West Adelaide Football Club

West Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Commonly known as The Bloods and Westies, the club's home base is Richmond Oval (currently known as Hisense Stadium under a sponsorship agreement). The Oval is located in Richmond, an inner-western suburb of Adelaide.

The club has won nine SANFL premierships, the most recent coming in 2015 – breaking a thirty-two-year premiership drought dating back to 1983; the second longest in the SANFL.

Club history

Early years (1897–1907)

West Adelaide was formed in 1892, adopting magenta and white as their colours and the club played in the Adelaide and Suburban Association from 1892 to 1896. Wests won the Adelaide and Suburban Association premierships in 1895 and 1896 and following the club's annual general meeting on 30 March 1897, the club applied to join the South Australian Football Association (SAFA) which was approved by 6 votes to 4 against at a meeting held on 5 April 1897. The SAFA would subsequently become the SANFL.

Upon entering the SAFA, West Adelaide changed their colours to black and red, the colours previously worn by the defunct Old Adelaide Football Club and moved its training headquarters from the South to the West Parklands. The club often struggled to field a full team in its early years as clubs were then controlled by wealthy businessmen and it was no secret that players were regularly poached from less wealthy clubs. West Adelaide was one of the "poor" clubs and consequently won only one of its first 31 matches.

From the 1899 season the SAFA introduced district football in which players had to play for the club in the district where they lived. West Adelaide immediately gained the services of one of the best players of the time, "Bunny" Daly who threw himself into developing the club. Nonetheless, the club still struggled and had won only twenty and drawn two of 127 games by the end of 1907, including a second winless season in 1906. However, with a number of young players such as Richard "Dick" Head joining veterans James Tierney. West's fortunes were about to change and the club would enter what is known as its "Golden Era"

Golden era (1908 - 1913)

Prior to the 1908 season, West Adelaide never finished higher than fifth on the premiership ladder. In 1908 former Hotham 1887-1888 Captain, South Adelaide and North Adelaide champion "Dinny" Reedman became West's Coach. West Adelaide not only became SANFL premiers for the first time defeating Norwood in the Grand Final at the Adelaide Oval but they also became Champions of Australia when they defeated powerful Victorian Football League team Carlton by five goals at the Adelaide Oval. James "Sorry" Tierney was the club's first ever winner of the Magarey Medal in 1908.

West Adelaide repeated as SANFL premiers in 1909 after defeating Port Adelaide by a goal in the Grand Final while "Dick" Head won the club's second Magarey Medal. The club slumped in 1910 to finish in fifth place before repeating their 1908 double success by winning the 1911 SANFL Premiership defeating Port Adelaide in the Grand Final and Essendon to win the Championship of Australia.

The club won its fourth premiership in five years in 1912 after again defeating Port Adelaide in the grand final before finishing their Golden Era with a third placing in 1913.

Between wars

After the SANFL resumed competition following World War I, West Adelaide would finish second in 1922, losing the Final to Norwood while player Robert Barnes was the club's third Magarey Madalist.

Bruce McGregor became the club's fourth Magarey Madalist when he won the award in 1926

The club began playing their home games at the Wayville Showgrounds in 1927 and the club won its fifth premiership by defeating North Adelaide by two goals in the grand final. Captain-Coach Bruce McGregor would not only lead his team to the premiership in 1927 but became the first (and so far only) West Adelaide player to win back to back Magarey Madals. Robert Snell (1929), Jack Sexton (1931) and Ray McArthur (1939) also won the Magarey Medal while playing for the West Adelaide Football Club.

After finishing third in 1928 and 1929 followed by – in the absence of star goalsneak "Dickie" Bennetts who was banned for three years for kicking an umpire – fifth in 1930, West Adelaide slumped badly in 1931 to last with only two wins before bouncing back to fifth in 1932 only half a game from the finals. Despite Bennetts' return, they finished winless for the third time in 1933 but were terribly unlucky in losing five games by a goal or less They recovered to win eight games and draw one in 1934, but between 1935 and 1940 were never higher than seventh in an eight-team competition and overall won only 26 and drew one of 102 games. An unexpected 112-point thrashing of North Adelaide in their last game of 1940, however, proved a true omen of what was to come in 1941. The Bloods carried all before them early in the season and after ten games had suffered only a draw and two narrow losses. A slump ensued before the club required to finish third and beat Port Adelaide in the first semi before Sturt knocked the inexperienced Bloods out in the preliminary.

