SANFL 1967 Grand Final – Sturt v Port Adelaide: Back To Back Blues

 

 

Sturt’s 1966 SANFL premiership was its first since 1940, its first under coach Jack Oatey and the Double Blues’ sixth overall.

 

The SA Football Budget produced a larger sized Football Budget for the 1967 Grand Final matchup of Sturt and Port. This ‘Souvenir Issue’ introduced a colourful graphic celebrating  Port Adelaide’s Trevor ‘Bubbles’ Obst’s Magarey Medal win and several modern flourishes within.

 

Obst played only fourteen minor round matches in 1967.  He missed six weeks with a broken wrist and picked up votes in each of the final three matches after he recovered. He won the medal with 18 votes on a countback from North’s Don Lindner (Lindner was retrospectively recognised as joint winner some thirty years later). Third place went to Roosters’ newcomer Barrie Robran who was a vote behind, but was leading the count before the last two voting slips were announced, those of Obst and Lindner.

 

Despite his physique, which was described variously as “somewhat rotund” and “chunky” (hence his nickname), Obst was a dashing defender. Playing mostly in a back pocket by this stage of his career, he consistently backed his judgement to send defence into attack, without giving the resting rovers much leeway. Obst was a popular, if surprise, winner.

 

Sturt stuttered at the end of the minor round, conceding top spot to North Adelaide at Prospect in Round 20. Port Adelaide gave Neil Kerley’s Tigers a 46-point drubbing in the First Semi-Final and a week later Sturt turned the tables on North by 44 points in the Second Semi-Final.

 

The Magpies outlasted the Roosters on Preliminary Final day to win by 8 points in a low scoring encounter.

 

Sturt had won all three minor round matchups with Port during 1967. Port had dominated the League with ten flags since 1951, so it remained to be seen whether the 1966 success at Unley was a flash in the pan compared to the Alberton side’s sustained dominance.

 

 

 

 

Channel 7 was the leading football network in 1967 and it was to jockey with Channel 9 as the preferred station for footy fans over the ensuing decades. The feminist movement had not quite reached Strangways Terrace.

 

 

 

New SANFL President Judge Don Brebner hinted at the imminent decision to develop an independent headquarters for football, as the league was uncertain about its ongoing relationship with the SA Cricket Association. The physical fitness of the “Nation’s” boys was uppermost in the League’s thinking. Presumably girls could still dream of handing out badges in team colours on Grand Final day.

 

 

 

 

Fos Williams shared his reflections on the past twenty years of Grand Finals. Some things, such as fitness, had changed while other things such as individual brilliance remained a feature.  At the time of writing, Williams wouldn’t have known that he was to coach four more runners-up without adding to his nine coaching premierships. The green ink highlights have survived the ravages of time here and throughout this publication.

 

 

 

Maughan Thiem remains a motor vehicle fixture in Adelaide, despite virtually giving away Cortinas in 1967.

 

 

 

Hair and Oh! Calcutta were only a couple of years away, but South Pacific was still packing in the Adelaide theatre-goers.

 

 

 

 

The Magarey Medal history here raises some intriguing thoughts about the early years. I suspect that this piece was written well before Obst’s win was announced.

 

The results of the post-season games were:

 

Geelong 9.26 def North Adelaide 11.11 (D Sachse – 8 goals)

 

Port Adelaide 13.15 def Collingwood 12.9

 

Sturt 19.8 def Carlton 11.15

 

 

 

If only insurance quotes were as easy as this in 2023.

 

 

 

The introduction of Centrals and Woodville to League ranks was bearing fruit in the Colts (U/17s) where Sturt was stone-motherless. Success for the newcomers in the higher grades was yet to come (if at all). World-wide travel was still a long way off for many, but there must have been enough of a market for Stewart Moffat Travel.

 

 

 

Who was the Huddo hoaxer that fooled the Panthers in January? What did Fritz Freeman say to KG that had him rubbed out in the last minor round game? It was either ‘animal’ or ‘peanut’ according to the tribunal submissions, but both parties agreed that the preceding word began with an ‘f’. Fortunately Freeman was available for the Grand Final.

 

 

 

Starline Drive-Ins’ selection of on-screen titillation was just the thing for those looking for a quite night out in the suburbs.

 

 

 

Both Thirds (Under 19s) finalists contained a sprinkling of future senior players, including Steve Pavlich, father of triple Hall-of-Famer Matthew. Glenelg were easy winners 18.12 to Torrens 10.12

 

Monarch Homes line of Basket Range sandstone homes was the height of sixties suburban aspiration.

 

 

 

A frozen foods factory still operating in the near-city nook of Eastwood in 1967 gives some idea of Adelaide’s economic profile in 1967. As do the prominent ads from a beauty salon and a mechanic.

