Australian Football

Adelaide (Original)

Early football in Adelaide was played under a variety of guises, with conformity not being reached until the establishment of the South Australian Football Association in 1877 when a close approximation to the rules then in vogue in Melbourne was adopted. A major driving force behind the formation of the Association was Nowell Twopenny, captain of the Adelaide Football Club, the oldest in South Australia. With his club having fallen on hard times, Twopenny could see many potential benefits accruing from membership of and involvement in a formal organisation which undertook executive duties in relation to conditions and rules of play, finance and general administrative matters. Twopenny was also strongly opposed to the rugby-influenced Kensington Rules which had recently acquired popularity, although it is interesting to note that at the SAFA’s inaugural meeting he “spoke very warmly in favour of running with the ball, urging that it was a sine qua non of genuine football, and that, from English experience, he could vouch for there being no disputes when the rule was played”. Conversely, “bouncing the ball had led to endless rows here, and left a great deal too much to the umpire”.[1]

Ultimately, of course, the bouncing rule was adopted, and Twopenny’s objections may have been quelled somewhat by the suggestion, put forward by Charles Kingston, that to do so would facilitate the arrangement of intercolonial matches against teams from Victoria. Certainly, Noel Twopenny was at the forefront of the endeavours which, at the end of both the SAFA’s and VFA’s inaugural seasons, led to the first ever official matches between teams from different colonies.[2] He might, therefore, in a sense, lay claim to the title of ‘father of the national game’, although holding one’s breath while waiting for the AFL to acknowledge or endorse this might be somewhat risky.

By the time of the inception of the SAFA, the Adelaide Football Club already had a long, and somewhat chequered, history. Formed in 1860, it initially only played matches internally, typically between groups of players sharing a particular characteristic, achievement or place of residence. On 12 August 1861, for example:

The adjourned match between the Past and Present Collegians and other members of the Club was continued on the North Parklands on Saturday afternoon. A very cold wind was blowing during the whole of the time, and accompanied by several sharp showers of rain. Undaunted by the threatening aspect of the weather, the spectators, consisting chiefly of ladies and horsemen, assembled in great force, and the ladies, with true courage, kept guard of the prizes they had presented in spite of the cold and pitiless rain. Upwards of 40 players arrived. Play commenced shortly after 2 o’clock, Mr. O’Halloran being captain of the College side, and Mr. Cooper captain of their opponents. With hearty goodwill the players went to work; in about an hour the College party gained a goal. Elated with their success they were rewarded with another goal after about two hours exertion. The ladies distributed the prizes, some of which were very elegant, to the following players: Messrs. T.O’Halloran, G.O’Halloran, N.Knox, T.Illury, Richardson, H.Gouge, Taylor, W.Uren, Morphett, T.Hosier, G.Schlinke, S.Lawrence, H.Giles, Soward, Bonnin, Payne, Jacob, Wooldridge, Addison, N.O’Halloran, Hallett, Chambers, McEllister and Bastin.

The ‘spills’ were more frequent than on other occasions, in consequence of the slippery conditions of the ground, and at the conclusion of the game nearly every player bore traces of having had a fall. No mishap, however, worth mentioning occurred, except that in the course of the afternoon a horse, belonging to one of the spectators, bolted across the playground. Mater Gwynne immediately rode in pursuit, but just as he reached him one of the players ran between the horses causing them to fall and throwing Master Gwynne; however, nobody was hurt.[3]

The first ever game between Adelaide and a rival club (Modbury) was recorded as taking place in 1862, but no details of the match survive. It is known, however, that the two teams met again the following year, on a strip of land near the Modbury Hotel, when "the game was kept up with the greatest spirit and good feeling, and so equally were the sides matched that not a goal was obtained".[4] Most of Adelaide’s matches were played according to the club’s own set of rules, which initially at least were the most popular of all. However, when during the early 1870s another set of rules, those of the Kensington club, began to gain increased popularity, Adelaide faced something of a crisis, and indeed, in 1873, the club felt compelled to disband. Sadly, this volatility was something that would plague the club throughout its short history.

Having reformed in 1876, Adelaide was afforded something of a lifeline the following year by the establishment of the SAFA. On the field at least the club was competitive, not to mention highly regarded for its open, and visually appealing style of play. In the SAFA’s inaugural season, Adelaide came third, and was the competition’s highest-scoring team, albeit that it seems to have played more games than many of its opponents. In subsequent seasons, Adelaide’s level of performance declined significantly. In 1880, it finished seventh and last, and the following season, owing to a lack of players, it entered into a merger with Kensington, which had also been struggling. This ‘marriage of convenience’ lasted just one year, and was not even particularly convenient, as the club came bottom. Adelaide then went into mothballs for three seasons before reforming, promptly merging with Adelaide and Suburban Football Association club North Park, and joining a somewhat atrophied, four-team competition in 1885.

Initially, this new incarnation of the Adelaide Football Club seemed to find things every bit as tough as its predecessor, but after succumbing to the 1885 wooden spoon it suddenly sprang to life the following year to claim a highly popular premiership.[5] Captained by J.D.Stephens, and with other fine players in A.M.Pettinger (vice-captain), ace goalsneak Richard Stephens, F.W.Warren, R.Lewis and W.Reid it re-kindled the club’s previous reputation for fast, open, attacking football.

In 1887, this reputation was enhanced when it thrashed the visiting VFA premiers, Carlton, by an unprecedented margin of 9 goals to 3, with Richard Stephens kicking 6 goals as well as hitting the post. The following season, Adelaide was one of four SAFA teams chosen to engage the visiting British rugby team in a match played according to Australian rules. By the time of the encounter, which took place on Thursday 12 July at the Adelaide Oval, the tourists had already played ten such matches and were becoming quite proficient. Two days earlier they had scored the finest victory of their tour when they downed the powerful Port Adelaide combination by a goal, and up to half time in this particular match, it looked possible that Adelaide might become their second significant victims. At the long break, the British side led by a goal, 3.1 to 2.9 (behinds not counting, of course), but in the third quarter the red and blacks got on top, and the final bell saw them comfortably home by 3 goals, 6.13 to 3.5.

Unfortunately, this proved to be just about the last significant triumph of the club’s existence. Over the course of the next couple of seasons, sloppy and erratic management led to the dispersal of many of the key members of the team and by the early 1890s, the club was little better than a chopping block for more talented opponents. After three successive wooden spoons from 1891 to 1893, the plug was pulled one last time, and the name ‘Adelaide’ disappeared from the senior football spectrum for the better part of a century. During its brief and at times shambolic history, however, the original Adelaide Football Club had played a major role in establishing the Australian code as the winter pastime of choice for a large minority of athletic (and some not so athletic) young South Australian males. Even more significantly, under the aegis of its forward-thinking inaugural captain, Noel Twopenny, it had given birth to the notion of intercolonial competition, a notion which would be explored and developed in numerous ways over the course of the ensuing century, before arguably reaching a pinnacle with the expansion of the Victorian Football League into a competition of pseudo-national compass.