GFL 1999 Season Review

PREMIERS	RUNNERS UP
Krusty's Klowns	Dixon Dragons


Black Angels	The Cockneys	Darlington Deadeye Dicks	Dixon Dragons	Greenwith Goannas
Troy B	Scott Puvogel	Marc Verstappen	Nick Hall	Steven Dennis
Adelaide, SA	Elizabeth, SA	Adelaide, SA	West Ryde, NSW	Greenwith, SA

Krusty's Klowns	Keswick Krill	Krippled Krows	Riverside Rams	Standley Sharks
Andrew Cropley	John Groom	David Cropley	Rod Nash	Terry Standley
Oaklands Park, SA	Keswick, SA	Hallet Cove, SA	Hendon, SA	Modbury, SA

A short selection of the main contributors from each team to highlight the team strengths:
Black Angels: Lockett, Everritt, Pearce, Abraham, Camporeale, Alessio, Ottens, Lyon
The Cockneys: Lloyd, Neitz, Mercuri, A.Lynch, Loewe, Cornes, Stoneham, Winmar, Patterson
Darlington Deadeye-Dicks: Schwarz, Waterhouse, Riccardi, Gehrig, Mitchell, Cook
Dixon Dragons: Hudson, Modra, Tredrea, Jarman, Lord, Daffy, Dew, Lade, R.Smith, P.Lynch
Greenwith Goannas: N.Holland, C.Sholl, B.Johnson, Mensch, McKernan, McLaren, Robran
Krusty's Klowns: Cummings, Whitnall, S.Rocca, Molloy, Burns, Chick, S.Grant, Moorcroft
Keswick Krill: Richardson, Heatley, Hird, Rioli, Cousins, Bewick, Montgomery, Bradshaw
Kropley's Krippled Krows: O'Loughlin, Kelly, C.Grant, A.Rocca, Bell, Lucas, Caracella
Riverside Rams: Ph.Matera, Farmer, G.Brown, M.Lappin, Vardy, C.Johnson, McRae, B.Holland
Standley Sharks: Carey, B.Hall, C-Collins, Hammil, Burton, Dixon, Allison, D.Lewis, Snell

ROUND 1 - March 25
Black Angels 14.5.89 v Standley Sharks 14.8.92 - Cloud 9 Oval
Keswick Krill 6.4.40 v Deadeye Dicks 5.6.36 - The Barracks
Dixon Dragons 14.11.95 v Krusty’s Klowns 14.8.92 - Jurassic Park
Krippled Krows 8.5.53 v The Cocks 13.8.86 - Hallet Cove Oval
Riverside Rams 20.13.133 v Greenwith Goannas 13.5.83 - Nash Reserve

ROUND 2 - April 1
Keswick Krill 19.8.122 v Dixon Dragons 24.5.149- The Barracks
Standley Sharks 11.5.71 v Krusty’s Klowns 15.13.103 - Rodney Fox Memorial
Greenwith Goannas 7.8.50 v Deadeye Dicks 12.9.81 - Greenwith Park
The Cocks 10.6.66 v Riverside Rams 8.9.57 - Chad Park
Krippled Krows 10.6.66 v Black Angels 12.6.78 - Hallet Cove Oval

ROUND 3 - April 9
Krusty’s Klowns 15.13.103 v Krippled Krows 4.6.30 - The Big Top
Deadeye Dicks 6.6.42 v The Cocks 22.11.143 - Pale Ale Stadium
Black Angels 13.5.83 v Dixon Dragons 14.11.95 - Cloud 9 Oval
Riverside Rams 7.7.49 v Keswick Krill 3.9.27 - Nash Reserve
Standley Sharks 10.6.66 v Greenwith Goannas 14.6.90 - Rodney Fox Memorial

ROUND 4 - April 16
Dixon Dragons 12.7.79 v Greenwith Goannas 7.3.45 - Jurassic Park
Black Angels 4.6.30 v Riverside Rams 13.8.86 - Cloud 9 Oval
Deadeye Dicks 17.6.108 v Krippled Krows 7.5.47 - Pale Ale Stadium
Keswick Krill 10.7.67 v Standley Sharks 14.6.90 - The Barracks
The Cocks 6.5.41 v Krusty’s Klowns 14.4.88 - Chad Park

ROUND 5 - April 23
Black Angels 7.3.45 v Krusty’s Klowns 12.7.79 - Cloud 9 Oval
Greenwith Goannas 4.8.32 v Krippled Krows 10.8.68 - Greenwith Park
The Cocks 19.7.121 v Keswick Krill 6.4.40 - Chad Park
Deadeye Dicks 13.5.83 v Dixon Dragons 22.9.141 - Pale Ale Stadium
Standley Sharks 12.7.79 v Riverside Rams 10.5.65 - Rodney Fox Memorial

