South Adelaide

The South Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club that competes in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Known as the Panthers, their home ground is Flinders University Stadium (formerly Noarlunga Oval), located in Noarlunga Downs in the southern suburbs of Adelaide.

History

Club Formation and Early Days

The South Adelaide Football Club is one of the two surviving original members of the South Australian Football Association formed 30 April 1877 still competing in the SANFL, and has held its original colours (which were originally blue caps and long white trousers) longer than any other and has competed in every single season. South Adelaide Football Club was formed in 1876 as a breakaway club from the Old Adelaide Football Club. After a meeting in the Draper Memorial Schoolrooms a secretarial position for the club was filled by Charles Cameron Kingston. The club played their first game on 20 May 1876 against the Victorian Club at Montefiore Hill which started at 3pm. After some hard work and several disputes over the rules of the game it ceased 2 hours later after the Victorians scored a goal. South Adelaide was joint SAFA Club Champions along with the Victorians in the inaugural SAFA season of 1877.

Golden Era of Success

Between 1885 and 1900 South Adelaide won seven premierships (1885, 1892, 1893, 1895, 1896, 1898 and 1899) and was runner-up eight times between 1881 and 1903 (1881, 1882, 1886, 1894, 1897, 1900, 1902, 1903).

South Adelaide was led from 1888 to 1898 by captain and "proto-coach" Dinny Reedman who is generally seen as the first to view team combination and planning as a critical component of success in football. In 1896 they won sixteen and drew two of eighteen games.

Decline after District Football

District football was introduced optionally in 1897 and became compulsory in 1899. This was difficult for South Adelaide, who had under Reedman obtained most