The year we won our seventh premiership

PREMIERS 1887

Season Review

The Association was made up of Adelaide, Gawler Albion, Hotham, Norwood, Port Adelaide, South Adelaide, and West Adelaide. Alf "Topsy" Waldron regained the captaincy after a year's break as skipper, and again led the team superbly.

Norwood played 18 games, resulting in 12 wins, 4 draws, and only 2 losses.
 
The better players during the season included George Coombe (from South Adelaide), John Daly, W.Dixon, W.Guster, Harry Haldane, Paddy Knox, J.McGrath,  A.Miller (from South Adelaide), G.Mugg,  Norman Richards and A.J.Roberts .
 
The leading goalkicker was John Daly (including a record 7 goals against West Adelaide on the Kensington Oval), followed by Jim Shaw and Rischbieth .
 
"One of the features of the year has been the revolution of the form of the Norwoods. Ten years ago the red-and-blues commenced their career, and passing through the season without being beaten they secured and held the premiership for six years. For the past three winters they have had to be content with second and third positions, but this year it looked as if they were going to repeat their memorable performances
of a decade ago by securing an unbeaten record. It was not until their last meeting with the Adelaides that they went down, and in their final contest with the South Adelaides they were again vanquished. Despite this, however, they secured the premiership by a fraction of a point. It must, however, be borne in mind in considering the matter, that no club have had such a hard fight for the premiership as the red-and-blues.
The other clubs enjoy defeating no team nearly so much as vanquishing the Norwoods. Each player does his best against the monopolisers of the championship, and for this reason the matches in which the Norwoods take part are always worth witnessing.
The Ports, who are only a fraction of a point behind the premiers, were beaten by the Norwoods twice, and the other two games between them resulted in draws.*
 
 The Premiership Table at the end of the season showed :
 
NORWOOD (1st) - Matches Played 18, Won 12, Lost 2, Drawn 4, Points (28), Possible Points (36), Percentage 0.777
 
PORT (2nd)-  Matches Played 17, Won 12, Lost 3, Drawn 2, Points (26), Possible Points (34), Percentage 0.764
 
* The South Australian Advertiser, 26 September, 1887.
 
 

Page prepared by R Cialini, Aug 2012

<< Back