1978 The year it was

[am Bays]

AUGUST 26 + 27
ROUND 21

NA 20-21 CD 11-19
SA 13-8 PA 12-18
ST 23-13 WT 14-17
NW 15-21 WV 11-14
GL 21-15 WA 13-20

GL win for the first time since July 8 !
GL only need to win the last round game vrs WT to secure the double chance
PA won a close one v SA
PA led SA 8-9 to 5-3 at half time at beat thier bunnies again

As a 7 year old can remember the relief of winning this game given our last six weeks. IIRC watching the Big Replay that night Cornes was interviewed post amtch by Mike Coward whilst standining outside the visitors room at Richmond.

My other memory of that night watching the replay is of a Port player in the South game at Alberton losing half his lace up as it got ripped to shreds.

funny what sticks in your mind from your childhood.

[mal]

SEPTEMBER 3

FOS WILLIAMS
Resigns as WA coach after 5 seasons
Williams prior to that had 21 seasons as coach + playing coach at PA
Williams coached 9 premierships
He also coached SA in 1960
What a great coach, one of the greatest in the SANFL

HAYDN BUNTON
Has signed up to coach SA for another 3 years
And he almost won a flag in 1979

BARRIE ROBRAN
The champion rooster will coach NA in 1979


SEPTEMBER 6
NM agrees to play ST in the battle of the minor premiers on 9/11
This game would be the curtain raiser to the Elimination final between PA + WT

[mal]

N.Melb 6-2 9-5 16-9 20-12 132
Sturt 3-3 7-7 10-8 11-10 76
Best Players
NM: Blight Alves Tanner Keenan Greig Schimmelbusch
St: Winter Burgan Mutton Reed Graham Klomp
Goals
NM: Blight 11 Icke 2 Alves Tanner Davis Cassin Huppatz Nettlefold McCann
St: Winter 2 Bagshaw 2 Barton 2 Davies Sims Mutton Hargreaves Klomp

A journo started him match summary by saying both sides escaped injury. He then went on to say Hardeman suffered a mild concussion and would be available next week. Jounos never change do they?

The result of the NM V ST game
The unlucky Gary Hardeman fractured his left cheekbone, ending his season in the SANFL

[nickname]

As a 7 year old can remember the relief of winning this game given our last six weeks. IIRC watching the Big Replay that night Cornes was interviewed post amtch by Mike Coward whilst standining outside the visitors room at Richmond.

Might not have been this interview, may have been a year or two earlier, but I can remember Cornes doing a post-match interview at Richmond with the stand in the background, in which he was quite critical of West's style of game. Jim Buckley was interviewed straight afterwards and had a crack back at Cornes, defending West's (at the time) quite successful style.

[mal]

1978 Best and Fairest winners

CD... VIVIAN milky was a good wingman, he retired in 1985, was he the first player to play 300 games for CD ?
GL.... HODGEMAN superstar rover
NA.... HILL good winger and ended up coaching at the Parade in recent times
NW... TAYLOR kingo great mark for his size, faultless footballer
PA.... CLIFFORD bomber , a legend at Alberton, very funny man, and could play footy
SA.... BAYNES banger was a hard at it player, inspirational type
ST.... DAVIES jumbo, just about the best sandl ruckman i have seen
WA... KENNEDY very good ruckman
WV... SEWER zip zap was an elusive skillfull player
WT... MCSPORRAN very under-rated player, skills to burn

If I had to rate the top 3 :

1 DAVIES
2 TAYLOR
3 HODGEMAN

[Adelaide Hawk]

Michael Taylor is possibly the most consistent player I've seen. Certainly the most consistent I've seen at Norwood. He seemed incapable of playing a bad game, and his long and direct style won many games for the Norwood Football Club.

Yes, I believe Milky Vivian was Central's first 300 gamer, and I'll always remember him for his blistering pace, especially early in his career.

[baggy8]

ST 21-1
Has there ever been a better minor round performance in the SANFL ?

Sturt's six game lead at the end of the minor round has only been equalled (or in percentage terms bettered) by Port's 1914 effort when they went 12-0 and the next best was 6-6

[FOURTH ESTATE]

Glenelg went 20-1 in the minor round in 1973 with and F&A of 2874 - 1857 60.52%. The only team with a better defence that year was Sturt who went 17-4 with and F&A of 2534 - 1612 & 61.11% thier only defeats that year were against the Bays in

R2 22.19 to 18.11
R11 14.14 to 11.17
R19 19.18 to 17.19

and Port Adelaide in round 5

18.16 to 15.14

The best record per game was Glenelg in 1975 when they scored 2872 in a 18 game season averaging 159.55 pts per game


The first side to break the 3000 pts for a season was Port Adelaide in 1980 with 3176 averaging 144pts per game over a 22 game season.

One wonders what Glenelg would have scored in total in the 1975 season if it had been a normal 22 game season. On those figures it would have been 3510 pts. Yet they recorded their lowest score for the year in the Grand Final of 7.10.

