SA Footy

I thought it might be an interesting exercise to start up a discussion where supporters could rate their club’s top 5 players from 1945 (WW2) to 1990. I realise that the SANFL didn’t finish in 1990 but I picked that as the cut off as the entry of the Crows in the AFL in 1991 complicates matters.

In order to qualify, a player needs to be rated predominantly on their SANFL performances, so for example Ben Hart played before 1991, but not a substantial amount of games. He later established himself as an AFL champion, but for the purposes of this thread wouldn’t be given much consideration. Same with Gavin Wanganeen. I would consider players such as Craig Bradley, Stephen Kernahan or John Platten however, as they established themselves over a number of years as first rate SANFL players, and then enhanced their reputation in the AFL.

The criteria I am using are brilliance, longetivity/games played, sportsmanship, individual achievements.

I'll start with my side.....

Port Adelaide

1) Russell Ebert
2) Craig Bradley
3) John Cahill
4) Geoff Motley
5) Greg Phillips

Players that just missed out on that list were Fos Williams, Bob Quinn, Jeff Potter, Bruce Abernethy, and Greg Anderson.

My idea for this thread would be for supporters to rate their own clubs, but I’m going to have a go at rating the other clubs as well:

Glenelg......................................... Centrals

1) Stephen Kernahan..................... 1) John Platten
2) Graham Cornes......................... 2) Gilbert McAdam
3) Peter Carey.............................. 3) Scott Lee
4) Tony McGuinness....................... 4) Gary Window
5) Chris McDermott....................... 5) Dean Mobbs

I wanted to fit Fred Phillis and Kym Hodgeman in Glenelg’s list and Peter Jonas and John Duckworth in Central’s but that’s what I came up with.

Sturt............................................ North Adelaide
1) Len Fitzgerald........................... 1) Barrie Robran
2) Rick Davies.............................. 2) Don Lindner
3) Peter Motley............................. 3) Andrew Jarman
4) John Halbert............................. 4) Darren Jarman
5) Paul Bagshaw........................... 5) Ian McKay

Other players I considered for Sturt’s list were Michael Graham, Bob Shearman and Darryl Hicks, whilst those who just missed out on my list for North were Bob Hammond, Michael Redden and Barry Barbary.

West Adelaide............................... South Adelaide
1) Neil Kerley................................ 1) Jim Deane
2) Ken Eustice............................... 2) Peter Darley
3) Ron Benton............................... 3) Mark Naley
4) Mark Mickan............................. 4) Lindsay Backman
5) Roger Luders............................ 5) Bob Schmidt

Others I considered for West were Grantley Fielke, Trevor Grimwood, and Jeff Bray, whilst for South David Kantilla just missed out on my list.

Woodville..................................... Norwood
1) Malcolm Blight.......................... 1) Michael Aish
2) Bob Simunsen......................... 2) John Marriott
3) Ray Huppatz............................ 3) Gary Mcintosh
4) Andrew Rogers........................ 4) Ron Kneebone
5) Ralph Sewer........................... 5) Michael Taylor

I also considered Stephen Nichols, Max Parker, John Klug, and Richard Champion for Woodville and Doug Olds, Neville Roberts, Bill Wedding and Keith Thomas for Norwood.

West Torrens
1) Lindsay Head
2) Bob Hank
3) Bruce Lindsay
4) Neil Hawke
5) Michael Long

It’s a very difficult exercise, especially rating players from other clubs, and I’ve probably given preferential treatment to players from the 70’s and 80’s at expense of players, particularly from 40’s and 50’s.

Would be interested to see other people’s rankings.

******Whilst I’m at it, thought I’d have a go at doing a similar thing for the Crows (91 to 06) and Port (97 to 06):

Adelaide.................................. Port
1) Mark Ricciuto....................... 1) Warren Tredrea
2) Andrew McLeod.................... 2) Gavin Wanganeen
3) Simon Goodwin.................... 3) Chad Cornes
4) Ben Hart.............................. 4) Josh Francou
5) Shaun Rehn......................... 5) Matthew Primus

Just missing out on the Crows list were Nigel Smart, Tony Modra and Tyson Edwards, whilst for Port I also considered Peter Burgoyne, Brendon Lade and Michael Wilson.

Awesome effort GWW
As someone who saw every game the Jarman brothers played at North and has only read of the exploits of Lindner and McKay I'd still move McKay up to 2nd with Lindner and The Jarman brothers following.
Interestingly I know a few old Portonians who rate Bob Quinn a better player than Ebert! But I suppose you could argue his career spanned the war.
Again great effort.

