SA Football the early years 1843-1899

Scrappy wrote:Tom Wills and Henry Harrison were promoting Football in Victoria in the late 1850s, with a set if rules that were devised for the time, with a bias towards a running and ball handling sport
Word got around in the colony about the exploits of Tom and Henry
Wills went to New South Wales to promote football
Harrison made his way to Adelaide
Such was the influence of Harrison a meeting was set up on 26/4/1860

On April 25 a notice was shown
*Gentlemen interested in the establishment of a football club.
Notice of meeting to be held at the Globe Inn, Rundle Street on Thursday 26th of April 1860.
Signed: J Acraman , W.J.Fullarton, R Cussen.*

The meeting took place with about 16 people attending
A new club was formed called the Adelaide Club
As I understand this :
This Adelaide club was an association of clubs , it had 3 teams evolve, called South Division, North Division and Collegians
The teams were drawn up as a zone using the River Torrens
North division were players from North of the Torrens
South division were players from South of the Torrens
Collegians consisted of past and present scholars and staff members of Adelaides colleges

The first game of football was arranged for Saturday 28/4/1860


The Match :
Weather fine
Started 2:00pm
Captains were J B Spence and that man John Acraman
Acramans team won the game by 2 goals [I cant find the scores]
The game took about 3 hours to be played

South Australian Football was more or less born on this day

Scrappy wrote:Gawler Foootball Club
Is listed as a member of the opening SAFA season of 1877
They played spasmodically and are not listed on any Premiership ladders of 1877 that I have found

The club played games in the 1860-70s
They lost a game 3-0 to Adelaide in 1869
Gawler was in the 1877 SAFA set up , and are listed as a junior club

This appears to be the first game that the club participated in at SAFA level

20/6/1877
Gawler v Adelaide
Venue Gawler Parklands
Gawler 1
Adelaide 1
Adelaide scored after about 15 minutes
Shortly after Gawler scored the equaliser

Gawler played at least one other game, been beaten by Woodville by 1 goal

Gawler did not resume in 1878, and later re joined the SAFA in a second stint in 1887
This is how the club fared in its comeback
1887 -6th of 7
1888- 6th of 7
1889- 5th of 6
1890- 6th and wooden spooners

Gawler then quit the comp for a second time

One ponders how things may have panned out if Gawler succeeded in the early SAFA comps
If they could have lasted to the Electorate re jigging of 1899 , whether that would have made the club more competitive ?
If Gawler did make the grade and continued on from the 19th century, would we have had a Central Districts football Club these days ?

Scrappy wrote:On this day
25/3/1913
One hundred years ago
This is from the Advertiser

* The attempt of the SAFL to arrange for the introduction of another senior team has failed
It had been decided that Barossa should join , and that matches should be played at Gawler
It was believed that the new club would be able to put a strong eighteen into the field , and the programme for the season was drawn up to include Barossa
At the last meeting of the league , however , an intimation was received that it would be impossible to get a good team together , and therefore Barossa must withdraw
That this decision came as an unwelcome surprise to the delegates is to put the matter mildly.*


This is most interesting
What does that do to South Australian football history if Barossa fielded a team in 1913 ?
Had this eventuated, and Barossa succeeded , could the current Central Districts team have been a non entity ?
All supposition off course , but a viable Gawler or a Barossa from the early days could have been a Central District stopper

This was the sentence that sums up just how very close Barossa was to joining
' and the programme for the season was drawn up to include Barossa.'

Any further future attempts to entice a Barossa team may have dissolved with the advent of WW1

Scrappy wrote:Was this the earliest reference to football in our state ?

Scrappy wrote:

Scrappy wrote:We get to 1862
The Adelaide Football Club played its first game against another team , Modbury
A game was played, but I cant find from my sources a result

22/08/1863
Modbury Football Club Vrs Adelaide Football Club
The venue was near the Modbury Hotel
0-0 draw was the result
It was a 20 a side game
There was a booze up and presentations evening after the game
There were no umpires, and the issue was raised post game

Interesting to note that the Modbury men left work for the day and played the game with dignity
As for the Adelaide mob, imagine the travel involved from the city area to Modbury
The Adelaide players might have had cart lag !


Games of the times had teething problems
Games starting late
No set finishing times
No set numbers of players per team
Perhaps a lack of umpires
Spectators were called in to play at times
A variance of playing rules
I have also read that at times the captains had to make umpiring decisions as well

I have found the first game played between Adelaide and Modbury in 1862

13/9/1862
Venue North Parklands
Adelaide Vrs Tea Tree Gully and Modbury Club [interesting how TTG was incorporated as part of the club]
Adelaide 2 TTG + Modbury 0

This is the first recorded game between 2 different clubs in South Australia
Here is a description of the match
* The city team scored an early goal, but the lads form the TTG + Modbury team showed great courage, pressing home many attacks and were most unlucky not to score.
Half way through the game, Adelaide scored again, and then rain fell ...making it nearly impossible for either side to score and Adelaide went on to win the first historic match.*

Rain was a disconcerting factor in these times
Players didnt have the luxury of spriggs , and wet conditions made playing conditions difficult
Wet grounds often led to games being called off

The Apostle wrote:Scrappy, have you got any information on North Parks Football Club (circa mid 1880s)???