SANFL Team of the Century

[Squawk]

Anyone care to have a stab at a SANFL team of the Century - 1900-1999?

(Hope this hasn't been done yet! )

Most if not all clubs have done a team of the century but what would an SANFL look like?

I guess we have to start line by line -

Backs
Half Backs
Centres
Half Forwards
Forwards
Rucks
Interchange (how many?!)
Coach (and assistant(s)???)

I guess if we start with the backmen first, see if we can get some consensus and then if necessary do a poll of some sort. Maybe if each club puts up their TOC lines, we can cut out a fair bit of debate to start with.

Interchange will likely be the toughest line.

Norwood TOC is here http://www.norwoodfc.com.au/hist_totc.htm
The backline is

Michael Taylor, 1972-1987, 279 games, Syd Ackland 1922-1931, 133 games and Alby Bahr, 1902-1912, Games N/A.





This could take a while.

[GWW]

Would be a lot easier to do the team of the half century (from 1950 - 1999 )

Anyway, i'll have a really quick attempt:

FF Rick Davies, Ken Farmer, Lindsay Head

HF Geoff Motley, Don Lindner, Bob Hank

C Jim Deane, Russell Ebert, Michael Aish

HB Neil Kerley, Len Fitzgerald, Ken Eustice

FB Greg Phillips, Ian McKay, Dan Moriarty

1st Ruck
Peter Carey
Barrie Robran
Bob Quinn

INT Gary McIntosh, Peter Darley, Walter "Wacker" Scott, Tom McKenzie

** Elite players who played significant footy in the VFL/AFL such as Platten, Bradley, Kernahan etc etc, missed out in my team. They lost their place to players who played the majority of their careers in the SANFL.

[Squawk]

** Elite players who played significant footy in the VFL/AFL such as Platten, Bradley, Kernahan etc etc, missed out in my team. They lost their place to players who played the majority of their careers in the SANFL.

That's the principle!

Coach? Oatey, Williams, Kerley?

Off to a flyer there GWW - did you have that one on paper already?

[GWW]

Hehe, nah but i knew roughly who i'd include, had to do some research on wikipedia and the honor boards on the club websites. Not an easy exercise at all, will be interesting to see the sides that a few other people come up with, especially the posters on here, who know a bit more about the players who played in the first half of the century.

The coach, i'm inclined to go with Fos Williams, but didn't want to show my Port bias there so left it out

Reasoning - 6 in a row, plus set the tone for future Port sides, but Oatey could equally be given the position.

EDIT: oops 5 in a row, Motley coached the 6th one.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Oatey is coach of the century. Premiership success at 2 clubs and got a third club into Grand Finals. Williams was only successful at Port Adelaide, failed at South and West.

BTW ... Michael Aish never played on the wing in his entire career. And Neil Kerley on a HB flank? I doubt that ever happened.

[GWW]

Oatey is coach of the century. Premiership success at 2 clubs and got a third club into Grand Finals. Williams was only successful at Port Adelaide, failed at South and West.

BTW ... Michael Aish never played on the wing in his entire career. And Neil Kerley on a HB flank? I doubt that ever happened.

Yeah, i had to fit them in there somewhere for team balance.

Williams also set the scene for Port's dominance that resulted in so many premiershps in the second half of the 20th century, and ultimately led to the club moving to the AFL. But to me, its pretty much a 50/50 between the 2.

[SimonH]

The very knowledgeable John Devaney at Full Points Footy has had a go.

Also follow the links through and he provides a one-stop shop for all of the SANFL clubs' best-of sides if you're going to pick it line by line.

I don't think you should pick it line by line, though: FPF's "team of teams" was picked that way (i.e. voting who was, e.g. the best right HFF, among players in the existing best-of teams) and I think suffers a little for it. Peter Matera (left centre wing) and Brad Hardie (right back pocket) were doubtless great players, but you wouldn't pick either one in your side over Malcolm Blight or Lindsay Head (and no doubt a Victorian/WAn could come up with other alternatives too). You pick enough great players of various sizes and inclinations, and can shuffle the decks to cover particular spots.

Garry McIntosh, who was about as much a half-forward flanker by inclination as Ian Stasinowsky, got picked on the HFF in Norwood's team of teams. A decision was made rightly or wrongly (i.e. I think wrongly) that Lill, Jack Oatey and Aish pipped him for the 3 mids at the centre bounce; but he was guaranteed a spot in the starting 18.

Extremely, extremely difficult to pick players that you never saw and of whom footage would be pretty much non-existent (e.g. Tom Leahy, Shine Hosking, Dan Moriarty)-- you are just relying on the word of judges at the time. And no reason to think those judges are wrong; it's just practically impossible to know whether Peter Carey would have beaten Tom Leahy in a one-on-one when both were at their prime (if that's even the test).

