Phillis v Bucky — the clash that put Glenelg and Port on an SANFL war path

Port Adelaide and Glenelg have a deep-seated rivalry that went out of control in the 1980s — and makes for an intense backdrop to Sunday’s SANFL grand final at Adelaide Oval.

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Not one player in the Port Adelaide and Glenelg line-ups for Sunday’s SANFL grand final will know just where and how their clubs’ bitter rivalry began and festered.

They will hear again and again that these two clubs hate each other, but very little of this rivalry has to do with the old-school Magpies (the pre-AFL Port Adelaide) beating the Tigers in the 1977, 1981, 1988, 1990 and 1992 SANFL grand finals.

To be fair, not even the rival coaches of the infamous day in September 1976 — Neil Kerley, then at Glenelg, and John Cahill at Port Adelaide — knew at the time their ambitious teams had been put on a war path. And that the angst would continue for more than a decade and create some of the biggest controversies and changes in SANFL football.

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Port star Brian Cunningham, top right, is down and his adversary, Wayne Phillis, has disappeared under a pile of players after the clash sparked a melee involving 28 players at Football Park in 1976.

Four days after that defining second semi-final at Football Park, “Kerls” and “Jack” were — as long-time mates more so than rivals — on an Adelaide suburban jetty fishing for whiting. The hooks and bait they used did not get the eager nibbles their players were finding for every Magpies-Tiger game that followed for the next 14 years.

That semi-final, won easily by Port Adelaide, became hot with two moments from Glenelg’s Phillis brothers, Fred and Wayne. Fred’s off-the-ball act at the start of the second half was typical of SANFL football in an era when the game demanded hard men physically intimidate their opponents.

But Wayne’s right-arm swing at the face of Port Adelaide rover Brian Cunningham as they both landed in the centre circle after a marking contest in the third term sparked a melee — and a feud that only time (and the change of SA league football to its AFL era) ended.

There was no video review or in-game or post-match report, of either Phillis’ swing or the all-in brawl that on replay is amusing for watching boundary umpire Vin Camporeale (father of Carlton hero and Crows assistant coach Scott) trying to calm Port Adelaide wingman Bruce Light.

Nor was there a match review panel to deal with Fred Phillis’ “clash” that dazed Port Adelaide full forward Tim Evans well behind the play in the second term of the 1977 grand final.

Chris Hercock, Tim Evans, Fred Phillis and Trevor Sorrell during the Port Adelaide v Glenelg grand final at Football Park in 1977.

The precursor for the “match review officer” — and escalation of the Magpies-Tigers rivalry — came after the 1981 SANFL grand final when Glenelg demanded the SANFL act on Port Adelaide key forward David Granger for a behind-the-play hit that ended the career of popular Glenelg utility Neville Caldwell.

Granger became the first player charged and banned on video evidence. A year later, after creating havoc in incidents with Stephen Barratt and Graham Cornes in the 1982 preliminary final against Glenelg, Granger had his SANFL career end and infamy begin with a long-term suspension.

This final — decided by one point after Cornes pushed Granger in the back but did not concede a free kick in a marking contest 50m from the southern goal — could have ended with a riot had the Magpies won to reach their fourth consecutive grand final.

Noting the tension in the crowd — and heat from the Glenelg bench as Granger swung the game in Port Adelaide’s favour — Cahill’s words to his staff as they cleared away from the three quarter-time huddle said it all.

“If we win this, run for the car park (not the changerooms) — otherwise we won’t get out of here alive,” Cahill said.

Cornes probably was lucky to survive his entry to the victorious Port Adelaide rooms — as is tradition after SANFL grand finals — to congratulate the Magpies on their 1990 triumph ... and to condemn the club’s leadership for their “treachery” in seeking an AFL licence that year. It was Glenelg that months earlier gained the Supreme Court injunction against Port Adelaide’s AFL deal.

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The post-AFL twist in the Port Adelaide-Glenelg relations is Magpies premiership hero Mark Williams coaching the Tigers in 1993 and 1994 and Cornes having his sons Chad and Kane become AFL premiership stars at the Power.

Last week’s tension between the Tigers and Magpies as the SANFL tribunal hearings against Port Adelaide duo Billy Frampton and Aidyn Johnson stretched across two nights is minor compared with all these clubs endured from 1976-1990. But it adds nicely to the backdrop for another highly anticipated Port Adelaide-Glenelg SANFL grand final ... even if the players will not know why so many of the fans at the Oval on Sunday will be more fired up than them.