Port Adelaide visits the West
The Port Adelaide team will visit Perth to play a combined team from the West Australian Football League on July 26, and a match against the Goldfield League on Sunday, July 30. Some of the best footballers in South Australia will be seen in the visiting team. Port Adelaide, which at present is a leading team in South Australia, has sent two teams to Perth previously.
The first visit
Port Adelaide was the first team from the Eastern States to visit Western Australia in 1910. It arrived by the Karoola. On arrival at Fremantle representatives of the West Australian Football League and the East Fremantle club met the visitors, and they were later given a reception at the Fremantle Town Hall by the Mayor and councillors of Fremantle. Mr. H. Flindell, secretary of the East Fremantle club, took the party in hand. On their arrival at Perth the players were given a reception by the league, and later practised on Perth Oval. That same night the party left for Kalgoorlie. After an inspection of the mines the visitors met several ex-members of the Port Adelaide club who were living at Kalgoorlie at that time. Included were Vince Covacevich, Hughie Linklater, Ernie Jones, the famous Australian fast bowler, Albert and Bill Schwan, Charlie Dunstan and Jimmy Alexander.
On July 31, for the first time in the history of the game, a team from South Australia met a West Australian combination in Western Australia. Between six and seven thousand persons attended the Boulder Recreation Reserve. It was a fast and strenuous game, clean and cleverly played. The Goldfields won by 12.12 to 9.13. The gate takings were £309, considered a record for Western Australia at the time. At 5 p.m. the next day the visitors then left for the coast. The second match, owing to a tramway strike, had poor patronage. Port Adelaide won, the scores being: Port Adelaide, 6.10; and East Fremantle, 5.4. East Fremantle then took charge of the party, and it was at this gathering that Mr. J. J. Simons jocularly remarked that the then secretary (Mr. J. Hodge) would go down in history with Columbus and Captain Cook, being the leader of the first Eastern States football club to discover the mainland of Western Australia.
The next game was played at Fremantle against a combination from the league, in the presence of 6,000 spectators. Until half-time Western Australia held command, then after the interval Port Adelaide took charge. Never was there more excitement at an interstate match. Onlookers yelled themselves hoarse. There was not a dull moment during the afternoon, and when the bell sounded to denote the end, Port Adelaide had won by five points, 6.17 to 6.12. "The takings were £281/6/6, a long way ahead of any registered for a similar engagement in the metropolitan area, and it was very gratifying to all concerned. The game, too, was worthy of the crowd; and was one of the best games ever seen on the coast, so a writer commented at the time. At the conclusion of the match the league presented the Port Adelaide club with a football, autographed on the cover, to be kept as a unique souvenir of the first team from the East to visit the West.
The second visit
The next visit of a Port Adelaide team to Western Australia was in 1913. The party left on July 5, and the same procedure was adopted. After playing a match on the Alberton Oval, the party sailed for Fremantle in the Zealandia. A reception was tendered by the East Fremantle club. After a few hours practice at the Fremantle Oval the party went to Perth. Scarcely 48 hours had elapsed after the team's arrival in Perth, when it was called upon to play its first big match of the tour against East Fremantle. So keen was the interest evinced in the contest that a record crowd attended. There was little to choose between the two teams, and it was claimed that it was one of the most strenuous and scientific games ever seen at Perth. The scores were: East Fremantle 6.6 vs. Port Adelaide, 4.12.
The second match was played against a combined team in slush and mud. This game was lost by Port Adelaide but it won a return match at Fremantle, 11.19 to 6.10. In both those seasons, 1910 and 1913, when the Port Adelaide team returned, to its own State, it won the premiership. It is now in a very strong position on the table.
Current visit
The Port Adelaide club was founded 86 years ago, and its records are uncommon. It has won four championships of Australia and beaten the premier side of Western Australia, Victoria and a combined team from other South Australian clubs. It has won the State premiership 12 times and has been runner-up on 24 occasions. It has been out of the final four only four times in 42 years. During the last 12 years it has played eight times in the grand final and for the last five years has played off and won two premierships and been three times second.
At the present time, it has second on the premiership list and is recognised as one of the best teams in the league. Included in its ranks are two giants in T. Kellaway, who stands 6ft. 41/2 in. and R. ‘Bob McLean, 6ft. 4in., both of whom are ruckmen, and A. ‘Bull’ Reval. R. ‘Bob’ Quinn, winner of last year's Magarey Medal and recognised as one of the finest rovers in Australia, has visited Perth previously with an interstate team.
There will be a party of 45. Included in the party will be six trainers, a bootstudder, and a time-keeper, the chairman of the club (Mr. A. J. Swain), Messrs. H. Martin and W. Whelan, members of the management committee, and three selectors, Messrs. Les Dayman, the famous interstate footballer, S. Magor, who visited Perth with the 1913 team, and L. Hodge, a great centre-wing player of his day. The treasurer of the club (Mr. J. Dunstan) and Mr. C. Hayter, the manager, who was manager of the South Australian carnival team in 1937, will supervise the party.
Footnotes
Title: Port Adelaide history: previous games in this state
Publishers: The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 1954)
Date: 29 June 1939, p.9 (Article)
Author: The West Australian Staff Writer
Web: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46403768
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