History of the
Glenelg Football Club
affiliated South Australian National Football League

Whilst 1924 was the year where Glenelg began to build the nucleus of a league standard squad (with the debuts of Jack Owens, Len Sallis, John Lloyd & Cyril Hoft), and 1925 was the year that Glenelg won their first game and continued to build their list (with the debuts of Jim Handby, Jack Sexton & Clem Hill), 1926 was the year where the first green shoots of improvement began to show on the scoreboard as Glenelg got off the bottom of the ladder for the first time.

Whilst the 1926 season got off to a slow start with 4 convincing losses, round 5 showed a substantial improvemnet when they just ran out of time to overrun North in the last quarter and lost by just 8-points.
Then a breakthrough win in round 6 against winless South, was followed by a tenacious 4-point win against reigning premier Norwood the following round, and a 6-point win against West Torrens in round 8 (the team who had thrashed them by 10-goals in round 1), to give them 3 consecutive wins for the first time, and only their 5th win in their history.
So after 8 rounds Glenelg were on 3 wins - 5 losses, only 1.5 games outside the top-4, and for the first time still in finals contention with 6 rounds remaining.

Their improved form was maintained for the next 3 matches, losing to West by 28-points (after getting to within 6-points early in the last quarter), then losing to 2nd side Port by just 6-points, before defeating a still win-less South in round 11 by 27-points.
However, improved form aside, this left Glenelg 3 games and percentage outside the top-4 with just 3 rounds remaining, so their finals dream was effectively over.

Whilst the season finished in disappointing fashion with 3 consecutive losses, Glenelg had climbed off the bottom of the ladder for the first time, finishing in 7th position on the ladder with 4 wins - 10 losses, and a percentage above 40% for the first time - a small step, but first steps usually are..

• After joining the club from South Adelaide in 1925, Jim Handby was appointed captain-coach for the 1926 season.
• Len Sallis won his first Glenelg best and fairest award.
• Jack Owens kicked 64 goals and was Glenelg's top goal kicker for the 3rd season in a row.
• Jack Owens was also the league leading goalkicker at the end of the minor round (and was acknowledged as the leading goalkicker in the newspapers of the time, even though he was passed by Norwood's Roy Bent in the finals).
• According to the best players named in the Sunday paper each week, Glenelg's best players in the 1926 season were Jim Handby, Cyril Hoft, Len Sallis & Charles Drew.

1927 was the first year that Glenelg were a consistently competitive side, but it didn't show up on the premiership ladder because of a number of narrow losses.
Led by Jack Owens with an SANFL record 80 goals, for the first time Glenelg were no longer the lowest scoring team in the league.

But because they won only 1 of their first 7 games, they were never in the finals hunt, and finished 7th with 4 wins - 13 losses, 6 games outside the top-4.
And the reason for their lowly finish was that they lost 5 games by less than a goal which they probably should have won, and another 3 games by 19-points or less.

There were six games which they lost, but possibly could have or should have won ...

• In round 2, Glenelg were down by 10-ponts to Torrens at 3/4 time, and had a multitude of opportunities in the last quarter but only kicked 1-7 to lose by just 5-points.
• In round 4, Glenelg were down by 18-points to Sturt at 3/4 time, but lost by 1-point when Jack Owens only registered a point with the last scoring shot of the match.
• In round 9, Glenelg came from 27-points down to Port at 3/4 time to be within 3-points, and would have hit the front when Cyril Hoft kicked a goal in the last minute, but a contentious free (against Hoft for juggling the ball) saw the goal disallowed, resulting in a 3-point loss.
• In round 10, Glenelg led Sturt by 19-points at 3/4 time, but after only kicking 0-4 in the last quarter, left the door open for Sturt to kick two goals in the last 3 minutes to steal victory from Glenelg by 4-points.
• In round 13, Glenelg led Norwood by 21-points at 3/4 time, but lost by 5-points.
• In round 17, Glenelg were level with eventual premiers West at 3/4 time, but lost by 10-points after only kicking 0-5 in the last quarter.

If they had won all six of those games, then they would have finished in 3rd place, a game in front of Torrens in 5th, but even winning 4 out of those 6 matches would have doubled their previous best season tally of 4 wins and had them in finals contention for the entire season.

Looking at the talent thay had available with 8 gun players in Jim Handby, Len Sallis, Cyril Hoft, Jack Sexton, Gordon Barbary, Jack Lloyd, Blue johnston, Jack Owens, it is not wishful thinking that they could have played finals.
Between them they would finish with 3 magarey medals and 13 Glenelg best & fairest awards (to 5 different players), not to mention 827 goals from Jack Owens.
In fact looking at that talent it is hard to believe that they didn't play finals - I guess the only caveat is that a number these players were early in their careers (Johnston in his 1st year, Barbary & Sexton in their 2nd/3rd) and hadn't yet reached the peak of their powers.

• Jim Handby continued as captain-coach for the 2nd season in a row.
• John 'Jack' Lloyd won his first Glenelg best and fairest award.
• Jack Owens kicked 80 goals and was Glenelg's top goal kicker for the 4th season in a row.
• Jack Owens was also the league leading goalkicker with the highest goal tally recorded since 1893.
• According to the best players named in the Sunday paper each week, Glenelg's best players in the 1927 season were Gordon Barbary, John Lloyd, Jack Owens, Jim Handby, Len Sallis & Cyril Hoft.

