Australian Rules Football In South Australia

Australian rules football in South Australia has long been the most popular sport in the state.

Forms of football were played very early in the history of the Colony of South Australia pre-dating the organisation of Australian rules football in Victoria and rivalled football's popularity there.

In 1877, the colony officially adopted the code in order to compete in the very first intercolonial representative football match in Australia against Victoria. The first governing body, the South Australian Football Association formed on 13 April 1877, remains the oldest competition in Australia.

Since the Federation of Australia, South Australia has been the second strongest of all the states in the sport. From 1976 to 2003 South Australia held the record for the largest attendance in the sport outside of Victoria. South Australia holds the world record for a non-VFL/AFL attendance with the 1976 SANFL Grand Final drawing an estimated 80,000 spectators which remains the record crowd for any code of football in the state and the third highest official attendance outside of Victoria. The SANFL remains the second most attended league worldwide in the sport. Several South Australian clubs have been crowned Champions of Australia, with Port Adelaide having held the title the most times most overall (4). The South Australian state football team (the "Croweaters") have defeated every state in Interstate matches in Australian rules football including Victoria with the intense rivalry inspiring the popular catchcry "Kick a Vic".

South Australia in 2019 had the highest participation rate (4.8%) of any state in Australia (and second only to the Northern Territory) and is the only state or territory in Australia where Australian rules football participation is higher than soccer.

There are two professional Australian Football League clubs based in the state: the Adelaide Football Club (1990) and Port Adelaide Football Club (1870), the latter having the distinction of being the only pre-existing club to have entered the AFL from another league, as a founding member of the SAFA (SANFL). These two clubs compete against each other in the " Showdown".

The state has produced some of the greatest Australian Footballers of all time, including the Australian Football Hall of Fame legends: Barrie Robran, Malcolm Blight, Jack Oatey and Russell Ebert. Craig Bradley holds the record for the most AFL games for a born and raised South Australian with 375, while Stephen Kernahan has kicked the most AFL goals with 738. In women's Australian rules, Erin Phillips is arguably the greatest with 2 AFLW best and fairests and also has kicked the most goals, while Ebony Marinoff has played the most AFLW games.

History

Early examples of football (1843–1853)

The first recorded game of any "football" in South Australia was that of ' Caid' played in Thebarton by people of the local Irish community in 1843 to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

In 1844 there was debate amongst the South Australian Legislative Council whether it be allowed that "foot-ball" be played on Sundays, with arguments against preferring the quiet worship of God.

In 1853 a group of Irishmen from Westmeath, Ireland placed an advertisement in the South Australian Register calling for Irishmen from another county of Ireland to join them in Thebarton to play a game of football.

In 1854 at the opening of a new school in Morphett Vale, at the end of the first day the students played a game of football amongst other activities.

In 1855 William Anderson Cawthorne illustrated a series of images documenting South Australia's indigenous people including a pair of playthings, one being a sling and the other being a ball, referred to in Kaurna language as Pando.

John Acraman and St Peters College (1854)

In 1854 Adelaide businessman John Acraman imported five round footballs from England and paid for the construction of goal posts at St Peter's College in Adelaide's eastern suburbs. St Peter's football matches were played between Frome Road and Adelaide Bridge, on a similar site to the current University Oval. "Harrow rules" involving kicking the ball but not running with it.

Growing popularity (1855–1859)

In June 1855 the Sunday School associated with St Jude's Church in Brighton included football for its children's activities.

On 4 November 1856 a Temperance Festival with 400 participants included games of football.

In 1857 a football match was held in Glenelg as part of the annual Commemoration Festival to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the proclamation of the colony of South Australia.

In 1859 the Gawler Institute ran a rural fete which included a game of football being staged. The start of this match featured "a long first run to the ball". On 12 March 1859 the town of Angaston held a farewell party for Charles Fuller which included football. For the Prince of Wales Birthday the Drapers Assistants Association included a football game in their festivities at Waterfall Gully. During a Christmas picnic in 1859 football was played by the employees of 'English & Brown' at Fourth Creek (River Torrens).

Formation of designated clubs (1860–1875)

The earliest recorded football club in South Australia was the original Adelaide Football Club, formed on 26 April 1860. The Adelaide club hosted intra-club matches to provide a platform for football games to be played. Later in 1860 two new teams were formed bearing the names North Adelaide Football Club and South Adelaide Football Club, unrelated to the modern namesakes.

On 20 May 1861 the Adelaide Council were presented with a request by a party representing an "East Adelaide Football Club" (John Clark) to erect football goals in the East Park Lands but were refused.

In 1862 the newly formed Modbury and Tea Tree Gully Football Club was invited to play a match against the Adelaide team. A return match was held later in the year. The early years of football were poorly organised and dogged by argument over which set of rules to adopt. In fact, after a match between Port Adelaide and Kensington in 1873, it was remarked that neither side understood the rules clearly, and there was uncertainty over which team had won. However, as the years progressed, there became a growing push for uniformity and structure in South Australian football.

20 July Meeting (1876)

After a period of years with clubs fighting over technicalities of rules a meeting was held between representatives of the Adelaide, South Adelaide, Victorian and Woodville clubs. At the meeting Charles Kingston argued that "it was possible that someday an inter-colonial football match might be played, and it was desirable in that case that South Australian players should play the game as it was played in other colonies". During his plea to the other clubs at the meeting he compared the 'Old Adelaide rules' to those used in Victoria saying 'practically there was but little difference between them'.

Establishment of SAFA (1877)

Following an initial meeting on Thursday 19 April 1877 at Prince Alfred Hotel called by Richard Twopeny the Captain of the Adelaide Football Club two delegates each from the following Football Clubs - Kensington, South Park, Willunga, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, North Adelaide, Prince Alfred College, Gawler, Kapunda, Bankers, Woodville, South Adelaide