Friday Flashback – 1950 SANFL Grand Final

By ZAC MILBANK

It was only Glenelg’s second Grand Final appearance in nearly three decades of existence so excitement had been building at Brighton Road in the lead up to the 1950 SANFL Grand Final against Norwood.

With only one premiership under their belts – 1934 – the boys from the Bay were quietly confident they could break the club’s drought after losing to the Redlegs by just five points in the Second Semi-Final.

Legend has it, Glenelg’s faithful fans made their way up Anzac Highway behind a caged circus Tiger, which was placed outside of the Adelaide Oval while the title-decider unfolded in front of more than 50,000 spectators.

But that was about as fierce as the Tigers got as Norwood claimed its 22nd premiership under the guidance of the great Jack Oatey as captain-coach.

And it was a fast start which set things up for the boys from The Parade as they streaked to a commanding 33-point lead at the first change.

Oatey was in the thick of it from the first bounce as he helped clear the ball from the centre square to orchestrate the first goal of the game to Redlegs bigman Peter Dalwood inside the opening 20 seconds of the match.

Glenelg responded in the second term to boot 3.3 to Norwood’s 1.1, reducing the margin to 19 points at half-time. Within this period, it was Oatey who stood tall as a loose man in defence, ensuring the Bays wouldn’t close the gap any further.

Vice-captain Lionel Blackmore was having an influence in the centre, together with influential wingman Sam Gallagher and Doug Olds while John Marriott was rated best afield as Peter Tilbrook let the goal scorers’ list with four majors.

Prolific Glenelg spearhead Colin Churchett was restricted to just one major by Norwood’s Ron Reimann, with the Bays’ famous No.5 spotted having multiple shots on goal in the vision below.

The historic footage also includes the after-match speech (without sound) from Oatey and Glenelg character Stan Wickham waving a goal umpire’s flag as he heads into the changerooms.

Saturday September 30, 1950

Norwood  7.5  8.6  12.9  15.16 (106)

Glenelg  2.2  5.5  6.7  8.11 (59)

Crowd – 50,389 at Adelaide Oval