Almanac Books: The Towns – 100 Years of Glory by Bernard Whimpress
Bernard’s latest book, The Towns: 100 Years of Glory celebrates the history of the Edwardstown Football Club. Nick-named ‘The Towns’, it is a third tier club which for most of its first 58 years played in the Glenelg District Association in the south-west of Adelaide’s metropolitan area.
From 1978 to 1995 it was one of the powers of the South Australian Football Association, a semi-professional competition akin to Melbourne’s VFA. After the demise of the SAFA the club then played in the top divisions of the South Australian Amateur Football League (1996-2008), the Southern Football League (2009-15) and since 2016 with the Adelaide Football League (the former Amateurs).
The Towns have been a very successful club with 78 premierships: 46 at senior level (including 18 A grade flags), 27 junior premierships, and five women’s pennants as one of the pioneer teams of the South Australian Women’s Football League in the 1990s.
In its past a number of famous players have pulled on boots for the Towns including two Magarey Medallists (Keith Dunn and Andrew Osborn); state footballers Clem Rosewarne, Laurie Rusby, Neil McCann, Lindsay Backman, Malcolm Greenslade and Ken Whelan; and among those who have appeared in AFL ranks are Matthew Dent, Lucas Herbert, Matthew Golding, brothers Adam and Hamish Hartlett, Danyle Pearce, Jordan Russell, Sean Rusling, Caleb Daniel, Tyson Slattery, Jarrod Bollenhagen and Izak Rankine. Today the club fields three senior men’s teams but its strength is its future as it operates 15 junior sides consisting of 10 boys and five girls teams.
All copies of the book are available through the Edwardstown Football Club at $39 for a 204 page roughly A4 paperback or a limited edition of 50 hardback (numbered and signed) for $85.
Contact [email protected]
Alternatively Santo Caruso (formerly Melbourne Sports Books but now living in Adelaide) has a few copies of the paperbacks. Ring Santo on 0499 867 077
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Ahhh, the SAFA. I wish I could find my copies of the SAFA Budget from 1981, the season that Ingle Farm lost Tony Antrobus, David Robertson and Paul Zoontjens to North Adelaide after a mid-season visit to the rooms by Barrie Robran.
Edwardstown were always up there in the early days and featured regularly on the Sunday arvo Adelaide Oval live telecasts.
Be an interesting read.