1997 SANFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
Date | Sunday, 5 October (2:10 pm) | |||||||||||||||
Stadium | Football Park | |||||||||||||||
Attendance | 44,161 | |||||||||||||||
Umpires | Bettridge, Chambers, Woodcock | |||||||||||||||
Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
Network | ABC TV | |||||||||||||||
Commentators | Ken Sheldon Mark Naley (special comments) Rob Popplestone (boundary rider) | |||||||||||||||
|
The 1997 SANFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Norwood Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club at Football Park on 5 October 1997. It was the 99th annual grand final of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), staged to determine the premiers for the 1997 SANFL season. The match, attended by 44,161 spectators, was won by Norwood by a margin of 73 points, marking the club's 27th SANFL premiership.
Joint Magarey Medal winner Brodie Atkinson was given the honour of the coin toss, which was won by Norwood's acting captain Anthony Harvey who chose to kick to the Southern End.
John Cunningham, a Norwood player who had suffered a seemingly season-ending injury earlier in the year, would go on to win the Jack Oatey Medal as the player judged best afield. “Being fortunate enough to win the Jack Oatey Medal is obviously a once in a lifetime experience,” said Cunningham. “It justified the decision to try and come back before the season finished. To achieve such a wonderful individual honour, along with being lucky enough to be selected as one of the 21 players on the day, was an amazing experience. That team will go down as one of the all-time greatest.” [1]
Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed the Power, while its reserves men's team competes in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), where they are nicknamed the Magpies. Since its founding, the club has won an unequalled 36 SANFL premierships and 4 Championship of Australia titles, in addition to an AFL Premiership in 2004. It has also fielded a women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW) league since 2022 (S7).
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL, is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Russell Frank Ebert was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He is considered one of the greatest players in the history of Australian rules football in South Australia. Ebert is the only player to have won four Magarey Medals, which are awarded to the best and fairest player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He is one of four Australian rules footballers to have a statue at Adelaide Oval, the others being Ken Farmer, Malcolm Blight and Barrie Robran. Football historian John Devaney described Ebert as coming "as close as any player in history to exhibiting complete mastery over all the essential skills of the game," and he is widely regarded as the Port Adelaide Football Club's greatest-ever player. Aside from his 392 games at Port Adelaide, Ebert played 25 games for North Melbourne in the 1979 VFL season and collected over 500 possessions as a midfielder for the club, which reached the preliminary final. Ebert was an inaugural inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and he was posthumously elevated to Legend status in June 2022, the highest honour that can be bestowed onto an Australian footballer.
Central District Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Based at Elizabeth in the City of Playford about 25 km to the north of Adelaide, South Australia the club's development zones include the outer Adelaide northern suburbs of Salisbury, Elizabeth, Golden Grove, Greenwith, Township of Gawler, One Tree Hill and Barossa Valley Districts.
West Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Nicknamed the Bloods and commonly known as the Westies, the club's home base is Richmond Oval. The Oval is located in Richmond, an inner-western suburb of Adelaide.
Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in the state of South Australia. Its home ground is Coopers Stadium, which is often referred to as "The Parade". It is one of the two traditional powerhouse clubs of the SANFL, the other being Port Adelaide, who together have won half of all SANFL premierships. The club has won 31 SANFL premierships and 1 SANFLW premiership.
The Sturt Football Club, nicknamed The Double Blues, is a semi-professional Australian rules football club based in the suburb of Unley, South Australia, which plays in the South Australian National Football League.
Foster Neil "Fos" Williams was a leading Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the Port Adelaide and West Adelaide Football Clubs and coached South Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in a career spanning 1946–1978. He also played 34 interstate games for South Australia, captaining the team from 1954 to 1958 and he coached the team in 45 games from 1955 to 1969.
The Showdown is an Australian rules football game played by the two Australian Football League (AFL) teams from South Australia, the Adelaide and Port Adelaide football clubs. The first AFL premiership fixture between the two clubs took place on 20 April 1997.
Donald Neil Kerley was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He is best known for taking three clubs to four South Australian National Football League (SANFL) premierships over three decades as both a player and coach, and for playing 32 state games for South Australia.
David Brown is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Jack Oatey was an Australian rules football player and coach.
Australian rules football in South Australia has long been the most popular sport in the state. It is governed by the South Australia National Football League.
The Jack Oatey Medal is awarded to the best player during the SANFL Grand Final. It has been awarded since 1981. In 2018, Mitch Grigg of Norwood became the first player to win the Jack Oatey Medal on a losing team, after his team were defeated by North Adelaide in the 2018 SANFL Grand Final.
The 1999 South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Grand Final saw the Port Adelaide Magpies defeat the Norwood Redlegs by 8 points. The match was played on Sunday 3 October 1999 at Football Park in front of a crowd of 39,135. .
Keith A. Thomas is a former Australian rules football player and administrator who played with Norwood in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Between 2011 and 2020 he was the chief executive officer of the Port Adelaide Football Club.
John Cunningham is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Geelong in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was recruited from the Port Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) with the 9th selection in the 1993 Mid Year Draft, and played two matches for Geelong in 1995.
Robert Reginald Oatey OAM was an Australian rules footballer who played with Norwood and Sturt in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He was a member of the South Australian Football Hall of Fame.
The 1982 SANFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Norwood Football Club and Glenelg Football Club at Football Park on 2 October 1982. It was the 84th grand final of the South Australian National Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1982 SANFL season. The match, attended by 47,336 spectators, was won by Norwood by a margin of 62 points, marking the club's 25th SANFL premiership, having previously won the premiership in 1978. Norwood's Danny Jenkins won the Jack Oatey Medal as the player judged best on ground.
The 2018 South Australian National Football League (SANFL) grand final was played at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday, 23 September to determine the premiers for the 2018 SANFL season.