SA Footy

Was watching some old Norwood GF highlights and thinking of a few shooting stars at our club who had flags to their names, against the old footy chestnut of long-time servants who miss out.

Got me thinking to a team of blokes in my key era of SANFL watching - 1970 - 1990 -- of guys who were in the right place at the right time, for whatever reason, and were part of a flag, without being a long-term star. Here's my team, basically in the positions they were actually named on the day from the old budgets, and happy for anyone to over-rule and put in blokes I might have missed, or expand the era up to today if your expertise is outside this era I've put down.

1970 - 1990
F - Neagle (82) Laughlin (84) Vardanega (84)
HF - Adamson (78) Kym Curtis (79) Agius (80)
C - Martyn (81) A Aish (82) Millard (73)
HB - Rix (75) Kruse (86) Stemper (82)
B - Schmaal 82) Stasinowsky (78) Rawson (73)
R - De Jong (83) Oatey (74) Conlen (83)
Int - Geoff Blethyn (77) Slattery (87) P Heinrich (76) Hill (76)

Some reasons too -
Neagle - a star with six goals and then gone by the time another premiership occurs in two year's time.
Laughlin - named at ff, and spent the whole day running around Max James
Vardanega - one fine year, and then nothing
Adamson - 78 court cases to get him from WA to play in 78 and he delivered on the big day, before soon disppearing
Curtis - wrecked by injuries. Good player
Agius - one stand out year in a gun side, but missed flags immediately before and afterwards
Martyn - not sure why he only managed one flag
A Aish - super player, but the planets never quite aligned
Millard - could be tough on him including him in this side
Rix - got a run late in the year, thanks to injuries, and got a flag
Kruse - years at a poor club in Vic, and comes over for a flag
Stemper - years at Woodville for no reward, and jumped for a flag
Schmaal - super reliable for one year, and basically one year only
Stasinowsky - great club player, but missed one flag due to injury and in this one was knocked out and was convinced we'd lost
Rawson - again, may be being tough on him, but don't think of him as a long-term player
De Jong - Mickan rucked all year and then fell over in round 21 or so, to give De Jong the spot
Oatey - years slogging it out in bad Norwood teams, and gets a flag with dad at the end of his career
Conlen - immediate impact when he crossed the border to sa, and a key reason westies won IMO
Blethyn - fine VFL career, including a ton, but never really put it together here
Slattery - shooting star as a kid, and got a flag near the end with North
P Heinrich - should thank Rick Davies for his medal, as he barely got a run on the day
Hill - wasn't he the guy called down from the country during the finals??????

A bit quiet at work Rog?

I'll put some thought into this one and come back - dogs flags are all pretty recent, shouldn't take too long!

Fair to say that work was extraordinarily busy until about 10.30 am this morning. AFter that, I've had two spare hours and had my list of 35 or so blokes in my head, and went with this 22. Team is pretty Norwood / Sturt / Port centric obviously as they won most of the flags in that time and the Bay guys either played a long time or most managed to get two flags. I've probably stiffed 1-2 North guys from 71-72 but South, Centrals, Woodville and Eagles were all flagless in the time I was watching a lot, which made it tough.

Probably still fit's the mould, but Peter Laughlin was unlucky not to play more games purely because of injury ... Played with the Legs for 5 years and was an excellent player in 81 and 82 (not to mention a useful finals series in 84).

Rick Neagle is still one of the best kicks for goal I've seen .... Gave up his footy for a career in Physiotherapy and was a big loss.

In more modern times, Aaron Keating is the one that comes to mind for many, played buggerall games for the Legs and did buggerall, but took home a premiership medal in 97 a week after he did so with the Crows.

Some great names on that list Splinter, that conjur special memories of a special era.

Here's a few single premiership players from the dogs and a brief comment:

Jeremy Aufderheide - I was surprised to find him in the list. Has been around a while now, bad luck with injuries combined with poor timing for bad form perhaps cost him a couple more.
Radlee Moller - First ruck in the first flag, went home after that IIRC.
Charles Slattery - First flag this season, first season at the club (although rumour has it he may be off interstate for work). Jumped off the Westies wagon, could perhaps be considered lucky if he does move on.
Daniel Stevens - Footy journeyman to an extent, perhaps fits in the 'lucky' category.

