IT WAS the night West Adelaide players got their revenge — not on their opponents but the goalpost that had cost them a premiership.
As brazen as you like, a small group of Bloods including Neil Kerley, broke into Adelaide Oval in the dark after the 1958 grand final and chopped down the offending goalpost with an axe.
West Adelaide lost four grand finals in the 1950s — all to Port Adelaide and all by less than three goals. In 1954 rover Jim Wright hit a goalpost in the dying seconds and West lost by three points.
The 1958 team, including Magarey Medallist Ken Eustice, Ian Day and a young Don Roach in his maiden league season, fell short by just two points, which would have serious ramifications for the goalpost.
“We had the chance in the last dying moments, I think it was Jack Richardson who kicked the ball and it hit the post, and very soon after the siren went,” Kerley, 83, recalled.
“If it goes the other side of the post, we win. It was a bit of a snapshot from the boundary line and if it had of been an Eddie Betts kick it would have gone through.”
That night, at a gathering at player Ken McGregor’s Unley home, the players were lamenting the fact the ball had hit the post and a group including Kerley, John Ryan, Peter Phipps, Bertie Johnson, Jack Richardson and Michael Wundke decided it had to go.
“I said to a few of those boys ‘That rotten damn goalpost, it’s gotta come down’,” Kerley said.
“So I got an old axe off Ken’s woodheap and we drove there and climbed over the Victor Richardson gates, which were locked.
“We went on to the ground and looked at the post and Michael Wundke, who worked in a bank and never held an axe in his damn life, he started chipping away and the noise was unbelievable.
“I said ‘Hey, give me the axe, the curator Arthur Lance will hear that and he’ll be here in a flash’.
“So I grabbed it and chopped it down. I think we chopped six or eight feet off, threw it on our shoulders, took it over the gate and back to Ken’s place and we thought we were King Dick.”
Phipps, the rangy forward who was the SANFL’s leading goalkicker the previous season, said just returning it to McGregor’s house was a challenge.
After we jumped the gates we’re lying on the ground, laughing — drunk to the Lord”
“After we jumped the gates we’re lying on the ground, laughing — drunk to the Lord,” he said.
“So we put it in the car, six foot hanging out one side, six foot out the other, and drive straight down King William St. You couldn’t believe it.”
Kerley doesn’t know where the goalpost was kept or how it was kept quiet but, three months later after word got out, the offending players were fined £5 each by the club.
“Cliff Semmler, the club president, said ‘You fellas, you’ll be docked the cost of this post out of your annual earnings’,” Kerley said.
“Five pounds each, that was about four games we had to pay for.
“And you know where that post is? Up in the Westonians room (at the club’s Richmond Oval headquarters) for everybody to read and look at — it’s in pride of place at our cost.
“We didn’t enjoy a good run in that period (1950s),” said Kerley. “When you get close games, there’s always an opportunity to win them but if you’re not good enough to do it, you’re not good enough, simple as that.”
And not even time has healed those wounds for one of SA football’s greats.
“No, no, no — you don’t heal those types of wounds if you’re strongly involved with football,” Kerley said. “If you’re a player or a coach, those wounds never heal.”
The only consolation was they lost those grand finals to one of the greatest teams of all time — the Fos Williams-coached Port Adelaide.
“But if the bloke upstairs is not on your side, you very rarely win,” Kerley said.
“At South Adelaide, when we won in 1964, Port’s score at half-time was 0.10, which means the bloke above is looking after you.”
—Reece Homfray
Panic of 19 men in great’s last game
FORMER West Torrens star Norm Dare has cleared a three-decade mystery behind an infamous headcount controversy branded “the best and worst moment” in SANFL history.
In round 15, 1975, West Torrens great Fred Bills — featuring in his 313th and final game — triggered on-field commotion against West Adelaide at Thebarton Oval.
Bills ran on to the field before injured teammate and Essendon recruit John Cassin, lying boundary side on a stretcher, could exit.
Field umpire Robin Bennet accepted a request from West Adelaide skipper Bob Loveday to count the Eagles players on the field. Mayhem and mischief erupted as Eagles players attempted to run off the ground and avoid a blank score for having 19 men on the field.
“I jumped over the fence and sat between a couple of Torrens supporters,” Dare said. “They were taking Cassin off and Billsy ran on the ground. You would think with 300 games under your belt you wouldn’t do that!
“When the umpires did the count, there were only 16 Torrens players on the field. It looked like it wasn’t fair for a bit as we were a couple short.
“David Raggatt hid behind a goal umpire. I went back on the field once they had done the count,” said Dare, who played for two seasons at Thebarton.
Fights broke out between players and team officials, with West Adelaide frustrated by Eagles players heading for the boundary.
The game resumed after goal umpire Lance Holden told Bennet that Cassin was outside the boundary line when the count began.
Torrens would win by three goals while the Bloods finished a game out of the finals.
“I think it was the best and worst thing that ever happened in 140 years of SANFL,” said Dare, who played 71 games for defunct VFL side Fitzroy and, later, coached Brisbane in 1990.
“It was very memorable and we were very happy Westies didn’t make the finals. It was like a grand final for us that day — there wasn’t much love between the two teams.”
The pivotal 1975 match — Dare’s third back after missing 10 weeks with a snapped finger tendon — still causes a stir.
“I don’t think you will ever see anything like that happen again,” said Dare, who won five flags coaching Gold Coast powerhouse Southport Sharks.
“It was certainly something a bit rare. I got a phone call from my mother in Melbourne asking what was I up to as it was on the news there.
“Under the current rules, there wouldn’t have been a problem.”
—Richard Earle
READ MORE: 140 YEARS OF THE SANFL