SA Football the early years 1843-1899

29/5/1869
Gawler Football Team v Adelaide Club
Venue Gawler
Gawler 0 Adelaide 3

This appears to be the first recorded match of the Gawler Football team
Im guessing but Adelaide were the experienced outfit, prob had more of the population to pick from , and Gawler might have been made up from a smaller pool of the population from their area
The Adelaide players commuted by train and arrived at midday for the contest
Trains must have been luxurious compared to travelling horse back or by carriage
Gawler was captained by J Sandland, Adelaide by H Y Sparks
There is no mention on how the teams performed on the day
W S Sampson scored 2 goals, a rarity for a multiple goalscorer at the time
It is said the spectators enjoyed the playing of the Gawler band

30/6/1869
Woodville v Adelaide
Venue North Adelaide Grounds
Woodville 1 Adelaide 3

This appears to be the very first game the Woodville Football Club played
It is purely arguementive if this side has any relation to the 1964 SANFL league entity
Adelaide captain H Y Sparks
Woodville captain A Crooks
Woodville scored the first goal, Crooks the skipper getting the first goal for the club
Adelaide scored the next 3 goals to win this match
The game was 15 players per team
There are no details on the match play


There was a monumental f..k up in this match
There was an advertisement in the press that the match would not take place on this day
It is said that the attendance was below usual

There were other matches played in the 1860-1869 decade
There were other matches proposed, whether they took place, or no results were kept is ???
Heres some other games from the era [some with scores]

04/6/1864 Town v Country
17/8/1867 Mr Youngs v College Football Clubs
30/8/1867 Adelaide v 50th Regiment
03/6/1868 Adelaide v Port Adelaide and Suburbs
24/7/1868 North v South
22/8/1868 Adelaide v Port Adelaide and Suburban Club
09/8/1869 North Adelaide 4 Collegians 1 ????
23/8/1869 Adelaide 1 Collegians 0 ???
03/7/1869 North 1 South 1
10/7/1869 North 0 v South 0

If anyone has results for the those games, let us know [they may not have been played though]

The last 2 games were interesting between North and South
The first game 3/7 was a draw 1-1 , so they came back and played another game on 10/7
It was getting late and both sides were scoreless
The Football burst and the game was abandoned !!!

That was the era of 1860s where football was in its embryonic stage
Towards the end of the decade several new clubs were formed
The Adelaide Football club was the measuring stick with its '3' teams
Quite often when Adelaide played other teams they had 15 against 20 players

This is the forerunner for the 1870s where some off the best known current day football clubs were formed

April 1870
Three men Ireland, Leicester, Rann met and from their talk formed a social club
The social club notion turned into the Port Adelaide Cricket and Football Club
The first meeting was 13/5/1870 and subsequently a practice match was organised for the following day 14/5/1870
This practice match was played at the grounds of Captain Hart at Glanville, and this ground became Bucks Flat

Port can lay claim as being the oldest formation of the current SANFL teams
North and South, by name only, was the annex of the Adelaide Football Club
There may or may not be linkage of those teams to the North Adelaide and South Adelaide teams that eventually formed in the ensuing decades ?

Grass roots ?
In 1868 Adelaide had a proposed game against a combination called the Port Adelaide and Suburban Club
I dont know if the game scheduled on 22/8/168 took place, but perhaps there was some connection of players, officials etc with the 1870 formation ?

The Woodville Football Club was up and about in the late 1860s, perhaps some erstwhile people of the Port area got the thought of a club from their neighbors ?

Lots of speculation posted above on the evolving of Port Adelaide before 1870, and I could be completely wrong,
I might have to contact Guy Pearce ....

