02/02/2025
17 years. That's how long I have been chasing the 21 programmes from the 1977 Ardath Cup competition. The grand final, played in Adelaide, was between Norwood and East Perth and was a brilliant contest. The VFL pulled out of the national cup competition for 1977, leaving the VFA clubs and state teams from NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT to fill the void. Most games were played in SA, with one in Melbourne and 5 in WA. The last programme I was chasing is now in the mail from Adelaide after another collector kindly contacted me this week. It's from the Preston v NSW game (played in Adelaide). There are no crowd figures available for this game, but the ACT v Caulfield game (also in Adelaide) only drew 250 people.. so I can't see it being much higher. All of which means not many programmes would have been sold on the night. No wonder it took 17 years to find one.