ROUND 6 - April 30
Standley Sharks 11.9.75 v The Cocks 4.6.30 - Rodney Fox Memorial
Krippled Krows 4.3.27 v Dixon Dragons 17.13.115 - Hallet Cove Oval
Keswick Krill 9.4.58 v Black Angels 11.5.71 - The Barracks
Krusty’s Klowns 15.11.101 v Greenwith Goannas 7.2.44 - The Big Top
Riverside Rams 16.7.103 v Deadeye Dicks 4.5.29 - Nash Reserve

ROUND 7 - May 7
Dixon Dragons 22.11.143 v Riverside Rams 23.9.147 - Jurassic Park
Greenwith Goannas 16.4.100 v The Cocks 17.7.109 - Greenwith Park
Krusty’s Klowns 11.6.72 v Keswick Krill 10.6.60 - The Big Top
Black Angels 9.5.59 v Deadeye Dicks 7.9.51 - Cloud 9 Oval
Krippled Krows 5.6.36 v Standley Sharks 9.13.67 - Hallet Cove Oval

ROUND 8 - May 14
Dixon Dragons 17.6.108 v Standley Sharks 17.8.110 - Jurassic Park
Greenwith Goannas 9.6.60 v Keswick Krill 11.7.73 - Greenwith Park
Riverside Rams 20.10.130 v Krippled Krows 5.5.35 - Nash Reserve
Deadeye Dicks 6.5.41 v Krusty’s Klowns 13.5.83 - Pale Ale Stadium
The Cocks 4.10.34 v Black Angels 16.8.104 - Chad Park

ROUND 9 - May 21
Black Angels 14.7.91 v Greenwith Goannas 3.7.25 - Cloud 9 Oval
Keswick Krill 7.5.47 v Krippled Krows 15.13.103 - The Barracks
Krusty’s Klowns 18.8.116 v Riverside Rams 17.8.110 - The Big Top
Standley Sharks 11.7.73 v Deadeye Dicks 9.4.58 - Rodney Fox Memorial
The Cocks 10.8.68 v Dixon Dragons 13.6.84 - Chad Park

ROUND 10 - June 4
The Cocks 6.5.41 v Krippled Krows 7.4.46 - Chad Park
Krusty’s Klowns 22.9.141 v Dixon Dragons 22.5.137 - The Big Top
Greenwith Goannas 12.8.80 v Riverside Rams 16.6.102 - Greenwith Park
Standley Sharks 16.6.102 v Black Angels 16.3.99 - Rodney Fox Memorial
Deadeye Dicks 10.5.65 v Keswick Krill 4.9.33 - Pale Ale Stadium

ROUND 11 - June 11
Black Angels 13.7.85 v Krippled Krows 6.6.42 - Cloud 9 Oval
Krusty’s Klowns 12.9.81 v Standley Sharks 8.4.52 - The Big Top
Deadeye Dicks 4.7.31 v Greenwith Goannas 10.11.71 - Pale Ale Stadium
Dixon Dragons 10.12.72 v Keswick Krill 13.4.82 - Jurassic Park
Riverside Rams 3.6.24 v The Cocks 14.12.96 - Nash Reserve

ROUND 12 - June 18
Keswick Krill 14.6.90 v Riverside Rams 12.10.80 - The Barracks
Greenwith Goannas 13.4.82 v Standley Sharks 12.8.80 - Greenwith Park
The Cocks 13.9.87 v Deadeye Dicks 11.5.71 - Chad Park
Krippled Krows 6.5.41 v Krusty’s Klowns 11.12.78 - Hallet Cove Oval
Dixon Dragons 12.4.76 v Black Angels 9.9.63 - Jurassic Park

ROUND 13 - June 25
Standley Sharks 6.11.47 v Keswick Krill 8.9.57 - Rodney Fox Memorial
Krusty’s Klowns 20.10.130 v The Cocks 7.7.49 - The Big Top
Greenwith Goannas 2.5.17 v Dixon Dragons 18.16.124 - Greenwith Park
Krippled Krows 11.7.73 v Deadeye Dicks 14.9.93 - Hallet Cove Oval
Riverside Rams 14.4.88 v Black Angels 14.8.92 - Nash Reserve

ROUND 14 - July 2
Riverside Rams 16.8.104 v Standley Sharks 13.7.85 - Nash Reserve
Keswick Krill 6.2.38 v The Cocks 9.3.57 - The Barracks
Krippled Krows 12.7.79 v Greenwith Goannas 7.11.53 - Hallet Cove Oval
Krusty’s Klowns 16.6.102 v Black Angels 11.6.72 - The Big Top
Dixon Dragons 17.13.115 v Deadeye Dicks 5.11.41 - Jurassic Park

