The 1996

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

(SANFL)

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

saw the

Port Adelaide Magpies Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed the Power, whilst its reserves ...

defeat the

Central District Bulldogs Central District Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Based at Elizabeth in the City of Playford about 25 km to the north of Adelaide, South Australia the club's ...

by 36 points. The match was played on Sunday 6 October 1996 at

Football Park Football Park, known commercially as AAMI Stadium, was an Australian rules football stadium located in West Lakes, South Australia, West Lakes, a western suburb of Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, Australia. It was built in 197 ...

in front of a crowd of 46,120. '' The Advertiser'' newspaper 7 October 1996, pages 19, 20, 30 As of the 2020 SANFL Grand Final, this is the highest attendance for an SANFL Grand Final since the first year of the

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) sinc ...

in the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

(1991). This was Port Adelaide's 34th premiership, third premiership in a row, and seventh in nine years. Port would also go on to win in 1998 and 1999. Port had also beaten Central District in the 1995 Grand Final. Thirteen Port players from the 1995 grand final also played in the 1996 grand final. For Central District, 12 players played in both. Central District entered the Grand Final as favourite to win as they were minor premiers (first on the ladder prior to the finals) and had beaten Port on all four occasions that the teams had met in 1996 prior to the grand final.

Match Summary

Jack Oatey Medal

The

Jack Oatey Medal The Jack Oatey Medal is awarded to the best player during the SANFL Grand Final. It has been awarded since 1981. In 2018, Mitch Grigg of Norwood became the first player to win the Jack Oatey Medal on a losing team, after his team were defeated b ...

for best player in the Grand Final was awarded to David Brown of Port Adelaide. However,

The Advertiser (Adelaide) ''The Advertiser'' is a daily tabloid format newspaper based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. First published as a broadsheet named ''The South Australian Advertiser'' on 12 July 1858,Fabian Francis Fabian Francis (born 24 October 1973) is a former Australian rules football, rugby league footballer, most notable for his professional career with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League. Early life Born in Darwin in ...

as the best player on the ground.

Teams

Port Adelaide was captained by

Tim Ginever Timothy Ginever (born 13 April 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), playing for Port Adelaide. Early life Tim Ginever is the seventh of 10 children and says that Australian ...

and coached by Stephen Williams. Williams had taken over from John Cahill part way through the season when Cahill joined the newly formed

Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed ...

. Central District was captained by Roger Girdham and coached by Steve Wright.

Umpires

The game was umpired by Richard Williams, Michael Avon, and Troy Burton.

Scorecard

Port Adelaide entrance into the AFL

1996 marked the end of an era for Port Adelaide being their last year their senior most team played in the

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

, as the

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed ...

started fielding a side the

from 1997 onwards. The Power's inaugural squad included eight players from the 1996 Port Adelaide SANFL premiership team, including

Warren Tredrea Warren Gary Tredrea (born 24 December 1978) is a former Australian Rules Footballer with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and former Weekday Sports Presenter on ''Nine News Adelaide''. Since his retire ...

Scott Hodges Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saskat ...

, Michael Wilson,

Fabian Francis Fabian Francis (born 24 October 1973) is a former Australian rules football, rugby league footballer, most notable for his professional career with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League. Early life Born in Darwin in ...

, Stephen Carter, Darren Mead, David Brown and Nigel Fiegert. Fellow Magpies Darryl Poole (who missed the Grand Final via suspension), Peter Burgoyne, Tom Carr, Paul Evans and Jason Dylan (rookie list) would round out the homegrown picks. They would be joined by former Magpies returning from other AFL clubs including inaugural captain Gavin Wanganeen, Brayden Lyle and Shane Bond. Central District would supply the Power with two players from their defeated Grand Final team, Jarrod Cotton and Mark Conway, and juniors Stuart Dew and Nathan Steinberner.

External links

Port Adelaide Magpies Official Website

Central District Football Club Official Website

SANFL Official Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1996 Sanfl Grand Final SANFL Grand Finals Sanfl Grand Final, 1996