Whyalla

Football began in Whyalla with the Hummock Hill Football Club active as early as 1912. The Whyalla Sports Association was formed in 1920 with South Whyalla, North Whyalla and Central Whyalla as the initial clubs.

In the 1920 Central Whyalla and South Whyalla grand final, Central player Bert Zeven was easily the best man on the ground. At one stage in the third quarter Bert kicked 4 goals and two behinds during a five minute period of the game. After the game a telegram was sent to the South Australian Football League enquiring if Bert had created a record. A reply from the SAFL confirmed from available records that a record had indeed been established.

In 1947, the Whyalla Football League was in a sound financial position. The season was about to begin with a new fully turfed oval and the league was working with the Whyalla Sports Association to erect a new grandstand at Memorial Oval. It was also in 1947 that the Whyalla league played the Port Pirie league for the first time since WWII. In a match billed as the ‘Country Premiership of the State’, Whyalla won by 22 points in front of 2000 spectators at Port Pirie’s Memorial Oval.

In 1954, the Whyalla Football Association initiated a move to combine with the Great Northern association and the Quorn association. In their current form the new league would consist of ten teams, Whyalla four, Great Northern three and Quorn three. However, it was envisaged that amalgamations would need to take place to see the new super association consist of only eight teams. This proposal faded away but murmurings persisted into the expansion of the existing four team Whyalla competition.

The standard of football in Whyalla has always been of the highest quality and coaches with outstanding credentials were regularly attracted to the city to coach. In the 1950s that benchmark was reached with South Adelaide player Arthur Bishop coaching West Whyalla in 1950. Port Adelaide’s Max Horne coached South Whyalla in 1950 until he was replaced by Glenelg centre half forward Brian Wright in 1953. North Whyalla obtained the services of Koolymilka star, Neil Kerley as coach for the 1954 season. By attracting high profile coaches to Whyalla, good quality players were also lured to play there. As this happened, the standard continued to improve which had the effect of Whyalla producing champion footballers of their own in the Robran brothers, Graham Cornes, Peter McInerney, Greg Flanegan and Mark Hewett to name but a few.