1930

Background

North had three more good chances for premierships in the nine years 1921 - 1929.

In 1923, they scraped into the finals by drawing with Norwood and beating Port at Alberton, and they then beat Sturt to reach the Grand Final.  They were rated a good chance in the Grand Final against Norwood but were beaten.

In 1926 North finished fourth at the end of the minor round.  In the first week of the finals, North played superb football to eliminate Port and Norwood beat minor premiers Sturt.  In the Grand Final North beat Norwood 11.11 to 10.8, but as in 1919 Sturt (as minor premiers) had the right of challenge.  North were unlucky to lose Conrad to injury and Sturt won 9.10 to 7.9.

In 1927 North finished second and eliminated West Torrens in the first final and then beat West 8.3 to 6.11 in the Final.  Because of the challenge system, North had to play West (minor premiers) again and this time lost by 7 points.  This was the third time (1919, 1926 & 1927) that North had 'won' the Final and then be denied by the challenge system.

Ken Farmer won the award for Best Junior for the 'B' team in 1928 and made an instant impact on debut in 1929 by kicking 62 goals.

In 1930 the Club won 14 of its 17 minor round games and finished minor premiers.  Ken Farmer was a star, kicking 57 goals in the first 12 games and then 44 in the next 4 games (including 15 against South in the penultimate round) to become the first SANFL player to kick 100 goals.  Tragically, he and his younger brother Elliot were involved in a collision between their motor cycle and a truck in Frome Street near the zoo on the following Friday.  Ken injured an ankle but Elliott, who was the driver, sustained severe head injuries and died soon afterwards.  They were taking home a box which was to be used to house the many trophies awarded to Ken in recognition of his athletic prowess. Ken carried the box on the pillion and it was this box which saved him from serious injury. Ken announced that he would not play football again that season.

North played Sturt (3rd) in the first final but without Farmer they were well beaten.  Port (4th) narrowly beat Norwood (2nd) and then played and defeated Sturt.  But as minor premiers North had the right of challenge, so the final match of the season was North against Port.  Ken Farmer returned to play in the grand final.

Premiership Team

(Coach : P. Lewis ;  Captain : J. McDowall)

The Grand Final

Farmer returns to help North win

Light rain was falling when Port won the toss and elected to kick to the Northern end.  The conditions made the greasy ball hard to handle and players found difficulty maintaining balance.  North, leading in pace and vigour, had most of the early play but kicked 5 consecutive points before Barrett scored a goal.  Port then scored their first goal of the game before Storer went for a long run touching the ball on the ground, eventually handballing to Burton who kicked North's second goal.  Heavy rain began to fall and North added two more points as they continued to dominate play.  Just before the siren, Port scored their second - a disputed goal which Conrad claimed to have touched.  North had been far superior in the first term but lead by only 6 points.

Port leveled the scores with an early goal in the second quarter but from that point North were brilliant.  First Farmer took a strong mark over Maywald and goaled.  Then he had another shot from the boundary but mis-kicked and Barrett took a great mark and goaled.  Finally Farmer kicked two more, the  second after a strong mark over a pack.  North had handled the sodden ball with exceptional skill to establish a commanding 23 point lead at the long break.

Port players changed into long sleeve jumpers at half-time and with the rain easing off their ball-handling improved notably.  Port scored the first goal and Farmer replied for North, his 4th for the game.  Then Port scored twice more to reduce the deficit to just 6 points.  With the Port defenders concentrating on the dangerous Farmer, Hawke was able to score an easy goal for North to relieve some of the pressure.  Shortly after, Furler snapped truly to restore a 3-goal buffer.  Remarkably, this was North's seventh consecutive goal without a miss.  North added two more minor scores and Port a goal to reduce the margin to 14 points at the last change.

North had several chances to put the issue beyond doubt in the final quarter but could not kick a goal.  Furler missed 2 shots while Port added two goals to creep within 2 points with 12 minutes to play.  Furler missed again and another point pushed the margin out to 4 points.  Port repeatedly went forward but North's backline, steady as a rock throughout, repelled them time and again.  Finally, the tension was relieved when the final siren sounded.

After three times being denied premierships by the challenge system, it had at last worked in North's favour.  This was the last year of the challenge system.

Scores

Goals : Farmer 4.0, Barrett 2.1, Furler 1.3, Burton 1.1, Hawke 1.0, Thomas
0.3, McDowall 0.2, Willshire 0.1, rushed 0.2

Attendance : 23,609

Team Photo

Back row, L to R : G. Ellis, R. Bailey, T. Hodges, J. Doody, H. Stock, H. Averay, C. Williamson, S. Sparshot, L. Roger
Second row, L to R : G. Woodhead, W. Dixon, D. McInnes, A. Mangelsdorf, C. Barrett, K. Shutter, C. Willshire, D. Phillis, H. Fleet, W. Averay, J. McKenzie
Third row, L to R : H. Whitehead, R. May, M. Hopgood, H. Hawke, R. Munn, S. Lock, S. Burton, C. Taylor, F. Tucker, S. Kays
Fourth row, L to R : P. Lewis (Coach), D. Conrad, C.F. Young (Hon. Secretary), J. McDowall (Captain), J.F. Bennett (Hon. Treasurer), P. Furler (Vice-Captain), T. Tymons, K. Farmer, R. Lewis
Front row, L to R : G. Storer, N. Drew, W. Thomas, G. Foulis, H. Hardwick, B. Burns, R. Bruce