If applying an 'achievements in the SANFL' test, you would drop a reasonable portion of the FPF team: Snowy Hamilton, Phil Matson, Bernie Smith and probably John Platten (great as he was across 5 years at Centrals). I think that Malcolm Blight amply did enough in the SANFL, that you couldn't possibly leave him out.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Garry McIntosh, who was about as much a half-forward flanker by inclination as Ian Stasinowsky, got picked on the HFF in Norwood's team of teams.

Although Garry is noted as a centreman, he played quite a bit of footy as a ruck rover changing on the half forward flank. Stassa never did this, although he did play his first game at CHF

[Harry the Horse]

Knowledgable he may be but IMHO, John Devaney's had a mare

[rogernumber10]

Knowledgable he may be but IMHO, John Devaney's had a mare

I've said this before, but this obsession with Neil Kerley just completely escapes me. If anyone has to be the captain, it's either got to be the very best player - Robran - or the guy just behind him - Ebert - who was more demonstrative than the exceptionally humble North number 10. Bit hard for Kerley to be captain when he's not in the first 35 players I'd consider to play in the actual team, and he's about number four on the assistant coach list at best with Oatey, Cahill and Williams (probably in that order imo) in line for the coach's job.

[Leaping Lindner]

Knowledgable he may be but IMHO, John Devaney's had a mare

I've said this before, but this obsession with Neil Kerley just completely escapes me. If anyone has to be the captain, it's either got to be the very best player - Robran - or the guy just behind him - Ebert - who was more demonstrative than the exceptionally humble North number 10. Bit hard for Kerley to be captain when he's not in the first 35 players I'd consider to play in the actual team, and he's about number four on the assistant coach list at best with Oatey, Cahill and Williams (probably in that order imo) in line for the coach's job.

Agreed.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Knowledgable he may be but IMHO, John Devaney's had a mare

I've said this before, but this obsession with Neil Kerley just completely escapes me. If anyone has to be the captain, it's either got to be the very best player - Robran - or the guy just behind him - Ebert - who was more demonstrative than the exceptionally humble North number 10. Bit hard for Kerley to be captain when he's not in the first 35 players I'd consider to play in the actual team, and he's about number four on the assistant coach list at best with Oatey, Cahill and Williams (probably in that order imo) in line for the coach's job.

I certainly wouldn't select Kerley as Coach, that is clearly Jack Oatey IMHO. He was a trend setter who was successsful at more than one club, was a bee's "whats-it" from coaching 3 clubs to flags.

However, when it come to captaincy, surely you must go for the most inspirational leader ahead of the best player .. provided the player is good enough to make the team. I'm not sure who I'd have as captain, but if you used my criteria for leadership you'd certainly have to consider him ahead of Robran or Ebert. There have been many successful teams where the captain wasn't the best player.

Kerley has a reputation for being a bit of a thug, and in some respects he was. However, there was another side to him. I began watching Kerley in 1965. Although he was past 30, he was state captain and finished 1 vote behind Gary Window for the Magarey Medal. He was a very good footballer.

Those who saw him play in the late 50s/early 60s when he was at his peak assure me he was a great player. One person, admittedly a West Adelaide supporter tells me Kerley was the best player he has seen. I guess it depends on how you like the game to be played. Hard to imagine he was better than Barrie Robran

[Psyber]

Knowledgable he may be but IMHO, John Devaney's had a mare

I've said this before, but this obsession with Neil Kerley just completely escapes me. If anyone has to be the captain, it's either got to be the very best player - Robran - or the guy just behind him - Ebert - who was more demonstrative than the exceptionally humble North number 10. Bit hard for Kerley to be captain when he's not in the first 35 players I'd consider to play in the actual team, and he's about number four on the assistant coach list at best with Oatey, Cahill and Williams (probably in that order imo) in line for the coach's job.

I certainly wouldn't select Kerley as Coach, that is clearly Jack Oatey IMHO. He was a trend setter who was successsful at more than one club, was a bee's "whats-it" from coaching 3 clubs to flags.

However, when it come to captaincy, surely you must go fir thge most inspirational leader ahead of the best player .. provided the player is good enough to make the team. I'm not sure who I'd have as captain, but if you used my criteria for leadership you'fd certainly have to consider him ahead of Robran or Ebert. There have been many successful teams where the captain wasn't the best player.

Kerley has a reputation for being a bit of a thug, and in some respects he was. However, there was another side to him. I began watching Kerley in 1965. Although he was past 30, he was state captain and finished 1 vote behind Gary Window for the Magarey Medal. He was a very good footballer.

