Greatest Adelaide school teams: Sports reporter Matt Turner ranks the latest eight all-time best 22s
Which Adelaide school has produced the best footballers? Sports reporter Matt Turner has pored over stats to pick eight more schools’ best 22s — now he has ranked the latest eight teams.
- See all our greatest footy schools best 22s
- Greatest footy schools (part one): ranked 8-1
- Greatest school cricket XIs ranked 8-1
Picking best-of lists and teams is always tricky – it is impossible to please everyone.
But making calls on two of Adelaide’s biggest passions, footy and what schools people went to, adds to the difficulty.
Last year’s initial Search for Adelaide’s Greatest Footy Schools series caused plenty of debate, not only about the make-up of the teams involved but also those that were overlooked.
But the reality was that focused on arguably the eight best football schools in Adelaide right now and it was not meant to be a slight on those not chosen.
Some of the eight schools from this time around are stronger than those picked last year.
So the question is – which of this second crop of schools is best?
The greatest 22s from King’s College/Pembroke, Unley High, CBC, Pulteney Grammar, Adelaide High, Norwood High/Norwood Morialta, Le Fevre Boys’ Technical/Le Fevre High and Woodville High were revealed this week at advertiser.com.au.
Now it is time to rank them.
They are tough to separate and there are so many talented players.
Everyone will have different opinions about this order, just as they will debate the sides and the players to get selected or miss out.
Like picking the teams themselves, the rankings were determined by players’ career achievements, plenty of feedback from footy followers of various vintages and gut feel.
8. PULTENEY GRAMMAR
There is no shame in being ranked eighth in this second instalment of Adelaide’s Greatest School Footy Teams.
We are searching for the city’s best footy schools and there is no doubt that Pulteney Grammar is among them.
Pulteney boasts four SA Hall of Famers (Michael Aish, Allan Crabb, Josh Francou and Bruce Abernethy), the first three of whom are Magarey medallists.
Aish, Crabb, Francou and Abernethy headline a midfield that has to rank as one of the best of any Adelaide school and the side’s defence is very solid.
Pulteney’s biggest weakness though is it has several players unlikely to make other sides and limited depth – the quartet on the bench have all featured in fewer than 70 league games.
Its attack could also use some star power.
Unfortunately, one of the schools had to be picked eighth and after some deliberation, Pulteney was chosen here.
7. KING’S/PEMBROKE
Separating King’s/Pembroke and Pulteney Grammar was not easy.
Both sides look stronger than a few teams we featured in our series last year and would likely hold their own when pitted against some of the bigger guns.
Pembroke’s bench is stronger but Pulteney has more guns.
The Kensington Park school has produced plenty of talent, including SA Football Hall of Famer Brenton Adcock, brilliant forward Phil Carman and the SANFL’s reigning premiership captain Max Thring.
Adcock and Carman were stars at King’s College, while the team’s captain Todd Viney and AFL goalsneak Angus Monfries came through Pembroke, which was formed in 1974 after the merger with Girton Girls’ School.
There are few weaknesses in the side and it is a pretty well balanced line-up.
But it has landed in seventh spot because it does not quite have the top-end talent or depth of others on this list.
6. LE FEVRE BOYS’ TECHNICAL/LE FEVRE HIGH
How much weight do you give to premierships?
That is another big question to ask when ordering these teams.
Team success and winning finals should count but how much?
The Le Fevre Boys’ Technical/Le Fevre High greatest 22 brings that quandary to the fore because together they have won 60 flags.
Of this list of eight schools, only Woodville High with 72 premierships, has more.
That places Le Fevre well ahead of even Unley High, which includes several stars of Sturt’s 1960s and ‘70s glory period, yet its all-time team has 28 fewer grand final victories.
And if you are looking for SA footy champions, this side has one of the biggest in World War II hero and dual Magarey medallist Bob Quinn.
Ted Whelan and Peter Woite are also in Port Adelaide’s Greatest Team, while Brian Cunningham is a Magpies premiership captain.
There are a host of other long-serving players, many of whom are state representatives, and a Norm Smith medallist, Brian Lake.
But flags are only part of the puzzle when ranking these teams and Le Fevre’s bottom six or seven players do not match up as well with the five sides ahead of it in this list.
That is not to say that on a given day, Le Fevre may not triumph because it is very strong to rank sixth.
5. NORWOOD HIGH/MORIALTA
This Norwood High/Norwood Morialta team cannot match Le Fevre Boys’ Technical/Le Fevre High on the flag front – it has 27 in total.
But the eastern suburbs school has a stronger bench, which includes three past Redlegs captains (Ern Wadham, Eric Johnson and Ron Reimann) and consistency across each line.
Norwood Morialta – formed from a merger between Norwood and Morialta highs in 1993 – has few, if any holes.
And there were a handful of other players knocking on the door for selection, such as Bob Williams, Ivan Holliday, John Hall and Orazio Fantasia, indicating decent depth.
