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

Largely due to the persistent efforts of Ray Curnow and connections made during the war-time competition (when Glenelg combined with West Adelaide), Glenelg were able to recruit Johnny Taylor as Captain-Coach for the 1950 season, along with his brothers Don and Laurie.

The Taylor brothers made an immediate impact at the club, and the Bays now had the four key positions covered with high quality players: League leading goalkicker Colin Churchett at full-forward, Laurie Taylor at centre-half-foward, Don Taylor at centre-half-back, and dual best & fairest winner Ray Hunt at full-back.

They also had 1949 Magarey medallist Allan Crabb as Ruckman, and hard as nails followers in Johnny Taylor and Ted Robjent.
In the 1950 Magarey medal, ruckman Allan Crabb was runner-up with 16 votes, and Glenelg's other top vote getters were Don Taylor - 10 votes, Cliff Brooker (rover) - 8 votes, Clarrie Window (half-back) - 6 votes, and Laurie Taylor - 5 votes.
Glenelg also had five players selected for the 1950 Australian National Football Carnival played in Brisbane: Don & Laurie Taylor, Allan Crabb, Colin Churchett & Clarrie Window.

During the 1950 season, Colin Churchett became the 2nd Glenelg player after Jack Owens, and just the 6th from any SANFL club, to kick 100 goals in a season. He booted 105 goals for the season, to be Glenelg's leading goalkicker for the 4th year in a row, and the league's leading goalkicker for the 3rd year in a row.

The 1950 season got off to a rollicking start with an unprecedented 74 point drubbing of Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval, and was followed up by 65 & 51 point wins over the previous season's bottom two sides, South & Sturt in the next 2 rounds.
Glenelg were on top of the ladder for the first 3 rounds, and in the top two at the conclusion of 11 of the first 12 rounds, but two consecutive losses for the first time in the season in rounds 12 & 13 saw them drop to 4th on the ladder with an 8-5 win-loss record, and just 1 win in front of 5th placed West Adelaide.

As fate would have it, they played West the following round, and a loss would see Glenelg drop out of the top-4 as West had a superior percentage.
Down by 14 points at half-time, Glenelg overpowered West in the third term, kicking 7-10 to 1-2 and eventually ran out winners by 15-points. This win established a 2 game break between Glenelg in 4th and new 5th ranked team North.

With two minor round games remaining, Glenelg were still in 4th spot, two games ahead of North in 5th, but with an inferior percentage. Glenelg were due to play North and top side Norwood in the last two rounds, and if they lost both games they would likely miss the finals, as North played South in the last round - who had not won a game.

At quarter time in the round 16 game against North, The Bays were down 0-6 to 6-6, and their finals aspirations were hanging by a thread. Slowly but surely Glenelg dragged themselves back into the game, trailing by 9 points at half time and 3 points at three quarter time, until eventually running out winners by 5 points - thus securing their finals spot.

Coming into the last minor round game against top team Norwood at The Parade, Glenelg were in 3rd spot on the ladder, 1 game behind 2nd placed Port, so if Glenelg could beat Norwood and if Port lost to West, then Glenelg would move to 2nd and secure the double chance in the finals. The match against Norwood was another tight match, with Glenelg holding a 17 point lead with just 5 mniutes remaining. But Norwood kicked two late goals and had an oppotunity for a third, before a holding the ball decision allowed Glenelg to clear and hold on for a 5-point victory. As West had upset Port, the win enabled Glenelg to finish in 2nd position - and gain the double chance - with 12 wins & 5 losses.

The Second Semi Final against Norwood produced another tight 5-point game, but unfortunately this time the result went the other way.
In the Preliminary Final, Glenelg thrashed Port Adelaide by 44 points, which set up a Grand Final encounter against Norwood, their 3rd meeting in 4 weeks - with the first two being 5-point cliff-hangers, one each way.

Unfortunately the Grand Final turned out to be a non-event. Glenelg had Laurie Taylor, Ted Robjent and Cliff Brooker sidelined with injury, and Norwood blew Glenelg out of the water in the first quarter - including a goal within 20 seconds of the first bounce. Putting the recent 5-point matches aside, Norwood had Glenelg's measure during the year with wins of 78-points and 60-points, and they backed it up in the Grand Final with a 47-point win.

