Australian Football

Diminutive rover Mick Nunan made his senior Sturt debut in 1966, but did not become a league regular until three years later. Indeed, he failed to play a single senior game in 1968 after being overtaken by Peter Endersbee. Once he established himself, however, Nunan became a key figure in a Double Blues combination that was nearing the end of its five-year reign over South Australian football. 

He played in the club's last two Grand Final-winning teams of that era, and when the rebuilding phase was over and the Blues returned as a power in 1974 he was still very much a pivotal performer. In that year's grand final defeat of Glenelg he was close to best afield, while two years later, when Sturt scored a sensational upset victory over Port Adelaide in the season's ultimate game, he was once again among the finest players on view. In 1978, the Double Blues once again reached the Grand Final, but Nunan by this time was playing for their rivals for the premiership, Norwood, and had the satisfaction of making a telling contribution to the Redlegs stunning come-from-behind win by the narrowest of margins.

Next port of call for Nunan was North Adelaide, where he added another 34 SANFL games to the 36 he had played with Norwood and the 188 appearances for Sturt. He also represented South Australia three times, and in 1971, whilst on National Service duty in Melbourne, he played a single VFL game for Richmond, where he kicked three goals and impressed observers.

Nunan's major impact at North Adelaide was not as a player but as a coach, however. When he assumed the coaching role in 1981 the Roosters had endured almost a decade of mediocrity, but under Nunan all that was to change as, between 1985 and 1991, the club contested five Grand Finals, for wins in 1987 and 1991. Arguably of even greater significance than the statistical success, however, was the style in which it was achieved, as Nunan's teams played an exciting, aesthetically appealing brand of football which in some ways could be regarded as the logical consummation of the ideas and teachings of Nunan's former mentor, Jack Oatey.

After leaving North Adelaide at the end of the 1992 season, Nunan had a brief, thankless stint as coach of Fitzroy in the club's final ever season of 1996, before coaching South Australia's state league side on four occasions for four wins. Even if his overall impact on the game was undermined to some extent by circumstances and developments outside his control, not least the wholesale re-shaping of the game to suit the financial needs of Victoria's VFL clubs, it was nevertheless a good deal more significant than might have seemed likely when he was vying with Peter Endersbee to assume Roger Dunn's mantle as second rover in the all-powerful Sturt side of the 1960s.

Author - John Devaney