1877 SAFA premiership season
South Adelaide premiership team
Teams	8
Premiers	South Adelaide Victorian 1st premiership
Leading goalkicker	John Young Adelaide (14 goals)
Matches played	52 (61 scheduled)
Highest	650(Round 7,Adelaide vs.South Adelaide)
← 1876 (unaffiliated) 1878 →

The1877 South Australian Football Association season was the inaugural season of theSouth Australian Football Association, the top-level league ofAustralian rules football inSouth Australia.

The clubs participating wereAdelaide,Bankers,Kensington,Port Adelaide,South Adelaide,South Park,Victorian,Woodville.^[1]

South Adelaide andVictorian would share the premiership honours as there was no grand final playoff, while theBankers Football Club, who finished last without a win and forfeited a number of games, folded before the end of the season.^[2]

Top Goalkickers for the season were:
(1) John Young (Adelaide) - 14 goals
(2)William (Billy) Dedman (South Adelaide) - 10 goals

The newly formed South Australian Football Association decided that the playing fields for the season must be between 180 and 200 yards (165-183m) long and 120-150 yards (110-137m) wide, with pushing from behind being prohibited. For clubs to gain membership of the association, they would need to pay twoguineas for the year.^[3]

At a meeting on 14 May 1877 held at the Prince Alfred Hotel, the list of fixtures for the season was arranged by the match committee, and it was resolved that the Honorary Secretary advertise every Friday the matches for the following Saturday, and also that a tabulated card of the fixtures be printed for circulation.^[4]

FOOTBALL. — ADELAIDES V. BANKERS will be played on the Old Adelaide Ground, near the Adelaide Bridge, Tomorrow (Saturday), May 5. Play will commence at 2.30 sharp. Adelaides in colored, Bankers in white jerseys.^[9]

Teams for the first games played on 12 May were advertised on the day as follows:
Football matches will be played this afternoon between the Kensington and Port Adelaide clubs on the Kensington Oval, and Adelaide v. Bankers on the Adelaide ground, North Park Lands. A color match will also be played on the grounds of the South Park Club.
The names of the Adelaide Club players are Messrs. M. Acraman, F. A. Bleechmore, G. Butterworth, W. Cate, Canaway, W. E. Dalton, A.Fesenmeyer, H. and C. Hughes, Morgan, Poole, A. and D. C.Scott, R. N.Twopeny, Wyatt, and Jas, Jno., and E. B. Young.

The players in the match between the Port Adelaide and Kensington Clubs are:—
Port Adelaide — Messrs. E. Ede, W. Fletcher, J, S. Hawkes, W. Kelly, A. LeMessurier, J. A. Rann, H. Fletcher, J. Sidoli, A. Pickhaver, T. Wildrew, H. Dewar, T. Prideaux, F.Dewar, A. Dewar, F. A. Colman, T. Smith, D.Kettie, Et. LeMessurier, A. Wald, and Ed. LeMessurier, with W. Bennett, T. C. Neill, and W. Pyne, as emergency men.
Kensington — Messrs. E.Woods, J. Woods, H. Goode, W. Day, F. Day, A. Frew, T. Burton, F. G. Stanton, P. Wood, C.A. Patterson, W. Gwynne, H. Muirhead, T.Pope, H. Stanton, A. Harrison, B. Hall, A. M. Hargrave, and Moulden, with C. T. Hargrave,H. W. Hargrave, J. Thomas, and T. James, as emergency men.^[10]

12 May - South Park played an internal colour match (Blue vs White) on South Park Lands.^[11]

FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION MATCHES for SATURDAY, 22 September.^[56]
At Montefiore — Victorian v. South Adelaide.
At South Park— Port v. South Park
Football. — Two Association matches are announced for today one between the Port Adelaide and South Park Clubs on the ground of the latter, and the other between the Victorian and South Adelaide Clubs at Montefiore Hill. The latter match will decide the question of the championship of the season, and will, it is to be hoped, be largely attended, as a hat is to be passed round at half-time for the benefit of the sufferers by the Indian famine.^[57]

In consequence of the inclement weather on Saturday, 22 September, the football matches which were to have been played between the South Adelaide and Victorian Clubs and the Port Adelaide and South Park Clubs were postponed.^[58]

Earlier in the season the teams played a scoreless drew at South's home ground. Victorians had only lost one game which was against Port Adelaide. South Adelaide was clearly the best club in the competition during the course of the season being undefeated, but an inexplicable and very costly lapse in form in the final game of the season, together with one devastating error by the goalkeeper in this vital final match, saw it lose to Victorian which gave the two clubs an equal record of only losing one game.

Thursday 24 May - Adelaide, 4 goals, beat Kapunda, 2.^[17]
Thursday 24 May - Woodville, 1 goal, beat Gawler, 0.^[18]
Wednesday 21 June (Public Holiday) - Adelaide, 1 goal tied Gawler, 1. Crowd 450 at Gawler^[62]
Monday 6 August Adelaide, 3 goals, beat Kapunda, 2 at South Adelaide's Ground^[63]
Intercolonial Matches
Saturday 11 August Melbourne, 1 goal, beat Victorian, 0. Crowd: 2000 at Exhibition Grounds^[64]
Monday 13 August Melbourne, 5 goals, beat South Australian Combined Team, 0. Crowd: 1000 at Exhibition Grounds^[65]
The combined team comprised players selected from the following local Clubs:
Victorians, G. Downs (Captain of the South Australian combatants), C. Warren, H.Barry, Knill, Kingsford, W. Lanjmey, H. Allen, and J. Sharp;
Ports, T. Smith, A. LeMessurier, Fletcher, W. Frideaux, and Tysack;
Woodvilles, T. Beeves, Letchford, G. Giffen, Aitken, and J. B. Osborne;
South Parks, J. M. Sinclair and Cresswell.
South Australians, 3 goals, beat Victorians, 1.
Saturday 18 August - St. Kilda, 5 goals, beat Adelaide, 2. Crowd 3500 at Adelaide Oval
Monday 20 August - St. Kilda. 7 goals, beat South Australians, 2.

Victorian finished the season with eight more goals but a slightly inferior record thanSouth Adelaide, but one should consider thatVictorian played the Bankers twice whereasSouth Adelaide did not (their only scheduled match, in Round 6, was a forfeit when the Bankers could only muster 13 players). Further, while Adelaide finished with one more win than the other two clubs, they played 17 games to 13 and 14 respectively.

It was declaredSouth Adelaide andVictorian would be deemed joint Champion Club (premiers).^[59] which was also acknowledged by South Adelaide at their Annual Dinner on evening of Tuesday 2 October.^[66]

Note: Woodville were ranked above South Park on head-to-head record (2-1).
It was reported at the end of the season that Bankers had forfeited 6 out of their 15 games. (Adelaide, Port Adelaide, South Adelaide, Kensington 1 each, and Woodville 2)

• "FOOTBALL".South Australian Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 3 October 1877. p. 2 Supplement: SUPPLEMENT TO THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGISTER. Retrieved16 November 2014.

• 1877 in Australian rules football
• South Australian National Football League

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2017
• Use Australian English from December 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Short description matches Wikidata