Between 1942 and 1945 West Adelaide joined forced with Glenelg in a wartime competition, finishing second, third and fourth in a four-team competition.

"Thereabouts" but never "there"

West Adelaide became one of the power teams in the SANFL following the resumption of full-scale competition in 1945. The club finished third in 1946 before winning its sixth premiership in 1947 defeating Norwood 10.15 (75) to 8.15 (63). One of Wests leading players during this time was future SANFL legend Fos Williams who played 54 games for the club between 1946 and 1949 before moving on to captain-coach Port Adelaide in 1950, a move that would haunt West Adelaide for the next thirteen seasons as Wests would lose five Grand Finals, all by less than three goals, to the Williams-coached Port Adelaide between 1954 and 1962.

During the mid-1950s, West Adelaide, under the coaching of Laurie Cahill and with strong players such as Neil Kerley, Brian Faehse, Doug Thomas, Ken Eustice, Ken McGregor and 1957 Magarey Madalist Ron Benton, became regular finals visitors and finished as beaten grand finalists in 1954, losing the grand final to the Fos Williams led Port Adelaide by just three points. The 1954 final was marred by a brawl which broke out at half time of the match when angry Port supporters set upon Wests players as they attempted to enter the dressing room located in the Sir Edwin Smith Stand. This was a reaction to a heavy but legal clash prior to the end of the half between Wests captain Brian Faehse and Ports Dave Boyd in which Boyd had come off second best. Wests had been leading by 25 points at half time but the melee in the crowd proved unsettling with some battered Wests players not making it back to the dressing room until the team was due to go back out onto the oval for the second half. Port came back to trail by only two points going into the last quarter of the game and snatched victory by three points.

The half-time melee was the main topic of discussion at an SANFL meeting following the game which prompted the building of the underground dressing rooms at the Adelaide Oval during the summer of 1954/55 while leaving the rooms in the stands to the cricketers. West Adelaide and their captain Brian Faehse were given the honour of being the first team to use the new rooms and to run out onto the oval from them at the start of the 1955 SANFL season.

Wests finished a disappointing seventh in 1955, but would return to form in 1956 where they would again be beaten grand finalists, again losing to Port. After finishing third in 1957, West Adelaide would play in both the 1958 and 1959 SANFL Grand Finals and again would be beaten by the Fos Williams coached Port Adelaide by just two points in 1958 and ten points in 1959. In the former year a late kick for goal by ruckman Jack Richardson which would have given West the lead with only ninety seconds remaining hit the post allowing Port to hold on. Later on grand final night, a group of Wests players, including Kerley, broke into the Adelaide Oval and cut down the goalpost. The post would later end up hanging over the Bar in the West Adelaide Footballers' Club.

In 1954 the club's search for a permanent home ground was solved with the founding of Richmond Oval. It was the first ground purpose built for Australian Rules Football in Australia, pre-dating the VFL's Waverley Park by twelve years. Richmond Oval was opened by long-serving member of the South Australian Legislative Council Sir Lyell McEwin on 26 April 1958. A capacity crowd saw West Adelaide christen their new home with a 12.11 (83) to 10.13 (73) win over neighbouring club West Torrens.

After finishing fourth in 1960, West Adelaide, captain-coached by Neil Kerley, won their seventh premiership in 1961, when they defeated Norwood by six goals in the Grand Final. The club would play its nemesis Port Adelaide in the 1962 grand final and once again would go down by a heartbreaking three points to the Magpies. Ken Eustice would become the club's tenth Magarey Medalist in 1962. Sensationally after taking the club to two Grand Finals and one premiership in his two years as coach of the club, Kerley was sacked as West's coach after the 1962 season. He was reluctantly replaced by longtime teammate and friend Doug Thomas, who went to the club committee before the season and unsuccessfully asked them to re-instate Kerley as captain-coach. Kerley continued on as a player in 1963 honouring his contract, but the following season he left to become captain-coach of South Adelaide

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