SA Football Hall of Fame and Magarey Medal ceremonies in SANFL’s 140th anniversary make for timely reflection on state of the game
SA football has its night of nights at Adelaide Oval on Tuesday — and there will be much chatter at the tables about the game’s future
IF SA football found conviction on any issue this year, it was by nostalgia.
SA football put on a show — for its 140th anniversary of forming the SANFL — and the people did come. And in big numbers to reminisce at the State Library — proving the game still has relevance beyond the AFL.
On Tuesday night, the great memories of the past and the greatest achievements of the present are recognised at the same time while many will continue to debate where the SANFL goes for its future.
There will be the SA Football Hall of Fame inductions, the 16th ceremony since the grand collection of men to shape the local game was established in 2002.
There will be four new inductees this year. The roll call is memorable — and timely — as it will tell the story of how much SA football has changed in the past 50 years.
In the space of an hour at the black-tie ceremony, the Hall will tell the story of a teenager who became a club great with unwavering loyalty during the SANFL’s grand era from the late 1960s to the 1980s — and of a teenager who became a great after being drafted to an AFL club in the 1990s.
Side-by-side, these two stories tell so much of how SA football has changed from one generation to another ... and leave the question of what is to come for the next generation as Australian football moves to a new era with a vague national agenda for the men’s game and a very clear theme of unbridled growth for the women’s sport.
From the Hall of Fame, there is the Magarey Medal — the oldest individual trophy in Australian football. First awarded in 1898, the Magarey Medal still remains a prestigious and treasured award, even if there is the debate on its standing since 1991 when the AFL superseded the SANFL with the formation of the Adelaide Football Club as SA’s first entry to a national competition.
The recent return of the count to commercial television — with Channel Seven, as fostered by the refit of the SANFL with the Crows and Power reserves generating the dollars to underwrite the State league’s coverage — is important to maintaining the medal’s relevance as a South Australian icon.
These are interesting times for the SANFL. Port Adelaide’s qualification to the grand final — for the second time since the full alignment of the Power and Magpies for the 2014 season — will create fascinating chatter across the tables at Adelaide Oval during the Hall of Fame and Magarey Medal ceremonies.
The nostalgic themes generated from the SANFL’s 140th anniversary should remind all that there always has been unease in the make-up of the state league — from the early 1900s when Sturt joined the competition and in the 1960s by expansion with Woodville and Central District.
And the history lesson from the State Library exhibition was a reminder SA football — and its clubs — always have done it tough.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au