Torrens' last hurrah: 1953 SANFL grand final
Clash Of The Giants
Football supporters under fifty years of age may find it hard to credit, but during the first decade after World War Two West Torrens was consistently among the SANFL’s pace setters. In the eight seasons between 1945 and 1952 the blue and golds finished first, fifth, fifth, second, second, fourth, fourth, and fourth, and managed an overall success rate of 60.8%, which was bettered only by Norwood. Thus, when the side won 15 of its 18 minor round matches in 1953 to qualify for the finals behind only Port Adelaide on percentage it was merely a case of ‘business as usual’.
Boasting players of the calibre of the Hank brothers - Bob, Bill and Ray - a young and copiously talented Lindsay Head, prolific goal kicker John Willis, ferociously combative ruckman Jim Coverlid, formidable key defenders Ron Ashby and Alf Roberts (left, spoiling from behind), and versatile big man Mick Clingly, it was easy to see why Torrens was such a powerful combination.
Coached by Joe Kinlough, the side played purposeful attacking football, characterised by swift movement of both ball and man. With few injuries during the year it was able to field a settled team that seemed to get steadily stronger as the season progressed. After losing by 13 points to Norwood at the Parade in round 9 it tuned up for the finals with 9 consecutive wins, earning itself outright premiership favouritism in most quarters.
Port Adelaide, under Fos Williams, approached the game in a very different way to West Torrens. Espousing all the key virtues of Victorian football, the Magpies were tough to the point of ruthlessness, and were far and away the best defensive side in the competition. Not that they lacked talent. Players like Geof Motley, Davey Boyd, Harold McDonald, John Abley, Roger Clift and Williams himself had as much natural ability as any in South Australia, but that ability had always to be subordinated to the ‘Magpie system’. That system was simple - beat your individual opponent, do nothing flashy or flamboyant, and approach the game with unrelenting aggression, determination and vigour. By adhering to such tenets the Magpies had finished third, first and third during Fos Williams’ three seasons in charge, and were confident of taking out another flag in 1953 after finishing the minor round with 7 wins from their last 9 games. Torrens and Port were markedly better than the other clubs in the competition in 1953 as the pre-finals ladder clearly shows:
1953 SANFL Premiership Ladder
W | L | D | For | Ag | % | Pts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Port Adelaide | 15 | 3 | - | 1,669 | 1,161 | 58.97 | 30 |
West Torrens | 15 | 3 | - | 1,822 | 1,305 | 58.26 | 30 |
Norwood | 10 | 8 | - | 1,609 | 1,497 | 51.80 | 20 |
Glenelg | 9 | 9 | - | 1,701 | 1,552 | 52.29 | 18 |
-------------- | -- | -- | - | ----- | ----- | ----- | --- |
North Adelaide | 8 | 10 | - | 1,465 | 1,518 | 49.11 | 16 |
West Adelaide | 5 | 13 | - | 1,372 | 1,546 | 47.01 | 10 |
Sturt | 5 | 13 | - | 1,505 | 1,885 | 44.39 | 10 |
South Adelaide | 5 | 13 | - | 1,170 | 1,849 | 38.75 | 10 |
Port and Torrens had met on three occasions during the minor round. In round 2 at Thebarton, the Magpies had won a bruising encounter by 34 points, 12.16 (88) to 8.6 (54), a success they had duplicated, this time by 28 points, at the same venue in round 8. Two weeks later the sides had met again, this time at Alberton, and on this occasion, after Joe Kinlough had instructed his charges to use handball to create space and to run with ball at every opportunity, it was a different story. On an extremely windy day, Torrens ran Port ragged in the final term to come from 19 points adrift at 'lemons' and edge home by 8 points. Ultimately, it was a match that would have a significant bearing on the destiny of the 1953 premiership.
Lindsay Head, one of the all time greats of the game, who starred for West Torrens as an eighteen year old in the 1953 grand final defeat of Port Adelaide. It was Head's second season in league football, and he went on to play a club record 327 SANFL games.
The major round got underway on 12 September with Glenelg scoring a surprise 24 point win over Norwood in the 1st semi final. Then came an incredible 2nd semi final between Port Adelaide and West Torrens which saw the Magpies rattle on 5.5 without reply in the opening term, and stretch their lead to 42 points early in the second. By half time Torrens had still only managed 1.3 and, at 33 points adrift, looked down and out, but at half time coach Kinlough reminded his charges of the tactics that had proved so effective against Port at Alberton back in round 10. After half time, Torrens played vibrant, coherent, running football of the highest order, and the Magpies were swamped. By three quarter time the blue and golds had their noses in front at 8.3 (51) to 7.7 (49) and an emphatic last term performance saw them add 7.3 to 0.1 to win in the end with beguiling ease. Warm premiership favouritism was now assured, but no one at Thebarton was taking anything for granted, particularly after Port emphasised the immense gap which existed between the top two and the rest of the league with a commanding 17.22 (124) to 9.12 (66) preliminary final defeat of Glenelg.