In Neil Kerley's first season as non-playing coach of Glenelg, with Ken Eustice as captain, the team could not replicate the dominance of the previous season.
Up until round 14, they consistently struggled against the top sides - losing every match they played against Sturt, Port or North - but generally winning comfortably against every other side. This left them on 9 wins & 5 losses, and sitting in 3rd position on the ladder - two wins and percentage in front of 5th placed Norwood.

But then things changed, they lost four games in a row, including three narrow defeats to Torrens, Centrals & North, but more importantly a 7 goal thumping by Norwood at Glenelg Oval, which allowed Norwood to take Glenelg's place in the top 4.

With two rounds remaining, Glenelg were half a game out of the top 4, and facing top side Sturt at Unley - a team they had lost their previous 5 encounters to, and on a ground they had only won at once in the last 8 years. In a season defining game, after being 21 points up at three-quarter-time, Glenelg hung on to defeat Sturt by 5 points - keeping their season alive, but still needing other results to go their way in the last round to make the finals.

In the last round, Glenelg needed to defeat Torrens, and hope Norwood lost to the new top side Port Adelaide. At three-quarter-time in that last round, Glenelg were 22 points ahead of Torrens, but Norwood were 4 points in front of Port. Despite four late goals to Torrens, the Bays held on to win by 9 points, but the real concern was at Alberton, where 20 minutes into the last quarter, Norwood led Port by 19 points. But three late goals to Port, followed by a point at the 26 minute mark, meant the game ended in a draw, and Glenelg qualified for the finals on percentage.

After a relatively unimpressive minor round, Glenelg definitely stepped up a gear in the finals.
In the first semi final against North Adelaide (whom they had not beaten in the minor round), Glenelg gradually wore North down, and after being 10-points down at quarter time, 7-points down at half time, and 3-points down at three quarter time, they overran North in the last quarter to win by 16-points.

In the preliminary final against minor premier Port Adelaide (whom they also had not beaten in the minor round), Glenelg led at every change, but bad kicking for goal in the first half kept Port Adelaide in the game. Port came back and hit the lead by a point in the last quarter, but Glenelg were able to respond and eventually ran out winners by 18 points.

In the Grand Final against Sturt, on a cold and wet day, Glenelg got off to a good start but again didn't make the most of their opportunities in front of goal in the first half, and only led by 2-points at half time. Sturt dominated the third quarter and had established a lead of 18-points by 3/4 time. Two goals to Glenelg at the start of the last quarter brought the deficit back to just 6 points, but Sturt steadied and outscored Glenelg by 4 goals to 2 for the rest of the quarter to run out winners by 21 points and win their 5th premiership in a row.

• Rex Voigt won the club's best & fairest award.
• Fred Phillis was the club's top goalkicker for the 3rd year in a row with 107 goals, including 12 in a match against Woodville at Glenelg Oval.
• Fred Phillis was also the league's top goalkicker for the 2nd year in a row.

During 1974 Glenelg definitely came back down to earth from the giddy heights of 1973.
They were clearly only the 4th best team during the minor round, winning only 1 of 9 matches against the top 3 sides (Sturt, Port & Norwood), but were obviously far superior to the rest of the teams, winning 10 out of 13 matches against the bottom 6 sides, and those three losses were all by a goal or less on the opposition's home ground - whereas, apart from a 2 point win against North (when they nearly kicked themselves out of the game with 15-24), the wins against those sides were all by 7 goals or more.

Finishing the minor round in 4th spot with an 11-11 win-loss record, meant the defence of their title had to begin via the sudden-death elimination final.

In the finals Glenelg kicked up a gear.
In the elimination final against Torrens, they had twice as many scoring shots, kicking 15-28 and winning by 36 points - with Fred Phillis booting 7-8.

In the first semi final against Norwood, after being only 4 points up at three-quarter-time, they finished strongly into the wind in the last quarter, to run out 23-point winners, but were again plagued by inaccuracy with 12-18.

In the preliminary final against Port Adelaide, again only 3 points up at three-quarter-time, they stormed home in the last quarter, to win by 49 points - with Peter Carey kicking 7 goals, but Peter Marker rated as best on ground.

