Norwood Football Club - History

History

The Norwood Football Club was formed at a meeting held at the Norfolk Arms Hotel in Rundle Street, Adelaide on 28 February 1878.

Norwood’s first home ground was in the east Park Lands near the tramway and opposite the Kent Town Brewery.

Norwood played their first match at Adelaide Oval on 16 May 1878 against South Adelaide, who were the reigning champion at the time. Norwood went on to win the match 1 goal to nil, with Test cricketer George Giffen kicking Norwood's goal.

Norwood won a premiership in its first year of existence and then followed with five more in a row. Only Port Adelaide in the 1950s has managed to repeat the feat of winning 6 premierships in a row. Norwood eventually won 11 'pennants' between 1878 and 1899 and was the most successful team of the 1800s.

In 1883, after winning the pennant for the sixth successive year, Norwood became the first South Australian club to record a win over a Victorian team, when it defeated Essendon. In 1888, Norwood were proclaimed 'Premiers of Australia' when they defeated South Melbourne in three matches at Kensington Oval.

Norwood and Port Adelaide became famous rivals after a particularly tough qualifying finals match in 1894.

Early champions of the club include Alfred 'Topsy' Waldron, who captained the club for nine years, Alby Green, the first player to win the Magarey Medal for the best and fairest player in the competition in 1898 and Anthony 'Bos' Daly, who kicked 88 goals in 1893 including an astonishing 23 goals in one match. Daly's goal tally would not be surpassed for another 37 years and his tally of 23 goals in one match has only ever been equalled by the great North Adelaide goal shooter, Ken Farmer. Daly was widely regarded as "the greatest South Australian footballer from 1877 to the close of the nineteenth century".

Norwood were proclaimed the Champions of Australia again in 1907 when they defeated the Victorian premier, Carlton, 13.12 to 8.9 after Norwood scored 7 goals in the first 20 minutes of the third quarter.