On grand final day, Joe Kinlough came up with what proved to be a significant tactical innovation when he moved centre half forward Mick Clingly to a back pocket in a bid to counter the strong marking of Lloyd Zucker. In front of a crowd of 42,949, Magpie captain-coach Fos Williams won the toss and elected to kick towards the southern end of Adelaide Oval, which was favoured by a strong, 3 to 4 goal north easterly breeze.
A livewire opening
Contemporary reports described the pace of the game as the fastest in living memory. Both sides went in hard but fair from the start, with Port tending to win the aerial duels, but Torrens looking stronger when the ball was on the ground. Fos Williams was being alternately tagged (although the actual term was not yet in vogue) by Charlie Pyatt and Bill Hank (pictured right), while, for good measure, Jack Carr was weighing in with some relentless sledging. Whether because of this, or for some other reason, the Port supremo never quite managed to exert his usual influence on the game.
Midway through the term Torrens led 2.1 to 1.0, but then Port, with Dave Boyd (left) a dominant figure in the centre, hit back strongly. Deep into time-on the scores were deadlocked - as they had been on no fewer than five previous occasions during the term - but with moments to go before the siren, 'Chicken' Hayes snapped truly to give the Magpies a 6 point advantage at the first change. However, given the strength of the breeze, most observers probably felt that, on balance, it had been Torrens' quarter.
QUARTER TIME: Port Adelaide 4.3 (27); West Torrens 3.3 (21)
Goal for goal
The second quarter was just as fiercely contested as the first, with play continually rocketing from end to end. The Magpies were still on top in the air, except when they managed to get the ball near goal, where big, bullocking Mick Clingly was proving virtually impassable.
Shortly after the resumption, Torrens levelled the scores, and thereafter there was never more than a straight kick between the teams. The blue and golds had winners in ruckman Jim Coverlid, centre half back Ron Ashby, and rovers Charlie Pyatt and Jim ‘Nipper’ Bradford, while Port was being well served by Roger Clift at centre half back, Geof Motley on a half forward flank, Dick Russell (right) in a back pocket, and Basil Jaggard on a wing.
Torrens finished the term strongly, and by the half time break had captured the lead by the narrowest of margins.
HALF TIME: West Torrens 6.8 (44); Port Adelaide 6.7 (43)
Defences on top
Heavy rain commenced during the half time break, and continued throughout the 3rd term. Despite this, the game continued to be played at a frenetic pace, and the skill levels of both sides remained high. The defences of the respective teams - notably Clingly, Ashby and Thiele for Torrens, and Clift (below left), Russell and Parham for the Magpies - were well on top, and scoring opportunities were at a premium.
The wind was much less of a factor this quarter than it had been early on, and indeed it now appeared to be blowing across the ground. As the playing surface became more slippery, so the play of both sides became more aggressive and, on occasion, acrimonious. When Port back pocket Dick Russell flattened ‘Nipper’ Bradford with what the umpire judged to be an overly vigorous hip and shoulder, the Magpie fans whistled their indignation, as well they might given that the resultant easy goal would, in the end, more or less comprise the difference between the teams. In the short term, however, it spurred the Magpies on to enhanced effort, and they dominated play for the remainder of the quarter.
THREE QUARTER TIME: Port Adelaide 8.10 (58); West Torrens 7.10 (52)
Thrills aplenty
The final term proved to be one of the most thrilling seen in a South Australian grand final, either before or since. The tempo of the play remained hectic, as Port dominated the opening minutes without being able to register a major score; nevertheless, a couple of behinds gave the Magpies an 8 point advantage.
Torrens’ edge in pace then came to the fore and a goal to Lindsay Head (right) followed by a near miss from Don Prior reduced the margin to a solitary point. The play then see-sawed for several minutes, with both teams’ defences on top, before a long, speculative kick from John Willis floated through for a behind to level the scores for the eleventh time in the match. Time-on was now approaching, and given the lack of scoring there were unlikely to be many minutes left.
