St Peter’s hoping to end six-year win drought when it faces off against fierce college football rival Prince Alfred
There is another footy “showdown” in Adelaide on Saturday – Prince Alfred’s college match against fierce rival St Peter’s. Saints are hoping to beat PAC for the first time since 2013, when a host of current AFL players featured for both teams in a “bog”.
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Ask people in certain circles in Adelaide and they will tell you there is another footy “showdown” in town this Saturday – the first XVIII battle between Prince Alfred and St Peter’s College.
Like the Power and Crows, Princes and Saints have built a fierce rivalry on tradition – the colleges’ have battled for more than 140 years – and tribal lines, in their case PAC red versus St Peter’s blue.
Not only is school pride at stake but there are bragging rights for students and staff, as well old scholars, who continue to ride the results of these games.
North Adelaide teammates Mitch Harvey (ex-St Peter’s) and Campbell Combe (ex-Prince Alfred) were opponents the last time Saints beat Princes in a first XVIII match – 9.6 (60) to 5.11 (41) in a rain-soaked intercol played in a “bog” at St Peter’s in August, 2013.
That game featured several other AFL and SANFL players – Riley Knight (Crows), Matthew Allen (West Coast) and Steven Slimming (Sturt) with Saints, George Hewett (Sydney), Aaron Francis (Essendon), Harrison Wigg (Gold Coast) and Cameron Giles (Carlton) at Princes – and ended an eight-year winless drought for St Peter’s.
Such was the hype over the game and the number of draft prospects on show, Champion Data came and took individual statistics.
“Besides winning an SANFL grand final last year, that game was one of the standout moments of my footy career,” says Harvey, a 2018 premiership winner at North and former Port Adelaide AFL player.
“We were clearly underdogs … and I remember the build-up was massive.
“Some say the oval was doctored but I can assure you it wasn’t, it just got wrecked by the weather and too many games (that day) and trainings (that week).
“When the siren went the whole school ran onto the oval and sang the song.
“The margin was 60 to 41 – and that scoreline still resonates with people in the school and boys from Saints that played in that game.
“If we have a few beers together, we still say ‘do you remember 60 to 41?’ And when we were younger some of the boys were talking about getting tatts of the score.”
Harvey and Knight were Saints’ co-captains that day and among their best players – Knight (27 disposals, seven tackles) standing out with his hard running and Harvey (21 disposals, 44 hit-outs) battling tirelessly in the ruck.
Combe (30 disposals, 13 tackles) and Hewett (28 touches, eight tackles) were standouts for Princes.
“Everyone played that 5 or 10 per cent better than they normally did,” Harvey, now 23, says.
“To finish my school footy with a game like that was pretty awesome.”
Two things from that match standout out to three-time Northern Areas association medallist Combe: the mud and Saints’ jubilation after the final siren.
“You could see how much it meant to their team and whole school, which made it more deflating for us,” Combe, now 23, says.
“Whenever you played PAC, you wanted to make sure you played and won – there was a lot of hype.
“They were some of the best memories of my life playing college football.
“But it was a disappointing day for us. They were too good on the day.”
The 2013 match was Darren Trevena’s second against Prince Alfred as St Peter’s coach after joining the college from AFL club Brisbane, where he had been an assistant.
Trevena took over a Saints team that had been smashed several times the previous year, including by 204 points against Rostrevor and 92 points in the intercol by Princes, and needed to convince his players they could match PAC, the reigning Messenger Shield champion.
“It (the 2013 victory) was a bit surreal because I didn’t really understand the importance for the schoolboys at that stage,” recalls Trevena, now AFL Tasmania’s talent manager.
“This was the first time I’d coached in a private school environment.
“Some of the boys had been together for 10 or 15 years at college, and it was very emotional for everyone.
“The invasion of people that went onto that ground and the elation of the win is something that still sticks in the back of your mind.”
Princes’ coach at the time, Troy McKinnon, recalls his side being overwhelming favourites and Saints charging home in wintry conditions.
“The rain came Thursday and Friday that week and turned Saints into an absolute bog, we had chances early but couldn’t put them away and they overran us,” McKinnon says.
“I still hold onto that game and that loss, but it was great for the rivalry.”
There have since been close games between the colleges but PAC has always prevailed.
Saturday’s match is not part of the colleges’ intercol carnival, which is held in August, features all winter sports teams from the schools facing off for trophies and when the first XVIII match will likely draw upwards of 3000 people, as it did in 2013.
But it is still expected to attract a large crowd.
“They’ve always been at each other, whether it be at school or in business in Adelaide, those two schools,” Trevena says.
“It’s just like the Showdown in that it doesn’t matter how the teams are going or when they play, it’s always big and there’s always huge bragging rights.
“I always keep watching and keep listening and hope Saints get their opportunity again because there’s some great people there.”
Harvey, who now coaches Year 8s at St Peter’s, adds: “My time at Saints, I enjoyed that more than any other footy that I’ve played because I loved playing with my mates.
“Hopefully the boys can get the win this weekend.”
St Peter’s hosts Prince Alfred at St Peter’s College on Saturday at 2.15pm.
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