The 2018 South Australian National Football League (SANFL) grand final was played at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday, 23 September to determine the premiers for the

2018 SANFL season The 2018 South Australian National Football League season (officially the SANFL Macca’s League) was the 139th season of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Australian rules football competition. The season commenced on Frid ...

. The Grand Final was contested by Norwood and North Adelaide. North Adelaide won the grand final, defeating Norwood by 19 points, winning their first premiership since

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

. The Jack Oatey Medal for the best player on the ground was won by Norwood's Mitch Grigg - the first member of a losing grand final side to win the medal. This marked the highest scoring grand final since

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, with both teams kicking over one hundred points.

Background

Norwood were minor premiers, and progressed directly to the Grand Final by defeating

Woodville-West Torrens Woodville-West Torrens Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). It was formed in 1990 from an amalgamation of the neighbouring Woodville and West Torrens football clu ...

in the Second Semi-final. North Adelaide finished the minor round in fifth place, although only one and a half wins behind second place. They progressed to the Grand Final by successively defeating South Adelaide, Sturt and Woodville-West Torrens. A major incident in this latter match, the Preliminary Final, caused lingering uncertainty about the result. North Adelaide commenced the final quarter with 19 players on the field (one more than permitted under Law 5.1), before correcting their error after "about five minutes." Woodville-West Torrens, being unaware of the situation, missed their only opportunity for redress: request that an umpire count the players and annul North Adelaide's match score of 56 points to that stage. During those 5 minutes, North Adelaide advanced its score by 8 points, being greater than the final margin of 5 points (although North had led by as much 22 points). Michael David QC, sitting as the SANFL tribunal, later analysed events fully, and confirmed that there was no legal basis on which to disqualify North Adelaide, so the match result stood. On a charge of being "grossly negligent" he penalised North Adelaide $10,000 and 4 premiership points for the following season. This saga seems to have prompted two changes in the 2019

Laws of Australian rules football The laws of Australian rules football were first created by the Melbourne Football Club in 1859 and have been refined over the years as the sport evolved into its modern form. The laws significantly predate the advent of a governing body for t ...

: 1. Law 5.5.3 "Players Exceeding Permitted Number"(c) was amended to remove only the points scored in that quarter until the count, and 2. Law 5.5.5 "Post-Match Review" was inserted to enable "reversal of Match result." Either of these provisions would have caused a loss for North in the 2018 Preliminary Final.

Teams

Scorers: Barns 4.0, Harvey 3.2, McInerney 3.0, Woodcock 3.0, Hender 2.2, Ramsey 1.1, Sweet 1.1, Wilkie 1.0, Young 1.0, Olekalns 0.1, Thring 0.1, Tropiano 0.1, rushed 0.1

References

External links

Player lists & match stats (SportsTG)
SANFL Grand Finals SANFL Grand Final, 2018 {{AFL-competition-stub