1901 SAFA season

The 1901 South Australian Football Association season was the 25th season of the top-level Australian rules football competition in South Australia. Minor premier Norwood won its 12th premiership. The season marked the formation and debut of the new Sturt Football Club.

1901 SAFA premiership season
Teams7
PremiersNorwood
(12th premiership)
Minor premiersNorwood
(3rd minor premiership)
Matches played64
Highest attendance7,000 (Grand Final, Norwood vs. Port Adelaide)
Leading goalkickerWilliam Miller
Norwood (44 Goals)
Magarey MedallistPhil Sandland
North Adelaide

Season

The season was played under conventions similar to, but was amended from, the previous two seasons and the system used in the VFL in 1898–1900.

In the minor round, all seven clubs played a double round-robin of twelve matches, and in the major round, all seven clubs played a single round-robin of six matches.

If the minor premiers won the major round, then that team would automatically win the major premiership. If they did not, then the major round winner would be required to defeat the minor premiers in two separate challenge finals to claim the premiership, effectively giving the minor premiers a triple chance to win the premiership.[1]

The minor premier was Norwood, which finished two games clear on top of the ladder with a 10–2 record; however, the club's major round performance was mediocre, finishing fourth with a record of 3–3. Conversely, Port Adelaide, who had finished fourth in the minor rounds with a 6–6 record, was the undefeated winner of the major round. If the major round had been counted as part of the minor round, then Norwood would have been minor premiers with a 13–5 record, while Port Adelaide would have finished second: both they and North Adelaide finished 12–6, but Port Adelaide had a superior percentage.

Norwood then defeated Port Adelaide by four points in the first challenge match to win the club's twelfth premiership.

Minor round
1901 SAFA Minor Premiership Ladder
TEAMPWLDPFPA%PTS
1 Norwood (P) 12 10 2 0 684 380 64.3 20
2 North Adelaide 12 8 4 0 684 494 58.1 16
3 West Torrens 12 6 6 0 573 489 54.0 12
4 Port Adelaide 12 6 6 0 523 459 53.3 12
5 South Adelaide 12 5 7 0 400 590 40.4 10
6 Sturt 12 4 8 0 409 664 38.1 8
7 West Adelaide 12 3 9 0 467 664 41.3 6
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, A = Abandoned PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, (P) = Premiers [1]

Major round
1901 SAFA Major Premiership Ladder
TEAMPWLDAPFPA%PTS
1 Port Adelaide 6 6 0 0 0 306 176 63.5 12
2 North Adelaide 6 4 2 0 0 272 240 53.1 8
3 West Adelaide 6 4 2 0 0 184 200 47.9 8
4 Norwood 6 3 3 0 0 233 233 50.0 6
5 South Adelaide 5 1 4 0 1 217 149 59.3 2
6 Sturt 5 1 4 0 1 127 191 39.9 2
7 West Torrens 6 0 6 0 0 198 310 39.0 0
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, A = Abandoned PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, (P) = Premiers [2]

Challenge Final
1901 SAFA Final
Saturday, 5 October Norwood def. Port Adelaide Adelaide Oval (crowd: 6,000–7000) [3]
1.1 (7)
1.3 (9)
4.5 (29)
 4.9 (33)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 2.1 (13)
2.2 (14)
2.5 (17)
 4.5 (29)
Dawson, Kirkwood, MacFarlane, Webb Goals J. Davis 2, Healey, Quinn
  • Had Port Adelaide won the match, Norwood would have been entitled to one further challenge match for the major premiership.

Notable events
  • South Adelaide did not play its final two major round matches, scheduled for 21 and 28 September against West Adelaide and Sturt. The match against West Adelaide was ruled to have been forfeited by the SAFA after the Jubilee Oval had been double-booked, meaning that West Adelaide arrived at the ground to discover there was a cricket match in progress. The match against Sturt was scratched as the ladder would not be affected; this is historically considered to be an unplayed game, with no competition points awarded to either team.[4]
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References
  1. Goalpost (17 August 1901). "Football notes". Evening Journal. Adelaide, SA. p. 7.
  2. Goalpost (30 September 1901). "Football notes". Evening Journal. Adelaide, SA. p. 4.
  3. Goalpost (7 October 1901). "Football – the Deciding Match". Evening Journal. Adelaide, SA. p. 4.
  4. Goalpost (7 October 1901). "Retrospect of the season: Premiership won by Norwood". Evening Journal. Adelaide, SA. p. 4.
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