Thread of the year GWW

I'll have to think about other clubs but Glenelg I would have

Peter Carey
Graham Cornes
Stephen Kernahan
Chris McDermott
Peter Marker

honourable mentions to Hodgy, Paul Weston, Neil Davies, Neil Kerley & David Marshall

Supe was just a legend, the heart and soul of our club. Could play forward and back. Cornesy was our Gun player in the 70s in the top 7 of Robrans players of the 70s. Kernahan won us a flag in 85, 1983 Magarey medal should have been his and nearly lost Argent his life on GF night. Players had to hold Horse back. Bones was our workhorse for 10 years. If Kerley and Robran reckon Marker is a gun well that is good enough for me.

Neil davies was our star in thr late 50s and an All Australian I had him in my top five until I thought of Peter. Kerley only played 60 odd games for us but most importantly taught us how to play tough hard league footy and how to win.

Everyone of my top five is a Glenelg premiership player.

Interesting GWW that you have Michael Long in Torrens top five when he only played one season I think from memory (1987)

1980 Tassie Medalist wrote: Interesting GWW that you have Michael Long in Torrens top five when he only played one season I think from memory (1987)

Yes West Torrens is one club whos players i dont know a lot about. There appears to be 3 stand outs, but apart from that i was scratching to come up with any more players. I did some searching/research on the net but didn't come up with many more players, so i think in the end i put Long's name in as i just wanted to finish it so i could put it up for discussion.

I guess in hindsight Andrew Payze would have been a better candidate than Long.

Fred Bills, Peter Phillipou, Kevin McSporren, Ian Hanna......

I don't know if they are better than Long though as I have said previously my memories (1977 onwards) of West Torrens are that it was a virtually guaranteed 2 pts for us......

Long played in 88. Nabbed the B&F and was third in the Magarey Medal and was just a skinny kid at the time. It was only one season however.
Fred Bills was there for an age and won a couple of B&Fs and state jumpers although I know Torrens supporters who admit he wasn't that "great". McSporran won 4 (I think) B&Fs and certainly had flair.
You could probably throw Bob Morrell who was a great ruckman with Torrens in the late 50's/early 60's.

Actually i did think of Ian Hanna but wasn't sure exactly how good he was, didn't think he was quite up to that rating (to be ranked in top 5). I should have thought of McSporran. With the other clubs i was able to come up with a fairly considerable list to view and then evaluate but with WT, with the club not existing on its own anymore found it hard to find much on this club. I probably should have gone to the WWT site as they probably would have had a list of all the prominent Torrens players but i guess after working on the other clubs a bit of fatigue set in and i just wanted to complete the rankings and post them on the forum.

1980 Tassie Medalist wrote:Thread of the year GWW

I'll have to think about other clubs but Glenelg I would have

Peter Carey
Graham Cornes
Stephen Kernahan
Chris McDermott
Peter Marker

honourable mentions to Hodgy, Paul Weston, Neil Davies, Neil Kerley & David Marshall

Supe was just a legend, the heart and soul of our club. Could play forward and back. Cornesy was our Gun player in the 70s in the top 7 of Robrans players of the 70s. Kernahan won us a flag in 85, 1983 Magarey medal should have been his and nearly lost Argent his life on GF night. Players had to hold Horse back. Bones was our workhorse for 10 years. If Kerley and Robran reckon Marker is a gun well that is good enough for me.

Neil davies was our star in thr late 50s and an All Australian I had him in my top five until I thought of Peter. Kerley only played 60 odd games for us but most importantly taught us how to play tough hard league footy and how to win.

Everyone of my top five is a Glenelg premiership player.

Interesting GWW that you have Michael Long in Torrens top five when he only played one season I think from memory (1987)

How well do you and the club in general rate Phillis?

As an SA footy follower i would have liked to have seen Marshall have a go in the AFL/VFL pre Crows days. As he showed with Adelaide in his few years there he certainly wasn't out of his depth. His disposal was always immaculate, would you agree that he'd be close to Glenelg's best ever wingman?

Bottom line, Port, North, Norwood, Sturt, and if I could be so bold Glenelg had some fair players to pick from for their top five that you and I haven't mentioned GWW.

