in the major round producing a bleat from its secretary, James Hodge: ‘This is the sixteenth time we have been second and we are getting used to it.’ Its highlight was its unbeaten run from 21 June 1913 to 31 July 1915 when it won 29 games, drew 1 and gathered two premierships. In 1914 it was the first side to amass a double-figure goal tally as it annihilated North Adelaide 13.15 to 1.8.
West Adelaide entered on a golden era between 1908 and 1912 when it won four premierships in five years. The Leahy family proved the backbone of the club with brothers Tom, Bernie and Vin as players and another brother, George, taking over as secretary. In order to win its first flag West defeated Norwood in the challenge final by three points and won by three goals against Port Adelaide the following year. After missing the final four in 1910 West defeated Port by five points in the 1911 grand final and fourteen points in 1912. It also won two Championships of Australia, defeating Carlton in 1908 and Essendon in 1911.
Sturt prevented Port winning a hat-trick of premierships by claiming its first pennant in 1915 after coming from fourth place. A couple of peculiarities surrounded the win: the first was that Sturt entered the major round with the lowly percentage of 48.7, and the second was that the grandstands at Adelaide Oval were devoid of spectators because they were occupied by troops using them as camping grounds in preparation for war. However, the club’s second success in 1919 followed the most dramatic finals series ever played.
Sturt were the minor premiers but the major round opened with a bang on 30 August when the Blues were easily defeated by third-placed North Adelaide in the first semi-final. A week later in the second semi-final West Torrens (second) comfortably accounted for Port Adelaide (fourth). As a result of the challenge system North and Torrens were thus eligible to decide who would contest the premiership match with Sturt.
A preview of the final on 13 September stated that the teams were ‘evenly matched’ and the pundit could not have been more correct as Torrens and North ended the game with 2.3 each after a hard fought contest. In the replay the following week the main feature of the game was the remarkable accuracy in shooting for goal. At half-time Torrens led 5.2 to North’s 5.0 and only a single point was added by either side in a defensive third quarter. By adding a goal and a behind in the last term and keeping Torrens scoreless North moved into the challenge final by a five point margin.
Predicting the premiership battle was difficult and one reporter in the Sporting Index hedged his bets:
Sturt are somewhat of a doubtful quantity at the time of writing. It is now fully a month since the team has seen action, and this may prove a little handicap. On the other hand, the Double Blues should strip a fresh eighteen, and maybe the rest will be of great advantage … North Adelaide are sure to srip brimful of confidence … the red and whites have undoubtedly proved their prowess and Sturt will have to be at it hammer and tongs throughout the game to have a chance of defeating the dauntless Norths.
The result was once again a surprise. Although North got away to what looked like a match-winning lead of 4.3 to 0.1 in the first quarter the Blues replied with four goals in the second term and at the end the scores were tied at 5.9 apiece.
The final contest of the challenge final replay got under way eleven days later on a Wednesday, Labour Day, 8 October with a cold southwesterly wind blowing. Supporters of both teams remained confident of victory but the salient feature of the game was the overwhelming power of the defenders and the apparent impotence of the forwards to work up a semblance of system or individual effort to defeat them. At three-quarter time North led 2.6 to 0.4 by Sturt and the result remained in doubt until the final minute of the game when Anzac war hero Ivor Nicolle goaled to give the Blues victory by five points.
In the interwar years all clubs gained at least one premiership but Sturt’s successes were limited to three more evenly spaced premierships. Frank Golding led the club to its next title in 1926 and then after a two year slump the former Norwood captain Syd White coached the side to one premiership, three grand finals and another four finals appearances in nine years. The 1932 title came following a dashing display against hot favourites North Adelaide in which Gordon ‘Grassy’ Green scored an individual record of nine goals from eleven shots. Sturt might have won the 1936 Centenary premiership when ‘Bo’ Morton miskicked from thirty metres out in front of goal in the dying minutes of the game but fortunately he was able to resurrect the club and his own reputation four years later when he was captain-coach and kicked 101 goals for the season as well as capturing the 1940 premiership.
North Adelaide led by Tom Leahy and Jack ‘Snowy’ Hamilton won the 1920 grand final by an eight goal margin over Norwood but did not establish a pattern of success until its back-to-back titles of 1930-31 when Ken Farmer, the greatest full-forward in the game’s history, began to underline his primacy. Farmer kicked 100 goals eleven seasons in succession from 1930 to 1940 and earned the nickname ‘Football’s Bradman’.
