SA Footy

G'day Spelly,

You may have answered this one - apologies if so - but just wondering who is the oldest player to play their first SANFL match? I thought Daniel Ward may have gone close with North Adelaide when he played his first SANFL game at 30.

Cheers
CK

Syd Jackson (Glenelg in 1977) and John McCarthy (Eagles in 1999) were both 32 when they debuted. I don't know of anyone older than that, but I'm sure there would be.

I reckon Mick Haseldine played his debut at 32 a few years ago at North under Jarman

How old was Wayne Johnstone when he debuted for Sturt?

GWW wrote:How old was Wayne Johnstone when he debuted for Sturt?

He was 32 years & 229 days old when he retired at Carlton.....

Glenelg's 1959 full forward, Fred Pemberton, would've been a month short of 36 when he played his first game for the Bays.

baggy8 wrote:Glenelg's 1959 full forward, Fred Pemberton, would've been a month short of 36 when he played his first game for the Bays.

I have very vague memories of "last kick" Pemberton. He was so nicknamed because he kicked the winning goal for the Bays against North in the last 10 seconds of the match and I believe he repeated the doe in the first semi final against Sturt.

I would love to know what his story was. Where did he come from, how did he suddenly lob at the Bay as a 36 year old?

I have read articles saying that when Fos Williams retired at the end of 1958 he was the last returned man to play SANFL and then lo and behold up bobs Pemberton, who I believe like Fos had been in the Navy during World War II.

Another point is that 1959 must have been an "odd year" other than Port and West being as usual the major combatants. North went from doinating much of 1958, before finishing third to only winning 3 matches for the year in 1959 and just narrowly missing the wooden spoon. Norwood weren't much better, and yet in 1960 they played off for the premiership. Glenelg on the other hand went from third in 1959 to bottom in 1960.

Strange times indeed.

Fred was late making his VFL debut too. Was 25 when he played the first of his 24 games for St Kilda between 1948 and '50. Only kicked one goal, so presumably not a full forward then. Spent several years with East Sydney when they were the top club in what were probably the Sydney comp's best days. Can''t substantiate it, but I had the feeling he came to Glenelg from the west. Kicked the last two goals of the first semi-final in '59 as the Bays came from 17 points down entering time-on to get up and beat Sturt by a point. Grrrrr!