Footy in Metropolitan Adelaide

Current Scores: Weekend of August 3/4, 2024
There are stories of examples of footy being played in Adelaide before Melbourne's 1858 Scotch College versus Melbourne Grammar game, but the first would appear to be a version of Gaelic Football and the second under "Harrow Rules" was far enough away from certainly the game in Melbourne to not be considered. Other matches were held including in Glenelg and somewhere on the River Torrens (then called Fourth Creek) but it is unclear if any resembled the game as it was being played at the time.
The first club formed that played the game in a form close enough to the Melbourne version in 1860 - the original Adelaide Football Club. They were followed by clubs representing North Adelaide and South Adelaide although not the clubs that carry those names today. The Modbury Tea Tree Gully Football Club was formed in 1862 - with the two localities separating at a later date and both still exist today. All clubs played by slightly different rules and didn't conform to one set of rules as they did in Melbourne. That situation was only resolved in 1876 when existing clubs met to arrange for all games to be played under Melbourne rules to allow for intercolonial matches to be played - the beginning arguably of the rivalry between Victoria and South Australia. To back this up the South Australian Football Association was formed in 1877, just before Victoria formed the Victorian Football Association.
The original Adelaide and the aforementioned old version of North Adelaide were joined by Port Adelaide, the new and present day North Adelaide and South Adelaide as well as Willunga and Prince Alfred College of the clubs that are still around in the present day. Long since defunct clubs were South Park, Victorian, the original version of Woodville and Bankers. Non Adelaide based clubs in Gawler and Kapunda also joined. Norwood joined the following season in 1878 and were later joined by West Torrens and West Adelaide. The SAFA was the only formal competition in town in the 19th century until the spasmodic Adelaide and Suburban competition was formed in 1897.
Other competitions sprang up early in the 20th century, such as the United Churches, the South Australian Amateurs, the Port Adelaide league and the Sturt District competition. All were adversely affected by World War 1 but after the war more sprang up in the form of the YMCA, East Torrens and Mid Southern competitions while North Adelaide District and West Torrens were also formed. This formed the basis of a vibrant suburban football community in Adelaide.
However it started to contract after World War 2. The Adelaide and Suburban competition finally closed for good in the late 1940's and the Port Adelaide competition followed in 1951. A short lived CYMS competition folded in 1954 and clubs moved elsewhere. West Torrens played it's final year as Western Districts in 1961. The one positive was from the expanding northern suburbs with the formation of the Central Districts competition shortly followed by the Central Districts club joining the SANFL with Woodville.
But the contractions continued. Sturt District changed it's name to Adelaide Metropolitan before folding in 1967 and the next year East Torrens and North Adelaide District merged to form the Norwood North Adelaide competition. Mid Southern had changed it's name a couple of times and at this time settled on Glenelg South Adelaide. By the 1970's the number of Adelaide competitions outside of the SANFL numbered just five - Central Districts, Norwood North Adelaide, Glenelg South Adelaide, United Churches and the South Australian Amateurs. There was a small YCW competition as well but it received no media coverage.
In a move that in hindsight wrecked suburban football, an elite suburban competition called the South Australian Football Association was formed in 1978 with TV coverage. This pretty much wrecked both Norwood North and Glenelg South. United Churches had already played it's final season in 1977 and after a name change to Adelaide Suburban, Norwood North folded in 1979. Glenelg South persisted, changing it's name to Southern Metropolitan in 1984 but in 1986 it also folded. Only Central Districts was left of the original group. The SAFA was starting to struggle as TV coverage was lost and finally both competitions were gone in the mid 1990's, Central Districts changing it's name to Northern Metropolitan in it's last few years. Only the South Australian Amateurs remained as is the case today, changing it's name to the Adelaide Footy League.
Category:Footy History