Port Adelaide had five wins with the legendary Harold Oliver instrumental in his side’s eight point success over Norwood in 1921. The without the air of subsequent invincibility. Much of the impetus for Port’s success in the 1930s came from its powerful first ruck combination of Big Bob McLean, ‘Bull’ Reval and Bob Quinn but it had powerful players all over the ground. It contested eight grand finals in 1929-30 and from 1934 to 1939 for three premierships in 1936-37 and 1939.
Norwood also won five premierships but most of its successes came in the 1920s. After losing the grand finals of 1920-21 the Redlegs took out the flag in 1922-23 and 1925 under the leadership of Sid White with a great goal-to-goal line boasting major stars such as centre-half-back ‘Wacka’ Scott, centreman Alec Lill and full-forward Roy Bent. Under White, Norwood lost the 1928 grand final to Port and won the 1929 premiership but had no further success until 1941.
West Torrens broke through for its first premiership success in 1924 by eight points in front of a record crowd of 44,300. Brilliant centreman Roy Brown masterminded this win with his devastating use of the flick plass and the club were unlucky not to gain another flag the following season when Norwood’s superior groundwork enabled it to squeeze home by one point. Torrens’ next win in 1933 came after the club had been in the doldrums – bottom (1930), fifth (1931) and sixth (1932) – and it slipped back into the middle order thereafter until contesting the 1939 grand final.
West Adelaide seemed to suffer dislocation problems in the years immediately after the First World War when it shared Adelaide Oval as a home ground with South Adelaide. The move to a new home at the Wayville Showgrounds coincided with the 1927 premiership under the leadership of Bruce McGregor but that win by two goals over North Adelaide was the club’s sole grand final appearance and in the 1930s it failed to make the major round at all.
Glenelg was the league’s chopping block when it lost all its matches in its first four seasons (1921-24) and won only 32 of 130 in the next eight years. In 1933 it won more games than it lost but still finished only in sixth position so that its 1934 premiership win was remarkable. Coached by Bruce McGregor in his second season the victory came after an amazing change of form as the Tigers lost their first three games, drew the fourth, lost the fifth and after seven rounds were at the bottom of the premiership ladder. The club recovered, however, to win second position at the end of the minor round and a double chance in the finals. Despite being thrashed by Port Adelaide in the second semi-final it returned to subdue Sturt a week later and defeated the Magpies by nine points in the grand final. The inspirational marking and ruck play of George ‘Blue’ Johnston and the effective shadowing of Port’s ruck-rovers Vic Johnson and Reval played a big part in its success. There was no wonderful aftermath though as the Bays slipped back from whence they had come by finishing bottom with one win out of seventeen games in 1935.
South Adelaide’s days of glories were brief in the twentieth century but it broke through for two premierships in 1935 and 1938 as well as playing in losing grand finals in 1937 and 1940. In 1935 South made a fantastic rise from bottom the previous season and defeated a physically stronger Port Adelaide by eight points with a rare exhibition of sustained pace and accurate kicking by century goal man ‘Diddy’ Munro. Three eyars later South won again when it fielded ten interstate players in its ranks including Laurie Cahill, one of South Australia’s greatest-ever wingmen, who wielded a tremendous influence on games with his powerful and welldirected kicks into attack.
During the years 1942 to 1944 football was played in response to an appeal by the Allied Forces Welfare Co-ordination Committee, providing entertainment for the public and troops on leave with members of the armed services admitted free. Owing to the shortage of players clubs amalgamated according to geographical proximity thus the combinations were Norwood- North Adelaide, Sturt-South Adelaide, West Adelaide-Glenelg and Port Adelaide-West Torrens. After playing twelve times in the minor round the four sides then lined up again in the finals and this produced some weird results with Port-Torrens, the premier of 1942 and the dominant side in the next two seasons, being overrun by Norwood-North in the 1943 and 1944 grand finals.
Grand finals were played at Adelaide Oval for another twenty-nine years after the Second World War and the era is often characterised by two club periods of dominance and two men. By Port Adelaide in the 1950s and Sturt in the 1960s; or by Fos Williams with nine premierships from sixteen grand finals, and Jack Oatey with eight premierships from fourteen grand finals. However, it was much more than that.
