The North Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Roosters, is an Australian rules football club affiliated with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and SANFL Women's League (SANFLW). The club plays its home games at Prospect Oval, located in Prospect, a northern suburb of Adelaide. The club joined the SAFA in 1888 as the Medindie Football Club (nickname Dindies and from 1890s Dingoes),[1] changing its name to North Adelaide in 1893. It is the fourth oldest club still in operation in the SANFL after South Adelaide (1877), Port Adelaide (1877) and Norwood (1878). As the Port Adelaide SANFL team merged with the Port Adelaide AFL team in 2013 and now plays in the SANFL as an AFL Reserves team, some will argue that North Adelaide is now the third oldest SANFl club still in operation in the SANFL. North Adelaide's first premiership was won in 1900 (which finally broke the dominance of the 3 older clubs), and the club has won a total of fourteen senior men's premierships in the SANFL, most recently in 2018.
History
The 1905 NAFC team.
In 1880 a group of schoolboys from Prince Alfred College and the now defunct Whinham College got together and played football on a section of the Park Lands, previously known as Hawker's Paddock. It was so called locally because it was leased from the City of Adelaide by George Hawker, a well known citizen of the suburb of Medindie. The schoolboys dubbed their football team the Medindie Football Club. They wore the red and white colours of Prince Alfred College and played other football teams on the site. One of those schoolboys was Charles Nitschke who would become Captain of the Medindie Club and would be known as the founding Father of North Adelaide Football Club.[2][3]
One of the club's first reported games were in May 1882 against Prince Alfred and St Peters Colleges Second Twenties both on Medindie's home ground.[4][5]
Medindie was a foundation member in 1885 of the South Australian Junior Football Association, before being admitted to the Adelaide and Suburban Football Association in 1886.[6]
At the Annual General Meeting on 16 March 1888, held at the Red Lion Hotel, the Secretary Charles Nitschke was elected a Life Member for his valuable services to the club.[7]
At the start of 1888, during a split of the SAFA, the Medindie Club was invited to join with 3 senior clubs, Port Adelaide, South Adelaide and the Adelaide (1885), into forming a new Senior South Australia Football Association. Once the dispute was settled the club was still invited to join the senior Association for the 1888 SAFA season.[8]
On 14 March 1893, at a meeting held at Temperance Hall, Tynte Street, North Adelaide it was unanimously decided to renamed itself from Medindie to North Adelaide.[9][10] Although several other early clubs, including Victorians and Hothams which used the name of "North Adelaide" prior to 1893, none of them bore ties to the current club.
North Adelaide started playing at Prospect Oval from 1922 with the first game of the season on Monday 8 May 1922 against Glenelg[11] and it has remained their home ground ever since.
North Adelaide competed in the first match played at Football Park (now known as AAMI Stadium) in round 5, 1974. Their opponent was Central District. The match was won by Central District.
The longest serving coach for the club is Michael Nunan – 12 seasons from 1981 to 1992.[citation needed]
The Captain's record is held by Ian McKay, captaining the team for 8 years from 1948 to 1955.[citation needed]
The North Adelaide Football Club officially renamed both ends of Prospect Oval in 2012 after the two official Icons of the club. The northern end around the goals was named the "Ken Farmer End", while the southern end was named the "Barrie Robran End".
North Adelaide was a foundation member of the SANFL Women's competition in 2017. The Roosters lost two grand finals in the league before eventually claiming their maiden women's premiership in 2020.
Club Icons
The North Adelaide Football Club has named two of their past champions as Icons. They are:
Ken Farmer – All-time leading SANFL goal kicker with 1,419 from 1929 to 1941. Premiership player in 1930 and 1931. Premiership coach in 1949 and 1952. Since 1981 the leading goalkicker in each SANFL season has been awarded the "Ken Farmer Medal". He kicked 105 goals in 1930 to become the first SA League player to kick 100 goals in a season. He was a prolific goalkicker, kicking 100 goals in a season in 11 consecutive seasons (1930–1940). Farmer also holds the record for the most goals in an SANFL match – 23 against West Torrens at Prospect on 6 July 1940. Farmer scored ten or more goals in thirty-seven matches, and 1,419 goals in total over his career, at an astounding average of 6.3 per match.
Barrie Robran – Triple Magarey Medallist (1968, 1970, 1973). Premiership player in 1971 and 1972, is North Adelaide's other iconic player,[12]Barrie Robran, played 201 League games for the Roosters and 10 State games, and won 3 Magarey Medals (1968, 1970 and 1973). He was the first SANFL player to be made a "Legend" in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, and the only "Legend" not to have played VFL or AFL.
Club song
North Adelaide have had many versions of their club song in the past. All versions have contained the same lyrics, but have been changed rhythm wise to keep up with the times.[citation needed] The lyrics and tune, by well known Australian singer/songwriter Johnny Mac, are the only completely original written in the league, as all the other clubs have written lyrics to well known tunes.[citation needed] The most recent version was brought in during the early 2000s, but all versions can still be found on the club song CD.[citation needed]
It's a great, great club,
And the club we love,
We're the good old red and whites!
The mighty Roosters we're called,
All for one, one for all,
If we're down we fight, fight, fight!
We always play as a team,
And we play it clean,
We're never out of sight,
Be it wet, be it dry,
We try, try, try,
We're the good old red and whites!
North Adelaide 21.22 (148) defeated West Adelaide 11.7 (73)
Venue: Football Park
Attendance: 39,276
Date: 5 October 1991
Umpires: Laurie Argent and Mick Abbott Jack Oatey Medallist: Darel Hart
Selected by a committee composed of Colin Walsh (chairman), Don Lindner, Tom McKenzie, Jeff Pash, Barrie Robran and Gordon Schwartz. Each member provided a list of candidates for each position and the Committee then set about the arduous task of selecting the final team. The selected team was formally announced at a gala dinner held on 7 October 2000.
