West Torrens Football Club
West Torrens Football Club was an Australian rules football club that competed in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1897 to 1990. In 1991, the club merged with neighbouring Woodville Football Club to form the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles. With the proposed introduction of representative Districts for clubs in the SAFA the Native Club in 1896 derived its name from Electoral district of West Torrens and based itself in the western suburbs of Adelaide, around the western reaches of the River Torrens. Club history. A precursor club in the district was the West Adelaide  Football Club (1878–1887) that was founded in 1878 as the West Torrens and dissolved after just one season in the SAFA after changing its name to West Adelaide and wearing colours of Red, White and Blue in 1887. The modern club was formed originally as "The Natives" and competed in the 1895 SAFA season and 1896 SAFA season wearing Blue with a gold Hoop. Its initial meetings were held at the President's Office at Grenfell Street in Adelaide. With the introduction of Electoral Districts at a meeting of the SAFA on Monday 26th Oct 1896 at Prince Alfred Hotel  the "Port" Natives delegates informed the SAFA that they intend to rename themselves West Torrens. At the Annual General Meeting held on Friday 19 March 1897 at Lady Daly Hotel, Hindmarsh it was passed unanimously that the Club would alter the name from The Natives Football Club to West Torrens Football Club. In its history of almost 100 years, West Torrens won only four premierships; conversely, however, they only slumped to the wooden spoon on six occasions, evidence that they were generally quite competitive. Despite their relative lack of team success, winning only four SANFL Premierships and one Night Premiership  in their history (1924, 1933, 1945, 1953 and 1983 (night)), West Torrens boasted some of the best individual players ever to play Australian rules football. Players such as 1946 and 1947 Magarey Medallist, 1953 All-Australian and 1953 premiership captain Bob Hank, triple Magarey Medal winner (1955, 1958 & 1963), 1956 All-Australian and '53 premiership player Lindsay Head and former Australian Test cricketer Neil Hawke were all star players for the club. The club reached the finals for the last time in 1980 and by 1982 there were calls for West Torrens to merge with another club. In 1990, with  the imminent entry of the South Australian-based Adelaide Crows into the national Australian Football League (AFL), it was decided that West Torrens and Woodville would amalgamate. In an apt moment, Woodville and West Torrens were drawn to play each other in their respective final games which was played at the Adelaide Oval. The two sides merged after the completion of the 1990 SANFL season and have since participated in the SANFL as the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles. Magarey Medallists SANFL leading goalkickers