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2019 COMEBACKS TO WIN QUARTER TIME MARGIN 18pts Glenelg d West, R5 15pts Adelaide d Norwood, R6 14pts South d Glenelg, R10 12pts Sturt d North, R10 12pts Eagles d South, R8 11pts Sturt d West, R7 10pts Norwood d South, R14 10pts South d West, R6 10pts Glenelg d Sturt R4 9pts South d West, R11 8pts Central d West, R3 8pts Central d Norwood, R17 7pts South d North, R7 7pts Port d North, R3 7pts Norwood d Glenelg, R1 6pts Port d West, R1 6pts Eagles d North, R1
5pts Sturt d Eagles, R15 5pts Adelaide d Norwood, R12 4pts Eagles d South, R13 2pts Central d West, R15 2pts Glenelg d Adelaide, R15 2pts Central d Eagles, R14 2pts Eagles d West, R10 1pt Norwood d Port, R4 HALF TIME MARGIN 29pts Central d Eagles, R14 23pts Adelaide d Norwood, R6 16pts Glenelg d West, R5 15pts Norwood d South, R9 13pts Eagles d Norwood, R7 11pts Sturt d North, R10 11pts South d West, R6 9pts North d Eagles, Rd 18
7pts Norwood d Sturt, R3 6pts Adelaide d Eagles, R3 4pts Glenelg d Adelaide, R15 4pts Norwood d Glenelg, R1 4pts Glenelg d Sturt, Rd4 4pts Sturt d South, Rd5 3pts North d West, R2 3pts Eagles d South, R13 2pts Glenelg d Eagles, R12 THREE QUARTER TIME MARGIN 16pts Central d West, R15 14pts Glenelg d West, R5 14pts Norwood d Glenelg, R1 12pts Adelaide d West, R9 7pts Eagles d South, R13 6pts Adelaide d Norwood, R6 6pts Norwood d Sturt, R3 www.sanfl.com.au
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HOW COVID-19 WREAKED HAVOC ON SA FOOTY
SANFL CEO, Jake Parkinson.
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arch 2020: summer cricket had given way to autumn and football was underway. SANFL women’s and senior trial matches had kicked off, and four men’s trial games were played between March 7 and March 14. The largest margin was 17 points. All the signs were positive for a close season. Yet the dark story of “coronavirus” was quickly escalating; what had started as a localised outbreak in China was now the threat of a global pandemic, with dark mutterings about previously unthinkable ramifications for football. Australia had confirmed its first cases as early as the Australia Day long weekend. On February 1, the nation closed its borders to China and on the following day, SA confirmed its first two cases of Covid-19. In late February, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it would become a pandemic and Australia’s emergency response plan was triggered. By the time of the March 14 trial game in which Sturt defeated Central by 17 points, the rate of infection in Australia was doubling every three days on average. The signs were ominous. New restrictions were being announced every day, so it was with 6
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a sense of inevitability that, on March 16, the bad news was delivered: “SANFL, in a united decision with the AFL and all other State Leagues, has postponed the 2020 football season in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “SANFL will delay the start of the 2020 SANFL Statewide Super League season, Reserves and U18 Torrens University Cup competitions until May 31.” More bad news quickly followed. The Statewide Super Women’s League, National Pharmacies SANFL Juniors and NAB AFL Auskick were all postponed until May 31. The U16 Torrens University Cup, which was already underway, was cancelled. SURVIVAL MODE These difficult decisions were essential to safeguard the health and safety of players, coaches, staff, supporters and the broader community. Nevertheless, it was a devastating blow for clubs, with the loss of revenue threatening their survival. Many staff lost their jobs or were stood down. Those who remained had to step up to hold everything together. The pressure was enormous. SANFL CEO Jake Parkinson said the competition was facing one of the biggest challenges in its 143-year history.
