The Norwood Football Club went on to record its 2nd consecutive premiership, going through the season undefeated. The Kensington Football Club received its second consecutive wooden spoon, failing to win a game, and extending its winless streak to 27. Several disputes between South Adelaide and the other clubs arose during the season.[1]
A game scheduled at Glanville Estate on Saturday, 30 August between Port Adelaide and South Adelaide was abandoned due to disagreement regarding the umpires selected.[21]
A game scheduled at Glanville Estate on Saturday, 6 September between Port Adelaide and Kensington was postponed due to illness amongst the Kensington players and the fact it was mail day.[23]
The rescheduled match between Port Adelaide and Kensington for Saturday, 13 September was forfeited in the priors favour due to the latter club unable to field a team.[24]
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points, Adj Pts = Points adjusted for match ratio, (P) = Premiers
Following disputes between South Adelaide and other clubs, Adelaide (twice), Norwood, Port Adelaide, and Victorian (once each) all refused to play them: these five cancelled matches are not included in the above ladder.
Kensington only played Norwood once, with their only scheduled match against Port Adelaide being forfeited due to a lack of players.
Port Adelaide were ranked above South Adelaide on match ratio (only match was drawn), while Victorian were ranked above South Park (1-0-1) and South Park were ranked above Adelaide (1-0-1) on head-to-head record.
Intercolonial matches
During 1879, a team representing the South Australian Football Association) toured Victoria, and played two intercolonial matches against an Association representative team; the first on a public holiday Tuesday, and the other on the following Saturday. The games were the first ever intercolonial matches between colony representative teams.
^ ab"FOOTBALL". South Australian Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 16 June 1879. p. 4 Supplement: Supplement to the South Australian Register. Retrieved 12 January 2015.