SANFL Teams Comprising of Players that have Played VFL/AFL



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Have you ever wondered about what the best team for your favourite SANFL club that comprised of players that had played VFL/AFL would look like? Well I have considered this notion over the years and I thought it may be interesting to expand this concept to every team in the SANFL.

 

Some SANFL clubs have more players to choose from than others and there are some surprise selections in teams. As with these exercises there will always be debate around what players to include and what players are excluded. The intention is to release teams in the 2013 reverse ladder order so this translates to Glenelg being released first, South Adelaide second and so on until the Premiership winners Norwood.

 

In order to achieve this I need to include some parameters. To qualify for the team, the player had to begin playing their career in South Australia. So for the purposes of this exercise: Andrew MacLeod does not qualify for the Port Adelaide Magpies team because he played for the Darwin Buffaloes.

 

Another qualification is that players drafted by the South Australian AFL teams from another state before starting their senior careers in the AFL do not qualify for the SANFL team they are drafted into. For example Patrick Dangerfield does not qualify for West Adelaide on this basis. However Darren Jarman qualifies for North Adelaide after Adelaide recruited him from Hawthorn because Hawthorn recruited him from North Adelaide.

 

A player can qualify for two teams, for example Andrew Jarman appears in both North Adelaide and Norwood teams as he won a Magarey Medal and a Premiership at both clubs. (This particular selection was met with some derision from a “Westies” friend, but had Andrew Jarman not won a Premiership and a Magarey Medal at Norwood then his inclusion in the Norwood side would not have occurred).

 

In fact, it highlights the wonderful aspect of the exercise, to encourage discussion about the SANFL about what might have been had history and circumstances been different.

 

Another aspect to this exercise is that there are instances during Australia’s history where the nation was at war. A common occurrence was for people to enlist in Adelaide and then travel to Melbourne prior to being shipped overseas. Quite often a SANFL footballer played for a Victorian Club while they were in Melbourne. For the purposes of the exercise these people were considered for their respective teams as it is no different to Graham Cornes only playing 5 games for North Melbourne.

 

Also, I have considered Woodville and West Torrens as the Eagles not as their separate clubs that existed before 1991. This was because I wanted to look at the clubs from the SANFL competition as it currently stands and not one from the past. It also avoids the debate around history that often occurred with the Port Adelaide Club between the Magpies and the Power, quite often used by their fans to win arguments.

 

So without further ado, let’s begin with the Glenelg Football Club.

 

The forward six are quite capable of kicking a decent score and comprises of three “talls” and three crumbing forwards. Starting with the Full Forward line, Tony Hall (103 games for Glenelg, 97 Hawthorn, 11 Adelaide) starts in the forward pocket. At Full Forward is Graham Cornes (312 Glenelg, 5 Nth Melb, 47 Sth Adel) who also coaches the team. Stephen Copping lines-up in the other forward pocket (246 Glenelg, 42 Essendon). The Half-Forward line comprises of Craig McRae (41 Glenelg, 195 Brisbane) on one half-forward flank. At Centre Half Forward the obvious choice is Stephen “Sticks” Kernahan (136 Glenelg, 251 Carlton) and would be my choice for Captain. On the other half forward flank is Matthew Liptak (51 Glenelg, 116 Adelaide)

 

The midfield contains vast experience and would be very competitive. Kane Cornes (36 Glenelg, 268 games Port Power) is my choice for centre with David Marshall (353 Glenelg, 26 Adelaide) and Tony Symonds (225 Glenelg, 3 Hawthorn) are on the wings. Brad Ottens (15 Glenelg, 129 Richmond, 116 Geelong) is a ruckman who can go forward, with Chris McDermott (277 Glenelg, 117 Adelaide, 10 North Adelaide) and Tony McGuiness (113 Glenelg, 109 Footscray, 113 Adelaide) as ruck rover and rover respectively.

 

The back six for Glenelg is solid and some teams would have some trouble kicking a score against it. At Centre Half Back is Chad Cornes (43 Glenelg, 239 Port Power, 16 GWS) with Andrew Mackie (198 Geelong) and Bryce Gibbs (29 Glenelg, 155 Carlton) on the flanks. Rod Jameson slots in at Full Back (163 Glenelg, 153 Adelaide) with Andrew McKay (40 Glenelg, 244 Carlton) in one back pocket and Paul Weston (196 Glenelg, 60 Essendon, 49 Torrens, 23 Norwood) in the other.

On the interchange bench are: Allan Bartlett (201 Glenelg, 11 Adelaide), Kym Hodgeman (244 Glenelg, 91 North Melbourne), Michael Murphy (134 Glenelg, 3 North Melbourne, 16 Adelaide, 10 Brisbane) and David Grenvold (101 Glenelg, 112 Essendon). 

All in all, there is some flexibility in this team and there is a good mix of champion players such as Stephen Kernahan and Graham Cornes with some quality performers such as the two “Macs” McGuiness and McDermott and Andrew Mackie. A notable exclusion is Richard Douglas who started his career at the Calder Cannons.