1960's SANFL

[robranisgod]

Wally Miller was a renowned administrator, but what kind of a footballer was he?

By his own admission just a battling, honest half back flanker who was a poor kick.

I was at Prospect Oval the next year, 1961 when he was carried off on a stretcher. Next day he couldn't get out of the bath and it was found that he had that horrible illness Polio. He never fully recovered and was invalided out of the Education Department but started a magnificent new career as a football administrator.

[robranisgod]

When did Norwood change from this type of guernsey (similar to Melbourne Football Club)?

Great footage. A few of the players that are easily recognisable include Hank Lindner, number 3 for North, Billy Thomas number 14 for North, Malcolm Whitford number 10 for North and John Lill (number 3 for Norwood) who you can see kick a goal to the Northern end to put Norwood in front about 10 minutes into the last quarter. Even though he played for the opposition John Lill was one of my heroes. As well as being Norwood's best player in the Grand Final he was an excellent opening batsmen for South Australia, given his ability and the shots he could play he should have played for Australia. In his spare time he became a Doctor of Engineering.
In the footage you can also see Don Gilbourne (number one) for North kick a magnificent drop kick. Gilbourne was renowned as being without peer as an exponent of the drop kick.
Norwood wore the Melbourne guernsey and called themselves the Demons during the Killigrew years (1959-1962) and I think whilst they were under Dougie Olds (1963-64). WHen Haydn Bunton returned as coach in 1965 they wore a predominantly navy guernsey with a red NFC monogram before reverting to their traditional navy strip with red piping for the short sleeve guernsey and pure navy long sleev guernsey when Robert Oatey became coach in 1968.

[robranisgod]

Barry Potts, who only came into the team in the final 4 games of 1960, kicked 10 goals, seven of which were in the Grand Final. I'm led to believe Potts is related in some way to Norwood legendary stalwart and Head Trainer Tiger Potts.

Barry Potts was in fact "Tiger" Potts' nephew. Tiger must have had mixed emotions watching his nephew dominate the Grand Final givebn Tiger's absolute love of the Norwood football club. Tiger was a trainer at Norwood for an incredible length of time.

[smithy]

Thanks Spelly.

Also, wasn't John Lill head of the MCG for a few years ?

The guernsey North wore that day is their best IMO.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Are you sure Cousins was the 20th man. I have just listened to the audio and they mention Swanbury coming onto the ground in the last quarter as a replacement for Wells. Also in the fantastic snippet provided by GWW, Swanbury's name is listed on the scoreboard with his number as used to happen with a late change that wasn't included in the budget.

It's not the first time I've made this error, and have corrected it on my records. You are correct, Hartley Swanbury replaced Cousins in the selected side from the previous week.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Thanks Spelly.

Also, wasn't John Lill head of the MCG for a few years ?

The guernsey North wore that day is their best IMO.

Yes, Dr.John Lill was the Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club from 1983 to 2000. He also played 1st class cricket for SA as an elegant right hand opening bat, and right arm medium pace bowler.

[Psyber]

ALAN KILLIGREW
known as the hot gospeller
came from SK to coach NW in 1959
NW finished 6th in a 8 team comp in 1959[lost the first 5 games, and almost made the finals]
Killa wanted success at the Parade and embarked on a extensive recruiting campaign to recruit for the 1960 season
The recruits included, with games played
BOWE [74]
BRENCHLEY[30]
DELLAR [52]
FEEHAN[56]
GORDON[10]
STEPHENS [31]
others ?

I think Killa was also responsible for Norwood acquiring (temporarily) an incredible ruckman.
IIRC his name was Morrie Pope.

[mal]

ALAN KILLIGREW
known as the hot gospeller
came from SK to coach NW in 1959
NW finished 6th in a 8 team comp in 1959[lost the first 5 games, and almost made the finals]
Killa wanted success at the Parade and embarked on a extensive recruiting campaign to recruit for the 1960 season
The recruits included, with games played
BOWE [74]
BRENCHLEY[30]
DELLAR [52]
FEEHAN[56]
GORDON[10]
STEPHENS [31]
others ?

I think Killa was also responsible for Norwood acquiring (temporarily) an incredible ruckman.
IIRC his name was Morrie Pope.