The Grand Final against Sturt, the first at Football Park, was played on a very windy day and the weather conditions and the coin toss played a big part in the result of the match.
Sturt won the crucial coin toss and kicked with a howling wind in the first quarter, and lead 6-5 to 0-1 at quarter time. Unfortunately The Bays turn with the wind in the 2nd quarter was hampered by rain after 10 minutes, and Glenelg trailed 4-6 to 6-6 at half time.
In a magnificent third quarter into the wind, Glenelg outscored Sturt 2-1 to 0-6, and were only 5 points down at the last change with the wind at their backs in the last quarter. However, they had used all their petrol tickets, and due to early injuries had no reserves to call on to freshen them up, so in the last term, Sturt kicked three goals into the wind against an exhausted Glenelg, and ran out winners by 15 points.

Sturt were absolutely worthy premiers based on their performances throughout the year - 21 wins & 3 losses, but based on their finals performances, Glenelg also would have been worthy premiers, and with a bit of luck they could have been.

• Neil Kerley and Peter Marker continued their coach-captain partnership for the 4th year in a row.
• Graham Cornes won his 3rd club best & fairest award, and took a number of spectacular marks during the season.
• John Sandland was the club's top goalkicker for the season with 55 goals, and Fred Phillis was 2nd on 46 goals after again spending a large chunk of the season at centre-half-back.
• Kym Hodegmenan and Stephen Copping both made their league debuts in 1974, and Paul Weston played his first SANFL league match after debuting in the 1973 champions of Australia series.
• Kym Hodgeman won the reserves Magarey medal in just 12 games, before he was promoted to the league side.

1975 was another golden premiership opportunity lost during the club's golden era, a season that promised so much, but in the end just delivered another frustrating grand final loss.

Glenelg started the season with demolitions of two of the previous season's powerhouses, Norwood by 76 points in round 1, Port by 55 points in round 2, and followed it up by defeating reigning premiers Sturt by 22 points in round 4. After 9 rounds, they were sitting on top of the table, undefeated, 2 games clear of 2nd, with a percentage of 64.2% - with one newspaper scribe even predicting that Glenelg could go through the season undefeated.

Then, just like in 1969, they had a short slump - losing 3 out of 4 matches in the middle of the season - before finishing off the minor round with 5 thumping wins.

During the course of the season, they had four 100 point wins, including a league record 238 point win against Centals at Glenelg Oval in round 17.

Despite finishing the minor round with 15 wins & 3 losses and a percentage of 62.3%, Glenelg finished 2nd, 1 game behind Norwood - who had not lost since round 2 - but Glenelg had a vastly superior percentage.

Glenelg won the qualifying final against Sturt by 26 points (after nearly kicking themselves out of it with 17-24), and then in the second semi final, inflicted Norwood's first defeat since round 2, with a 29-point victory. Fred Phillis kicked 6 goals in each of those finals, taking his SANFL season tally to 123 - and unfortunately that is where it stayed.

Glenelg went into the grand final as favourites on a sunny, but windy day. The grand final was a dour, low scoring match, with only 16 goals scored between the two teams. Glenelg had many opportunities to hit the scoreboard that day, but a litany of missed shots for goal throughout the match (particularly by Fred Phillis, who kicked 0-6 & 2 out of bounds from his 8 shots at goal), and a few dubious umpiring decisions deep in the last quarter when the match was up for grabs, conspired to deny Glenelg a premiership that was their's for the taking.
However, the fact remains that Glenelg were only in front for 3 minutes in the entire match, and apart from 3 goals in 3 minutes just before half time, they only managed 4 goals for the rest of the game - they simply weren't good enough in the conditions on the day and Norwood won the grand final by 12 points.

• Neil Kerley and Peter Marker were once again coach and captiain.
• Peter Carey, still only 21 years old, won his first club best & fairest award.
• Peter Marker was 2nd in the Magarey medal by just 1 vote, Peter Carey finished 4th, and Kym Hodgeman finished 6th.
• Fred Phillis returned to full-forward for the entire season and was the club's top goalkicker for the 6th time, kicking 128 goals - including a club record 18 goals against Centrals at Glenelg in round 17, and 11 goals against Centrals at Football Park in round 8.
• Fred Phillis was also the league's top goalkicker for the 4th time in 1975.
• Glenelg broke SANFL records for the biggest winning margin in a match (238 points), the highest score in a match (49-23, 317 points), and the highest scoring season (3185 points - beating the previous record of 3117 set by Glenelg in 1973).

As Neil Kerley had resigned after the 1976 preliminary final, Glenelg appointed Carlton hard-man John Nicholls as the new Glenelg coach, and Peter Marker continued on for his 7th year as club captain.

