South Adelaide celebrates 150 years

By PETER CORNWALL

“We are the grand old Blue and White,” go the words to the South Adelaide Football Club song. And that’s the colours they have now been for 150 years – the longest time any club has held its colours.

So no wonder the Panthers are proudly showing off the colours as they unveil heritage guernseys to be worn throughout the 2026 season.

This week they will be decked out in their 150th anniversary guernsey, modelled on the Budget cover by vice-captain Ollie Davis (pictured below).

On Good Friday as South officially celebrates its 150th year, the Panthers will wear a design inspired by the club’s 1960s guernsey. The jumper features printed laces to recreate the traditional look and feel.

South chief executive Neill Sharpe said: “It is really important that, as we celebrate 150 years, we can wear jumpers that acknowledge where we have come from, while still looking ahead.”

And it’s only right the Panthers are up against Port Adelaide, their oldest rival. The first time South met Port, which had its foundations back in 1870, was at Glanville on 1 July 1876 and South won by one goal to nil.

We’re expecting it will be more high-scoring at Noarlunga this week, although we reckon the Panthers would be happy to win by the same margin.

Sharpe described it as “a massive year for the club”. And that’s only right.

Just how impressive a 150th anniversary is on a world-wide scale is borne out by the fact some of the most famous football clubs hadn’t been thought of when South played its first game on 20 May 1876. Manchester United is 148 years old, Richmond is 141, Collingwood 134, Liverpool 133, Juventus 128 and Barcelona 126.

South Adelaide will be adorned in guernseys in the 2026 SANFL and SANFLW seasons like the ones worn by greats Dan Moriarty, ‘Diddy’ Munro, Jack Cockburn, Jimmy Deane, David Kantilla, Peter Darley, Mark Naley, Geoff Baynes, John Schneebichler, Stuart Palmer, David Kappler, Joel Cross, Nick Liddle and Keegan Brooksby.

When SA football was finding its feet in the early days, South wore the traditional blue-and-white hoops.

This design remained until 1913, before the club spent the next 13 years experimenting with a range of looks. It was in 1926 when the iconic white SA monogram first appeared in the centre of the jumper.

The full hoop design was back in the 1950s and it was worn with pride by dual Magarey Medallist and club legend Jimmy Deane.

He is remembered with great fondness with Jimmy Deane’s Bar at Magain Stadium. And how wonderful it is to have Deane Avenue, Darley Circuit, Kantilla Court and Naley Court in a housing development just a few Darren Harris drop punts south of Noarlunga headquarters.

South’s guernsey featured a small SA monogram up the top left in the early 1960s as it had at times in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

But everything was bigger and bolder as Neil Kerley took over as captain-coach in 1964. The SA monogram returned to the middle of the chest, where it’s sat since, and SANFL fans stood up and took notice that unforgettable year as Kerls lifted the Panthers from bottom of the ladder to a fairytale grand final win by 27 points against red-hot favourite Port Adelaide in front of 56,353 screaming fans.

The club reintroduced the hoops as its clash guernsey in 2014 in a nod to the history that has seen South win 11 men’s premierships.

The 150th anniversary clash guernsey is based on the club’s original jumper, with thinner hoops and a central line representing the laces of early footy guernseys.

The Panthers will wear the 150-year logo on their navy home guernsey all season.

The Panthers’ SANFLW side, which has made plenty of history in its eight years in the competition, winning a league record four flags, will also wear guernseys grounded in the club’s heritage. In jumper clashes, they will wear a full hoop design similar to South’s 1950s look. It is also a throwback to the SANFLW team’s main jumper from 2019-20.

There have been plenty of highs and lows over South Adelaide’s 150-year journey and they have been brought to life in the book The Grand Old Blue and White, 150 Years of the South Adelaide Football Club.

Researched and written by the club’s history committee – chair David Kelly, Randal Williams, Jack White, Craig Pett, Peter Alexander, Denis Heath, Chris Haines and Peter Kiley – and with expert assistance from Football Budget favourite Mike Sexton, the 415-page book features rare photos, stories from the earliest days of SA footy and myriad memories of the great players and characters who have over the years made the club what it is today.

The book will be launched before the big South-Port clash at Magain Stadium on Good Friday and is available at $160 hard cover and $110 soft cover.