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 governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the South Australian Football Association on 30 April 1877, the SANFL is the oldest surviving football league of any code in Australia and is the 7th oldest club football league in the world.
Consisting of a single division competition, since the admission of the Adelaide Crows reserves team in 2014, the season has been a 10-team, 18-round home-and-away (regular) season from April to September. The top five teams play-off in a final series culminating in the grand final for the Thomas Seymour Hill Premiership Trophy. The grand final had traditionally been held at Football Park in October, generally the week after the AFL Grand Final, though this was altered ahead of the 2014 season resulting in Adelaide Oval hosting the grand final in the penultimate weekend of September.
The league owned the sub-licences for South Australia's two AFL clubs—Adelaide Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club—until March 2014, when South Australian Football Commission reached an agreement with the Adelaide and Port Adelaide clubs—endorsed by the AFL—which will see the two AFL licences transferred to the clubs in return for payments totalling more than $18 million.
The league is also responsible for the management of all levels of football in the state. This includes junior football, country football, amateur football and specific programs rolled out across schools, indigenous communities (including the APY Lands in the state's north) and newly arrived migrant communities.
The SANFL owned Football Park, formerly the largest stadium in South Australia. The stadium, which opened in 1974, was primarily used for Australian Football League matches up until 2013 and had a capacity of over 51,000 prior to being demolished. The stadium was the headquarters for the league from 1974 to 2013. The SANFL competition is the second highest attended Australian rules football league behind the AFL.
History
Before 1877
The first recorded game of any "football" in South Australia was that of 'Caid' played in Thebarton by people of the local Irish community in 1843 to celebrate St Patrick's Day. In 1844 there was debate amongst the South Australian Legislative Council whether it be allowed that "foot-ball" be played on Sundays, with arguments against preferring the quiet worship of God. In 1859 the Gawler Institute ran a rural fete which included a game of football being staged.
The earliest recorded Australian rules football club in South Australia was Adelaide Football Club (unrelated to the modern day Adelaide Crows), formed in 1860. The early years of football were poorly organised and dogged by argument over which set of rules to adopt. A meeting of three delegates from each of the three clubs—Adelaide, Kensington and Port Adelaide—held a meeting on 10 March 1873, with Charles Kingston from Adelaide voted as chair in an attempted to draw up a standard code of playing rules.
However, after a match between Port Adelaide and Kensington in July 1873, it was remarked that neither side understood the rules clearly. As the years progressed, there became a growing push for uniformity and structure in South Australian football.
1877–1896: SAFA establishment and the early years
In 1877, following an initial meeting called by Richard Twopeny on Thursday 19 April 1877 at Prince Alfred Hotel delegates from 13 of South Australia's football clubs met to develop a uniform set of rules and establish a governing body. The South Australian Football Association was formed at a meeting called at the Prince Alfred Hotel in King William Street, Adelaide on 30 April 1877, and adopted rules similar to those used in Victoria upon the urging of Charles Cameron Kingston. The use of an oval ball, bouncing the ball and pushing from behind forbidden amongst the rules agreed.
The clubs that sent 2 delegates each to the meeting were: South Park, Willunga, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, North Adelaide, Prince Alfred College, Gawler, Kapunda, Bankers, Woodville, South Adelaide, Kensington, and Victorian.
The inaugural 1877 SAFA season was contested by 8 clubs. A number of games were played by Adelaide and Woodville against Gawler and Kapunda but these weren't counted in the premiership table at the end of the season. South Adelaide and Victorian were declared joint Club Champions.
In 1878, a brand new club Norwood was formed following the entire collapse of Woodville by a number of former players and it joined the Association for the season.