POPE M played 4 games in 1959
Pyber, did Pope make an incredible impression in his 4 games ?
What happened to him in 1960 ?

[mal]

AH + RIG excellent summations of the 1960 Grand Final

1960 GRAND FINAL
When a team loses by 5 points, I guess some aspects of the game are under scrutiny for the NW loss

This is what Killigrew had to say aftermatch
___________________________________________________________________________________
We did it the hard way coming from 4th position.
While NW was pounded [PA V NW PRELIM] , NA players sat back in the stands with thier legs crossed, chewing gum and smoking cherrywood pipes, and saying prayers that we'd knock each others heads off, which we do our best to do.
We should have won.
With a minute to go Bill Wedding was held down and should have got a free.
But thats history.
Water under the bridge.
You could cry a hundred rivers
___________________________________________________________________________________

18 years later Phil Gallagher got a very dubious free, and kicked a goal v ST
1n 1960 was Killigrew right in assuming Big Bill Wedding, should have been freed, and perhaps kick a goal to win this game for NW ?
Can the experts with a tape of the 1960 game , have another LOOK and clear this matter up ?

Also in that after match speech, Kila mentioned the names of 2 future NA players !!!

[robranisgod]

AH + RIG excellent summations of the 1960 Grand Final

1960 GRAND FINAL
When a team loses by 5 points, I guess some aspects of the game are under scrutiny for the NW loss

This is what Killigrew had to say aftermatch
___________________________________________________________________________________
We did it the hard way coming from 4th position.
While NW was pounded [PA V NW PRELIM] , NA players sat back in the stands with thier legs crossed, chewing gum and smoking cherrywood pipes, and saying prayers that we'd knock each others heads off, which we do our best to do.
We should have won.
With a minute to go Bill Wedding was held down and should have got a free.
But thats history.
Water under the bridge.
You could cry a hundred rivers
___________________________________________________________________________________

18 years later Phil Gallagher got a very dubious free, and kicked a goal v ST
1n 1960 was Killigrew right in assuming Big Bill Wedding, should have been freed, and perhaps kick a goal to win this game for NW ?
Can the experts with a tape of the 1960 game , have another LOOK and clear this matter up ?

Also in that after match speech, Kila mentioned the names of 2 future NA players !!!

[robranisgod]

AH + RIG excellent summations of the 1960 Grand Final

1960 GRAND FINAL
When a team loses by 5 points, I guess some aspects of the game are under scrutiny for the NW loss

This is what Killigrew had to say aftermatch
___________________________________________________________________________________
We did it the hard way coming from 4th position.
While NW was pounded [PA V NW PRELIM] , NA players sat back in the stands with thier legs crossed, chewing gum and smoking cherrywood pipes, and saying prayers that we'd knock each others heads off, which we do our best to do.
We should have won.
With a minute to go Bill Wedding was held down and should have got a free.
But thats history.
Water under the bridge.
You could cry a hundred rivers
___________________________________________________________________________________

18 years later Phil Gallagher got a very dubious free, and kicked a goal v ST
1n 1960 was Killigrew right in assuming Big Bill Wedding, should have been freed, and perhaps kick a goal to win this game for NW ?
Can the experts with a tape of the 1960 game , have another LOOK and clear this matter up ?

Also in that after match speech, Kila mentioned the names of 2 future NA players !!!

That quote by Killa has always puzzled me. After John Vickers' long goal to get Norwood back to 5 points almost all of the rest of the game was spent in North's forward line. In fact Trevor Hughes had a shot for goal to sew the game up from about 40 yards out straight in front but in keeping with his well known nickname he hooked the shot out of bounds. Almost on the siren Haydn Bunton got a break and cleared the ball but I have always thought that the ball was near the centre of the ground when the siren rang. I have found no mention of Killa's quote in the newspapers of the day, but I think that it is in one of Mike Coward's fabulous books Red'n'Blue blooded or Men of Norwood. I wonder if Killa was interviewed for those books and got his times a bit mixed up. Immediately after Vickers' goal Norwood did go marginally forward according to the call and Wedding had an "airy". Perhaps that is the incident to which Killa is referring.