What we do know is that Port Adelaide won the 1884,1890, 1897 premierships, and then became the dominant football club of the 20th century

1870 May ?
Young Australians v Port Adelaide
Venue North Parklands
Result , Draw

This is the first match I can find involving an opposition club against Port Adelaide
Have no details of this match at North Parklands, other than the drawn result
The 2 teams met again on 24/5/1870 at Bucks Flat, I have no result of this match


15/4/1871
Adelaide Football Club Vrs Port Adelaide Football Club
Venue North Parklands
Adelaide 1 Port Adelaide 0

Dare I say it, this was the FirstDown 1
21 players per team
The attendance was good , very few ladies rolled up for whatever reasons
Firm dry ground, a cool westerly breeze
Game started 3:30pm [a popular starting time]
Adelaide won the toss
This is the description of the match
* The contest was uncertain, but victory finally tended towards the city goal where a general melee ensued resulting after a protracted struggle in a goal for the Adelaide,The game terminated shortly after 5 o'clock without another goal being taken. A return match is contemplated.*

20/5/1871
Adelaide Football club v Port Adelaide Football Club
Venue North Parklands
Adelaide 1 Port Adelaide 0

FirstDown 2 !!!
Played in Beautiful weather
Considerable crowd attendance
J Masters captained Adelaide, F Stone captained Port Adelaide
Here is the description of the match
* The footing was rather slippery for the players and feats of tumbling unknown to professional acrobats were the consequence. The game was well contested throughout and resulted in a goal for the Adelaide kicked by H Y Sparks. The Concordia Band was in attendance.*

So that is a brief insight as to how Port was up away and going
In 3 games they had not tasted a victory, one other game against the Young Australians unknown

Scrappy wrote:North and South, by name only, was the annex of the Adelaide Football Club
There may or may not be linkage of those teams to the North Adelaide and South Adelaide teams that eventually formed in the ensuing decades ?

North Historians have been able to prove conclusively that the original North side and the North Adelaide side that appeared soon after were not the forerunner of the North Adelaide football Club which competes today. Leaping Lindner is an expert in this area and he can elaborate on the establishment of the current North Adelaide side.

I have been assured by North Adelaide Historians that the club as we know it now, started back in 1893 [as posted by Leaping Lindner in this thread]
1893 is the accepted date of the North Adelaide Football Club as we know it today


Here is an article on Foundation Members
* North Adelaide was a foundation member of the SAFA , formed in 1877, resigned as a member of the body at the end of that year, then rejoined for the 1883/1884 seasons.Their colours in this period were orange and black jersey, hose, and cap, black knickerbockers
North did not play in the association between 1884-1888.
On March 14 1889 they amalgamated with the Medindie Football Club, playing under that name from 1889-1892, then resumed in 1893 with the S.A.F.A under their own name, with colours red and white.*

So my question is

In 1883-1884 a team 'called' North Adelaide re-joined the SAFA
Can there be an assumption that some players, officials, members, supporters etc of that represented club had moved on to Medindie and then to the 1893 North Adelaide team ?

The 1870s saw rise to new clubs
The Football doctrines of John Acumen was spreading
I will post some matches that were played up until the formation of the SAFA in 1877


28/4/1871
Alberton and Queenstown Football Club
There was a notice that this club was to play a game[ possibly amongst themselves]
The venue was the ground adjoining the Post Gasworks, Kingston-on-the-hill

22/5/1871
Adelaide v Alberton + Queenstown Football Club
Venue North Parklands
Adelaide 4 Alb/Queens 0

The weather was OK on the day, but the surface was slippery, hence many of the players had falls
The Concordia Band is said to have played several choice selections

Adelaide continues to dominate the challengers

Prince Alfred College were playing games in these times
Here are the first or some of the first games played by PAOC

20/5/1871 [there was a Adelaide v Port Adelaide game played the same day]
PAOC V Mr Winnans School
Venue North Parklands
PAOC 2 Whinnans 0

27/5/1871
PAOC V Young Australian Club
Venue PAOC Grounds
PAOC 0 Young Australians 0

6/9/1872
St Peters College v PAOC
Venue St Peters Grounds
SPC 3 PAOC 0

I looked up the PAOC website
They became the PAOC Association in 1878

Other matches or proposed matches played in 1871

22/4/1871
North v South
Venue North Parklands
Abandoned because of threatening weather

