SENIOR COLTS

The Gawler Junior Football Association, first contested by the original South Seconds Football Club in the 1900s, is probably the closest earliest incarnation to the modern Senior Colts grade of today. Initially, this competition was set up for young men - and eventually late teenagers - who could not get a game with the first team, evolving into the B Grade and existing as a separate league well up until the 1950s.

Between 1907 and 1926 there was also a sporadic ‘thirds’ competition for boys, however this was never regulated - sometimes such 'thirds' games were arranged as curtain-raisers before big A Grade clashes and invitational or trial matches. Unfortunately, the age limitations for this have never been recorded. Of course today, the modern connotation for 'thirds' has become C Grade, a grade below Reserves for men.

In 1956, the Salisbury, Elizabeth & Gawler District Colts Football League was founded by local football identities at Salisbury Oval to foster junior footballers in the area. By 1958, South had joined this junior competition and the new successful structure was quickly affiliated with the SANFL.

Originally, an under-13 and under 17 age limit was placed upon a Junior Colts and Senior Colts programme, until 1960 when the two grades were combined into a single Colts competition.

Fred Rogers, at this time Secretary of the GDFL and prime instigator of this junior competition, was to be instrumental in the formation of new SANFL club Central District, while those associated with the SEGCFL were to serve in this new entity's administration. So essentially the SEGCFL failed, to become the new Centrals.

The GDFL reprised this Colts grade in 1963 which ultimately lead to the modern Junior and Senior Colts football development of today.

In 1973, the GDFL Colts grades were split again into Junior and Senior Colt distinctions and both colts sides played their home games at Wasleys Oval. In 1975 the Under 17 Senior Colts began to open fixtures at Gawler Oval on Saturday mornings while their Under 15 Junior counterparts played their regular season at Gawler High School the following Sunday. During the GDFL of the 1970s, South enjoyed a number of consecutive premierships at the Senior Colts level, cultivating future A Grade stars such as Anton Noack and Gus Barker, coached by the legendary Bob Symes.

Between 1981 and 1984 the age limit was lowered to Under 16 in response to an attempt to establish an Under 13 combined side as a bridging grade to the Junior Colts grade below. The BLGFA Senior Colts age limit was slightly raised to Under 17 and a half in 1997.

Senior Colts footy can be fast and skilfull, second only to the A Grade in terms of spectacle, as young fellas approaching adulthood develop their athleticism just before full maturity. Over the years, many particularly gifted Senior Colts have been fast-tracked directly to A Grade games - and more than coped at the highest level while still being relative kids. Others go onto serve honest apprenticeships in the Reserves before finally achieving A Grade quality. In either case, colts footy has always been as much about life as it is about learning how to kick or mark.

After a twenty one year drought, in 2009 the Senior Colts backed up the 2008 success of the Junior Colts by taking out the BLGFA premieriship, most certainly as a result of the junior football development programs instituted by the likes of Grant O'Reilly, Cosie Costa and Craig Hiskins over the previous decade.

The club is now entering a new era, faced by financial challenges, alternative pasttimes with social change, and the now real likelihood of talent drain to the AFL via Central District. However in the 21st Century many of the great family names of the club are gracing the teamsheets once again, and there is a quiet confidence that the local talent replenishing the senior grades is about to create its own history, all over, again.