Adelaide Plains Football League

Grace Plains was possibly the first club formed in the District in 1904. Football was certainly played in the other towns of Mallala, Dublin and Two Wells at that time with those clubs all officially forming in 1908. When Virginia was formed in 1909, moves were being made to form an association from a group of clubs that had played an unofficial competition in 1908.

A meeting held in Dublin on 4 May 1909, resulted in the formation of the Adelaide Plains Football Association. Delegates were present from Mallala, Virginia, Two Wells, Windsor, Lower Light and Dublin. Officers elected were, patron Mr Coombe, president Mr George Cheney and secretary Mr Andrew Driscoll. At a second meeting the colours were chosen as double blue.

Dublin had a comfortable victory over Two Wells in the first match of the new association 9.14 (68) to 0.2 (2). Dublin had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure their facilities were adequate for their opening match of the season. In the preceding months they had built dressing rooms, a pavilion and had even erected new goal posts.

Mr Ron Murrell of Two Wells presented the Murrell Medal to the best and fairest footballer in Adelaide Plains football. This medal was the forerunner to the presenting of a Mail Medal. Jack Wallace of Long Plains was a dominant player in the early 1920s, winning two Murrell Medals and being runner up for a further two. Mallala provided the winner in 1921 with Walter Dunstan.

Wasleys Football Club created a record in 1927 when they became the first Adelaide Plains club to complete a season without losing a match. Hamley Bridge applied to join the association in 1930 but their application was rejected because of the poor condition of the roads over which visiting teams would have to travel to arrive at Hamley Bridge.

When the program of matches was drawn up for the 1935 season it was decided to begin on May 25th to allow farmers the chance to finish their seeding. It was also planned to take a week off when the South Australia vs Victoria state match was set down to be played at Adelaide Oval.

During the 1947 season, Balaklava and Long Plains played each other on four occasions. Their first meeting was early in the minor round at Balaklava, the scores were Balaklava 4.9 (33) drawing with Long Plains 5.3 (33). Their return match in June resulted in a narrow six point win to Balaklava 8.3 (51) to 5.15 (45). The next encounter was in the first semi final with the scores tied again Balaklava 5.2 (32) Long Plains 4.8 (32) and then the replayed semi final resulted in another draw 7.7 (49) each. Long Plains possessed more powerful staying qualities and eventually won the first semi final 10.11 (71) to 4.5 (29). Long Plains made it to the grand final but obviously ran out of steam losing to Wasleys by 8 points.

From the early 1960s, a Central Districts football carnival was held and sponsored by Caltex Oil, The leagues taking part were Adelaide Plains, North Eastern, North Western and Gawler and Districts. Mid North replaced North Western when that association closed after the 1963 season. The carnival was renamed the Mid North carnival in 1975, Adelaide Plains dropped out of the format in 1998.

Adelaide Plains introduced a new import rule in 1998 where a boundary was placed around the competition with only those living within the limits able to play as locals. Depending on the size of their population base and where the finished the previous season, each club was assigned a designated allowance of 'outside' players.

During a history of just over 100 years, the Adelaide Plains association has stood tall, outlasting many nearby associations. The Wooroora, Wakefield, North Western, Lower North and Gilbert associations have all fallen by the wayside with their member clubs or their incarnations filtering through to become the Adelaide Plains of today.

(From South Australian Country Football Digest - Peter Lines)

• Encyclopedia of South Australian country football clubs compiled by Peter Lines. ISBN 9780980447293
• South Australian country football digest by Peter Lines ISBN 9780987159199