27/5/1871
Old Collegians v Non Collegians
Venue ? [probably North Parklands]
Old Collegians 1 Non Collegians 3
A dapper day, plenty of female spectators, the Concordian Band was playing
The ladies handed out prizes to some of the players after the game [this happened often enough in early football games]
Game played with great spirit
H Conigrave played with distinction having scored 3 goals , perhaps we can call this feat a hat trick of sorts

28/8/1871

South Adelaide Football Club Vrs Port Adelaide Football Club
This is the report
* In consequence of the non arrival of a sufficient number of the Port Club, the match between that and the South Adelaide Football Club did not take place on Saturday Afternoon.*

There ends up being 2 South Adelaide Clubs by the mid 1870s that merged in 1876

A summation of some games played in 1872
Some games have been mentioned earlier in the progress of certain clubs
Adelaide

16/6/1872 Adelaide 0 Kensington 0 [posted previously]
13/7/1872 Adelaide 1 Kensington 1
6/9/1872 SPC 3 PAOC 1 [posted previously]
17/8/1872 Adelaide 0 Old Collegians 0[ venue North Parklands]
7/9/1872 Adelaide 0 port Adelaide 0 [venue City Parklands, 16 per side]

1873-1874
Not much recorded in these years
Ive only got records of proposed matches by Kensington against Old Collegians, Gawler and Willunga Football Clubs
There may have been other games played

The benchmark team the Adelaide Football Club was struggling my the mid 1870s ,

Here is an interesting publication of the Adelaide Club
* At the latter period of the 1874 season and during the whole of the 1875 season, the Adelaide Football Club became rather disorganised, and advertised on numerous occasions for new members.
South Adelaide formed an entirely independent club in 1875, and yet another such named Club in 1876.
The two clubs , however, amalgamated in 1876 included many members of the South Division of the Adelaide Football Club, notably S G Kingston, Sharp, H F Jackson and Wallace*


This is another publication of the Adelaide/South Adelaide transformation

* In 1875 the Adelaide Football club became rather disorganised, and a number of its players severed their membership and formed a totally independent South Adelaide Football Club.
In 1876 another group of the South Division, including a number of its star players namely G S Kingston, H F Jackson,Sharp and Wallace, resigned and with others established yet another South Adelaide Club.
However the members of the club formed in 1875, realising one strong club was preferable to two of moderate ability unanimously voted to amalgamate with the club established in 1876.*


It appears to me the South annex or part of the South playing personel of the Adelaide Football Club, broke away to form earlier versions of South Adelaide
In 1877 when the SAFA became a competition both Adelaide and South Adelaide were represented

The Adelaide Football Club was all over the place in the SAFA comp
1877-1880 in the comp
1881 Adelaide amalgamated with Kensington in the SAFA
1882-1885 out of comp
1886-1892 as Adelaide in the comp
1893 out of comp

15/3/1885
Amalgamation of the North Parks and Adelaide Football Clubs
A meeting was held at the Prince Alfred Pub, the following eventuated
The two teams merged for the purpose of entering the SFA , and Adelaide rejoined the SAFA comp in 1886
It ends up being a good merger, Adelaide won the SAFA Premiership in 1886
It was the only Premiership Adelaide won

Results and proposed games of of 1875
Not much found for this season


30/5/1875 Victorians Vrs St Peters College [proposed match, Victorians formed in 1874]
10/7/1875 Kensington 0 Adelaide 0 [Previously posted]
31/7/1875
Adelaide 3 Port Adelaide 0 [previously posted]

Things start hotting up in the next 2 years

Just on Bos Daly, I've stolen this from another website, it was an interview with Bos in 1922.

‘Bos’ Daly’s 23 goals in a game has never been beaten in the local elite competition, though it was equalled by Ken Farmer, playing for North Adelaide against West Torrens in 1940. The following retrospective piece appeared in ‘The Express and Telegraph’ on Thursday 3rd August 1922.


“Bos” Daly’s Reminiscences.

