2023 SANFL Grand Final: Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello and David Penberthy on why their team will win

Glenelg No. 1 ticket holder Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello has made a bold promise if his beloved Tigers win the SANFL Grand Final – we’ll hold you to it, Cosi.

Sledge by sledge they kinda stand together … Glenelg No. 1 ticket holder Andrew 'Cosi' Costello and Sturt tragic David Penberthy. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

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Fierce rivals Sturt and Glenelg go head to head in the SANFL grand final this afternoon in what is the fourth time the two clubs have met in the season decider – the last time being 1974 – and the Double Blues hold a commanding 3-0 lead.

Columnist and radio host David Penberthy says the best strategic approach to playing Glenelg is simple – just show up and Glenelg will usually take care of the rest.

But Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello isn’t buying it, and if his mighty Tigers get up has “promised” to cartwheel naked down Anzac Highway all the way back to Glenelg’s club rooms.

Read on as the pair put their best sledges forward …

Baying for roaring success

Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello

Sing it with me …. “Yellow and Black, we’re from Tigerland!”

I have been a Glenelg Footy Club supporter since I was five years old. I remember reading through the different SANFL teams and seeing they were the Tigers and I was sold.

To support a rooster was tempting but the fierce tiger had my soul. And many moons later I was honoured to be asked to be the number one ticket holder for this fantastic club. What a hoot!

Glenelg Footy Club is steeped in history. We won our first game way back on May 2, 1925, after we lost 56 games in succession. We don’t talk about that a lot.

Sturt Footy Club was founded in 1901. They are older than us and that means they are probably slower and we will see that on Sunday.

These teams haven’t met in a grand final since 1974 which was four years before I was born but on a sunny Sunday we shall run out and fight head to head. A blue man with weird glasses takes on a tiger?

I mean how do you think this is going to play out?

I was there earlier in the season to watch the last time the Bays took on Sturt at Glenelg Oval.

It was a real nail biter where the Bays kicked 23.12 to Sturt’s 6.9 and I am praying we can do exactly that again!

We look forward to giving the Double Blues the double blues on Sunday and sending them home to Unley Rd. If we get up and win I’ll do a nude cartwheel down Anzac Highway all the way back to the Glenelg Footy Club.

And let’s be honest, even if we don’t win we still have the best club song going around the SANFL … “Yellow and Black, oh we’re from TIGERLAND!!”

South Australia, let’s fill up Adelaide Oval for the SANFL Grand Final, there is nothing quite like it and I couldn’t be more excited. Come on the Tigers!

Glenelg No. 1 ticket holder Andrew 'Cosi' Costello hams it up with Sturt tragic David Penberthy. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Sturt has a winning DNA

David Penberthy

Glenelg has a long and proud history of making grand finals. Other SANFL clubs have a prouder history of winning them.

When facing off against the Bays in a grand final, other clubs use a special technique to secure victory. That technique is known as “arriving”.

The rest normally takes care of itself, as happened on those three glorious occasions when the mighty Double Blues played the Tigers in the season decider.

In Marty we Trust.

The chambray-clad, RM Williams-booted Sturt army sees no reason why 2023 will be any different from these past encounters.

Despite a few years in the wilderness after owning the competition throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the natural order of things was restored at Unley with the arrival of premiership player Marty Mattner as senior coach in 2016.

Marty delivered a premiership on debut against the Eagles in 2016 in his debut year.

Then back-to-back flags the following year, Sturt doing God’s work beating Port by a point, that wonderful, final goal coming from a dead-obvious free kick for which Chad Cornes is still undergoing counselling.

Please let it happen again this Sunday.

Despite the above jibes, I’ve got nothing against the Bays. They’re kind of my second team, if I had one. Growing up in Mitchell Park, many of our neighbours including the late War veteran advocate and ex-Changi POW Bill Schmidt were all Glenelg tragics. I used to go to Sturt-Glenelg games with Uncle Bill. I can remember Peter Carey visiting us at Marion Primary in the 1970s.

My wife is also a Bays girl and will be at the game on Sunday, her exact location a mystery as to save our marriage we have no intention of sitting together. But whatever affection exists will vanish at the first siren. There can be no room for sentiment. This is the Grand Final. The club which belongs to Bagshaw and Flash, the Jumbo Prince and Motts has too much winning DNA in its tank to fall at the final hurdle.

Glenelg have had a cracking year. For most of this season they’ve been hotter than a cevapcici straight off the grill at the Bay BBQ Inn. Surely they couldn’t stuff it up again. Or could they?