The 2018

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL)

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

was played at the

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

on Sunday, 23 September to determine the

premiers Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

for the 2018 SANFL season. The Grand Final was contested by Norwood and

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

. North Adelaide won the grand final, defeating Norwood by 19 points, winning their first premiership since

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

. The Jack Oatey Medal for the best player on the ground was won by Norwood's Mitch Grigg - the first member of a losing grand final side to win the medal. This marked the highest scoring grand final since

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, with both teams kicking over one hundred points.

Background

Norwood were minor premiers, and progressed directly to the Grand Final by defeating Woodville-West Torrens in the Second Semi-final. North Adelaide finished the minor round in fifth place, although only one and a half wins behind second place. They progressed to the Grand Final by successively defeating South Adelaide, Sturt and Woodville-West Torrens. A major incident in this latter match, the Preliminary Final, caused lingering uncertainty about the result. North Adelaide commenced the final quarter with 19 players on the field (one more than permitted under Law 5.1), before correcting their error after "about five minutes." In reality it was 3 minutes 39 seconds. Woodville-West Torrens, being unaware of the situation, missed their only opportunity for redress: request that an umpire count the players and annul North Adelaide's match score of 56 points to that stage. During those 3 minutes 39 seconds, North Adelaide advanced its score by 2 points. 10 seconds later North scored a goal at the 3 minute 49 second mark, giving rise to the argument that North scored 8 points whilst the 19th man was on, which was greater than the final margin of 5 points (although North had led by as much 22 points). Michael David QC, sitting as the SANFL tribunal, later analysed events fully, and confirmed that there was no legal basis on which to disqualify North Adelaide, so the match result stood. On a charge of being "grossly negligent" he penalised North Adelaide $10,000 and 4 premiership points for the following season. This saga seems to have prompted two changes in the 2019

Laws of Australian rules football The laws of Australian rules football were first defined by the Melbourne Football Club in 1859 and have been amended over the years as Australian rules football evolved into its modern form. The Australian Football Council (AFC), was formed i ...

: 1. Law 5.5.3 "Players Exceeding Permitted Number"(c) was amended to remove only the points scored in that quarter until the count, and 2. Law 5.5.5 "Post-Match Review" was inserted to enable "reversal of Match result." Technically the second of these provisions may have caused a loss for North in the 2018 Preliminary Final. Incidentally in the 1982 Second Semi Final, Norwood had 19 men on the ground for some time after 3/4 time and Port Adelaide were aware of the transgression, but Port coach, John Cahill stated that he would hate to win a match that way.

Teams

Scorers: Barns 4.0, Harvey 3.2, McInerney 3.0, Woodcock 3.0, Hender 2.2, Ramsey 1.1, Sweet 1.1, Wilkie 1.0, Young 1.0, Olekalns 0.1, Thring 0.1, Tropiano 0.1, rushed 0.1

References

External links

Player lists & match stats (SportsTG)
South Australian National Football League Grand Finals SANFL Grand Final, 2018 {{AFL-competition-stub