Holds Goal-kicking Record

A. (“Bos”) Daly is perhaps the greatest forward South Australian football has produced. The old-time champion was but 17 years old and weighed a mere 7st. 12lb. when he first stripped for Norwood in the closing match of 1902. In 1893 he flashed like a meteor across the football firmament, kicking 13 goals in the two opening matches of the year and immediately gaining inter-State honors. To “Bos” Daly goals came with almost monotonous frequency. In a match aginst Adelaide, on the Kensington Oval, with 24 shots he scored 23 goals, and hit the post once. That record still stands throughout Australia, while his 88 goals in a season has yet to be surpassed in this State. Daly played for five teams, namely Norwood, South, West Adelaide, West Torrens, and North Adelaide.

* * *

When approached for an interview, the ex-champion was quite willing to explain the secret of his success. “I suppose goal-kicking came natural to me,” he said, “although it was only by dint of constant practice that I attained proficiency. Before ever I thought of playing first-class football I would go out on to the Kensington Oval, get in line with the two goal-posts, and shoot at them. So expert did I become that I could hit a post twice out of three tries.

* * *

“What are the attributes of a successful forward?” the pressman asked. “Dash, judgment, resource, and determination,” was the reply, “but, above all, a forward must be a good kick. The men at the attacking division are there to get goals, and they should always be within kicking distance of the uprights. A forward should always leave himself room to run out for the ball and then be within his distance. Some captains and coaches make the great mistake of instructing their artilleryists to keep in front of their men. That is all very well, but if a forward adopt such tactics a brainy back man can lead him almost to the centre, where he is useless for getting goals. A forward’s job is to elude his opponent, and, whether he does that by being at the side, in front, or behind his man does not matter. So long s he is in a position to break away and lead to the ball what does it matter how he gets there? Whenever I took a mark I threw my cap on the ground to indicate the spot. That gave the umpire something to go on and prevented the player standing the mark from cribbing that extra yard or two which may make all the difference between a goal and a resultless kick. I regard Norwood’s system in the forward lines as the best seen here for many years. They work as a combination and not as individuals. That is what bring success.

* *.*

“I am glad to see a revival of place-kicking this season, for that is the only sure way of winning goals. When place-kicking, however, even if the posts be only 15 yards away, a player should kick just as hard as if his objective were 50 yards distant. I do not consider that crack forwards receive the consideration of the umpire that they should. They are constantly being interfered with within easy reach of goal, but the central officials are chary about penalising offenders, because they know they are practically making a present of a goal to the opposing side. A successful forward must possess an abundance of nerve. I remember, on one occasion when playing for South Australia against Victoria, on the Richmond Cricket Ground, the first time I had a shot a crowd of boys directly behind the goals counted by steps as I ran to the ball. I kicked true, and the counting process was soon discontinued when I repeated the dose two or three times.

* * *

“I think Peter Dempster, the old Port Adelaide full back, was the best goalkeeper I ever stood. He was a splendid kick and mark, and ever on the alert. A goal sneak had to be very smart to get away from him.

* * *

“I recollect a rather humorous incident that occurred when North Adelaide were playing South Adelaide on the Adelaide Oval. I took a mark on the boundary about 60 yards out. Thinking the distance beyond me, I was looking for a comrade to whom to pass, when a South supporter, almost alongside of me, yelled sarcastically, ‘Why don’t you put it on the ground, Mr. Daly?’ I thought I would oblige him, and did so, when he called out, ‘You’ve forgotten to take off your cap, Mr. Daly.’ I put my whole weight behind that kick, and when it went sailing though I could not resist the impulse to ‘take off my cap’ and ironically bow to the man who had badgered me. This, added to my success, goaded him to fury. He got up out of his seat and loudly challenged me to come and fight him. But the game was more important than fisticuffs, and I did not accept his challenge.”

Thanks, AH, that's a wonderful read.

And some of it is totally relevant today, to.

Bos Flush Daly was acknowledged as the greatest forward at his time
He had a brother that could play as well

John Bunny Daly
Bos's brother John is acknowledged as one of the very best players of his time 1877-1900
Once ran from end to end in a game whilst in possession of the ball
John was that popular he ended up with a purse of sovereigns in 1899
John ended up at West Adelaide in 1900
He served Norwood until 1898, I assume he didnt play footy in 1899 ?