Those who saw him play in the late 50s/early 60s when he was at his peak assure me he was a great player. One person, admittedly a West Adelaide supporter tells me Kerley was the best player he has seen. I guess it depends on how you like the game to be played. Hard to imagine he was better than Barrie Robran

Neil Kerley didn't have the pure talent of Barrie Robran, Russell Ebert, Lindsay Head, Barry Barbary, and many others. But he made a good leader because of his determination, commitment, and constant effort. He was hard and tough in the Ted Whitten, Ron Barassi, Fos Williams, style, and, yes, a bit of a thug.

One comment from him I remember, "Who'd let a little thing like a couple of broken fingers stop him picking up the ball!"

[robranosgod]

I have never seen a footballer improve as much in retirement as Kerley has. He was a good honest plodder who was very charismatic and a great leader.

Not in the top 100 of footballers that I have seen.

[Adelaide Hawk]

I have never seen a footballer improve as much in retirement as Kerley has. He was a good honest plodder who was very charismatic and a great leader.

Not in the top 100 of footballers that I have seen.

How much did you see of Kerley? ... remembering he began in 1952.

[smithy]

Not in the top 100 of footballers that I have seen.

Can you name them please ?

[Hondo]

** Elite players who played significant footy in the VFL/AFL such as Platten, Bradley, Kernahan etc etc, missed out in my team. They lost their place to players who played the majority of their careers in the SANFL.

Why?

If you take Platten, Bradley, Kernahan, McGuinness, Blight - you have an average of at least 5 seasons of SANFL and at least around 100 games each

You also have 3 Magery medallists and 5 players who proudly represented the SANFL in State of Origin many times. Not that all would make it but they should be considered I reckon.

Fair enough today, someone like Adam Cooney disappears before they've hardly played a game of SANFL - but the 1970-1990 era of players shouldn't be banned because they happened to play > 50% of their career in the VFL.

I notice you were happy to slot Greg Phillips in there despite his time at Collingwood 1981-1986

[Adelaide Hawk]

If you take Platten, Bradley, Kernahan, McGuinness, Blight - you have an average of at least 5 seasons of SANFL and at least around 100 games each

You also have 3 Magery medallists and 5 players who proudly represented the SANFL in State of Origin many times. Not that all would make it but they should be considered I reckon.

I agree. Those players have to be rated amongst the elite level of SANFL players as they gave tremendous service in the SANFL, and also for SA in State of Origin.

It's hard to imagine a better rover than Platten, or a better midfielder than Bradley, or a better CHF than Kernahan etc, but that's entirely debatable.

I've actually been too scared to even tackle this team as yet because of the myriad of talent on display over 100 years. How you narrow that down to 22 players is beyond me. I've had enough trouble doing the teams of players with the same first letter in their surnames

[redandblack]

I have never seen a footballer improve as much in retirement as Kerley has. He was a good honest plodder who was very charismatic and a great leader.

Not in the top 100 of footballers that I have seen.

What makes a good footballer? If you're talking skill level, then Kerley isn't in that top echelon, but that would also leave out some of the greatest players we've seen. If you're talking the whole package, Kerley is right up there. Apart from the fact he was skilled enough to be second in a Magarey Medal, he was fearless, tough, led by example and inspired his team. In my book, that makes him a greater player than many who had better skills but not the others. I'd also say that Kerley made many other players in his teams better players by his very presence.

As for being an honest plodder, that's just nonsense.

[Adelaide Hawk]

I have never seen a footballer improve as much in retirement as Kerley has. He was a good honest plodder who was very charismatic and a great leader.

Not in the top 100 of footballers that I have seen.

What makes a good footballer? If you're talking skill level, then Kerley isn't in that top echelon, but that would also leave out some of the greatest players we've seen. If you're talking the whole package, Kerley is right up there. Apart from the fact he was skilled enough to be second in a Magarey Medal, he was fearless, tough, led by example and inspired his team. In my book, that makes him a greater player than many who had better skills but not the others. I'd also say that Kerley made many other players in his teams better players by his very presence.

As for being an honest plodder, that's just nonsense.

Yes, I have to admit the words "good honest plodder" never really enters my mind when considering Kerley. We'll just talk about him as a footballer. 265 league games, 30 state matches, a number of them as captain with some great wins over Victoria.

He won 4 Best & Fairest awards with West Adelaide from 1958 to 1962, an era when West were a top team, and at the age of 33 added a 5th B&F at Glenelg at an age where most players are well and truly past their best.

When he left Westies, they crashed. He went to South and led them from bottom to top in one year. When he left South, they crashed, He went to bottom team Glenelg and had them in the finals in his 1st season.

In the 1961 GF he took on, and beat, the best ruckman in Australia and All-Australian Bill Wedding, even though he was 5-6 inches shorter. I only saw Kerley post-30 and wish I had seen him in his mid 20s, he must have been something to see.