Australian Football

South swamps Port - 1938 SANFL Grand Final

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A cigar-toting South skipper Jack Dawes is chaired from the arena by ecstatic team mates and supporters following his side's epic victory.

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South Adelaide’s Team Of Stars

South Adelaide’s supporters have had to endure more than their fair share of heartache over the years, but the club’s 1938 combination warrants serious consideration as one of the finest in South Australian football history. It boasted stars on every line, from follower and captain Jack Dawes to rover Len Lapthorne, wingman Laurie Cahill (below left), half back and 1935 Magarey Medallist Jack Cockburn, and mercurial half forward Max Murdy.

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In the minor round the club produced many noteworthy performances and high scores, including tallies of 31.15 (201) against Glenelg in round two, 29.15 (189) versus West Torrens in round five, and 25.24 (174) against West Adelaide in the opening fixture of the year. It proved the team to beat for most of the season, “playing well everywhere, and well balanced at all points”¹, and ultimately securing the minor premiership with 15 wins and two defeats, two wins and a sizeable amount of percentage ahead of second placed Norwood, which was bidding for its first premiership of the decade, South having gone top in 1935.

A High-Scoring Finals Series

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The finals saw a continuation of the high scores which had abounded during the home and away rounds. In front of 20,195 spectators in the First Semi Final reigning premier Port Adelaide comfortably accounted for West Torrens by 28 points, 16.22 (118) to 13.12 (90), sending out a clear message that the 1938 premiership was by no means a two horse race. The following Saturday saw South shake off a persistent challenge from Norwood to get home by 20 points, and when Port followed its demolition of Torrens with a similarly resounding victory (19.25 to 12.13) over the Redlegs in the Preliminary Final there were many who were all too ready to clamber aboard the Magpie bandwagon. This was despite the fact that South had exhibited consummate superiority in meetings between the two teams during the minor round, winning 20.24 (144) to 14.15 (99) in round three at Adelaide, and 15.21 (111) to 11.12 (78) at Alberton in round 10.

South Wins In Spectacular Fashion

The Grand Final attracted a healthy crowd of 33,364, and provided fans with some of the most spectacular football seen on such an occasion for many a year. Much of that spectacular football came from a South Adelaide team which, aided by what slight breeze there was, booted 6.3 to Port’s 4.3 in the opening term, with its on ball division well on top. Somewhat unusually, that on ball division was structured in a fashion that would not become generally en vogue until well after World War II, with a medium-sized ‘ruck-rover’ type being used to help counter Port’s vaunted roving division of Quinn (above right) and Skelly.

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Max Murdy

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That roving division was very much to the fore during a second term which saw the Magpies add 5.2 to South’s 3.2 to tie up the scores at the long break. With some of the football scintillating to behold, and nothing between the teams, the crowd was in a state of rare excitement, but the third quarter was to see the blue and whites blow the game apart with a blistering exhibition of football that saw them add 12.4 to 2.3 to in effect seal their triumph. Players like Lapthorne, Templeton and Jobson, and most particularly wingman Laurie Cahill, were constantly in the thick of the action, and performing with such verve and brilliance that Port could do nothing to counter them, and although they rallied sufficiently to outscore their opponents by 15 points in the final quarter it was a case of much too little too late.

South Adelaide’s final tally of 23.14 (152) established a new record for the SANFL Grand Final and was testimony to its superiority. Port’s score of 15.16 (106) was high enough to have won many games, including most previous Grand Finals, but it was well beaten.

Match Summary

BEST
South: Cahill, Lapthorne, Rusby, Cockburn, Hardiman, Jack Dawes, Prior, Jobson.
Port: Quinn, West, Bennett, Johnston, Dermody

SCORERS
South: Rusby 5.1; Hardiman 4.3; Lapthorne, Murdy 3.2; Rosewarne 3.1; Brown 2.1; Jack Dawes, Prior 1.1; Appleton 1.0; Templeton 0.1; rushed 0.1
Port: Hollingworth, Skelly 4.1; Heath 1.3; Hender, Quinn, Wightman 1.2; Reval, Rudd 1.1; Dangerfield 1.0; Abbott 0.2; West 0.1

Attendance: 33,364 at the Adelaide Oval