In 1981 I stood next to Killa at Unley Oval in a North vs Sturt match and he was barracking strongly for North. I wished I had talked to him that day but I figured that he didn't need to be bothered by someone like me.

[robranisgod]

1960 Grand Finals Teams

NORTH ADELAIDE
Coach: Jack McCarthy
Captain: Don Gilbourne
F: Alwin Faggotter, Bob Pasoe, Barry Potts
HF: Malcolm Whitford, Don Lindner, Trevor Hughes
C: Ron Hewett, Ray Trenorden, Barrie Barbary
HB: Brian Gambling, Malcolm Montgomery, Ray Carroll
B: Don Gilbourne, Bob Hammond, Theo Lindner
Ruck: John Bubner, Barry Kent, Billy Thomas
Res: Alan Cheek, Peter Bottroff

NORWOOD
Coach: Alan Killigrew
Captain: Peter Aish
F: Brian Johnson, Phil Stephens, Peter Vivian
HF: Brian Wells, John Lill, Peter Brenchley
C: Bob Fosdike, Ian Gordon, John Vickers
HB: Wally Miller, Ron Kneebone, John Inglis
B: Gerry Harrison, Peter Aish, Geoff Feehan
Ruck: Bill Wedding, Glen McMahon, Haydn Bunton
Res: George Dellar, Hartley Swanbury

North Adelaide 5-5 8-6 11-10 14-11 95
Norwood 4-2 7-5 10-12 13-12 90
Best
NA: Potts Gilbourne Barbary Hammond Montgomery Gambling Whitford
N: Gordon Miller Fosdike Feehan Lill Kneebone Bunton
Goals
NA: Potts 7 D.Lindner Whitford Trenorden Thomas Barbary Hughes Kent
N: Lill 4 Stephens 2 Vickers 2 Johnson Brenchley Vivian Wedding Wells

Umpire: Brenton Whitford

Tom Warhurst's best players for North were Potts, Gilbourne, Hammond and Gambling and for Norwood Lill was his best. Warhurst also made a very astute comment when he stated that Hammond was the best first year full back that he had ever seen.

Another interesting story onvolves North centreman Ray Trenorden. It was alleged that when he shook hands before the game with his Norwood opponent, the opponent dislocated Ray's finger in the hand shake!!!

I was surprised that Peter Aish wasn't mentioned in Norwood's best players. He kept Bob Pascoe goaless. He repeated the effort on Doug Thomas in the 1961 Grand Final. Not a bad effort by a full back to not have a goal kicked on him in 8 quarters of two Grand finals. I think that he would have gladly traded a couple of goals for a Norwood win though.

Some critics at the time thought that the match winning move was at about the 15 minute mark of the last quarter when Jack McCarthy sent Bob Pascoe, who had been soundly beaten by Aish, onto the ball. Pascoe took a number of marks and drove North into attack repeatedly. After playing in North's losing Grand Final of 1963, Pascoe went on to have a successful career at North Melbourne and St Kilda. He was named in the Victorian team for the 1966 Carnival, but missed out on wearing the big V when he broke his leg in the last minor round match before the carnival.

[Adelaide Hawk]

POPE M played 4 games in 1959
Pyber, did Pope make an incredible impression in his 4 games ?
What happened to him in 1960 ?

The impact Pope made was being recruited from Carlton where he played 7 games, and he was 6'7" tall, which was extraordinarily tall in those days, even for a ruckman. Unfortunately, that's all she wrote.

[mal]

NORWOOD 1959
There was a fair bit of consternation that came with Killigrew
He arrived in 1959, after NW had finished 4th in 1958
NW had lost their first 5 games under Killigrew
NW recovered well enough to almost make the 1959 finals
21 new players were used in 1959, several were considered not good enough to play League football

NORWOOD 1960
Killigrew recruited extensively from Victoria, the recruits were paid 100 pounds each to come over
This caused a rift within the clubs committee , and some supPORTers were not impressed
To raise $$$$ to pay the recruits, gambling nights were organised [Fortunately Nick X was not about then]

BIG PHIL
Phil Stephens was one of these recruits
Immediately after the GF loss in 1960, this is recorded as happening
Killigrew was not impressed with Phils effort at Full forward
It is said that Big Phil was unable to distinguish between cheers and jeers, nonchalantly wise cracked his way into the sombre dressing room
Killigrew had a real go at Big Phil, in front of his team-mates
Killigrew and Stephens had a potato farm in the northern area, and were business partners
If the Grand final loss was hard to take for these 2 , it got even worse
The Potatoes were lost because the irrigation system was not turned off
Both partners had thought the other had turned off the irrigation !
Big Phil continued on and played for NW for 3 years 1960-1962
He only played 31 games
Was he injured a fair bit ?

