SA’s Special Teal Cup Class of ‘80

By PETER ARGENT

For any child of the 1980s, the names role off the tongue for the Who’s Who of SANFL football superstars of the epoch.

The 1980 Teal Cup winning side was coached by the man who took Central District to its first Grand Final in 1995, Alan Stewart, with West Torrens giant Greg “Hotdog” Hodson as skipper and the smooth moving left-footer from the Ponderosa – who would be club best and fairest just two years later – Peter Kreig as his deputy.

No less than 11 members of this side would play upwards of 150 league (SANFL-VFL-AFL) games and a number of them are champions of our code.

“You never quite know what will happen with kids in their mid-teens, but that 1980 team had plenty of diamonds,” South Australia’s title-winning Teal Cup coach of 1979 and 1980 sides, Alan Stewart, said.

“I coached the Teal Cup team for five years from ‘79 to ’83, then again for a couple of years at the end of the 80s.

The 1980 Teal Cup side included two Magarey Medallists, Greg Whittlesea (‘88) and John Platten (’84).

Along with 251 SANFL games, mostly at Sturt, Whittlesea was an All-Australian following the 1988 Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival.

Of course, Platten, who was an All-Australian at this Teal Cup competition, also shared the Brownlow Medal in 1987, becoming the second of just three players, alongside Malcolm Blight and later Nathan Buckley who have the Magarey-Brownlow Medal double – amongst a 386 game career with Hawthorn and Central District.

From the SA Teal Cup title winning side there were no less than a half a dozen SANFL premiership players, and a pair of Jack Oatey Medallists, as best on ground in the SANFL Grand Final – Kernahan in 1985 and Hart in 1991.

Both Kernahan, inducted to the AFL Hall of Fame in 2001, and his great mate Chris McDermott would go on to be AFL captains.

A dual premiership skipper at the Blues, Kernahan’s CV includes being one of the VFL/AFL’s longest serving captains, along with being a 11-time leading goal kicker at the Blues, coupled with three Glenelg best and fairest awards before he travelled east.

McDermott stayed in Adelaide, but also won a trio of club best and fairest medals at the Bay (and many believe he should have won the ’88 Magarey Medal), before becoming the inaugural captain of the Adelaide Crows when they entered the AFL in 1991.

He finished his time at Glenelg rivals of the epoch, North Adelaide’s as senior coach between 1997 and 2000.

“Many of this groups personnel would become lynch pins in a highly successful SA State of Origin Teams later in the 1980s.

“A number of this ’80 side including Stephen Kernahan, John Platten, Peter Kreig, Chris McDermott and Craig Bradley would play SANFL league football the next year, starting long and successful careers.

“Harty (Darel Hart) had already played a league game at Central as a 16-year-old that season.

“There was plenty of quality right across the entire squad.”

Another elite member of the class of ’79 is Craig Bradley.

His football record has few peers. This included an Australian record 464-game career and when you included interstate and national games he participated in an all-time record 501 senior Australian football games overall.

Along with playing first-class cricket for SA and Victoria, Bradley was a premiership player with the Port Magpies in 1981, in a winter he also travelled to England and played for the Australian Under 19s on a cricket tour of England.

Along with three Port Adelaide best and fairest awards, there was another trio of top gongs at Carlton.

He was immediately inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2006, after the minimum three years of retirement.

Darel Hart was a 236-game SANFL League footballer, along with having two seasons (39 games) with the Crows, before venturing into coaching.

He has a successful tenure as the South Australian state Under 16s coach across the past decade.

Craig Burton had a 179-game SANFL career with firstly West Adelaide, then with the Roosters, where he was a member of the 1987 premiership team.

Uniquely, both Craig (with West) and his son Ryan (with North Adelaide) kicked goals with their first kicks in SANFL league football.

Ryan, after starting his AFL career with Hawthorn, is now a key running defender with the Power, while Craig is the current CEO of the North Adelaide Roosters Football Club.

An ultra-reliable key defender when he moved into SANFL league ranks, long-limbed Peter Reid from Victor Harbor played 192 league games with Sturt.

Clayton Lamb would go on to have a 262-SANFL game career with West and Glenelg, along with playing a single AFL game for the Crows in the inaugural season.

Peter Krieg was a silky midfielder who spent the first 206 of his 263-game league career with Central District, but his career highlight came when he played in the triumphant North Adelaide team in the 1991 Grand Final.

Another member of his squad, was Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Medalist in 1985 (Melbourne Demons best and fairest) and an All-Australian in 1988, Danny Hughes who played 265 games across both competitions, and a pair of Port Magpies SANFL flags.

Also in the SANFL 200-club was Central District utility Trevor Roe. Roe gave sterling and consistent service to Central District in 262 league games from 1983 to 1995.