Greatest SANFL team would serve SA football “wonderfully well’’, says John Halbert
GREATEST SANFL team creates plenty of debate with a lot of “great, great players missing out’’.
AUSTRALIAN Football Hall of Fame member Neil Kerley says a team cannot be considered great unless great players miss out.
Which makes the greatest SANFL team — selected by a panel of experts as part of the celebration of the SANFL’s 140th anniversary season — one special group.
“A lot of great, great players missed out on this team,’’ said former four-time premiership coach Kerley.
“There are just so many great players who I played with, against, or watched that we just couldn’t fit into the side, which is very unfortunate.
“Players like Rick Davies, John Marriott, Jimmy Deane, Peter Marker, John Halbert and a host of others have strong claims, the list goes on and on, but it just shows you how strong this team is.
“It would be a team that I would love to lead into battle.’’
That will happen only on paper, with “Knuckles’’ Kerley, who played 32 State games for SA and captained the side from 1959-62 and 1965-66, named skipper of the best all-time side.
Selected by Kerley, fellow Australian Football Hall of Fame members Halbert and Graham Cornes, triple Port Adelaide premiership captain Brian Cunningham and The Advertiser chief football writer Michelangelo Rucci, the 22-man side includes 15 Magarey Medallists.
Between them they won a remarkable 31 medals, led by Russell Ebert’s four and three each by Barrie Robran, Lindsay Head, Len Fitzgerald, Tom MacKenzie and Dan Moriarty.
Criteria for the team, which involved some input from the public at a forum at the In A League Of Its Own SANFL 140-year display at the State Library, included post-war players having to play at least 100 SANFL games to qualify.
There was plenty of lively debate because of the exceptional quality of players who were left out of the side.
“The great danger when you pick a side like this is that you perhaps do not do justice to some of the players, particularly those who played before the Second World War,’’ said 1961 Magarey Medallist Halbert, who also was runner-up for the award three times in 1955, ‘58 and ‘60.
“Even with the side we’ve picked you could ask have we done justice to people like (South Adelaide's) Jimmy Deane, who in his era (the 1940s and 50s) was comparable to Bob Hank and Lindsay Head, North Adelaide’s Ron Phillips and West Adelaide's Bruce McGregor, who all won two Magarey Medals.
“It's very difficult when you have to make judgments and compare players, particularly when you pick a side where you have to name them in positions where they played most of their football.’’
The debate over who should get the second ruck spot behind West and North’s Tom Leahy was one of the hottest, with SANFL games record holder and triple Glenelg premiership big man Peter Carey, who played 448 matches and kicked 521 goals from 1971-88, edging out Sturt and South Adelaide great Davies.
Davies is a dual Double Blues premiership ruckman-forward who kicked 781 goals in 350 games for Sturt and South.
Halbert, who coached both, gave Carey the edge, saying he is among the best 10 players he has seen.
“I coached him for four years at Glenelg and he could do anything,’’ Halbert said.
Halbert described the team of greats as “incredible’’.
“It would have served SA football wonderfully well,” he said.’
Ten-time SANFL premiership coach Jack Oatey — seven with Sturt and three with Norwood — was named coach of the side.
GREATEST SANFL TEAM
F: John Platten Ken Farmer Malcolm Blight
HF: Bob Hank Barrie Robran Lindsay Head
C: John Cahill Russell Ebert Ken Eustice
HB: Geof Motley Dan Moriarty Walter Scott
B: Michael Taylor Ian McKay Len Fitzgerald
R: Tom Leahy Neil Kerley (capt) Bob Quinn
INT: Peter Carey Paul Bagshaw Tom MacKenzie Stephen Kernahan
Coach: Jack Oatey