Footy’s Fabulous Forty

Further to my recent reference to Footy’s Fabulous Forty in the numbers topic here is the list as compiled by Geoff Kingston and Mike Coward of The Advertiser for The Advertiser Saturday Review (August 1976) here is the list. They listed who they considered up to that time to be the best 40 players to have played SANFL.

Footy’s Fabulous Forty

1 – Barrie Robran (North) 1967
2 – Russell Ebert (Port) 1968
3 – Len Fitzgerald (Sturt) 1951
4 – Dan Moriarty (South) early 1900s
5 – Tom Leahy (West, North) 1904
6 – Ken Farmer (North) 1929
7 – Bob Quinn (Port) 1933
8 – Bob Hank (Torrens) 1944
9 – Ian McKay (North) 1946
10 - Lindsay Head (Torrens) 1952
11 – Jim Deane (South, Richmond) 1945
12 – Hugh Cumberland (St Kilda, Melb:, Sturt,) early 1900s
13 – Snowy Hamilton (North, West) 1919
14 – Brenton Adcock (Sturt) 1962
15 – Wacka Scott (Norwood) 1920
16 – Jack Broadstock (West, Richmond, Torrens) 1938
17 – John Cahill (Port) 1958
18 – Dlck Russell (Port) 1947
19 – Alec Lill (Norwood) 1923
20 – Frank Golding (Sturt) 1909
21 – Ken Eustice (West , Central, Glenelg) 1957
22 – Bruce McGregor (West) 1923
23 – Tom McKenzie (Torrens, North) early 1900s
24 – Jack Tredrea (South) 1903
25 – John Abley (Port) from 1950
26 – John Marriot (Norwood) 1947
27 – Blue Johnston (Glenelg) 1927
28 – Bob Barnes (West) 1921
29 – Paul Bagshaw (Sturt) 1964
30 – Don Lindner (North) 1954
31 – Harold Oliver (Port) 1910
32 – Horrie Riley (Sturt) 1922
33 – Jack Owens (Glenelg) 1924
34 – Jack Oatey (Norwood) 1940
35 – Vic Richardson (Sturt) 1920s
36 – Fos Williams (West, Port) 1946
37 – Neil Kerley (West, South, Glenelg) 1955
38 – Laurie Cahill (South) 1933
39 – Dlck Head (West) 1907
40 – Bill Mayman (Sturt) 1913

Interesting list. As always, it's opinion and I'd disagree with the order of many, of course.

The Brenton Adcock No 14 is incompehensible.

Great to see a list not entirely filled with onballers

Lee wrote:Interesting list. As always, it's opinion and I'd disagree with the order of many, of course.

The Brenton Adcock No 14 is incompehensible.

That was the one that shocked me at the time.

To be fair to Kingston and Coward they would have done a lot of research and therw would have been quite a few people still alive then who would have seen the early champs like Tom Leahy, Harold Oliver, Tom McKenzie, Frank Golding, Hugh Cumberland, Snowy Hamilton, Wacka Scott and Dick Head. For example "Ongie" Congear from Port would have seen them all and played against them and was very articulate well into his 90s. He is the rover in the famous Harold Oliver picture and was the first former player ever interviewed by Michelangelo Rucci.

A few surprises are the omissions of Bernie Smith, Malcolm Blight and Rick Davies. In the case of the first two, they probably didn't play enough SANFL although there was no criteria mentioned. If they had another shot two months later Davies may well have been in.

As a North man I can't believe that Tom Leahy and Ian McKay are not in the AFL Hall of Fame. North try every year to get Leahy in. RIG told me that there are moves afoot for North, West and Norwood to put a joint submission in but I don't fancy their chances.

The Top 50 I compiled some years ago. The one I would possibly revisit are the Gowans twins

http://www.talkingfootysa.com/t187-the-top-50-sanfl-players-of-all-time

This from an astute North Adelaide man on that top 40

* I find it interesting that at this stage none of Blight, Davies,Day or Marker make the top 40.*

Which Day? I'll presume Robert but not sure

There are 22 pre-WW2 players in the list, that I and possibly most everyone else would have no direct recollection of, other than what has been written about them. The authors probably would have seen some of them given the list is now 40 years old.

I think it is hard for us to properly rank them 40 years later and with another 40 years of players to consider in the mix. It is a very hard job and there would always be debate on who should be in and who should be out.

Maybe concentrating on say players since the war may be more fruitful, as with the discussion on CK's list, it is always very subjective. We would need a macro-computer to do the job and even then there would still be debate.

I guess the debate is still fun and why we continue to talk about these greats.

It interesting that the Ebert - Robran comparison always comes up. I have never heard one person argue that Ebert was better. Maybe some Port people would find it more difficult, but there you go. It would be quite staggering if any such player ranking list would have him anywhere other than the top.