West Torrens won its third premiership in 1945 but must be considered lucky to have made the grand final at all. It won the first semifinal against North Adelaide by kicking a goal several seconds after the final bell. The electrically operated bell, situated on the pickets at the junction of the public and members reserves was drowned out by the roar of the crowd as the teams slugged it out with scores level. Torrens rover Jim Thoms grabbed the ball in front of his team’s goal, dodged around North opponents to score, and umpire Ken Aplin gave the all-clear and was running back to the centre before he heard and acknowledged the bell. The bell was wrecked that night, presumably by angry North supporters, and sirens were introduced the following year. Torrens’s combination of youth, pace and determination overhauled an experienced Port Adelaide line-up by thirteen points after trailing by five goals bat quarter-time.
As was the case after its previous successes, and despite wonderfully skilful players like Bob Hank and Lindsay Head, Torrens was unable to maintain a side good enough to win consistently. Although the club appeared in the 1948 grand final against Norwood it was not able to triumph again until its thrilling seven point win over Port Adelaide in 1953, its last premiership win before amalgamating with Woodville.
Jack Oatey’s first premiership win came in 1946 in his second year as captain-coach of Norwood. Under him the Redlegs won two more premierships in 1948 and 1950 and missed the finals only once but his playing-coaching career ended with a thrashing at the hands of North Adelaide in 1952. As non-playing coach Oatey took the club into the 1955 grand final for another heavy defeat and Norwood were on the receiving end of further defeats in 1957 under 20-year-old Haydn Bunton and 1960-61 with football’s hot gospeller Alan Killigrew at the helm.
West Adelaide has often been a club wracked with divisions and surprisingly willing to free its players. After grabbing its first title in twenty years in 1947 it released such champions as Bernie Smith (who subsequently won a Brownlow Medal with Geelong), Fos Williams, the Taylor brothers – Jack, Don and Laurie, Jack Broadstock and Reg Zeuner. The result was that the club remained a finals contender without threatening premiership success until the mid-1950s. Two of those matches reveal something of the Blood n’ Tars character.
The 1954 grand final was the start of Port Adelaide’s reign of supremacy but it was a match thrown away by West. Playing brilliantly in the first half and kicking the ball high to ruckman (and former Davis Cup tennis star) Ken McGregor, with the rovers scouting the packs, West led 7.7 to 4.6 before an all-in brawl developed after West strongman Brian Faehse flattened Port centreman Dave Boyd just before the half-time interval. At the break West players and officials were jostled and punched as they made their way to the dressing rooms and this led to the players race being installed the following season. When play resumed the Magpies had their minds on the job and came back to win by three points.
In 1958 West had another chance to claim a flag but a kick for goal by ruckman Jack Richardson in the closing minutes hit the post. From the kickoff West surged forward again for McGregor to mark after which three Port players hurled themselves on top of him. A groggy McGregor then short passed to rover Colin Brown, forty metres out from goal, not realising that Brown was limping from a leg injury. When Brown’s shot for goal finished short the ball was cleared by Port as the siren sounded with the black and whites ahead by two points. Later that night the goalpost which had been struck by Richardson was chopped down and removed with sections of it used as firewood at a club barbecue the same evening. West’s only other premiership at Adelaide Oval came when Neil Kerley inspired his side to victory over Norwood in 1961 in gruelling heat.
North Adelaide grabbed the 1949 premiership in Ken Farmer’s first season as coach with a comfortable win over West Torrens and three years later annihilated Norwood by eighteen goals, prompting Farmer to remark that never in his wildest dreams did he expect such a result. It was in this game that Ian Mackay also took the most famous high mark in South Australian football history when he grabbed the ball over Norwood ruckman Pat Hall with his knees on Hall’s shoulder blades. The winning margin was certainly no harbinger for future success as the Roosters next premiership did not come until 1960 and it had to wait for the years of Barrie Robran’s dominance before winning back-to-back flags in 1971-72.
Fos Williams gained his first premiership with Port Adelaide in 1951 and went on to be the most influential figure of the next decade. Port was already a club with strong traditions but Williams remade it not only be taking the club to five successive premierships – they won a sixth under Geof Motley – but by establishing his own personal creed which he hung in the dressing rooms at Alberton Oval.
We the players and management of the Port Adelaide Football Club accept the heritage which players and administrators have passed down to us; in so doing we do not intend to rest in idleness but shall strive with all power to further this club’s unexcelled achievements.
To do this we believe:
That there is great merit and noble achievement in winning a premiership.
That to be successful each of us must be active, aggressive and devoted to this cause.
We agree that success is well within our reach and have confidence that each member of both the team and the management will suffer personal sacrifices for the common end.