From the kick in after Willis’ point Torrens managed to lock the ball into their forward lines, and a sequence of disjointed play culminated in a snapped behind to Head. The crowd, most of whom were barracking for the blue and golds, roared its approval, but the Magpies were not finished. With barely two minutes left to play, they forced the ball deep into their forward lines. Neville Hayes collected the ball, and looked to off-load a handball into the path of Ron Leaver, who would have had the easiest of tasks to run into an open goal and score full points. However, Torrens half back flanker Frank Graham anticipated Hayes’ intentions perfectly, and dashed in to intercept the ball. He then cleared to right centre wing where Errol Lodge marked before finding Doug Cockshell near centre half forward. Cockshell’s kick fell well short of the pack of players waiting near the goal line, and the race was on to collect it. Running as swiftly now as he had been during the opening minutes of the first term, Ray Hank managed to get to the ball first and throw it desperately onto his boot. The Torrens players then watched in delight as, from a distance of about 25 metres, the ball wobbled and stuttered its way through the central uprights for a match-sealing goal. The blaring of the siren moments later heralded a mass invasion of the oval by thousands of delirious West Torrens supporters who swarmed around their heroes, and gleefully chaired skipper Bob Hank from the arena.
FINAL SCORE: West Torrens 9.13 (67); Port Adelaide 8.12 (60)
BEST
West Torrens: Clingly, Cockshell, Coverlid, Prior, Pyatt, Bradford, Head
Port Adelaide: Clift, Motley, Parham, Russell, Jaggard, Boyd
GOALS
West Torrens: Bradford, Head, Willis 2; Cockshell, R.Hank, Pyatt
Port Adelaide: Dittmar, Motley, Williams 2; Hayes, Jaggard
Attendance: 42,949 at the Adelaide Oval.
Postscript
By all accounts the West Torrens players’ celebrations after the match were so restrained as to seem almost blasé. Match hero Mick Clingly, for example, was said to have been tucked up in bed at home by 6.30pm. Perhaps the players thought that this was likely to be one of many such successes, but in that they were gravely mistaken, as the West Torrens Football Club would never again achieve premiership glory.
Not that the club’s decline into mediocrity happened overnight. The ensuing twelve seasons brought finals participation as often as not, and on at least a couple of occasions the team was strongly favoured to land the flag. The club’s administration remained imaginative and ambitious; it brought the great Dick Reynolds to Thebarton as coach in 1960, for example, and managed to sign high quality interstate players such as Geoff Kingston and Bob Shearman. However, the admission to the league in 1964 of another western suburbs club in Woodville effectively sounded the Eagles’ death-knell, and the last twenty-five years of their independent existence saw them waging an almost continual struggle to maintain credibility.
By contrast, Port Adelaide since 1953 has been far and away Australia’s most consistently successful major club, both as Magpies and, since 1997, as the Power. Under Fos Williams (and Geof Motley in 1959) the club would win an unprecedented six successive premierships between 1954 and 1959. In later decades, that winning tradition would be perpetuated by the likes of Geof Motley, John Cahill, and Williams’ sons, Stephen and Mark.
If the 1953 SANFL grand final serves to teach us anything it is that football, like life, tends to be fickle, unpredictable and capricious. Success, when it occurs, should be seized upon and enjoyed, but never allowed to undermine ambition, for once a new season starts the previous season’s achievements and failures are entirely bereft of relevance. This year’s premiers can all too easily be next year’s wooden spooners - or even, as in the case of the once proud West Torrens Football Club, next year’s nonentities - so resting on one’s laurels can never be an option, especially when you consider that success is often as much attributable to external forces outside one’s control as it is to any inherent talent one might possess.
Comments
Denis Way 24 June 2013
Stupendous account of an historical match, John. It is the first match I recall seeing, being six at the time, sitting in the north-west pocket by the pickets with my Mum, a mad Torrens fan. My dad, a Magpies fanatic, was at the other end of the ground. I remember Dicky Reynolds flattening Nipper Bradford; happened right in front of me. My father had hated Ken Aplin as an umpire up to that moment, after it he would have strangled him on sight. I was supporting Torrens that day, being a six-year-old sitting next to a highly motivated and vocal Mum. But from 1954 I was all Magpies. Yes, I know, 'fickle...and capricious' (mean the same), it's the easy way out. But Mick Clingly going to bed at 6:30 was a bit too casual for my liking, and Port Adelaide became my sort of men, year after year. Don't think I ever went to the footy with my Mum again, always with my Dad. Cheers Denis PS: Tiny correction needed in your text: the Magpies' 1959 sixth flag in a row was not won under Fos Williams.
Login to leave a comment.