Former West Torrens premiership captain, Roy Brown, was appointed Glenelg coach for the 1928 season, and Len Sallis was appointed captain, which allowed former captain-coach Jim Handby to concentrate on playing - which he did very well by winning the 1928 Magarey Medal.

Whilst the 1928 season only produced the same number of wins as each of the previous two seasons (4 wins), and resulted in Glenelg finishing in the exact same place on the ladder (7th), it was notable for the fact that Glenelg's scoring ability once again took a quantum step up, to the extent that Glenelg were the 3rd highest scoring team in the compettion - averaging 82 points per match (but defensively they were the worst).

Glenelg's fate for the season was decided in the first 8 rounds, when they only won 1 match - against West Torrens in round 5 - but 6 of those 7 losses were by less than 3 goals, and in 4 of them Glenelg were within a goal late in the game but couldn't close it out.

Another 4 losses in a row from rounds 9 to 12, left Glenelg in last position, 1.5 games behind 2nd-last South, and 6 games oustside the final-4 with just 5 games remaining, and the only thing left to play for was pride in avoiding another wooden spoon.

Their chance to avoid the wooden spoon would come in their next 3 matches, when they were due to play the other 3 sides outside the final-4 - Sturt (who they had never beaten), South & Torrens.
Glenelg took full toll of this opportunity by convincingly winning each of those games (by 34, 35 & 17 points) and pulled themselves back into 7th place, 1.5 games in front of bottom side South with 2 rounds remaining.
As Glenelg and South both lost their last 2 games, Glenelg avoided the wooden spoon, finishing 7th with a 4 win - 13 loss record.

• John 'Jack' Lloyd won his second consecutive Glenelg best and fairest award.
• Jack Owens kicked 83 goals and was Glenelg's top goal kicker for the 5th season in a row.
• Jack Owens was also the league leading goalkicker for the 3rd season in a row, breaking the previous season's record tally by 3 goals.
• Jim Handby became Glenelg's first ever winner of the Magarey Medal (awarded to the league's best player, as judged by the umpires).
• According to the best players named in the Sunday paper each week, Glenelg's best players in the 1928 season were Jim Handby, John Lloyd, Len Sallis & Jack Sexton.

In 1929 Glenelg got off to its best ever start to a season by winning their first 3 games. They had their first ever win against West Adelaide by 5-points in round 1, followed by an 8-point win against West Torrens at Thebarton Oval (both of these opponents were eventual finalists), then followed up with a 13-point victory against eventual wooden-spooner South Adelaide in round 3.
Considering that their previous best season yielded just 4 wins in total, having won their first 3 was a monumental improvement, and hopes were high that this would be the year that they would make the finals for the first time

Losses in the next two rounds brought them back to earth, but another win against Torrens in round 6, had Glenelg sitting in 4th spot on the ladder with a 4-2 record, equal with 2nd placed Norwood & 3rd placed Sturt, and a game in front of 5th placed West.

The round 7 encounter with Sturt was a real inflection point in Glenelg's season… win and they would jump to 3rd, lose and they could fall out of the top-4. In a tight game against Sturt where the scores were level at half-time, 3/4 time and 5 minutes before the final bell, Glenelg were defeated by 6-points despite having more scoring shots. Glenelg's inaccuracy in front of goal continued to plague them in the following round against West Adelaide, resulting in an 18-point loss (again despite having more scoring shots).

This put Glenelg behind the 8-ball in their chase for a finals berth, as after 8 rounds they were now 1 game outside the top-4 in 5th place on 4 wins - 4 losses, and due to play the top 2 sides (Port & Norwood) in the ensuing rounds.

However, despite Glenelg losing their next 4 games in a row (all against the top-3 sides), after 12 rounds Glenelg were still in finals contention, sitting in 7th on the ladder with a 4-8 record, but only 1 game behind the equal 4th, 5th & 6th placed teams.
So Glenelg simply had to beat Torrens in round 13 (who were one of those teams) to keep their finals chances alive. Glenelg led at half time, but Torrens dominated the 3rd quarter to establish a 26-point 3/4 time lead, and despite not scoring in the last quarter, held on to defeat Glenelg by 10-points.

This was Glenelg's 7th consecutive loss, and effectively extinguished their finals aspirations, leaving them in 7th place, 2 games and percentage outside the top-4 with just 4 games remaining.

Glenelg finished the season in 7th place with 5 wins - 12 losses, and were 4 games outside the finals - which is the same number of games that they had lost by 10-points or less during the season. Despite the disappointing 2nd half of the season, Glenelg were around the mark, and while 5 wins -12 losses doesn't look impressive, it was still their best season to date.

• Roy Brown continued as coach for a 2nd season, and was also appointed captain.
• Jim Handby won his 2nd Glenelg best & fairest award.
• Jim Handby was runner-up in the Magarey Medal in 1929, after winning it the previous year in 1928 (as well as being among the contenders in 1925 & 1926, and 4th in 1930).
• Jack Owens was Glenelg's top goalkicker for the 6th consecutive season with 72 goals.
• According to the best players named in the Sunday paper each week, Glenelg's best players in the 1929 season were Jim Handby, Gordon Barbary, 'Blue' Johnston & Len Griffiths.