NA
Won the GF , but how they performed b4 and after was interesting
7TH 1959
1ST 1960
5TH 1961

NW
Frustrating loss
NW now had lost 4 GFs in a row between 1951-1960
I wonder if the word choke was mentioned ....

At the end of 1960 GFs played
NW
21 played
9 wins
12 losses

NA
12 played
6 wins
6 losses

PA
30 played
15 wins
15 losses

PA having a 50% strike rate was a surprise to me

[redandblack]

In those years, 4 radio stations covered the games. I'm pretty sure it was the ABC, 5AD, 5KA and 5DN?

Ever supporter hoped their game would be on 5KA. Apart from having Tom Warhurst and Max Hall as the callers, they had interviews with players and no interruptions for races, etc. Warhurst and Hall were very good commentators, as has been already said.

'The News' also had a late edition each day and the Saturday edition had the final scores in the 'Stop Press' bit on the back page(?).

[mal]

1960
Was a Centenary Year for North Adelaide ?
100 years old ?
North Division [NA] played South Division[ SA] in the North Parklands in May 1860 ?

[robranisgod]

NA
Won the GF , but how they performed b4 and after was interesting
7TH 1959
1ST 1960
5TH 1961


NA
12 played
6 wins
6 losses

North had been minor premiers in 1958 but had many injuries in the lead up to the final series. Many of these injuries carried on into 1959. North did play in another Grand Final in 1963.

I also have to question your stats on Grand Finals played. North had won 9 Grand Finals by 1960, they had won in 1900, 1902, 1905, 1920, 1930, 1931, 1949, 1952 and 1960

[MagareyLegend]

NA
Won the GF , but how they performed b4 and after was interesting
7TH 1959
1ST 1960
5TH 1961


NA
12 played
6 wins
6 losses

North had been minor premiers in 1958 but had many injuries in the lead up to the final series. Many of these injuries carried on into 1959. North did play in another Grand Final in 1963.

I also have to question your stats on Grand Finals played. North had won 9 Grand Finals by 1960, they had won in 1900, 1902, 1905, 1920, 1930, 1931, 1949, 1952 and 1960

Thanks RIG.
Why do people persist in writing unadulterated crap without doing their homework AND it is not even in relation to mal's own club.
As I've said before some people just make things up I'm sure.
Like even if he was right - WHAT'S HIS POINT?

[MagareyLegend]

1960
Was a Centenary Year for North Adelaide ?
100 years old ?
North Division [NA] played South Division[ SA] in the North Parklands in May 1860 ?

WAH?
North started in 1893!
Like don't you read or listen?
So we (NAFC) only got it wrong by 33 years? Yeah right!

[mal]

NA
Won the GF , but how they performed b4 and after was interesting
7TH 1959
1ST 1960
5TH 1961


NA
12 played
6 wins
6 losses

North had been minor premiers in 1958 but had many injuries in the lead up to the final series. Many of these injuries carried on into 1959. North did play in another Grand Final in 1963.

I also have to question your stats on Grand Finals played. North had won 9 Grand Finals by 1960, they had won in 1900, 1902, 1905, 1920, 1930, 1931, 1949, 1952 and 1960

Thanks RIG.
Why do people persist in writing unadulterated crap without doing their homework AND it is not even in relation to mal's own club.
As I've said before some people just make things up I'm sure.
Like even if he was right - WHAT'S HIS POINT?

Some publications have Grand Final records dating back to starting in 1907[where I got the stats from]
If we count 1907-1960 then NA has won 6 Premierships
The South Australian Football Association was formed in 1877
They changed to the South Australian Football League in 1907


Finals were introduced in 1898 by the SAFA
Depending on where we trace Grand Finals from is where we can derive whether NA has 6 Premierships or 9 after the 1960 Premiership win