In the early part of the 1977 season Glenelg never really looked like they were going to carry all before them and dominate the competition, as had done early in the previous two seasons.
After 8 rounds they were in 4th spot on the ladder with 4 wins - 4 losses.

But from round 9 onwards they started to hit their straps, winning 7 of their next 8 matches, starting with a 98-point belting of West (who were level with them on the ladder), followed by a 21-point win over Port (who were equal top), and included massive wins of 147-points against North, and 128-points against Woodville.
This had them sitting equal 3rd on the ladder (behind 2nd placed Norwood on percentage, and 1.5 games behind top placed Port).

Although they only won 3 of their last 6 games, one of them was against Norwood, which ensured that they finished the monor round in 2nd position with a 14-8 win loss record, 3 1/2 games behind top side Port Adelaide - which would have been closer if not for a couple of inexplicable losses to wooden-spooner Centrals.

In the finals, Glenelg had a comfortable 40-point win over West in the qualifying final (with peter Carey kicking 8 goals), followed by a 25-point loss to Port in the second semi final (after leading by 2-points at 3/4 time), and then a 26-point victory over West in the preliminary final (after the scores were level at 3/4 time). This had Glenelg participating in their 6th grand final in just 9 years.

The grand final against Port Adelaide was a tight match all day. Port kicked a goal on the 3/4 time siren to put them up by 8-points at the final break, and with 14 minutes remaining in the last quarter they had eked their lead out to 26-points. Although 2 goals in 2 minutes to Glenelg reduced the deficit to just 14 points with 12 minutes remaining, Port were able to hang on to win by 8 points.

• A highlight of the season was a 3-point win over Norwood at The Parade in round 12. Norwood were 3 points up with only seconds remaining, when Graham Cornes took a hanger 15 metres out from goal, and kicked a goal after the siren to win the match. Watch youtube video
• Wayne Phillis took over captaincy duties in the finals when captain Peter Marker suffered a serious leg injury on the eve of the finals, which all but ended his career. He attempted a comeback late in 1978, but retired after only a handful of games.
• Kym Hodgeman won his first club best & fairest award.
• Graham Cornes was the club's top goalkicker with 74 goals, followed closely by Stephen Copping with 72 goals.

In each of the previous two seasons, Glenelg had dominated the minor round, but failed in the finals, but 1982 unfolded in a completely different manner. Glenelg were never higher than 3rd on the ladder throughout the minor round, and whilst the ladder shows they only made the finals by half a game, it was a bit more comfortable than that as they were 2 1/2 games inside the top five with just 3 rounds to play.

A highlight of the minor round was a magnificent fighting 4-point win over Norwood at Football Park in round 19, when 4th year captain Paul Weston kicked 3 last quarter goals, including a booming screw punt from the half forward flank, which put Glenelg back in front with just seconds remaining.

Glenelg finished the minor round in 4th spot with a 13-8-1 record, and faced Centrals in the elimination final - who had beaten them by 109 points at Glenelg Oval just 3 weeks earlier, and who were on a 7 game winning streak.

In a 26-goal turn-around from their previous meeting, Glenelg defeated Centrals by 50 points in an elimination final which was dominated by Stephen Kernahan.
Glenelg then defeated Sturt (whom they hadn't beaten in the minor round) by 35 points in the first semi final to set up a preliminary final showdown against minor premier Port Adelaide.

Glenelg had not beaten Port Adelaide during the minor round, and hadn't beaten them in any final since the 1974 preliminary final - 6 consecutive finals losses.
In a match made infamous by a rampaging and out of control David Granger - who broke Stephen Barratt's leg with a kick, and was subsequently suspended for 9 matches for stiking Graham Cornes - Glenelg put in another courageous and resilient finals performance to prevail by a point and progress to the grand final against Norwood.

But unfortunately, after 3 tough finals, and on a six day break from the toughest of them all, Glenelg had run their race, and were never really in the hunt, being 4 goals down at both half time and 3/4 time, and then getting steamrolled in the last quarter to lose by 62 points.

• Tony McGuinness won the club best & fairest award, and at 18 years of age became the yougest ever winner of the Magarey medal.
• Michael Lunniss was the club's top goalkicker with 69 goals.
• At the end of the season John Halbert quit to take up the coaching position at Sturt, after the retirement of Jack Oatey.