ROUND 15 - July 9
Black Angels 19.5.119 v Keswick Krill 13.3.81 - Cloud 9 Oval
Deadeye Dicks 10.5.65 v Riverside Rams 16.10.106 - Pale Ale Stadium
The Cocks 8.4.52 v Standley Sharks 13.9.87 - Chad Park
Greenwith Goannas 10.8.68 v Krusty’s Klowns 18.13.121 - Greenwith Park
Dixon Dragons 17.11.113 v Krippled Krows 11.6.72 - Jurassic Park

ROUND 16 - July 16
Keswick Krill 14.7.91 v Krusty’s Klowns 14.8.92 - The Barracks
Standley Sharks 15.10.100 v Krippled Krows 7.6.48- Rodney Fox Memorial
Deadeye Dicks 12.6.78 v Black Angels 12.7.79 - Pale Ale Stadium
Riverside Rams 10.11.71 v Dixon Dragons 24.15.159 - Nash Reserve
The Cocks 10.3.63 v Greenwith Goannas 7.5.47 - Chad Park

ROUND 17 - July 23
Black Angels 17.11.113 v The Cocks 12.6.78 - Cloud 9 Oval
Keswick Krill 7.1.43 v Greenwith Goannas 5.5.35 - The Barracks
Krippled Krows 14.4.88 v Riverside Rams 14.9.93 - Hallet Cove Oval
Krusty’s Klowns 10.5.65 v Deadeye Dicks 12.5.77 - The Big Top
Standley Sharks 19.10.124 v Dixon Dragons 13.7.85 - Rodney Fox Memorial

ROUND 18 - July 30
Riverside Rams 9.5.59 v Krusty’s Klowns 17.4.106 - Nash Reserve
Deadeye Dicks 13.8.86 v Standley Sharks 13.5.83 - Pale Ale Stadium
Greenwith Goannas 7.8.50 v Black Angels 13.9.87 - Greenwith Park
Dixon Dragons 13.15.93 v The Cocks 16.7.103- Jurassic Park
Krippled Krows 7.7.49 v Keswick Krill 12.8.80 - Hallet Cove Oval

ROUND 19 - August 6
Qualifying Final
Dixon Dragons 18.8.116 d. Black Angels 12.9.81
Elimination Final
Standley Sharks 11.12.78 d. Riverside Rams 9.12.66

ROUND 20 - August 13
1st Semi Final
Krusty's Klowns 18.10.118 d. Dixon Dragons 12.10.82
2nd Semi Final
Black Angels 15.6.96 d. Standley Sharks 13.6.84

ROUND 21 - August 20
Preliminary Final
Dixon Dragons 14.12.96 d. Black Angels 9.9.63

ROUND 22 - August 27
G R A N D F I N A L
KRUSTY'S KLOWNS 14.6.90 d. Dixon Dragons 9.9.63

This league carried over from previous seasons with some new coaches appointed at the helms of new teams. T.Standley resigned from the Headslammers and took over the former South East Warratahs, renaming them the Sharks. M.Verstappin replaced T.Standley at the helm of the former Headslammers, renaming them to Darlington Deadeye Dicks. S.Dennis took over at the helm of the former Lechers and renamed them Greenwith Goannas. Finally, R.Nash was the last coach to sign up replacing the Commish at the helm of the stand-in wooden spooners from '98 Plympton Panthers and renaming them the Riverside Rams.

There were lots of predictions about what the season had in store for each GFL coach. Initially punters backed the Klowns as the flag favourites and perhaps a Grand Final berth with the Dragons (prediction of the year!!). The Krows were tipped to be wooden spooners for '99 and the '98 Wooden spooners, Panthers/Rams were tipped to be the big movers for season '99. All of these predictions were almost as spot on as you could possibly get.

The Klowns lost their first match in the first round which was ultimately going to be the Grand Final preview against the Dragons. They were not going to lose their second and final match until late in the year - the second to last minor round in fact - against one of the low teams in the league. It was the loss they were supposed to have. The Klowns thoroughly deserved the premiership and were consistent throughout the year, pulled off a couple of lucky low scoring wins. They were well served by the coleman medallist Scott Cummings with cameo goal bags from Whitnall, Molloy and Burns. The hardest team to beat when on fire.

Dixon Dragons could have been touted as unlucky, they were the form team of the competition and were ladder leaders from Round 1 til about Round 10! They scored more goals than any other team in the competition and three of their losses were in games where they kicked over 100 points - twice over 20 goals!! You can't get more unlucky than that. At full strength and on fire nothing would get in their way and it was only due to injuries to Modra and Tredrea that perhaps their third flag wasn't achieved. In five GFL years only once did they fail to appear in a Grand Final! They made the finals every year (the only team - including renamings - and/or coach to do so). Modra and Jarman were devastating and Hudson proved to be a real bugger too.