No M Williams, Evans, Cunningham, etc at port , No Neil Craig or Ugo Cosalante (under rated ruckman IMHO) Staritski, Robert oatey, Bruce Winter, John Wynne @ Norwood, sturt, Whittlesea, Derrington, M Nunan, Casey, nelson, Paynter, North J Riley, Hart, Tiller and chuck in McGuinness, Gibbs & Symo at Glenelg

hell some good names there.....

Bob Quinn, absolute champion, however because of the criteria GWW has set out, it makes it tough to name him in Port's top five post-WWII as he only played three seasons.

Still, he won a Magarey on one leg in that time.

Ebert, Cahill and Motley pick themselves but the last two are difficult.

How do you pick from Abley, Bradley, Hannaford, Hayes, Phillips, Potter, Russell, Whelan etc.

I can't!

One name that is rarely mentioned is Ray Whitaker.

He only played 79 games for Port before retiring very early but by all accounts, he was a genius.

Answered an SOS call from Fos to play in the 1951 finals, including the grand final win.

GWW wrote:
How well do you and the club in general rate Phillis?

As an SA footy follower i would have liked to have seen Marshall have a go in the AFL/VFL pre Crows days. As he showed with Adelaide in his few years there he certainly wasn't out of his depth. His disposal was always immaculate, would you agree that he'd be close to Glenelg's best ever wingman?

I should have put Phillis in my "also-rans" i.e. 6-10, along with his brother Wayne. I susppsoe he was just before my time so i do not treally remember him so it si ahrd to make a judgement.

Marshall would be in our top two ever wingman along with Snout Mcfalane, 300 games not flashy but teh consumate team man, I think he played the 81 Grannie with a broken leg (hairline fracture of the fibula. Tough man snout.....

1980 Tassie Medalist wrote:

GWW wrote:
How well do you and the club in general rate Phillis?

As an SA footy follower i would have liked to have seen Marshall have a go in the AFL/VFL pre Crows days. As he showed with Adelaide in his few years there he certainly wasn't out of his depth. His disposal was always immaculate, would you agree that he'd be close to Glenelg's best ever wingman?

I should have put Phillis in my "also-rans" i.e. 6-10, along with his brother Wayne. I susppsoe he was just before my time so i do not treally remember him so it si ahrd to make a judgement.

Marshall would be in our top two ever wingman along with Snout Mcfalane, 300 games not flashy but teh consumate team man, I think he played the 81 Grannie with a broken leg (hairline fracture of the fibula. Tough man snout.....

Brian Colbey, Colin Richens , Rex Voigt....

I don't see how any argument could be made for Glenelg's top 3 post-war players to be other than

Carey
Kernahan
Cornes

though one could argue about the order. Interestingly, I think caricatures of these three people featured on the 1985 premiership Tshirt.

Plenty of players would qualify for 4th and 5th. I'd find it hard to pick any player prior to the '70s, both due to my age and the fact that Glenelg was crap prior to the late sixties. Reakon I'd go:

DK Fred Phillis
Nick Chigwidden

Phillis 'coz he was arguably the best full forward the club ever had, and an icon in his era.

Chiggy 'coz he stands out as the one true champion Glenelg has had in the modern post-crows era.

With regard to Norwood, interesting to note the absence of Jack Oatey in your initial list GWW. He was a rover from 1940, then captain/coach from 1945-1952 and finished in the top 3 in each year except 1951 (5th), with 3 flags in that time in 46,48 and 50. He also went on to be non-playing coach from 1953-56 and made the finals every year although no flags in his "coaching only" period!

So, here goes nothing......

Norwood

1. Jack Oatey
2. Gary McIntosh
3. Michael Aish
4. John Wynne
5. Brian Prestwood

That ought to spark a bit of debate!

Squawk

Squawk wrote:With regard to Norwood, interesting to note the absence of Jack Oatey in your initial list GWW. He was a rover from 1940, then captain/coach from 1945-1952 and finished in the top 3 in each year except 1951 (5th), with 3 flags in that time in 46,48 and 50. He also went on to be non-playing coach from 1953-56 and made the finals every year although no flags in his "coaching only" period!

So, here goes nothing......

Norwood

1. Jack Oatey
2. Gary McIntosh
3. Michael Aish
4. John Wynne
5. Brian Prestwood

That ought to spark a bit of debate!