How about Roger (?) Kerr who played in Port's 88 premiership

Peter Simmons for North came in to the 87 side after Jason Roe was suspended. Very good player but racked with injury after that.

Bays - Adam Garton?

Hard luck stories:
- Mark Hewett of Glenelg missed the 85 and 86 flags through injury and then played in the losing 87 and 88 teams
- Davild Wildy played in the 85 and 86 North losses then missed 87

Ooh, if we're running with hard luck stories... Scott Lee would get my vote.

243 games (plus about 95 games at the Crows in the middle of that stint), to be not selected for the clubs first flag in 2000.

Nothing worse than seeing someone in that situation on GF night - looked at nothing but his own shoelaces for the whole night.

hondo71 wrote:How about Roger (?) Kerr who played in Port's 88 premiership

Peter Simmons for North came in to the 87 side after Jason Roe was suspended. Very good player but racked with injury after that.

Bays - Adam Garton?

Hard luck stories:
- Mark Hewett of Glenelg missed the 85 and 86 flags through injury and then played in the losing 87 and 88 teams
- Davild Wildy played in the 85 and 86 North losses then missed 87

I did think Kerr, but wasn't sure if he played after I left town, but obviously didn't. Garton had two, which was the only reason I didn't have him, but good call on Simmons.Forgot that.

As for Wildy, I reckon he still would regret belting Kernahan in 85, as it only fired him up.

Kruse? May be "lucky" but then went on to Sydney, so furthered (using term loosely) his footy career.

Paul Chapman ('93 admittedly) from Eagles, but this may be more of a case of not making the most of his ability.

rogernumber10 wrote: Hill - wasn't he the guy called down from the country during the finals??????

I don't know if you'd say that made him lucky.
He'd been an important cog of the Sturt machine prior to heading to the country for work.
He played for Hawthorn before coming to SA. Did he play in a flag there?

Roger - are we talking about different Hills?

As Malcolm Hill definately was called back from the country to play in one of those grand finals. He was managing the Berri Hotel at the time.

His family still live in the Riverland too.

But not in 73 by the looks of this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Hill

Malcolm Hill (born October 7, 1938) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Hawthorn in the VFL during the 1960s.

Hill was a ruckman and started his career with Hawthorn in 1960. He played three seasons of VFL football and was a premiership player in 1961. After leaving Hawthorn he moved to South Australia and went on to play for Sturt during the rest of the 1960s. Despite only appearing in a total of 40 games for Sturt, Hill was a premiership player in 1966, 1968 and 1969.

Must be a different Hill. The one who played in 76 was a guy who used to come down from somewhere in the country, after spending most of the year in the bush, bar when his team up there up had a bye.

He played bugger all games but Oatey put him in for the GF. (What a completely radical thing to consider these days)

The Hill you are referring to Rog is Richard Hill, he was fullback for a while. Not sure what his career record was but he played a few games for us from 76 to about 80?

how does full-back get the swear filter worked up?

youngster wrote::shock: how does full-back get the swear filter worked up?

Starts with f and ends with k I assume..

I think Andrew Aish concluded his Physiotherapy career was more important than football, just as Peter Oatey settled for Tennis when he decided to become a Neurosurgeon.

FlyingHigh wrote:Kruse? May be "lucky" but then went on to Sydney, so furthered (using term loosely) his footy career.

Pretty sure it was the other way around .... Sydney then Glenelg

hondo71 wrote:

FlyingHigh wrote:Kruse? May be "lucky" but then went on to Sydney, so furthered (using term loosely) his footy career.

Pretty sure it was the other way around .... Sydney then Glenelg

You may be right Hondo. I might be getting confused with Wayne Henwood - WA, to Bays, to Syd?

FlyingHigh wrote:You may be right Hondo. I might be getting confused with Wayne Henwood - WA, to Bays, to Syd?

Yes for the Moose!

Ditto James West too

Henwood's career was definitely going northwards when he included a Glenelg premiership or two, while Kruse was going south. Max used to a staple of those early Sydney teams on a Sunday from the SCG, before coming over to SA