at 3 quarter time by 27 points. This was Centrals first-ever win against the Double Blues after 16 straight losses and ended Sturt's run of 5 consecutive winning Premierships from 1966 to 1970. However, before a Crowd of 42,909 the Bulldogs lost the preliminary final to Port Adelaide by 29 points after scores were level at half time. The reserves team Captain Coached by former senior's player Gary Window won the 1971 Reserves Grand Final. Tony Casserley was appointed Captain Coach the following year for the 1972 SANFL season. Centrals started the season with their best ever form winning 10 out of the first 12 games (only loses against Port Rd 7 and Sturt Rd 10) and had their best minor round to date (14 wins and just 7 losses) and again making the Top 4. The Bulldogs won the first semi final this time against Norwood by 30 points but again lost the preliminary final against Port Adelaide this time by 6 points (15–14 to 15–20) after leading at 3 quarter time by 21 points. First Minor Premiership (1979) After finishing with the wooden spoon in 1977, Daryl Hicks a former premiership player with Sturt (1966–69) and State Player was appointed coach in 1978 and took the Bulldogs to the minor premiership for the first time in the 1979 SANFL season (15 wins 1 draw and 6 losses) but lost the second semi final to Port Adelaide by 26 points after leading at half-time by 14 points and then lost the preliminary final against South Adelaide by 13 points after trailing by 35 points at 3 quarter time (Scoring 7–5 to 4–1 in the last quarter). This made Centrals one of few teams in the SANFL to have won the minor premiership and not made the grand final. The 1980 SANFL season started with a Blockbuster game at Home to the 1979 Premiers Port Adelaide in Rd1. In the previous 16 seasons (1964 to 1979) Centrals had only defeated Port Adelaide 5 times (1971 Rd 14, 1973 3 times – Rd 1, Rd 10, Rd 20, 1979 – Rd 18). With Centrals leading by 24 points at 3 quarter time the game ended in a thrilling draw (9–18 to 9–18) with Port scoring 4–6 to Centrals 0–6 in the last quarter before an almost full house at Elizabeth of 15,696 spectators. (Record crowd for Elizabeth Oval until broken in