North Adelaide caps one of SA footy’s great fairytales by rising from bottom to top and winning the SANFL premiership
THE 2018 Roosters created their own chapter of history at the famous ground when they produced one of SA football’s greatest fairytales by winning the club’s first premiership since 1991.
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WITH a statue of Barrie Robran and Ken Farmer outside the ground, North Adelaide’s banner said ‘Adelaide Oval — where legends are made’ and on Sunday a premiership dream 27 years in the making came to life.
The modern-day Roosters created their own chapter of history at the famous ground when they produced one of SA football’s greatest fairy tales by winning the club’s first premiership since 1991.
The Josh Carr-coached North Adelaide became the SANFL’s first team since Neil Kerley’s South Adelaide in 1963-64 to go from bottom to premier in 12 months and on a dream day for the club it beat Norwood in the reserves grand final as well.
Debate will rage over whether they should have been there at all after the 19th man controversy in the preliminary final the week before, but they were impossible to deny against Norwood on the big stage and won by you guessed it, 19 points.
They were simply too fast, too hard and too good.
The football gods clearly believed they deserved it and if you don’t believe they exist then watch a replay of Alex Barns’ left foot snap around his body in time-on of the final quarter when it bounced at right angles in the square and through for a goal to seal the result.
The grand final was a brilliant advertisement for SANFL footy, a huge crowd of 40,355 was the biggest for a grand final since 1998 and the game — both the contest and skill lived up to the hype.
It resembled a heavyweight title fight with the two teams slugging it out for four quarters, regular lead changes and some monster goals but in the end it was the Roosters still standing.
The loss was heartbreaking for Norwood that went into the grand final having won 14 of its last 15 games and two-time reigning Magarey Medallist Mitch Grigg almost single-handedly dragged them over the line with six goals from the midfield.
There were several notable performances from a very even North Adelaide side but in the main they tackled with ruthless intent.
Early in the third quarter Robbie Young chased Grigg out of the centre square, ran him down, grabbed him by his shorts and caught him holding the ball.
Then in the final quarter as Matthew Panos charged towards goal at full steam and went to launch, Jared Allmond lunged from behind and brought him down to stop a goal and force the turnover.
Lewis Hender also helped deliver the knockout blow and like his team, it seemingly came from nowhere.
Just before halftime he was dragged and Carr put his hands on Hender’s shoulders as if to say ‘it might not be your day but it could be your moment’. Carr was right.
In the third quarter when Hender had only touched the ball three times and kicked the set shot it put North 10 points up.
Then his fourth touch in the final quarter was a brilliant left-foot goal around his body from the boundary which coupled with Barns’ miracle soon after made it very clear that 2018 was the year of the Rooster and it was just meant to be.
reece.homfray@news.com.au