 

 

 

While ‘Big Den’ was not quite Ken Farmer, he was the next in a long line of bag-kicking spearheads to grace the SANFL in the next few years, such as Fred Phillis, Gary Jones, Brian Mulvihill, Malcolm Greenslade and Mike Coligan.

 

 

 

Light entertainment after a hard day on the spanners. Omen tipsters would have noted that Bob Cox was aboard Kembla in the 4th at Cheltenham and cleaned up as it nudged out some nag called Rain Lover, ridden by Johnny Letts by a 1/2 length.

 

 

 

Almost everyone that played a senior game for the Blues in 1967 made it into this photo. Brenton Adcock was marked as an absentee but Brian Martin was unacknowledged. The immortalized onlookers at the rear were also anonymous.

 

 

 

Youngster Burgan missed a spot on the big day, although he was to contribute to future flag sides as well as gain All-Australian recognition in 1972. Regular captain John Halbert had not sufficiently recovered from a broken leg, so John Murphy was the skipper. “Diamond Jim” Tilbrook was the heftiest player on the field. Roger Dunn played a mere 5 games for Sturt that season. He spent some of the year “back home” at Tumby Bay, winning the 1967 Mail Medal from his 6 games there. Of the winning 1966 side, Halbert, Brian Martin and Malcolm Hill were absent. In their place came Millicent ruckman Graeme Weir, Rick Schoff (injured in 1966) at CHF and teenager Malcolm Greenslade.

 

 

 

Obst suffered a ruptured groin at training in the week of the final and could not take his place in Port’s final twenty, with Peter Yeo and future Grand Final umpire Peter Mead also left out of the names published.

 

Max O’Connell (a future Test cricket umpire), who had played for both Sturt and Port Adelaide, was given to nod to officiate what was to be his only Grand Final.

 

 

 

The Magpies continued the club tradition of long-sleeved team photos. Secretary “Big Bob” McLean appears to have been the largest of all the men in shot. Peter Yeo would enjoy premiership success for Sturt in 1970.

 

 

 

Before the big guys came along, this was Adelaide commerce in action.

 

 

 

Building societies – bring ‘em back.

 

 

 

You can just make out the list of leading goalkickers through the green background. I can confirm that Cruickshank office chairs were still the default seating for shiny-bummed Public Servants into the 1980s.

 

 

 

I guess the 11:30pm closing time allowed the Saturday night attendees to “make sure you are home by midnight”.

 

$0.05 a week – you’d be mad not to.

 

 

 

It wouldn’t be a Seconds decider without Vin Camporeale running the boundary. Fred “Chocka” Bloch’s last game at the Roosters finished on a low, with the Bays winning 19.10 to 11.17.

 

The Globe Hotel was so well known that there was no need to include an address.

 

 

 

More unhelpful greenery disguised the Magarey Medal list, but it did make Fitch The Rubber Man a bit more attractive.

 

 

 

 

Barrie Robran and Dennis Sachse are as close today as they were when this piece on 1967’s first-year players was written. Peter Marker rose to prominence as predicted but the same cannot be said about Port’s Graham Sweeney who played 33 games from 1967-69. Cock, Huppatz and von Bertouch more than fulfilled the writer’s predictions of a bright future. Glenelg’s Voigt, Cornes and Hamilton were all given faint praise.

 

 

 

Sorry about this.

 

 

Was Brian Lees trying to attract future umpires or put them off?

 

 

 

If only they had been able to add ‘Magarey Medallist’ to this shot of the man known at Prospect as ‘Sir Don’.

 

 

 

KG never did officiate in his fifth Grand Final.

 

 

TAA – no expense spared. Houghton and Byrne – much expense spared.

 

 

 

 

A valuable statistical record of finals footy over the years. Apartments have taken the place of Terry’s Burger Bar.

 

 

As noted above, it was a big day for veteran jockey Bob Cox who booted home three winners, after piloting a record ninety metropolitan winners in the previous season. Wayville red hots – Note the date.

 

 

Hmm, fossil fuel corporations burnishing their image – it’s been going on for years.

 

 

Double Hmm.

 

 

The Match

 

 

 

This brief summary from the 1972 Grand Final Football Budget seriously underplays how well Port had been playing until they ran out of steam when they were sixteen points ahead into the last quarter. John Cahill in particular was desperately willing the Magpies on until cramp overtook him.

 

 

 

 

The SA Football Record Year Book provided this more expansive account of Sturt’s season in general as well as the Grand Final.

 

 

 

This footage from the customary Rothmans series unfortunately fails to show the full gamut of Sturt’s late surge.

 

Sturt has commemorated the second of the eventual five flags in a row here

 

Fifty years later, the Adelaide Advertiser revisited this match with John Halbert and John Cahill.

 

 

 

And I’ll leave you with some bonus Bubbles.

 

 

More from Swish can be read Here

 

 

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