The bloodbath that was the 1991 SANFL final
INSIDE STORY: Those who were there will never forget it. The 1991 SANFL grand final was among the darkest but most memorable moments in our state's sporting history.
LEON Grosser has no doubt about it.
If North Adelaide fireant Steven Sims hadn’t hammered his fist into the side of Matthew Simpson’s head under Footy Park’s old scoreboard, the 1991 SANFL Grand Final would not be known today as “The Bloodbath”.
“The game was clean up until then - ‘til Simsy decided to king-hit a bloke who wasn’t looking,’’ the former West Adelaide skipper said.
“Then it turned to shit from there.”
The ‘91 Bloodbath is perhaps the most infamous football game in AAMI Stadium’s 40-year history.
The shame of it is that, fights aside, this contest involved some super footy. But instead, it sits in the history books as a match remembered more for the spotfires and haymakers than the tackles and goals.
Sure, David Granger played - and connected - a few times at West Lakes, and Craig Balme and Tim Evans saluted Advance Australia Fair by throwing punches before the ‘84 decider.
But few games can confess the level of spite and anger that rippled through the 1991 clash between the Roosters and West Adelaide.
“It shouldn’t have got to that stage,” said Grosser, the 1991 Bloods captain who watched the notorious game from the bench after failing a fitness test the night before.
“North were a very good side that year. We played some really good football to get to the Grand Final but on the day they were much too good for us. They would’ve won the game no matter what happened - but I don’t think it would’ve got to that stage if Simsy hadn’t done what he did.
“It was always going to be a tight, hard game. It’s a grand final - you expect to be dragged and scragged and pulled back. You’re playing for sheep stations because it’s a grand final and you do whatever you need to do, but I don’t think it should’ve got to the stage where you see someone get smashed from behind.
“We weren’t as skilful as North and we could be accused of scragging and tagging a bit, but once that happened, it changed the whole game.”
It’s the scragging that is at the centre of this whole, ugly episode.
The man knocked out cold by Sims, West Adelaide’s Simpson, was given the job pre-game on key Roosters goalkicker Darel Hart, who qualified for SANFL finals despite playing 18 games for Adelaide in the Crows’ inaugural AFL season.
Legend has it that during the second term, Hart - who would win the Jack Oatey Medal for his seven-goal haul - told teammate Sims “I’ve gotta get this bastard off me”, or words telling the same story.
Soon after, on the outer flank, Simpson was chasing the ball towards the boundary line, with Sims close behind. YouTube footage captures the moment when a roundhouse right from Sims catches Simpson square in the right ear and cheekbone, concussing him instantly and sending him somersaulting forward.
Simpson, now working in Adelaide as a solicitor, declined to discuss the incident this week, only to say that he held no grudges. Sims did not return phone calls to the Sunday Mail.
But in a 2007 interview with The Advertiser Sims, now a gyprock plasterer in Bordertown, said the blow was designed to ease the jumper-pulling tactics employed by West Adelaide players, but was ultimately much harsher than intended.
“It was a rushed thing,” Sims said.
“They (West) were knocking a few of our boys around and they were hanging on to our guys before they (umpires) were bouncing the ball and I didn’t appreciate that sort of thing too much.
“We just thought we better knock a few of their boys around a bit because they were knocking ours around.
“It wasn’t supposed to be as bad as it was. It was supposed to let them (West) know what was going on. The only thing is more people talk about that than how well we played footy. That’s my only regret.
“If anyone actually sits down and watches the game they would realise how well we actually played.”
There are unconfirmed reports online that Hart and possibly Sims suffered scratches to their eyes early in the game, which might have prompted Sims’s response. In fact, Simpson faced the tribunal — and was found not guilty — on charges of unduly rough play on Hart, relating to “clawing”.
Hart rubbished the claim at the tribunal, and again this week.
“No, that’s an exaggeration,’’ he said. “There was scragging, they were grabbing our jumpers, but nothing like that.
1981 GRAND FINAL — GRAVE DANGER
The great crime, 32 years on, is that Neville “Twiggy” Caldwell’s previous 264 games for Glenelg have seemingly dissolved into history.
Tigers Hall of Famer and 1973 premiership player Caldwell became an unwitting lead player in an unforgettable Football Park moment when he was knocked out cold by Port Adelaide hard nut David Granger during the 1981 Grand Final.
The match became the supremely skillful Caldwell’s last when he was belted from behind by a “Grave Danger” king-hit. Caldwell went down, unconscious, from the blow and the game stopped for six minutes while Tigers trainers worked to assess his condition and stretcher him from the ground.
In a 1999 interview Caldwell revealed he was still forced to use daily massage and a vibrating chair to ease the headaches and sleepless nights stemming from the hit.
1978 GRAND FINAL
Call it the perfect game. The Grand Final with the lot. It had drama, tension, a controversial call that helped deliver a one-point upset and the possible one-of-a-kind incident of Norwood strongman John Wynne bursting into the Sturt bench and roughing up legendary coach Jack Oatey.
This was the decider Sturt could not lose. The Double Blues had won all but one game during the minor season and led the Grand Final by 29 points at half-time.
Wynne’s animated follow-through into the Sturt bench and exchange with master coach Oatey early in the game is the stuff of legend. And legend has it that Oatey was ruffled for the rest of the afternoon, and his mood affected his decision-making.
Deep in the last term Redleg Phil Gallagher was mistakenly awarded a mark — umpire Des Foster later admitted as much — and kicked the final goal to seal a one-point victory.
But ultimately the wayward goalkicking of Oatey’s Blues was the culprit — they kicked 14.26 for the day to finish with nine more scoring shots than Norwood’s 16.15, yet lost by the narrowest of margins.
1990 FOUNDATION CUP FINAL
Better known as the game in which Scott Salisbury’s elbow met Richard Champion’s face.
It was the final game of the pre-season competition, under lights, when Salisbury’s hit led to an all-in-brawl and a seven-week suspension for the Glenelg dual premiership player.
At the time, Salisbury tried the “concussion defence”, claiming he was unable to remember the incident, but in later years conceded the hit was designed to let Champion know he couldn’t rough up young Tiger, Rod Jameson, without some backlash.
“I’m at the other end of the ground thinking, ‘I’ve got to get down there somehow’,” Salisbury said. “In the end, the ball came near us both. He was watching the ball and I was thinking, ‘I’ve got you’. I could have still done it and had my eyes on the ball. That was the worst part.’’
Salisbury’s seven weeks was, in 1990, the harshest penalty handed down at an SANFL tribunal since David Granger copped nine for his hit on Graham Cornes in the ‘82 preliminary final.
1984 GRAND FINAL
If there was a footy ingredient this game didn’t have, it wasn’t an important one.
First, Norwood became the first side to come from fifth to win the flag when they beat Port Adelaide by nine points. The Redlegs were no doubt inspired by one of the league’s great marks in history, when Keith Thomas held that grab running back with the flight during the third quarter to set up what should’ve been a certain goal for Michael Aish.
And there was Aish’s five-bounce run down the outer wing that Thomas finished off with a superb goal.
But the fuse was lit seconds before the first bounce when Tim Evans plonked Craig Balme with a hard left in the goalsquare just as Advance Australia Fair was warming up.
In an odd situation, players took their positions for the national anthem, rather than today’s line-up, and Evans had no interest in shaking the hand direct opponent Balme insisted on extending his way. Evans eventually snapped and fired a big left at Balme before umpires ran in to calm things down.