Adelaide Oval, which this year will be rocking to bumper crowds decked in blue, red and gold as the home of the Adelaide Football Club, has already been the scene of countless historic football dramas and controversies.
The celebrated, scenic ground has been witness to the feats of myriad goalkicking greats, rough-and-tumble characters and high-flying heroes.
Who could forget soaring Graham Cornes’ last-gasp mark and goal from a testing angle to put Glenelg a point in front of North Adelaide in the 1973 SANFL grand final? Or the way the crowd surged onto the ground with the ball still in the air as John Sandland kicked the final goal after the siren to give the Tigers their first flag in 39 years? Neil Kerley’s men were not even able to run a lap of honour as Adelaide Oval’s hallowed turf was wholly covered by a vast sea of predominantly ecstatic faces.
And there was no room to move in the packed outer when Jack Oatey’s Sturt and Fos Williams’ Port Adelaide fought out epic grand finals in the 1960s, crowds of around 60,000 cheering on their heroes, streamers covering the ground.
In 1972 Barrie Robran’s silky skills left Alex Jesaulenko awestruck, the VFL great applauding the triple Magarey Medallist as he inspired North Adelaide’s one-point win over Carlton that crowned the Roosters champions of Australia.
The following year Jesaulenko booted 10 magical goals in Victoria’s nailbiting thriller against South Australia as Adelaide Oval was graced with names that sound like a who’s who of football royalty … Robran, Malcolm Blight, Russell Ebert, Rick Davies, Cornes, Phil Carman, Ray Huppatz, Michael Graham and Peter Marker playing for SA, Leigh Matthews, Keith Greig, Gary Dempsey, Len Thompson, Francis Bourke, Royce Hart, Geoff Southby and, of course, Jesaulenko helping the Big V to a four-point win.
Controversies have raged. Angry North supporters ripped the bell that was used to signal the end of quarters and games off its base after it had cost them a shot at a semi-final win against West Torrens in 1945. Hours earlier the crowd had been roaring themselves hoarse, with scores level as the bell started ringing. Umpire Ken Aplin could not hear the bell above the unruly din and Jimmy Thoms snared the ball in a goalmouth scrimmage, his scrambled goal giving Torrens the win. Torrens legend Bob Hank recalled: “There was uproar everywhere. Aplin didn't hear it, I didn't hear it and most of them didn't. And Jimmy kicked the goal. I suppose somebody must have heard the bell because there was a little bit of carry-on from some North players.” Sirens were soon introduced.
The bell wasn’t the only thing to cop it at Adelaide Oval. A goalpost was famously chopped down after one of those typically pulsating, drama-charged Port Adelaide-West Adelaide grand finals of the fifties. Incredibly, as Port charged to six straight flags from 1954-59, the thickness of a goalpost twice could have been the difference between unbridled elation and gut-wrenching despair for Westies.
The 1954 grand final battle was marred by ugly scenes after West’s Brian Faehse crunched Port star Dave Boyd with a bone-shattering but fair shirtfront. The incident happened just before half-time and in those days the players threaded their way through the crowd to get to the changerooms. On this emotion-charged occasion it was a recipe for disaster. “Spectators attack West players,” was The Advertiser headline as punches were thrown and players mauled. The game continued but there was plenty of on-field drama to come. Rover Jim Wright, who had booted three goals, hit the post in the last two minutes as the Maggies held on by three points. Keith Butler wrote in The Advertiser Wright “twisted out of a scrimmage and snapped for goal only to see the ball veer slightly and hit the post”.
And just four years later a shot from ruckman Jack Richardson cannoned into the top of the goalpost with 90 seconds remaining, leaving West just two points behind. After the 1958 loss, some Blood and Tars stars had had a gutful. A barbecue at Davis Cup tennis great and West star Ken McGregor’s place was more like a wake, with “that bloody goalpost” what everyone was talking about. It was time for revenge. Grabbing a battered old axe from McGregor’s toolshed, Kerley led the way as Richardson, Bertie Johnson, John Ryan and Michael Wundke headed for Adelaide Oval. When they returned, it was with the top six feet of the offending post. Bloods Magarey Medallist Ken Eustice reckoned some of it was thrown on the barbecue.
It would have been hard to imagine six acres of land just north of the city centre creating such drama and emotion as Adelaide Oval was ploughed, levelled and planted in 1871 soon after the formation of the SA Cricketing Association. The formal opening of the ground was on 13 December 1873, when a cricket match was played between British and Colonial-born players.
The Oval’s playing surface soon was immaculate and the ground quickly became a crowd-drawing venue. The original Adelaide Football Club applied to the SACA to use it for a clash with Victorian club St Kilda in the first season of the SA Football Association in 1877. Footy became a big hit at the Oval as the game’s new controlling body introduced the rules and regulations that had previously been lacking. But, with cricket the major sport for young men with a strong English heritage and football originally kicking off to keep these sportsmen fit in the off-season, the fledgling Australian sport did not find it easy settling in at the famous cricket ground, which hosted its first Test match against England in 1884.
The opening to the 1886 footy season was hampered by what the South Australian Weekly Chronicle described as “a serious difference between the Cricketing Associations and the clubs respecting the percentage of the gate money to be paid to the competing teams and this at one time threatened to necessitate a permanent return to unmade grounds”. Two years later there was what The Register described as an “absurd wrangle” over which footy teams should play at the Oval and how much of the takings the clubs deserved.
It took a strangely long time, so many great finals clashes, interstate battles and Anzac Day games but by the time Cornes – later to become the Crows’ first coach – had soared for his memorable mark in the 1973 grand final, football was on the move. The following year’s Sturt-Glenelg premiership decider was played at Football Park, the SANFL’s own home.
Cornes’ mark, all the more incredible because he had been cramping up in hot, stifling conditions and it seemed improbable he could summon sufficient energy to leap above a desperate pack, decided a premiership. But his mark quite possibly was not the most famous taken in a grand final on Adelaide Oval. North Adelaide Magarey Medallist Ian McKay is forever immortalised because of the stunning photo that was splashed on the front page of The Mail on Saturday, October 4, 1952. Just over 50,000 fans at the famous ground gasped, then roared their delight as he soared for the spectacular mark in North’s 108-point thrashing of Norwood. And the 168,000-plus people who bought The Mail almost felt like they had been there, such was the quality of Bill Teubner’s picture. It was just about perfect, the captain of the premier team – wearing guernsey No. 1 – soaring onto the back of ruckman Pat Hall, No. 2 of the year’s runner-up. To add the exclamation mark, McKay sent a soaring screw punt through the goals from about 60 yards. While the 1952 grand final set records for high scoring (North booted 23.15) and winning margin, there were plenty of great games decided in the dying seconds – or even after the final siren.
The 1919 finals series at Adelaide Oval was remarkable for its heartstopping finishes. There were two draws – the final between North and West Torrens and the challenge final between North and Sturt. Then the challenge final replay was another nailbiter. Sturt had not kicked a solitary goal by three-quarter time of a low-scoring game and trailed by 14 points. But the Blues stormed home and 30 seconds before the final bell Ivor Nicolle determinedly grabbed a mark within kicking range. A point would mean yet another replay but from a run-up of just three steps Nicolle became one of the rare club to kick a last-gasp winning grand final goal. The Anzac who had fought bravely in the just-completed war was a true hero and the Blues won 3.5 to 2.6.
Part two coming soon