Black Angels were somewhat of an enigma. Plenty of goalscoring potential in the team but plenty of times when they failed to deliver the goods too. Mind you the Coach broke one record, selecting his best possible line up for the first consecutive 10 rounds, bettering previous efforts by the Krill and Lechers. Lockett was a good example who averaged under three goals a game between the game he kicked his 1300th (9 goals in that game) and the 8 goals against Adelaide in his final SCG appearance. While the Angels finished the minor and major rounds third, it was by some luck that this happened. Finishing fifth would be more indicative of their season.

Carey lead the Sharks into the finals for the first time (including its former identities as Warratahs and Cartel). After a season which started with a stutter but charged them to second position on the table on a couple of occasions, their last two games of the minor round saw them sneak into the five by the skin of the teeth which was clearly a disappointment. Youngster Garth Taylor was the find of the early rounds then was overtaken by Brett Burton who consistently kicked goals. Barry Hall was also a star as he stepped up and allowed the Sharks to be one of the better competitors in '99.

Under a new banner and coach the '98 wooden spooners were touted as the biggest improvers of '99 and they delivered this in a remarkable way. There was no real spearhead in the line up, but instead a myriad of genuine goal kicking talent that allowed them to average 13 goals a game for the first dozen rounds or so, including a memorable two goal win over the Dragons when they kicked 23 goals. On that occasion four players kicked three or more goals and the rest kicked two goals plus. Gavin Brown was the find of the mid-season draft. The team was let down by some late season crucial losses and their finale was most disappointing.

Had've the Cockneys made the finals then they would have won the flag. For they would have had their first real set of fit players for the years and potentially would have kicked 20+ goals - on one occasion 25 goals - each finals week bar the last. But the thing which let the Cockneys down was the unavailability of one or more of their spearheads due to injury, and some crucial losses against teams vyeing for a finals spot also let them down. Boasting a line up of Neitz, Lloyd, Lynch and Mercuri this team could have delivered a lot more than it did.

For the past three seasons the Krill have finished fifth on each occasion and the rumour at Keswick was the coach would face the axe if he could not improve. Things looked promising with Mat Richardson and Heatley looking ominous pre-season and some nifty pick ups including Holland and Hargraves to support. But the sad fact of reality was that apart from Richardson (who still started the season slowly) the Krill had very little to brag about. It was soon clear that aside from Richardson the team could only manage a small handful of goals and relied on wins against lower placed teams to have a respectful looking achievement. Very disappointing for a promising outfit.

Deadeye-Dicks was for a while aptly named being the highest percentage ratio of goals to behinds early in the season but that soon dissipated along with their season. A new coach at the helm did become a disadvantage on a couple of occasions, most notably when Waterhouse was astonishingly dropped to emergency and omitted from a game when his 2.4 would have translated in a win. The Deadeye dicks struggled all year, especially when Hird was long term injured (and later traded to the Krill) but were very competitive on a few occasions when the team decided to click.

In '98 the Krows did what Melbourne did in the AFL and what the Rams did in GFL '99 so it was with some speculation exactly how they would perform in '99 and most punters had them sliding to the bottom. The combination of late draft picks, MIA players such as Watson and Bradshaw and reversal of a few '98 stars form lead to the demise of the Krows and a quick slide down the ladder. For most of the season they spent swapping places with the Goannas in the cellar. Not a year that would remain in the memory of the coach.

Finally, the Goannas who replaced the previous lamenting Lechers finished as the '99 wooden spooners. But it wasn't so much as having a bad team as having players out of form and others popping up to do their stuff in 'cameos' carefully coinciding with weeks when the coach decided not to select them. The coach points of this team was one of the worst in GFL history just to emphasise the point. The team had a few wins it could have pulled out on the basis of some individual efforts not pre-empted. Mensch had early form that indicated he would help the likes of McKernan and Nick Holland steer the team into the finals but it all fell apart when all three had few and far between proper efforts. In the end the wooden spoon was probably not justified for this outfit as it was earned purely by a lack of accurate coaching.

1	KRUSTY'S KLOWNS	18	2	2293	85.52	1961	1334	147.00	72
2	Dixon Dragons	14	8	2551	92.47	2359	1843	128.00	56
3	Black Angels	12	9	1900	89.53	1701	1549	109.81	48
4	Standley Sharks	12	8	1879	86.96	1634	1502	108.79	48
5	Riverside Rams	10	9	1892	88.46	1675	1560	107.37	40
6	The Cockneys	10	8	1495	88.63	1325	1292	102.55	40
7	Keswick Krill	7	11	1181	96.10	1135	1368	82.97	28
8	Deadeye Dicks	5	13	1345	84.46	1136	1451	78.29	20
9	Krippled Krows	4	14	1293	77.57	1003	1502	66.78	16
10	Greenwith Goannas	3	15	1526	67.63	1032	1522	67.81	12