Flash back: Sturt v Port Adelaide, GF 1976 @ Football Park

[scott]

Heading a fair way back in this flash back, to one of the more successful eras for the Sturt football club and one of their most memorable Grand Final victories - 1976.

After losing a high-scoring Qualifying Final against Glenelg to kick off the finals series, Sturt overcame horrible inaccuracy in the second semi final - trailing 6.10 to 11.1 at half time - to ultimately beat reigning premiers Norwood by 26 points, before avenging their loss to the Bays a fortnight earlier with a seven-point victory in the preliminary final ... setting up another classic Grand Final encounter with Port Adelaide.

Before a record attendance at Football Park of 66,897 and spearheaded by inspirational captain Paul Bagshaw and ruckman Rick Davies (21 kicks, 21 handballs, 21 hit outs, 15 marks) in the Grand Final, the Double Blues brushed aside the underdogs tag against a highly favoured Magpies unit with a comfortable 41-point victory. After trailing by eight points at quarter time, Sturt kicked 16 of the next 23 goals of the match to snare their seventh SANFL premiership in 11 seasons and fourth against Port during that period.

SCOREBOARD

STURT 1.3 7.6 11.8 17.14 (116)
Port Adelaide 2.5 7.6 7.13 10.15 (75)

Best
Sturt: Davies, Klomp, Graham, Bagshaw, Howard, Miels, Murphy
Port: Kinnear, Ebert, Evans, Cunningham, N.Phillips

Scores
Sturt: Bagshaw 3.2, Graham 3.0, Klomp 2.4, Barton, Murphy 2.2, Wild 2.1, Miels, Nunan 1.1, Davies 1.0, Sims 0.1.
Port: Whatman, G.Phillips 2.1, Granger 2.0, Gerlach, Cahill 1.3, Porplycia 1.2, Cunningham 1.0, Evans, Light 0.1, Rushed 0.3.

(Scorers courtesy of spell-check)

Sturt team: Brendon Howard, Trevor Sims, Greg Wild, Tony Burgan, Robert Oatey, Paul Bagshaw, Geoff Lauder, Phil Nelson, Geoff Leondard, John Murphy, Nigel Wark, Phil Heinrich, Brenton Miels, Michael Graham, Colin Casey, Phil Sanders, Robbert Klimp, Rick Davies, Mike Nunan, Richard Hill, Robert Barton, Tony Lloyd.

Port team: Russell Ebert, Darrell Cahill, Randall Gerlach, Tim Evans, Andy Porplycia, Chris Natt, Brian Cunningham, Robert Whatman, Kym Kinnear, Ian Jackman, Neville Phillips, Ian Verrier, Robert Enright, Peter Woite, David Grainger, Carl Fragomeni, Greg Phillips, Tony Giles, Bruce Light, Max James, John Ede, Paul Marrett.

Team numbers:

Sturt on left, Port on right:
Long Kicks: 88 - 82
Short Kicks: 49 - 52
Kicks: 204 - 216 (Eff: 68% - 63%)
Handballs: 123 - 84 (Eff: 73% - 73%)
Disposals: 327 - 300 (Eff: 70% - 65%)
Cont. Poss: 170 - 164
Uncont. Poss: 156 - 131
Uncont. Marks: 35 - 47 (from opp kicks: 13 - 12)
Cont. Marks: 32 - 28 (from opp kicks: 13 - 7)
Marks: 67 - 75 (from opp kicks: 26 - 19)
Play on from Mark: 34% - 48%
Hard Ball Gets: 59 - 56
Loose Ball Gets: 58 - 41
H/B Receives: 88 - 58
Inside 50s: 60 - 62
Rebound 50s: 51 - 43
Centre Breaks: 14 - 11
Clearances: 37 - 32
Hit Outs: 38 - 37
Hit Outs to Adv: 16 - 11
Spoils: 41 - 22
Smothers: 11 - 7
Free Kicks: 21 - 39 (Q1: 10-17, Q2: 5-8, Q3: 4-8, Q4: 2-6)
Clangers: 75 - 57
Disposal Turnovers: 31 - 28
Kicks OOF: 6 - 5
15m Penalties: 3 - 0
Game Time: 123 mins
Stoppages: 83 (30 centre re-starts, 20 throw ins, 33 ball ups)

And the differences between then and now? More long kicking, contested marking, free kicks and contests in general.

[spell_check]

I'm not surprised to see more handballs by Sturt - from the true inventor of attacking handball, Jack Oatey.

[Mr66]

Paraphrasing Mr Magic, "This is the Sturt football club's finest hour".
Last half of this game was televised live into Melbourne and after
seeing the Sturt uniform on our new colour TV, I became a Sturt fan.
Got the whole game on video some time later.

[power01]

as a one eyed Port Supporter, i still marvel at the speed and ability of Michael Graham on that day..............he cut the Maggies to pieces and was a memory i will never forget.......to you Mr Graham I tip my hat...............absolute brilliance.......

wonder how he would go in todays AFL..........MY GUESS BRILLIANTLY!!!!!