Squawk

Norwood is certainly one club who's history i dont know a lot about, i very much appreciate your input Squawk, as a Legs man you obviously know about the history of your club and its players. I've never really heard much about Jack Oatey's playing days, only his coaching with Sturt. Interesting to see McIntosh rated above Aish, i guess in a lot of ways they were quite different types of players although they did have their similarities. Aish brilliant skills, smooth mover, great goalkicker, McIntosh in and under centreman, inspirational clubman. If i had a choice back in the 80's to have one of the 2 at my club (Port) i'd probably have gone for Aish, although realistically they probably were "neck and neck" as far as their input to Norwood's success. What info can you provide on Prestwood? Dont think i noticed his name on the Norwood Team of the Century. Presumably he played between 45 and 90? Did you give any thoughts to including Phil Gallagher in your list?

North
1. Barrie Robran
2. Don Lindner
3. Darren Jarman
4. Mick Redden
5. Ian McKay

Barrie- it's all been said about him. He's humble taboot. (ps too young to see him play)
Don- Is still probably fit enough to be out there now. Never saw him play, but is top 3 at North (+ BR & Ken Farmer)
Darren- Easily the most skillfull player I've ever seen.
Mick- This guy is a legend. Prepared himself to league standard fitness, sight unseen. Racked up millions of km's & driving hours to play for North. North's games record holder.
Ian- Never saw him play, but the literature I've read of him, & the stories you hear at the club, a must for the top 5.

Apologies to- Ron Phillips, Bob Hammond & Andrew Jarman

Bill Wedding in Norwood's top 5?

Squawk wrote:With regard to Norwood, interesting to note the absence of Jack Oatey in your initial list GWW. He was a rover from 1940, then captain/coach from 1945-1952 and finished in the top 3 in each year except 1951 (5th), with 3 flags in that time in 46,48 and 50. He also went on to be non-playing coach from 1953-56 and made the finals every year although no flags in his "coaching only" period!

So, here goes nothing......

Norwood

1. Jack Oatey
2. Gary McIntosh
3. Michael Aish
4. John Wynne
5. Brian Prestwood

That ought to spark a bit of debate!

Squawk

Ah! I have a feeling as someone who went to a lot of footy in the 70's that I am familiar with the exploits of Brian Prestwood but I have to say I never saw him kick a ball in anger. Unless I am barking up the wrong tree.

GWW - the first thing I must say is that whilst you claim a limited knowledge of Norwood's history, I must say your knowledge of my club and the other 8 (9?) clubs is way in excess of my own. I thought I knew a bit about SANFL but there are so many who know so so so much more than I. That's why the SANFL must really get on and sort out the bloody Hall of Fame, to preserve all of these memories!

B Prestwood was a veteran of hundreds of games with a record of consecutive games to rival that of some of the greats - Jim Stynes, Jared Crouch and Adam Yze. He famously started his career wearing no 28 from memory, and later, switched to no 14. A wingman, he commanded the attention of many from the opposition at every game and was renowned for his dashes across the field. Never one to shy away from sharing his thoughts with the umpires, Prestwood was a real motivator and an inspiration to the team and supporters alike. Although he was a wingman, he never kicked a goal. One of Norwood's true greats, he was unlucky not to have been selected in the Team of the Century but hope remains that a place might be found for him in the Norwood Hall of Fame.

Indeed, Brian was a legendary supporter who sat on the outer wing each week, for always singing out "C'mon Norwood" and for bringing a smile to everyone's faces as he quietly remonstrated with the umpires at the breaks between quarters. Brian passed away about 5 years or so ago and is fondly remembered by the club, its supporters and (I'm sure), umpires and supporters of other clubs.

His inclusion in my top 5 was simply, as I said, to spark a bit of debate. Well done LL!

Squawk

BTW GWW, Gallagher, Keith Thomas and others were all in my thoughts.

Re Jack Oatey - I agree. I grew up in the time when Jack was Sturt and Sturt was Jack. Its only in recent years that I really became aware of his contribution to NFC and indeed, he was captain/coach of NFC's team of the century as a playing rover. I have the print in front of my PC!

Macca got the edge over Aish because he played more games, was a Tomkins and Magarey medallist, premiership player and state player. He was Norwood thru and thru and his loyalty saw him knock back all overtures from VFL clubs. A quintessential club man. He is also arguably the hardest nut we have ever had and I think the opposition feared him and his playing ability whereas with Aish it was all about finesse, style and quality but he was, after all, a pretty slight sort of a fella!

Hope you enjoyed the info about "Prestwood". Do you remember him at all?