My Two Cents: State spots on the line in Round 1 of SANFL season ahead of SA v Vic Gather Round clash

Never before has the opening round of a SANFL season had so much riding on it for the players, writes Andrew Capel.

Round one of a SANFL season has never been more important.

When the 2024 season kicks off at The Parade on Thursday night there will be more riding on individual performances than ever before for a March game.

On Saturday – two days after the opening match between Norwood and Sturt and less than 24 hours after eight of the 10 clubs have brushed the cobwebs off in the heat of battle for the first time this campaign – the SANFL state selectors will pick their squad to play the VFL for the first time in eight years.

Eyes will not only be on which teams get off to a flyer but which players make an early statement.

“It’s certainly a good little carrot for guys to stand up in Round 1,’’ last year’s SA captain Joseph Sinor said.

“There’s no doubt a body of work goes into playing state footy and I’m sure the selectors will have that in mind but a player could potentially pull on the state guernsey after a really good performance in the opening round, so there is a fair bit at stake.’’

SANFL state coach Jade Rawlings (left) with Glenelg and state legend Graham Cornes at the Bay Oval, which will host the April 6 clash against the VFL. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

To tie in with AFL Gather Round in Adelaide next week, SA will play bitter rival Victoria in a mouth-watering State League interstate match smack in the middle of it – at suburban ground Glenelg Oval on Saturday, April 6.

The 12.40pm game will reignite the Croweaters’ fierce state football rivalry with the Vics, who they haven’t played since 2016 when a Graham Cornes-coached SA triumphed by 19 points at Adelaide Oval.

The SA selectors – coach Jade Rawlings (Norwood), assistant coaches Darren Reeves (Glenelg), Jacob Surjan (North Adelaide) and Jarrad Parker (South Adelaide assistant), Port Adelaide great Tim Ginever, Norwood premiership player and former Crow James Gallagher and the SANFL’s Matt Duldig, Sean Toohey and Daniel Joyce – have met regularly in the past few weeks to pencil in an enlarged squad.

This has been based mainly on last year’s state squad, which triumphed against Western Australia by 13 points at Adelaide Oval, and some pre-season form.

The squad will be trimmed to about 25 on Saturday, with 23 to play against the “Big V’’.

With its season starting a week earlier, the VFL has already selected a 50-man squad from its 21-team competition.

It includes a host of high-quality players with AFL experience, including former SANFL men Jackson Hately and Tyler Brown (who played AFL with Adelaide), Boyd Woodcock and Joel

Garner (Port Adelaide), Tom Highmore (St Kilda) and Phoenix Spicer (North Melbourne).

Last year’s SANFL state captain Joseph Sinor (middle) with his 2023 deputies Liam McBean (right) and Max Proud. Picture: Kelly Barnes

On paper, the VFL team, to be coached by Box Hill mentor Zane Littlejohn, looks strong.

Callum Brown and Trent Bianco (with Collingwood), Kyle Dunkley (Melbourne), Lachlan Young (Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne), Ned Long (Hawthorn), Xavier O’Neill (West Coast), Roarke Smith (Bulldogs), Tom Downie (GWS) and Ned Cahill (Essendon) are among other squad members to have played AFL.

Current AFL-listed players, including rookie-listed men, are not eligible to be selected.

The VFL’s earlier season start gives them a leg-up for the clash – two home-and-away matches to prepare for the state game compared to SA’s one.

The match will mark the first senior men’s representative clash between the SANFL and VFL since 2016 and the VFL’s first representative game since 2017.

The last SA-Victoria State-of-Origin match was in 1999.

“It would be a huge honour for any SA player to be able to play against Victoria,’’ Sinor said.

“When I was a kid growing up I’d see the tapes of the SA v Vic games and to now, hopefully, finally get a chance to pull on the SA guernsey against the ‘Big V’ would be really exciting.’’

The SANFL has won six of its past seven contests against the VFL, with the sole defeat being at Adelaide Oval in 2002.

South Australia’s Andrew Bradley is tackled by Victoria’s Willie Wheeler in the last interstate clash between the SANFL and VFL at Adelaide Oval in 2016. Photo Tom Huntley

The Croweaters won the last clash in 2016 by 19 points at Adelaide Oval.

SANFL general manager football Matthew Duldig said ticket sales for this year’s game had been strong and that the league was expecting a crowd of between 6000-8000.

“To be able to play an SA versus Victoria game in Gather Round is really exciting and with so many people in town at the time it will be a great opportunity for us to put the SANFL brand on display,’’ he said.

As part of the state rivalry, Duldig said the league would “showcase’’ the famous 1994 State-of-Origin game between the two states at a sold out Football Park, which the Croweaters won by two points.

“We’re going to celebrate that game, which many people say was the greatest state game of all time, by getting as many players as possible from that match to attend our state game at Glenelg, so they can get together and reminisce about the battles they had through the 1990s,’’ he said.

Players from the ‘94 clash include South Australia’s Stephen Kernahan, Tony Modra, Andrew and Darren Jarman, Gavin Wanganeen, John Platten and Mark Ricciuto and Victoria’s Gary Ablett, Stephen Silvagni, Garry Lyon, Chris Grant and Nathan Burke.

NUMBERS GAME

350

Port Adelaide AFL games played by Travis Boak – the most in club history.

10

Intercept marks by Geelong’s Tom Stewart against Adelaide – an equal AFL record.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“We’ve just really got to crank ourselves up and get going.’’ – Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks after the loss to Geelong.

“He’s a special young player. There’s no more dedicated player on the list.’’ – St Kilda coach Ross Lyon on rising South Australian star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.

Originally published as My Two Cents: State spots on the line in Round 1 of SANFL season ahead of SA v Vic Gather Round clash