Robran to Ebert to Blight to Farmer — the roll call of SA football greats cast in bronze at Adelaide Oval is complete
KEN Farmer’s statue at Adelaide Oval has been unveiled, completing the four tributes to footballers at the ground
NO-one has pinned down just how many of Ken Farmer’s record 347 goals in 54 SANFL league games at Adelaide Oval were kicked at the northern end by the old scoreboard he kept ticking over in the 1930s.
But there is no doubt on where Farmer’s tribute statue was to be placed — at the Oval’s northern entrance, symbolically and geographically in line with the Rooster’s crow from the North Adelaide Football Club’s base at Prospect.
Farmer’s four-metre bronze statue at the northern entrance, Barrie Robran at the southern gates — and Russell Ebert and Malcolm Blight on the eastern wing and south-eastern pocket.
Farmer’s son Milton is pleased with the presentation of the statue.
“Ken Farmer was not a show pony,” he said. “And you might never see the like of him at full forward again, so salute him as you go past.”
Basil Sellers’ collection of four statues to honour SA football greats is complete.
They join the philanthropist’s tribute to four SA cricket heroes — George Giffen, Jason Gillespie, Clem Hill and Darren Lehmann — with statues at the Oval.
The four-year project was completed on Friday evening with sculptor Ken Martin delivering the Farmer statue after nine months in the workshop at Port Lincoln. It was unveiled by Farmer’s son, Milton.
Martin also produced the Robran statue, the first of the Australian football tributes commissioned by Sellers for the return of elite football to the Oval at the start of the 2014 AFL season.
“I am very pleased to see (Farmer) standing there,” Martin said. “And I am delighted how this statue has come up ... I feel it is the pinnacle of my work for the past four years.”
Martin based his statue on learning the “personality” of Farmer, who died in 1982 aged 71. He relied on the book The Farmer Files written in 2005 by Paul DePasquale. The choice of image was always to be 1933 photograph of Farmer in the SA State jumper and in his trademark kicking action.
“It is the best photograph of Ken Farmer — that was a great starting point,” Martin said.
Farmer is SA football’s greatest goalkicker with a record 1417 goals in 224 SANFL league games for North Adelaide from 1929-1941. He kicked 100 goals or more in each season from 1930-1940 while also topping the SANFL goalkicking list in each of these years.
Farmer has the record for career goals at Adelaide Oval and for the most goals in an SANFL game at the Oval — 15, including 11 in the second half, against Glenelg in 1936.
The SANFL’s annual goalkicking medal is named in his honour.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
GOLDEN BOOT
KEN FARMER’S RECORDS AT ADELAIDE OVAL
● RECORD* for most goals in a game — 15 v Glenelg in 1936
● RECORD tally for most career goals — 347 in 54 SANFL games
KEN FARMER’S RECORDS IN SANFL
● RECORD SANFL career goals — 1417 in 224 games with North Adelaide (1929-1941)
● RECORD of kicking 100 goals in each season from 1930-1940
● RECORD of leading SANFL goalkicking list for 11 consecutive seasons (1930-1940)
*Record shared with Neil Hawke (Port Adelaide, 1957).