One-Percenters: Richie Carter’s 500th game for Eastern Park, a new leader in goal race plus other Adelaide Footy League news
A NORTHERN suburbs legend notches up his 500th game, the superboot leading Adelaide’s goalkicking, a great escape on the cards and more in this week’s Adelaide Footy League wrap.
- Nathan Krakouer leaves PAOC and returns to WA
- The race to 100 goals heats up
- Salisbury North pledges to return to Adelaide Footy League
- Alex Stengle avoids life ban
WELCOME to One-Percenters – a wrap of some of the quirky talking points from across the Adelaide Footy League.
Each edition we will bring several titbits – they might be eye-catching results, milestones, comebacks, big wins, broken droughts or inspiring stories.
If you have heard about something quirky, email us your suggestions or photos to matthew.turner1@news.com.au.
Here are some of the things that caught our eye at the weekend:
RICHIE CHALKS UP 500
Eastern Park’s Richie Carter has been around the football club so long he is no longer part of the furniture, he is more like the foundations of the building.
The Demons veteran will run out in the C4 competition against SMOSH West Lakes at Dwight Reserve this Saturday for his 500th game – all at the one club.
He will do it in a special guernsey designed for the occasion based on the one he first pulled on 30 years ago.
“I call Eastern Park home,” Carter, 48, says.
“I started in 1988 as an 18-year-old and I’m still going.
“You’re there Tuesday on Thursday, play Saturday and have a couple of beers with the boys Saturday night – that’s home.
“Why would you ever want to leave?”
Carter, who broke the club’s games record of 469 in 2016, has not given too much thought to the magnitude of his latest achievement.
He just loves playing for the Demons.
“To me, it doesn’t feel like my first game of footy any more, obviously, but there’s not much difference between 300 and 500,” he says.
“I didn’t think I would make 300 – then the years rolled on. I never thought I’d get to the club record, but then I got there.”
The back pocket’s secret to longevity is training twice a week, every week, and doing the hard yards in pre-season.
GREAT ESCAPE AT GROVE
Golden Grove looked dead and buried in division two after 10 straight losses to start the season.
Now the Kookaburras are eyeing a potential great relegation escape.
They stunned Sacred Heart Old Collegians 19.9 (123) to 14.8 (92) a fortnight ago in round 11 before beating Old Ignatians in a thriller on Saturday, 14.8 (92) 12.9 (81).
The Kookaburras are now off the bottom of the ladder in ninth spot and above Iggies.
Both clubs have 2-10 records and trail eighth-placed Gaza (3-9) in what is shaping to be a tight three-way relegation battle.
Golden Grove already has a win in the books this Saturday – a forfeit because it is due to play Salisbury North and the Hawks are banned from the league.
RAMS RUNNING OUT OF STEAM?
Upsets do not come much bigger than top versus bottom – as Glenunga knows too well.
Cellar-dweller Salisbury shocked the ladder-leading Rams in their division four game at Salisbury Oval on Saturday, prevailing 8.2 (50) to 6.12 (48).
The Magpies had just two wins coming into the clash, while Glenunga boasted an 8-3 record.
It is three consecutive losses for the Rams, who are now only one victory clear of both Gepps Cross and Edwardstown.
Salisbury, now with six points and a 3-9 record, has won its past two games but will need to continue pushing if it is to climb out of the relegation zone.
Eastern Park is second-bottom with seven points despite a 7-5 record after being punished for breaching league sanctions, while SMOSH West Lakes and Kilburn are both 5-7 with 10 points.
BROADVIEW CELEBRATES 90 YEARS
Broadview capped 90 years of existence with a handy 30-point win over division two rivals Gaza on Saturday.
Established back in 1928, Broadview originally had an eight-foot square tin shed as a change room, which could only fit in 10 players at a time.
According to Fred Bloch’s A History of the South Australian Amateur Football League 1911-1994, Tigers players wore painted sugar sacks as guernseys and played on a muddy paddock crisscrossed with cart tracks.
How times have changed.
On Saturday, Broadview was too good for the Eagles at home, winning 11.12 (78) to 7.6 (48) after keeping the visitors goalless in the opening term.
The victory consolidated the Tigers in third spot on the second-tier ladder.
The Poltawa Tce club has been a fixture in the league’s upper echelons for decades and has played in division one or two since 1971 with eight A-grade premierships in that time.
TIGHT AT THE TOP
Division one continues to surprise in 2018 in one of the most hotly-contested seasons in recent memory.
Looking at the ladder, you can only confidently say first-placed Rostrevor Old Collegians (9-2) is guaranteed to avoid relegation.
Just five points separate second-ranked Tea Tree Gully (7-3-1) and ninth team Adelaide University (5-6), while there is also only one win between fourth-placed Port District (6-5) and the Blacks.
It leaves the Gullies, Goodwood (6-4-1), Port District, Henley (6-5), Prince Alfred Old Collegians (5-6), Payneham Norwood Union (5-6), Athelstone (5-6) and Uni all a chance to make finals or be relegated.
Percentage could be a huge factor in the race for the top five and going down.
Winless Modbury (0-11) is a certainty to go down to division two.
NEW LEADER IN GOALKICKING RACE
Performances in the league’s C grade divisions can often go unnoticed but there is a story brewing in C5.
Hope Valley’s Darren Mitchell has been on a hot streak in recent weeks and has now booted 80 goals from 10 games.
Mitchell recorded a paltry 10 goals in his first three games.
But since then the spearhead has exploded with bags of 11, 10, nine, 11, 13, nine and 11.
Interestingly, in between those games he was held goalless against Pulteney in round eight.
We could not contact Hope Valley to find out why.
Mitchell is no stranger to kicking large hauls.
In 2015, he booted 69 goals from 16 games for the Demons but then left the club to play for Bridgewater Callington in the Hills Football League’s division two.
He kicked 113 goals for Bridgewater Callington – the most of any country footballer in SA in 2016.
He then told The Advertiser he was hanging the boots up for 2017, only to return to Hope Valley this year.
He leads the Adelaide Footy League’s race to 100 goals.
A division seven duo – Marion’s Ryan Wade (74) and O’Sullivan Beach/Lonsdale’s Trevor Rigney (67) – are second and fourth in the standings, while division five’s Tom Langford is third with 69.
LIGHTS ON AT EDWARDSTOWN
Night games in the Adelaide Footy League are few and far between but the first match for premiership points under lights at Edwardstown Oval happened on Saturday night.
Towns hosted SMOSH West Lakes in division four from 7pm after the B and C grades kicked off in the late afternoon.
Edwardstown will probably be looking to do it again though after belting the Lions 16.19 (115) to 4.5 (29).
SMOSH prevailed in the reserves, 7.12 (54) to 6.10 (46), but the hosts were too good in the thirds, winning 10.3 (63) to 5.5 (35).