“There is no winner today. But we must do what’s needed to keep people safe and healthy and get us through this most challenging time. “SANFL is focussed on survival for the organisation, the SANFL clubs and affiliated leagues and clubs across the entire football community. Every club will be important to our game when we are again able to safely return to playing footy.” Behind the scenes, SANFL was working with its interstate counterparts, the AFL, State and Federal Governments, and the World Health Organisation. Health and safety were priorities - but the burning question was always: When can we play footy again? This question was posed against a backdrop of worsening conditions around the world. SA was not an epicentre but neither was it immune from the mounting death toll. More bad news came on April 7, when the 2020 SA Country Football Championships were cancelled. The May 31 restart date was intact but confidence was waning that it could be achieved. The toll on the SANFL clubs was enormous. This was the first time since World War II that football had been postponed. With no revenue coming into football, each club undertook fundraising initiatives – while
standing united to ensure that every club would survive. April 30 marked SANFL’s 143rd birthday but celebrations were subdued. All eyes were on securing the future. Five days later, on May 12, the League confirmed the Port Adelaide and Adelaide Football Clubs would not field teams in the SANFL Statewide Super League competition in 2020. This followed the AFL’s decision not to allow AFLlisted players to play in state leagues for the remainder of the 2020 AFL season. Jake Parkinson said while it was a disappointing outcome for the two AFL clubs and their supporters, SANFL now had further clarity on its 2020 season. “We now know it will be an eightteam SANFL competition in 2020 and we can move forward with our planning for a 14-minor round fixture to commence as soon as restrictions enable us to,” he said. Nobody was surprised when the May 31 restart date was pushed out. The fate of football – and the fate of society and the economy - was now in the hands of emergency and health services. AT home, in governmentmandated isolation to contain the spread of Covid-19, fans turned to history, reliving the glory days, watching flashbacks and debating the greatest games and players of all time. Sport around the world had ground to a halt. Sports programs – with no match-related news to talk about – were now debating whether or not children should go to school.
More good news followed on May 28. The 2020 SANFL Statewide Super League season would start on Saturday, June 27! The details included: • A 14-minor round season. • The first two rounds would be played at Adelaide Oval, “without spectators and under strict protocols within the State Government’s COVID-19 Step 2 easing of restrictions roadmap.” • Rounds one and two would be double-headers played on Saturday and Sunday. • A three-week finals series between the top four would commence on the weekend of October 3-4, with the Grand Final to be held on the weekend of October 17-18. • A decision on venues for future home and away matches would be determined closer to the season start date. • Further details of the fixture to be released by mid-June. • SANFL Statewide Super Women’s League, SANFL Reserves and Under 18s Torrens University Cup competitions would also start on Saturday, June 27. That was the good news. The bad news was that spectators would not be permitted to attend. A cap of up to 80 players, umpires, trainers and officials would be allowed on the ground. However, most people could sense that conditions were quickly changing. SA was going for weeks without recording a new case.
After weeks of conjecture, the League received State Government approval for a structured return to contact training in groups of 20 for SANFL and Community Football from Monday, June 1. “The circumstances and restrictions surrounding COVID-19 are evolving and improving rapidly and the continued support and efforts of the entire football community will help us continue on the road back to play,” said Jake Parkinson. In the second week of June, SA Premier, Steven Marshall, revealed that crowds of up to 500 people would be permitted at football matches in SA from July 3, providing there was no significant outbreak of Covid-19. The 500 limit was subject to social distancing, with no more than one person per four square metres and a distance of 1.5 metres required between spectators. SANFL has now received approval for crowds of up to 5,000 to attend Round 1 following the success of 2,000 fans attending the AFL Showdown at Adelaide Oval on June 13. So here we are, with round one now kicking off. Despite the deep financial damage that has been inflicted on clubs, this weekend is a time for rejoicing. For now, we have beaten the pandemic and the sounds of football – the cheers, the chants and the passion - are once more reverberating around ovals.