In a publication in the mid 60s there was a greatest team named
John Daly was named on the wing

I don't know if John Bunny Daly played in 1899 or not, but that was the first season of electoral football which deprived Norwood of many good players such as Alby Green, A.D.Thomson, N.Mitchell, R.Correll, H.Faull, J.D.Daly, A.Daly, P.Fitzpatrick, W.Reed and J.Way.

Alby Green refused to play for anyone else so he retired from football, so maybe Bunny Daly stood out for a year for the reason.

1876 was an interesting year
Im tipping behind the scenes there were groups motioning a competition of sorts , this was to eventuate ion 1877

12/4/1876
Meeting to establish the 'second ' South Adelaide Football Club'
Meeting held at the Draper Memorial School
Of interest was a proposal of rules
* The code of playing rules, passed by leading Victorian Clubs in 1874 was discussed and adopted.*

21/4/1876
A meeting at the South Adelaide Football Club at the General Havelock Hotel
This was the 1875 South version of the club
The 1875ers mooted and agreed upon an amalgamation with the 1876ers
The meeting concluded that the merging of the 1875 South + the 1876 South would make it a stronger team

Bit eye opening, I have frequented the General Havelock Hotel over a century later
To think a 'one' South was formed at the same place is a buzz of sorts


19/4/1876
Notice of a meeting of proposed Walkerville Football Club
Here is the notice
* Football. All persons desirous of forming a football club at or near Walkerville, are requested to meet at the Church Schoolroom, Walkerville, on Wednesday , April 19th, 1876 at 7:30pm.*

In 1883 there was a Walkerville team that played at Gilberton
The clubs history can be traced starting in 1901


That 1876 meeting is a nostalgic one for myself
In 1976 , 100 years later, I represented the Walkerville Football Club in the under 18s comp
1983 , 107 years after that meeting a person I consider as the best SANFL footballer Ive ever seen played for Walkerville, the great Barrie Robran
1983 is my claim to fame, both Barrie and I played our last seasons of football that year !

Another club around in 1876 was the Woodville Football Club
Woodville was quite active in 1876

13/5/1876
Proposed Football match
Woodville Vrs Captains and Officers of Ships
Venue Wodville
Result unknown, I can only assume the game took place

20/6/1876
Woodville Vrs Gawler
Venue Woodville
Woodville 4 Gawler 0

The players met for a luncheon at the Hamburg Hotel in Rundle Street at 11:00am
18 players per team, no match report
After this match another game was played, 16 of the Woodville players had a game against 30 spectators
The result was a 0-0 draw


18/7/1876
The following notice
* The Woodville Football Club hereby challenges any club, in or around Adelaide to play a game of football according to the Old Adelaide Rules, which Rules will only be played by the above Club in future.*

Wow, a bit cocky, Woodville challenging allcomers and then having the audacity to play by their preferred rules !
The Adelaide Rules were formulated in about 1870


19/7/1876
South Adelaide accepted the challenge, playing under the Adelaide Rules


29/7/1876
South Adelaide Vrs Woodville
Venue Adelaide Grounds
South 2 Woodville 0

The only report I have is that it was 20 men per side

20/7/1876
Port accepted a challenge to play Woodville, under the Old Adelaide rules
The proposed game was to be played at Glanville on 29/7/1876
I have no details if the game was played, nor the result

There are records showing a team named Woodville was playing in 1868, 1869, 1870 and being in the inaugural 1877 SAFA competition
Question is, is there a link between the 1877 SAFA team and the team that commenced in the SANFL in 1964 ?

Great stuff.

Really interesting.

