East Fremantle and West Adelaide - they have a history...

East Fremantle lead West Adelaide 1-0 in their head to head clashes.

They played each other in the 1977 NFL series - Tuesday night April 12 1977 at Norwood Oval before a crowd of 1500 - hopefully the upcoming Foxtel Cup Grand Final attendance smashes that figure.

At 3/4 time West led 8.6 to 7.4 but East Frem kicked 7.5 to 1.3 in the last quarter to run out winners 14.9 to 9.9.

The Advertiser reported it was a tough, at times fiery game.

East Frem defender Malcolm Dobson was reported and subsequently found guilty of striking West rover Mark Williams (these days he'd get the Keys to the City of Adelaide). A tribunal hearing of nearly one hour was held immediately after the game and Dobson was found guilty. The evidence was then forwarded to the WAFL who were then going to decide whether any penalty would be imposed on Dobson.

East Frem Best Players - Hollins, Tschirpig, Magee, Peake, Ryan, Durnthaler, Becu.
East Frem Goalkickers - Sims 6, Sewell 3, Becu 3, Hollins 1, Turco 1

West Adel Best Players - Buckley, Hayes, Hewitt, Summerton, Davoren.
West Adel Goalkickers - Ravlich 2, Kennedy 2, Hewitt 2, Davoren 2, Grimwood 1.

Interesting to note that East Frem will have the distinction of playing at AAMI stadium in the year it opened (1974 when it contested the end of season premiers carnival) and will also play at AAMI stadium in the year it closes.

One must query the strength of the SANFL comp in 1977. In the early weeks of the 1977 NFL Competition, South Adelaide and North Adelaide both journeyed to Perth to lose by large margins to Claremont and West Perth respectively and Central Districts traveled to Melbourne to lose to VFA team Dandenong by 9 points. Even then the Doggies existed to just win SANFL premierships and were then able to fully focus on the SANFL competition for the rest of 1977 to finish bottom!

Thanks Bugsy, that's really interesting stuff.

I probably went to that game, but can't remember it so perhaps not.

The names bring back memories, though.

I was there. I remember loving the atmosphere when I walked into the ground, possibly the first night game we'd played in my time. And I remember being surprised at how good East Freo were. We went on to have our best year in the SANFL for 8 years.

Dont remember a thing....musta been concussed the week before:D 

I have watched SANFL footy from the mid 60s onwards. The SANFL scene was vibrant in the late 70s but for a few years we were the 3rd ranked comp below the VFL and the WAFL. Subsequent games in the 1977 NFL series saw Sturt thrash Claremont, Norwood thrash the ACT (Jim Thiel suffered a serious knee injury in that game), Port kill West Perth by 141 pts and Glenelg lose to Perth by 53 pts in Perth. Later on in the quarter finals, Sturt and Norwood thrashed South Fremantle and Port Melbourne, and Port Adelaide lost to East Perth by 2 points at Norwood Oval. Norwood killed Sturt in a semi final and in the Grand Final snuck home at Norwood Oval by 8 points over East Perth. Whilst the SA big 4 at the time (Port, Glenelg, Norwood and Sturt) generally performed well, the other SANFL teams could not match it against the WA teams. Luckily Woodville and West Torrens didn't get asked to play! Add to this that West Aust beat South Australia both in Adelaide and Perth in 1977 and followed up with an absolute belting of South Australia again in 1978 in Adelaide.

Love this history. Keep it coming, Bugsy.

My old man played in that game - Must ask him about it