TURNING POINT For a variety of reasons, the toll from the disease in South Australia was less than most other parts of Australia and the world. While New York, the UK, Italy and the like were still grappling with the ravages of the disease, Australia was seeing the ‘green shoots of recovery’. May 18 was a bright point. This was the date the eight SANFL clubs, as well as many community clubs, were able to don their boots again and hit the training track, albeit with restrictions on contact and the number of people that could be involved. www.sanfl.com.au
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From this…
LIVING THE DREAM BY PETER CORNWALL
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on’t fret, your time is near. SANFL supporters who have been longing to see their club’s colours on top of the West End Brewery chimney have been living the dream in the past five years. With players coming and going at a frenetic rate and sides progressing from pretenders to contenders like never before, there’s hope for every club - and every fan. You don’t have to have been knocking on the door for even one season and there’s no talk these days about having to lose a grand final before you can win one. Rebuilding? Forget it. Get the right coach, strong 12
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leadership and players who are willing to work hard, work together and play with no ceiling and any drought can be smashed. South Adelaide has been rocked by last-minute player losses to the AFL in the past year. Panthers fans, without a premiership since 1964, are tearing their hair out after superstar ruckman Keegan Brooksby was snatched away by Hawthorn in March. But a premiership has never been closer for all clubs. Just a decade ago, all-conquering Central District snared its ninth premiership in 11 seasons. But, incredibly, the Bulldogs now are the seventh-most-recent flag winners,
the Eagles, Norwood (three), West, Sturt (two), North and Glenelg winning them since the Doggies’ remarkable dynasty ended. West Adelaide languished in ninth place in 2014, not having won a premiership since 1983. Bloods fans were pinching themselves after coach Mark Mickan orchestrated a stunning grand final win just a year later. Sturt jumped from eighth in 2015 to the flag in ’16. Coached by Martin Mattner, who had starred in the Blues’ previous flag in 2002, they completed back-to-back flags in 2017 - the first time they had achieved the feat since winning their fifth flag in a row way back in 1970. North Adelaide “won” the
…to this
wooden spoon in 2017. But Josh Carr’s Roosters won the premiership just a year later coming from fifth at the end of the minor round. Their flag ended a club-record 27-year wait. Glenelg finished sixth in 2018, not having made the finals since 2011 and facing a premiership drought that extended back to the heady days of grand final wins under Graham Cornes in 1985-86. Mark Stone’s men proved anything is possible to storm to a stunning 28-point win in the premiership decider against Port Adelaide, the Bays completing one of the most dramatic rags-to-riches triumphs of all. Glenelg’s fans have been living the dream, taking unnecessary detours to meander past and admire the black-and-gold colours on the Port Rd brewery chimney,
just three years after the club might have closed its doors for good. Glenelg launched its Save The Tigers debt demolition campaign in June 2016, the threat of extinction all too real having amassed more than $3 million in debts. As if that wasn’t bad enough, just six months later the roof of Glenelg Oval’s HY Sparks grandstand was ripped off in a storm. There was no choice but to demolish the 80-year-old stand, which already had seen better days but which housed the changerooms for home and away teams, the Tigers’ players’ gym, medical and meeting rooms, a coaches’ box and timekeepers’ box. Club president Nick Chigwidden and chief executive Glenn Elliott directed the transformation of training, gym and changeroom facilities now up there with the best in the SANFL, the freak wind that
seemed to have caused such devastation later dubbed The Perfect Storm. And 2019 was just about perfect, a profit recorded for the fourth year in a row and Tigers fans out in force in the bumper 39,000 grand final crowd, SA’s sleeping giant well-and-truly awakened. Chigwidden admitted when the club’s financial crisis saw it in “serious, serious trouble”, its longterm vision was to win a flag by its league centenary in 2021. “A flag at that point seemed a world away … to win one this quickly is unbelievable,” he said. The Tigers will be coming hard, desperate to repeat the historic back-to-back flags of the ‘80s. But they have proved to everyone anything is possible. Keep believing. You could be living the dream sooner than you think. www.sanfl.com.au
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