Also we know, that should we after striving our utmost, after giving our everything still not be successful, our efforts will become a further part of this club’s enviable tradition.
Finally we concede, there can be honour in defeat, but to each of us, honourable defeat of our club and Guernsey can only come after human endeavour on the playing field is completely exhausted.
The Williams and Port game was not pretty but was highly effective, relying on desperate, unflinching commitment to the ball, minimising error and the strength and ability of individual stars to win man-to-man duels. Port’s grand final wins after 1951 included 1954-59, 1962-63 and 1965.
South Adelaide were the down-and-out football club of the post-war period finishing bottom eleven times and second-to-bottom six times in nineteen seasons before moving from bottom to top in 1964 in Neil Kerley’s first season as playing coach. Peter Darley, David Kantilla and Kerley gave their team-mates first use of the ball and the Panthers’ superior speed, tenacity, teamwork and accuracy in front of goal set them on the winning track. They were helped by Port’s sorry tally of 0.10 at half-time and ran out comfortable winners for their first flag in 26 years.
Twenty-six years was the same time between flags for Sturt when it broke its long drought in 1966. The year before the Blues lost a thrilling encounter to Port by three points in front of a record crowd of 62,543, the first time the season’s crowds passed the million mark, but this was a dress rehearsal for five glorious years to follow. Jack Oatey created a team prepared to use science and skill in preference to muscle, and built quality sides around champions like John Halbert, Bob Shearman and Paul Bagshaw. Sturt won premierships from 1966 to 1970 and twenty of the club’s players represented South Australia during the period.
Glenelg went an even longer time between premierships – 39 years . Apart from contesting the 1950 grand final against Norwood the Tigers made only five finals series between 1945 and Neil Kerley’s arrival at the Bay in 1967. Kerley lifted the club from tenth to fourth in his first season, and the club reached the 1969 and 1970 grand finals before gaining its second success in the last grand final at Adelaide Oval.
In many respects it was a fitting finale for the grand old ground as North Adelaide, chasing a premiership hat-trick, made Glenelg fight every inch of the way. A fine attacking game saw Glenelg triumph 21.11 to 19.16 but only after a magnificent high mark and angled goal from Graham Cornes in the time-on period of the last quarter put the club one point ahead and a mark on the siren by John Sandland gave the side a seven point victory.
SANFL Grand Finals at Adelaide Oval
Year | Result | Crowd |
---|---|---|
1898 | South Adelaide 8.8 d Port Adelaide 4.8 | 7,000 |
1899 | South Adelaide 5.12 d Norwood 2.2 | |
1900 | North Adelaide 4.3 d South Adelaide 1.8 | 7,000 |
1901 | Norwood 4.9 d Port Adelaide 4.5 | 6,500 |
1902 | North Adelaide 9.14 d South Adelaide 4.7 | |
1903 | Port Adelaide 6.6 d South Adelaide 5.5 | 14,000 |
1904† | Norwood 9.8 d Port Adelaide 8.10 | 11,000 |
1905 | North Adelaide 6.8 d Port Adelaide 1.6 | 10,500 |
1906 | Port Adelaide 8.12 d North Adelaide 5.9 | 20,000 |
1907 | Norwood 8.7 d Port Adelaide 3.9 | 25,000 |
1908 | West Adelaide 7.10 d Norwood 6.13 | 22,000 |
1909 | West Adelaide 7.17 d Port Adelaide 6.5 | 25,000 |
1910 | Port Adelaide 8.12 d Sturt 5.11 | 20,000 |
