The Woodville-West Torrens merger was vindicated 25 years ago with the club’s 1993 SANFL flag
IT’S 25 years since Woodville-West Torrens won the 1993 flag, two years after a controversial merger. Inaugural captain Peter Schwarz, whose son Tom will play finals for North Adelaide on Sunday, recalls it was a defining moment for the club’s identity.
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EVEN inaugural captain Peter Schwarz was not sold on the 1991 merger of Woodville and West Torrens.
Having grown up as a passionate Woodville fan, he admits he had apprehensions on the marriage of the struggling clubs and wasn’t too keen.
“I was trying to protect the old club,” he said.
Two years after the Eagles were formed, he stood on the dais after the grand final triumph over Norwood at Football Park and lauded those who made the challenging calls for the two clubs to become a single identity.
“It would have been very difficult for them,” Schwarz said. “In hindsight, and having seen where we have got to and why we had to get there, I could understand it was a courageous decision by those administrators.
“There would have been serious doubts about both clubs continuing on in an independent capacity. Now it is one of the most successful mergers across the country and that grand final win in 1993 is what we needed early in our existence.
“The victory united us and if we had gone a long time without success it would have been really difficult to grow as an identity. That strengthened us as a group and club.”
The Eagles, coached by Bruce Winter, went into the grand final as flag favourite after being the best performed side all season.
After gaining the early ascendancy with two goals inside the first two minutes, the Eagles dominated the Redlegs to win by 73 points in an emphatic performance.
Steven Sziller, who went on to play for St Kilda and Richmond, was the Jack Oatey Medallist, although there were many who considered Wayne Weidemann the best player on the ground.
Weidemann was in Adelaide’s side the week before when the Crows conceded a 42-point halftime lead to be over run by Essendon.
It was the first grand final for Schwarz and he soaked up the atmosphere. Midway through the final quarter he could sense the premiership belonged to the Eagles, so by the final siren there was a full appreciation of what the club had achieved.
“We played a pretty hard game of footy all day,” Schwarz said. “We had a good attacking side and set up well in defence.
“When we won there was that relief, all the tension goes. We had built ourselves up as a big chance and it came together on the day.
“It was a big night of celebrations and it was packed at Woodville Oval. A lot of supporters had not tasted success and we partied on, we did ourselves proud.”
Was Schwarz surprised the club had earned the premiership in the infancy of the merger? Not at all.
Under the coaching of Neil Balme, the Eagles had qualified for the finals in their first two years. Schwarz says it was a time to develop the bonds needed with a new group of players.
“It would have been a nightmare for Neil in those early days knowing who he had in the playing group,” Schwarz said. “The Crows were entering the AFL and there were blokes at training who were in their initial squad, plus there were players from the two clubs.
“I wasn’t surprised we won the flag so early after the merger. We merged to be successful and we would have been disappointed not to be.”
Schwarz, who had a stint as Eagles chief executive, will be at Adelaide Oval on Sunday for the opening round of the finals series. And while the Eagles will be in action against Sturt in the qualifying final, his interest will be focused on the elimination final.
Schwarz’s son Tom will be in the North Adelaide jumper when the Roosters take on South Adelaide. Another son plays for the Panthers, but he is sidelined because of a knee injury.
“It would have been difficult watching them playing against each other,” he said.
1993 SANFL GRAND FINAL
Woodville-West Torrens 5.7 12.9 13.14 17.20 (122)
Norwood 2.2 3.4 5.7 7.7 (49)
BEST — Woodville-West Torrens: Weidemann, S. Sziller, Tape, Chapman, Breuer, Prymke, Rogers.
Norwood: Rowe, Robinson, Burns, Patterson, James.
GOALS — Woodville-West Torrens: S. Sziller, Taylor 3, Phillipou, Kluzek, J. Sziller 2, Morphett, Pesch, Tape, Niemann, Nicol.
Norwood: Patterson, Prime 2, O’Brien, Pitt, Tumes.
CROWD — 42,719 at Football Park
UMPIRES — Richard Williams, Mark Westgarth
JACK OATEY MEDAL — Steven Sziller
1993 PREMIERSHIP TEAM
F: Stuart Nicol, Andrew Taylor, Steven Sziller
HF: Shane Breuer, Sam Phillipou, Scott Morphett
C: Matthew Kluzek, Paul Chapman, Andrew Payze
HB: Peter Schwarz, Paul Prymke, Jamie Tape
B: Simon Neave, Jason Spehr, Andrew Rogers
R: David Niemann, Wayne Weidemann, Jason Sziller
INT: Laurence Schache, Nick Pesch
COACH: Bruce Winter