Sorry if I am a bit of topic but by this time in 1978 I had already given up hope of another GF appearance as I could see the writing on the wall of an early exit in finals but thought we were half a chance against Port in the first semi the way we were playing but died in the last qtr from memory.

[robranisgod]

Glenelg went 20-1 in the minor round in 1973 with and F&A of 2874 - 1857 60.52%. The only team with a better defence that year was Sturt who went 17-4 with and F&A of 2534 - 1612 & 61.11% thier only defeats that year were against the Bays in

R2 22.19 to 18.11
R11 14.14 to 11.17
R19 19.18 to 17.19

and Port Adelaide in round 5

18.16 to 15.14

The efforts of the Bays and Sturt in 1973 were incredible, especially considering that neither of them had made the finals the year before. I am surprised that North didn't beat Sturt in the minor round that year, I know that North thrashed Sturt in the Preliminary final by over 90 points after losing by 6 points to them in the Qualifiying final.

1973 was the first (and only) year of the centre diamond, I wonder if that had an impact upon Glenelg and Sturt's dominance.

(Sorry to continue off topic but as I have said before, given that North won its first wooden spoon in 66 years in 1978, I am not much interested in the main topic.)

[Interceptor]

1973 was the first (and only) year of the centre diamond, I wonder if that had an impact upon Glenelg and Sturt's dominance.

The diamond was still being used in the 1974 GF

[Adelaide Hawk]

1973 was the first (and only) year of the centre diamond, I wonder if that had an impact upon Glenelg and Sturt's dominance.

The diamond was still being used in the 1974 GF

That's interesting. Like R is G, I thought the diamond only lasted one season.

[robranisgod]

1973 was the first (and only) year of the centre diamond, I wonder if that had an impact upon Glenelg and Sturt's dominance.

The diamond was still being used in the 1974 GF

That's interesting. Like R is G, I thought the diamond only lasted one season.

Clearly that clip shows that it was used in 1974 as well. I would have bet money it only lasted a year, but clearly it must have been around for 2 years.

[baggy8]

VFL had the diamond for '73 and '74, so we followed suit. Diamond must have suited Keith Greig (winning the Brownlow both years).

[FOURTH ESTATE]

The diamond in SA was changed to a square part way through the 1974 season if my memory is correct The league changed to the square from round 6 onwards. I remember reading an article in the Advertsier the Monday after round 5 as I remember the Bays smashing Westies by 131pts at Richmond. but I could be wrong.

[robranisgod]

The diamond in SA was changed to a square part way through the 1974 season if my memory is correct The league changed to the square from round 6 onwards. I remember reading an article in the Advertsier the Monday after round 5 as I remember the Bays smashing Westies by 131pts at Richmond. but I could be wrong.

As the clip of the 1974 Grand Final shows, the diamond was definitely used in that game.

[dedja]

VFL had the diamond for '73 and '74, so we followed suit. Diamond must have suited Keith Greig (winning the Brownlow both years).

I've always been intrigued about the diamond ... anyone know why it was brought in, and then why it was scrapped?

[FOURTH ESTATE]

It was brought in to stop the congestion at centre bounces and pin point where the wing and Centre half forward positions actually were on the ground.

[FOURTH ESTATE]

Yes stand corrected the diamond was in use in the 74 GF must have been changed to the square for the 75 season

[nickname]

It was brought in to stop the congestion at centre bounces and pin point where the wing and Centre half forward positions actually were on the ground.

Yes, the authorities were concerned about the defensive tactics employed by teams who simply threw more and more players into the middle around the centre bounce.
It'd be interesting to see what coaches would do today at centre bounces if there wasn't a square.

[mal]

SEPTEMBER 9
Elimination Final

PA 7-3...11-10...16-15...22-15 [147]
EG 1-0....2-6.....5-11.....9-15 [69]

EG had a good turn of form to even make the finals after being about last after 1/3rd of the season
PA were 8-8, and won thier last 6 minor round games
PA continued thier finals charge by annihilating the WT boys by a massive 78 points
That 78 point win might be a record or close to a record win over WT in finals games ?
Tim Evans kicked 10 goals, more than the total WT goals


SEPTEMBER 10
Qualifying Final

NW 5-6...8-9...13-16...16-16 [112]
GL 2-0....4-3...6-3.......8-10 [58]

B4 finals there were 3 teams going along nicely
ST were almost unbeatable, PA were on a roll, NW were playing well
GL had a brilliiant first half of the season, but fell away in the 2nd half
It was prob no surprise to have NW beat GL easily in this game


FINALS GAMES
I dont have much in the way of finals details, such as Best players and Goalkickers, reviews etc
If anyone has these stats and can add to them , please feel free to contribute

Next games are :
GL V PA
ST V NW

If there were legal bookies in those days the odds might have been

ST $1-40
NW $4-00
PA $6-00
GL $14-00