Other games of 1876

10/6/1876
A team named Glenelg played what appears to be a 2 sided internal game
The result was 2-0
There is an earlier report on this game in this thread

22/7/1876
Victorian Football Club Vrs Port Adelaide Football Club
Venue: Montefiore Hill
Victorian 4 Port 0

No report on this game
The Victorian Club was formed in 1875 and lasted to 1883
Port certainly was not a Power house club of the time, from the games I have at my disposal


22/7/1876
Kensington Vrs South Adelaide
Venue: Kensington Park Oval
Kensington 0 South Adelaide 1

A match with some controversy , The Kensington rules were used

Here is a detailed match report
* There were a good many disputes throughout the game, but on the whole taking into consideration the fact that the Rules were comparatively new to South Adelaide, they were taken in good part
Football like other games is governed by Rules, and they require to be learnt before the game can be played without mistakes
A goal was kicked by Colby [South]who put it through very neatly when only a few yards from it
In general , there seemed to be a want of a definite object to be attained , and the players seemed to work rather wildly
Owing to indisposition, F R Perry, the proper captain of the Kensingtons, was unable to render his valuable service at vocal encourager to his team, for a captain owning a good pair of lungs, and the power to used them, is invaluable at Football.*

That concludes a period from 1860-1876
A period that precedes the opening competition of the SAFA 1877 season
Football had made notable progressions since that meeting in April 1860 , when Misters Acraman, Cussen and Fullarton drafted up some rules and regulations

redandblack wrote:Great stuff.

Really interesting.

Hopefully anyone reading the posts might get some insight into what it was like
Its been fun researching this period

1877-1899
I want to just do the happenings randomly and not in date order
Everyone is free to contribute, rather than wait for a chronicled date order of events, as was the case for 1860-1876
There will be some fascinating stories and events to post
Oh to have Rod Taylors or Guy Pearce's time machine, or travel with Newman, Phillips and Mcgregor in the Time Tunnel
'Wouldnt it be nice' to go back in time and see what it was really like

7/7/1888
Port Adelaide vrs English Rugby Team
Venue Adelaide Oval
7-9 Port Adelaide
8-8 English Rugby

Interesting match it would seem
A crowd of about 8,000 people attended to see the red white and blues take on the wharfies
151 pounds were the gate takings
No details of the match

The English Rugby team did a tour of Australia in 1888 and played more games of Australian Rules then Rugby
In all they played 25 Football matches for 14 wins and 11 losses
The tour was organised by 2 English Cricketers cricketers Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury
It appears they subsidised the tour as a private venture, but made a loss, and perhaps it was not a shrewd or a shaw thing
This might have affected Shrewsburys health, as he died in 1903 aged 47 when he shot himself
Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury ran a cricket warehouse business in England in 1880


I just wonder if when Shaw and Shrewsbury and others got back to England, if there was any thought of an Australian football concept in the mother land

1897
There were 2 notable things that happened in the season of 97
West Adelaide and West Torrens both joined the SAFA
The other was the Grand Final

2-14 South Adelaide
3-1 Port Adelaide

The winner ends up being Port Adelaide, as points were recorded but not counted !
Port scored 3-1 in the first quarter, and was scoreless for the remaining 3 quarters
These days South would have won this game by 7 points
I suppose retrospective Grand Final winners are not an agenda !

bayman wrote:Ports home ground in the first 10 years 1870-1880 was 'Bucks Flat', and 'Bucks Flat' was a racetrack in the 1850s.....ironically Alberton Oval was used for Harness Racing at some stage in the early 20th century

Found this reference about Bucks Flat
* The LeFevre and Port Adelaide races were held at Bucks Flat, on the 26th and 27th of December 1856 *

The last race was ahem ...
The race was a Bullocks race !!!
Only the owners could ride the Bullocks
This is a description of the race
* 13 of these lumbering beasts took part and the start was spectacular to say the least
A brave soul acted as starter and the huge beasts surged in every direction, no doubt confused by the noisy crowd
At least 7 bullocks headed the right way and the rest scattered spectators on both sides of the course!
After a great struggle for supremacy , the youngest rider, Jimmy Smith on his favorite Bullock, Big Ben, lurched forward to win!*

14 years later Bucks Flat becomes Port Adelaides first home ground
I wonder if in the early days Bucks flat was considered a cows paddock ?