A game (and goal) to remember

Sturt has claimed another premiership, again winning the Thomas Seymour Hill trophy with a stunning grand final win against Glenelg. But 50 years ago the Blues won a trophy that has almost been forgotten – again with a grand final win against the Tigers.

The League Cup. Or Datsun Cup. It might not have made a long-term impact on the SANFL but we – along with the help of a much-loved footy character who played in the Cup final in 1975 – want to make sure it’s remembered.

Sturt, sandwiching the win between its 1974 and ’76 flag triumphs, beat Glenelg by 26 points.

And the Double Blues pocketed $5000 for their efforts. Super-skilled rover Mike Nunan bagged seven goals and vied with ruck master Rick Davies for best-on-ground honours, while inspirational skipper Paul Bagshaw held the trophy aloft. But there’s one bloke history might have forgotten. He certainly hasn’t.

Ruck/forward CLINT GILES made his debut in this game – and booted a goal to remember.

Here Giles, who played 22 games with Sturt, then 37 for West Torrens and is now a driving force in the SANFL History Centre under the leadership of Christine Halbert, recalls a day when he was a part of history.

Yes, football tragics, it’s 50 years since teams fought for the Datsun Cup … although you may well ask, ‘what was the Datsun Cup?’.

Some might say the trophy, also dubbed the League Cup, was the most prestigious award there’s been in football (actually, those thinking that may be slightly delusional).

But SANFL administrators in 1975 decided to run a knockout cup among the league teams that ran during the season, much like they do in English soccer.

The difficulty of having 10 teams in our competition was circumvented when it was decided to involve the top eight teams from early in the season, thus enabling a straight knockout competition.

The Datsun Cup was also innovative as for the first time interchange of the bench players was introduced.

Up until then – and still in the normal league competition that year – the 19th and 20th players were only to replace an injured player or as a tactical move late in the game, with each a one-off switch. Coaches pretty much used these players in emergencies.

There was more history with it being the first official Sunday game between SANFL clubs – on August 3 at Football Park – and a couple of coaching greats were involved with Jack Oatey’s Sturt matched against Glenelg, coached by Neil Kerley.

I was chosen for my first game for the Blues as 19th man.

I remember thinking it would be a pretty good introduction to league football on the bench, as Jack had not adjusted to the interchange rule in the early games and had not used it.

I thought I would have a bird’s eye view of the game and perhaps get a run late in the last quarter!

I remember at half-time, it had been a tough arm wrestle, with not much between the sides.

Jack approached me in the changerooms and asked what I thought of (dual century goalkicking star) Ken Whelan’s game up until then.

I said he was going okay. Jack said, “no, he is struggling. I am going to put you at full forward”.

Jack then talked tactics to the players in front of a blackboard. People have asked me, “what did Jack say to turn the match around at the break?”

To be honest, I have no idea, all I could hear was a voice in my head saying, “Jack has lost the plot, he is replacing the great Ken Whelan with me!”

After Jack’s speech the players went into a quick huddle before going out the race. I felt the call of nature in the nervousness of the moment and raced to relieve myself.

To my horror, on return, the players had already run out of the race.

I sprinted onto the ground in a daze and Michael Nunan must have realised my nervous state and passed a practice ball to me saying, “have a kick, Lumpy”. (Lumpy or Huey were my nicknames. Lumpy = highly skilled, Huey = highly intelligent).

I turned and kicked a screw punt towards the race and it spiralled in a perfect arc into the race entrance.

By now we were all jogging to their positions, so I charged to full forward.

My opponent was Peter Anderson, former North Adelaide ruckman turned-State-full-back at Glenelg.

It all seemed surreal as the ball was bounced and the crowd roared. Rick Davies tapped the ball to Brendon Howard, who broke from the centre towards our goal.

Seeing this, I immediately thought I would make a dummy lead and leave the goalsquare free, so I sprinted as fast as I could (which, as you can imagine, was Michael Graham-type speed), towards deep half-forward flank.

To my horror, Brendon saw me and turned and produced a perfect pass in front of me.

As I marked the ball I was expecting a thump in the head from Anderson but, to my surprise, there was nothing.

As I turned, I saw he was back in the square – either my electrifying pace had left him for dead, or he had thought nobody is going to kick to that bum! A third option may have been he was still trying to find Ken Whelan, not realising he was off the ground!

As I looked towards the goals, they appeared to shrink before my eyes.

I am not sure how far out I was as they didn’t have the 50m arc on the oval in those days. I would conservatively estimate it was 95 metres into a strong wind (mind you 50 years ago people might have said 55 metres with no wind).

I decided to just kick the ball into the goalsquare and hope one of the Sturt boys could take a big mark. I launched a screw punt and, to everyone’s shock, it went through the goals at goalpost height.

In the next 10 minutes I began to feel more comfortable as we started to get a run-on and kick a couple more goals. Then Jack used the interchange as it was designed to be for the first time and replaced Giles for Whelan.

I spent the rest of the game on the bench as Sturt kicked away to become the first and only winner of the Datsun Cup. And I had kicked a goal. If only someone could find it on an old video!

Teams ranked 1-8 after Round 6 of the minor round qualified, with premiership table rankings deciding the first round – 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5.

Round 1
May 17, Glenelg 17.24 d South 11.12 (AO), Sturt 23.22 d North 14.15 (FP).
May 19, Port 25.18 d Central 8.13 (AO), Norwood 21.15 d West 12.11 (FP).
Round 2 semi-finals
June 16, Glenelg 11.23 d Port 11.4, Sturt 19.23 d Norwood 12.14.

FINAL
STURT 2.7 6.10 13.15 20.20 (140)
GLENELG 5.3 6.7 10.10 17.12 (114)

BEST – Sturt: Nunan, Davies, Howard, Wild, Klomp, Miels, Bagshaw. Glenelg: Carey, Rebbeck, Copping, Hodgeman, P. Anderson.
GOALS – Sturt: Nunan 7, Wild 4, Klomp 3, Whelan 2, Graham, Barton, Howard, Giles. Glenelg: Rebbeck 5, C. Anderson 3, Carey, Hodgeman, Caldwell, Rady 2, W. Phillis.
CROWD – 12,676 at Football Park.