SANFL – 140 years of football in South Australia Exhibition

The SANFL through its History Committee and in conjunction with the State Library of South Australia is holding a major exhibition to commemorate 140 years of football in South Australia. This exhibition will be held at the State Library and will commence with a function on the evening of the 6th June.

 

Thereafter the exhibition will run for 10 weeks and is the first of its kind ever organised by the SANFL. Some of the highlights will be:

• We have 56 Magarey medals predating 1991 on display.
• We are currently undertaking a digitisation process of some 3,000 old videos, films etc. Whilst we have by no means finished this project, we will be able to display quite a bit of footage of games played in the 1950’s throughout the exhibition.
• We have been conducting filmed 90 minute interviews with significant South Australian football identities. We have 25 of these completed and we will be showing excerpts from these interview throughout the exhibition.
• We have approximately 8,000 items of memorabilia to display.
• Each of the SANFL clubs will have an opportunity to display some of their memorabilia.
• We have the centre circle from AAMI Stadium on which Shaun Rehn injured his knee!
• We will hold a number of panel discussions spread throughout the course of the exhibition which will be chaired by prominent football identities and the panels will cover topics such as the formation of football in South Australia in the 1870s, the introduction of the 2 AFL licences, the media’s involvement in football, women in football and the wild men of football.

 

We are expecting 300 people at the opening and over the next 3 weeks we will be ramping up the publicity for this event. It is a good opportunity for the SANFL and its clubs to remind the community of the important role they have played over the past 140 years in the state’s history.

 

Comments

  1. Dave Brown says

    The centre circle Rehn did his knee on – wowsers! Should put it in a display case with Port Adelaide’s 1990 Heads of Agreement with the AFL

  2. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    Looks like I’ll be coming over then. I’m a bit disappointed that they haven’t got the gabardine raincoat that Norm Dare hid under when they tried to take a count during Fred Bills’ last game in 1975.

    The Victorian chapter of the exhibition is being held in my study.

  3. Stab Punt Jim Johnson says

    Neil Hawke and the drop punt

    Personal information
    Original team(s) Port Adelaide (SANFL) East Perth (WAFL) West Torrens (SANFL)
    Height 185 cm (6 ft 1 in), Weight 91 kg (201 lb)
    Position(s) Full Forward/Centre Half Forward.
    Neil James Napier Hawke , (27 June 1939 – 25 December 2000) was an Australian Test cricketer and leading Australian rules footballer. Born in Cheltenham, South Australia, Hawke quickly developed as a natural all-round sportsman who excelled in cricket, football and golf and made his senior Australian rules football debut for South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club Port Adelaide in August 1957. Hawke stamped himself as a future champion when in his third game he kicked 15 goals for Port against South Adelaide before being surprisingly dropped two weeks later.

    Hawke quit Port at the end of 1957 to try his hand in Western Australia and made his West Australian National Football League (WANFL) debut in 1958 for East Perth Football Club, playing 42 matches and kicking 157 goals in two seasons with the Royals, including East Perth’s 1958 and 1959 premierships. Hawke topped the WANFL’s goalkicking list in 1959 with 114 goals, represented Western Australia against South Australia and gained local fame for apparently being the first footballer to perfect the drop punt over a long distance. Previously, the drop punt was only used over short distances on wet days but Hawke’s innovation was said to have revolutionised the game in Western Australia. Extracts from
    Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.
    Had he elected to concentrate on football rather than cricket, the Neil Hawke might well be remembered today as a champion key position forward. Immensely powerful overhead, and surprisingly quick at ground level for someone of such hefty build, he typically rounded things off with an almost unfailingly accurate drop punt. Extract from Australian Football . Author – John Devaney

    Researched by Stab Punt Jim.

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