1908, Photograph, PRG 280/1/13/401
The New Zealand Australian Rules football team that played South Australia on a rain sodden Adelaide Oval on Tuesday 1st of September 1908 - the Eight Hour Day holiday. Players are wearing dark guernseys with a gold leaf badge, dark knickerbockers and socks. South Australia won the encounter 5.8 to New Zealand 3.10. The Register newspaper, 2 September 1908 (page 4), gives a full report of the game. The man holding the ball was the team's captain, Tom Wright, a former player with Collingwood, who was killed in action in France in 1916. While names cannot be put to the other faces in this photograph, the Advertiser of 1 September 1908 (page 9) reported: 'The New Zealand team which will meet the South Australians has been selected as follows:- Full back, Dempster; backs, Marshall and Tucker; half-backs, Breese, Swann and Smith; centre wings, Abfalter, Parker and Darby; half-forwards, West, Ward and Ross; followers, Wright (captain) and Elvidge; and rover, Wilkins.'