1911 | West Adelaide 7.9 d Port Adelaide 6.10 | 19,000 |
1912 | West Adelaide 6.10 d Port Adelaide 5.2 | 28,500 |
1913 | Port Adelaide 7.12 d North Adelaide 5.10 | 22,000 |
1914 | Port Adelaide 13.15 d North Adelaide 1.8 | 11,200 |
1915 | Sturt 6.10 d Port Adelaide 4.10 | 13,000 |
1919 | Sturt 3.9 d North Adelaide 2.6 | |
1920 | North Adelaide 9.15 d Norwood 3.3 | 31,000 |
1921 | Port Adelaide 4,8 d Norwood 3.6 | 34,800 |
1922 | Norwood 9.7 d West Adelaide 2.16 | 31,000 |
1923 | Norwood 6.8 d Port Adelaide 1.6 | |
1924 | West Torrens 9.12 d Sturt 8.10 | 44,300 |
1925 | Norwood 8.4 d West Torrens 7.9 | 37,750 |
1926 | Sturt 9.10 d North Adelaide 8.10 | 30,000 |
1927 | West Adelaide 10.11 d North Adelaide 8.10 | 33,222 |
1928 | Port Adelaide 15.14 d Norwood 7.14 | 35,700 |
1929 | Norwood 16.14 d Port Adelaide 10.9 | 35,504 |
1930 | North Adelaide 9.13 d Port Adelaide 9.9 | 23,609 |
1931 | North Adelaide 17.13 d Sturt 11.11 | 34,202 |
1932 | Sturt 16.14 d North Adelaide 10.9 | 29,717 |
1933 | West Torrens 13.10 d Norwood 9.11 | 33,444 |
1934 | Glenelg 18.15 d Port Adelaide 16.18 | 30,045 |
1935 | South Adelaide 15.9 d Port Adelaide 13.13 | 26,496 |
1936 | Port Adelaide 13.19 d Sturt 14.10 | 35,120 |
1937 | Port Adelaide 13.16 d South Adelaide 9.16 | 35,895 |
1938 | South Adelaide 23.14 d Port Adelaide 15.16 | 33,364 |
1939 | Port Adelaide 16.28 d West Torrens 11.11 | 44,885 |
1940 | Sturt 14.16 d South Adelaide 11.13 | 28,500 |
1941 | Norwood 14.16 d Sturt 10.11 | 30,742 |
1942 | Port-Torrens 18.13 d West-Glenelg 16.13 | 31,245 |
1943 | Norwood-North 12.10 d Port-Torrens 8.13 | 36,400 |
1944 | Norwood-North 9.7 d Port-Torrens 7.13 | 22,428 |
1945 | West Torrens 15.25 d Port Adelaide 15.12 | 47,500 |
1946 | Norwood 13.14 d Port Adelaide 9.10 | 53,473 |
1947 | West Adelaide 10.15 d Norwood 5.15 | 32,631 |
1948 | Norwood 15.16 d West Torrens 6.13 | 48,755 |
1949 | North Adelaide 13.17 d West Torrens 9.8 | 42,490 |
1950 | Norwood 15.16 d Glenelg 8.11 | 50,489 |
1951 | Port Adelaide 10.12 d North Adelaide 8.13 | 41,997 |
1952 | North Adelaide 23.15 d Norwood 6.9 | 50,105 |
1953 | West Torrens 9.13 d Port Adelaide 8.12 | 42,949 |
1954 | Port Adelaide 11.13 d West Adelaide 10.16 | 42,895 |
1955 | Port Adelaide 15.11 d Norwood 5.8 | 44,826 |
1956 | Port Adelaide 12.9 d West Adelaide 9.11 | 45,514 |
1957 | Port Adelaide 15.15 d Norwood 13.16 | 58,924 |
1958 | Port Adelaide 14.10 d West Adelaide 14.8 | 54,282 |
1959 | Port Adelaide 13.9 d West Adelaide 11.11 | 48,884 |
1960 | North Adelaide 14.11 d Norwood 13.12 | 54,162 |
1961 | West Adelaide 16.13 d Norwood 11.7 | 40,409 |
1962 | Port Adelaide 8.10 d West Adelaide 7.13 | 43,567 |
1963 | Port Adelaide 11.14 d North Adelaide 6.11 | 52,668 |
1964 | South Adelaide 9.15 d Port Adelaide 5.12 | 56,353 |
1965‡ | Port Adelaide 12.8 d Sturt 12.5 | 62,543 |
1966 | Sturt 16.16 d Port Adelaide 8.8 | 59,417 |
1967 | Sturt 13.10 d Port Adelaide 10.17 | 58,849 |
1968 | Sturt 12.18 d Port Adelaide 9.9 | 57,811 |
1969 | Sturt 24.15 d Glenelg 13.16 | 55,600 |
1970 | Sturt 12.13 d Glenelg 9.10 | 48,575 |
1971 | North Adelaide 10.19 d Port Adelaide 9.5 | 52,228 |
1972 | North Adelaide 19.14 d Port Adelaide 10.12 | 55,709 |
1973 | Glenelg 21.11 d North Adelaide 19.16 | 56,525 |
† 1904 grand final was played on the Jubilee Oval.
‡ 1965 grand final attracted the record Adelaide Oval crowd of 62,543.
© October 2010 Bernard Whimpress
Comments
This article does not contain any comments.
Login to leave a comment.