By Peter Argent
The South Australia National Football League’s strong connection to Broken Hill football is well known.
Across many generations, high profile names roll off the tongue, many of them among the who’s-who of football.
From the start of the 20th century, players from the robust Silver City competitions have tried their hand and succeeded in the cut and thrust of SANFL state league football.
Before World War I, star of the code was North Broken Hill’s Dave Low, who went on to win the 1912 Magarey Medal with West Torrens, while Jack Woollard was captain of Port Adelaide Football Club’s 1910 Championship of Australia-winning team, and Algy Millhouse, was captain-coach at Norwood Football Club in 1914.
In 1922 Magarey Medallist Robert Barnes and Bruce McGregor, who won Medals in 1926-7, were stars at West Adelaide Bloods.
Leading goal-kicker, Jack Owens, topped the SANFL’s goal kicking ladder on three occasions with Glenelg Football Club in the 1920s and 1930s and was member of the Tigers first flag in ’34.
Central Broken Hill’s Neil Davies was a dominant force at Glenelg in the 1950s and 1960s, while Steve Hywood was a member of Glenelg’s brilliant ’73 title on Adelaide Oval.
Colin Casey played in the first premiership won at Football Park in 1974 and in perhaps the biggest Grand Final in SANFL history, “the finest hour” in the Double Blues history, the ’76 triumph. That Grand Final sold a state record 66,987 tickets. When the SANFL ran out of them, they opened Football Park’s gates for free and the crowd grew by an estimated 15,000.
Big game player Peter Meuret won a flag with West in 1983 and Chris Duthy lifted the Thomas Seymour Hill trophy with Glenelg in 1986 and ’87.
In recent years Mitchell Clisby and Kobe Mutch have added their names to this rich heritage.
There are many hundreds of anecdotes told at the SANFL Celebration of 145 years of football, and now the exhibition has been extending.
Originally scheduled to close on October 19, there are still opportunities to see this wonderful collection of stories, memorabilia, photographs, video and various other items, as the exhibition has now been extended to November 27.
“The SANFL Celebration of 145 years has been very well patronised,” SANFL Historian Chris Halbert explained.
“So far we’ve had upwards of 46,000 visitors and the exhibition has now been extended.
“Within the Exhibition we have two areas showing digitised footage. This includes segments on greats Russell Ebert and Neil Kerley.
“Those have been selected from the 4000 hours of footage already digitised and we are continuing to trek through many more.
“There is an amazing timeline developed by Trevor Gyss of 145 years of SANFL. There are scrapbooks, budgets, articles, quirky items, trophies and a number of different items and an interactive area.
“This exhibition forms part of what we called our Footy Trail, which also included Adelaide Oval and the memorabilia there, especially the Magarey Medal display.
“The feedback we’ve received has been wonderful. So many people from so many places and you can see some testimonials on the SANFL website. One woman said that she was prepared to leave her husband there for two weeks!
“We continue to have items of memorabilia come in, and the stories associated with them are priceless.
“We have had 670 volunteer hours at the Library, as we have had volunteers on duty to talk to people.”
“Across the exhibition we have also run three forums, the first on ‘The Rules and their Interpretation’; ‘The Future of the SANFL’ and ‘Football and the Media’.”
The exhibition is at the SA State Library, Treasures Wall, Corner North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide and importantly it’s free.
The Library is open on Monday to Tuesday – 10am to 7pm; Wednesday to Friday – 10am to 5pm, along with Saturday and Sunday – 12 to 5pm