Six SA Football Hall of Famers (Neil Craig, Alick Lill, John Marriott, Robert Oatey, Wadham and Bruce Winter) shows the top-end talent is there.
But the belief is that the four teams ahead in this list have achieved more, both individually and as collectives.
Not by much though.
4. UNLEY HIGH
Sometimes you know what will finish in the top few spots before you start ranking things.
Our Greatest School Cricket XIs series from February was always going to have Prince Alfred College in first place because it produced nine Test players, including four Australian captains.
But there is no such obvious order at the top of this list and footy fans will have different opinions based on their own memories, tastes, knowledge and views on players’ careers and statistics.
Unley High’s team is something of a Sturt who’s who with John Halbert, Bo Morton, Malcolm Greenslade and Rick Schoff, then add to that former Crows captain Simon Goodwin and South Adelaide Team of the Century member Bob Schmidt.
There is barely a weak spot and the bench has a player who finished third in a Brownlow Medal (John Gill), a West Team of the Centuries member (Colin Smith) and a spearhead who has kicked eight goals in a grand final (Malcolm “Emmy” Jones).
What perhaps let the team down was that some of their players had fleeting – although stellar – careers, such as Jones, Peter Endersbee and Ken McGregor, who all featured in fewer than 60 games.
That may be clutching at straws to some people but there is little separating these sides.
Ultimately, any of the top four could have ranked in first place but those in positions one, two and three are deemed to have slightly better 22s.
3. WOODVILLE HIGH
How many other schools can field a 22 of old scholars with at least 72 SANFL or VFL/AFL premierships to their name?
None, most likely.
Woodville High’s team has that amount because it is filled with players involved in two hugely successful Port Adelaide eras, the 1960s and 1990s.
The school’s captain, Geof Motley, has won the equal-most in SANFL history with nine, while Paul Northeast and Neville “Chicken” Hayes boast eight each and four others each have seven: Tim Ginever, Dave Boyd, Bruce Abernethy and George Fiacchi.
Fielding five Magarey medallists (Motley, Boyd, Greg Anderson, Keith Dunn and Max Pontifex) also shows how much individual talent there is in this line-up.
A midfield with Dunn, Simunsen, Cunningham, Boyd, Ginever and Abernethy is very strong, the defence is hard-nosed with Motley, Neville “Chicken” Hayes, Paul Northeast, George Fiacchi and the Wakelin twins and the attack is more than handy.
It could easily be ranked in top spot and if you were looking for a team in this list to win a grand final, this would be it.
But across the board, it was deemed to not be quite as brilliant as the sides above.
2. ADELAIDE HIGH
Nine SA Football Hall of Famers are in this team – the equal of Prince Alfed College’s side from last year.
And PAC landed in top spot on the 2018 rankings.
Adelaide High could have as well.
Those already in the SA Football Hall of Fame are Haydn Bunton Jr, Colin Churchett, Jim Deane, Percy Furler, Jack “Snowy” Hamilton, Bob Hank, John Marriott, Jeff Pash and Colin Richens.
Bunton Jr, Deane and Hank are in the national Hall and evergreen Port Adelaide and Hawthorn player and indigenous games record holder Shaun Burgoyne is sure to join them as soon as he is eligible.
The midfield of Magarey Medal-winning ruckman John Marriott, Hank and Bunton Jr was unmatched, the attack, led by Glenelg spearhead Colin Churchett, North’s Percy Furler and South Adelaide Team of the Century member Len Lapthorne would give defences headaches and, although possibly its weakest line on field, the defence with Burgoyne, Hamilton and Glenelg duo Colin Richens and Hayden Linke was by no means an achilles heel.
Where Adelaide High falls down, compared to the team in top spot, is the bench.
But again, a lot of people will have Adelaide High first and that makes a lot of sense – it’s a spectacular side.
1. CBC
The names in this team will mean less to younger footy followers and even those who know a lot about the 1960s but not so much if you know about SA stars of the early 20th century.
That is because the bulk of CBC’s best players are from the first decades of the 1900s and only one member of its 22, Peter Schwarz, has lined up during the past 45 years.
One of the great things about doing a series such is this is the history lesson you get along the way.
And this CBC side reflects just how strong the college has been in terms of football talent, albeit not nearly as much in recent years.
Members of this 22 have 10 Magarey Medals from the first 20 years the SANFL’s highest individual honour was awarded and there are six medallists in total.
South Adelaide champion Dan Moriarty and dual-club midfielder Tom MacKenzie have snared three each.
There are eight players from the SA Football Hall of Fame (John Cahill, Laurie Cahill, Henry Richard Head, Tom Leahy, Jack Lynch, MacKenzie, Moriarty and Johnny Taylor) and three in the Australian Hall (John Cahill, MacKenzie, Moriarty).
Those numbers and the side’s balance from top to bottom give CBC the edge in a tightly run race.
But as mentioned, Unley, Woodville and Adelaide high schools would all be deserving of top spot.
If only these teams could face off in a game – it would be a heck of a contest.
