SA Footy

One thing that stuck in my claw as we were being raped and pillaged in the 1980s was that you couldn't go down to your home ground and watch the best of your club take on the best of another club.

E.g I would have loved to have seen S Kernahan up against G Phillips in the 1990 GF, or see McGuinness lock horns with Tony Francis or John Platten at Elizabeth or the Parade.

I'm biased but can not think of a better home grown half forward line in Australia, in 1990, than R Jameson, S Kernahan T Hall. FWIW I can not think of a better home grown centre line of B Abernethy C Bradley G Wanganeen (I know he also played on the ball and half forward but R Smith was handy too!!)

So in 1990 if we hadn't been plundered by the VFL/AFL sharks I believe our GF side would have been:

M Liptak J Fidge N Chigwidden
R Jameson, S Kernahan T Hall
L Bow D Marshall T Symonds
D Kernahan J Seebohm R Thompson
R Gibbs C Duthy J West
C Melican C McDermott T McGuinness
Int A Bartlett S Salisbury (Bartlett only in as ruck relief)

Players in AFL circa 1990

Apologies to D Mansell, P Maynard, P Rouvray, M Murphy, C Budarick and M Donovan last two crippled in their prime by ACL injuries
Couldn't select G Christie and C Lamb form our 1990 side as they would have been playing for South and West respectively.

I'd be interested to see other people think their best side would be if they hadn't been plundered by the VFL/AFL.

1980 Tassie Medalist wrote:One thing that stuck in my claw as we were being raped and pillaged in the 1980s was that you couldn't go down to your home ground and watch the best of your club take on the best of another club.

lol, I think you mean "craw"!

Let's be really fair about this and not include players we "poached" from other clubs and interstate. One of the things that has annoyed me over the years was SA media complaining about the VFL recruiting our players and yet we could see nothing wrong with recruiting players from WA, Tasmania, VFA, etc. The Glenelg team is a good one, but to be consistent, players like Fidge, Gibbs and Maynard shouldn't be included if it's the home grown product you are looking for.

F: M. Williams, Hodges, Ginever
HF: D. Smith, Russell, Wanganeen
C: Tregenza, Bradley, Anderson
HB: Leslie, Phillips, Abernethy
B: Fiacchi, Delaney, Hughes
R: Hynes, Obst, S. Williams
Int: Johnston, Brown

Adelaide Hawk wrote:Let's be really fair about this and not include players we "poached" from other clubs and interstate. One of the things that has annoyed me over the years was SA media complaining about the VFL recruiting our players and yet we could see nothing wrong with recruiting players from WA, Tasmania, VFA, etc. The Glenelg team is a good one, but to be consistent, players like Fidge, Gibbs and Maynard shouldn't be included if it's the home grown product you are looking for.

Yeah point taken, particularly with respect to Gibbs. Your honour if I could approach the bench I susppose my rationale behind Fidge and Maynard is that they were VFL rejects - surplus to requirement so to speak but under my criteria of home grown I take your point.

Chuck in Budarick (FF) and Donovan or Mansell (Int) for the WAFL and VFL recruits. Mind you based on 1990 form I should have had Mansell in there from the start or maybe B Deane who had his best year in 1990. In 1990 Maynard ended up playing reserves and didn't play in our GF side

At first thought.....

F: A.Antrobus, Burton, Parsons
HF: D.Robertson, Bennett, Craig
C: B.Phillips , D.Jarman, Sanders
HB: Perkins, Clisby, M.Campbell
B: Ryan, Tasker, Trenorden
R: Redden, Klomp, D.Hart
Int: Lehmann, Saliba

That going on the who was in form late in 1990 and who was playing AFL at the time.

F: A Antrobus, P Bennett, M Parsons
HF: D Robertson, W Carey, N Craig
C: B Phillips , D Jarman, M Campbell
HB: T Perkins, S Wellman, T Clisby
B: B Ryan, S Tasker, B Hart
R: M Redden, K Klomp, D Hart
Int: T Lehmann, D Sanders

I've used a bit of "license" as, Wellman & Hart were 1 year off, & Carey was starting to dominate in the AFL

PS Leaping Lindner's side was used, with some minor twists, for mine.