1879 SAFA season

The 1879 South Australian Football Association season was the 3rd season of the top-level Australian rules football competition in South Australia.

The Norwood Football Club went on to record its 2nd consecutive premiership, going through the season undefeated.

The Kensington Football Club received its second consecutive wooden spoon, failing to win a game, and extending its winless streak to 27.

Several disputes between South Adelaide and the other clubs arose during the season. This was principally due to rough play. The Association officially sanctioned that any Club not wanting to play against South Adelaide that a forfeit would not be recorded.^[1]

An official programme was also organised for the second twenties for all the clubs with South Adelaide winning the Premiership. Second Twenty games were also advertised and scheduled for a 3pm start, the same time as the First Twenty, but were programmed at the Home ground of the visiting First Twenty team.

West Torrens Football Club submitted an application to the join the SAFA but at the Association's Annual General Meeting held on 1 April 1879 the club's application was rejected by 12 votes to 19 against as a number of delegates felt there was already too many weak teams in the Association.^[2] The club would be admitted in 1887 when it renamed to West Adelaide but folded after one season.

SAFA representative First Twenty Team on interstate visit to Melbourne, Victoria to play the VFA. No 1st Twenty games were advertised by the SAFA. There were 3 second matches scheduled.^[19]

Non Association Match on 28 June at 3.30pm - West Torrens defeated South Adelaide 2-0 (Played On Victorian Ground with a fair attendance) ^[20]

A series of special matches were played against Geelong the Premier Football Club from the Victoria Football Association.
July 19—Geelong v. Victorian. Won by Geelong by four goals 24 behinds to one behind.
July 21—Geelong v. Port. Geelong won by eight goals 26 behinds to one behind.
July 22—Geelong v. Norwood. Geelong won by three goals 19 behinds to 3 behinds.
July 24—Geelong v. S.A. Association. Geelong won by four goals 13 behinds to 1 goal 4 behinds.

The Football Association decided at its meeting on Tuesday 29 July 1879 that in the event of any of the other clubs objecting to meet the South Adelaides they would not forfeit the matches by so doing, but the games would be simply struck out of the list of those arranged for the season.

The decision had been arrived at on account of the alleged disgraceful way in which some of the South Adelaide players conducted themselves in their recent game with the South Parks.^[29]

Notes:

• Following disputes between South Adelaide and other clubs, Adelaide (twice), Norwood, Port Adelaide, and Victorian (once each) all refused to play them: these five cancelled matches are not included in the above ladder.
• Kensington only played Norwood once, with their only scheduled match against Port Adelaide being forfeited due to a lack of players.
• Port Adelaide were ranked above South Adelaide on match ratio (only match was drawn), while Victorian were ranked above South Park (1-0-1) and South Park were ranked above Adelaide (1-0-1) on head-to-head record.

Second Twenty Notes:
South Adelaide did not met Norwood or Adelaide two matches;
Norwood and Victorian each forfeited a game to Port Adelaide ;
Adelaide forfeited five matches and Kensington two.

During July 1879, a team representing the South Australian Football Association toured Victoria, and played two intercolonial matches against a Victorian Association representative team; the first on a public holiday Tuesday, and the other on the following Saturday. The games were the first ever intercolonial matches between colony representative teams.

At an Association meeting held on 5 June 1879, the following players were selected for the first ever representative South Australian Team.
Adelaide — C. W. Hughes; Kensington— A. Harrison; Norwood — W. H. J. Dedman, A. McMichael, G.Giffen, J. Traynor, L. Suhard, E. Colbey, T. W. Green; Port—T. Smith; South Adelaide— A. Mehrtens, E. Absalom, K. Kennedy, M. Considine; South Park—A. M. Pettinger; Victorian— W. Knill, W. Osborn, C.E. Warren, W. Davis, G. E. Downs.
Emergency— W. Bracken (Norwood), S. M. Turner (Adelaide).

The South Australian side wore an all-blue uniform with SAFA in white on the cap. ^{[55] [56]} Due to commitments there was four replacements to the team, as Knill, Dedman, Waldron, and A. Mehrtens had to withdraw, that sailed for Melbourne on Wednesday 25 June 1879. Alfred McMichael from the Norwood Club, and formerly from Victoria, was selected as Captain.^[57]