Query Smallest football town

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Rainier Wolfcastle

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Jul 30, 2006
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What's the smallest town / population with its own senior football team?

Cavendish, Victoria (out near the Grampians and Hamilton).

The population has "exploded" to about 400 in recent years. They have a footy club playing in the SWDFNL.
 

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Occidental

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Cavendish is a proper little town - it's even got a pub "The Bunyip".
But other clubs in the South West league are just locations with a footy team. There is no town there at all, just the odd house & a footy ground. Tyrendarra & Heathmere are like that. People drive in from other places like Portland, Heywood etc to play for those sides. But as "towns" themselves, they'd have maybe 20-30 people in scattered houses at best.
 

Garlic muncher

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Cavendish is a proper little town - it's even got a pub "The Bunyip".
But other clubs in the South West league are just locations with a footy team. There is no town there at all, just the odd house & a footy ground. Tyrendarra & Heathmere are like that. People drive in from other places like Portland, Heywood etc to play for those sides. But as "towns" themselves, they'd have maybe 20-30 people in scattered houses at best.

Plenty of places like that in the Riverina, no towns but more farms close and a football ground seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
 
Pretty much every town in Qld that has a footy team is from a population of 4 figures or more. I dare say the smallest town would be one of the teams in the Darling Downs competition, probably a Dalby or a Highfields for example.
 

Great8

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Plenty of towns in SA with populations of under 200 with football teams and a few teams play in teams that have a oval in the middle of nowhere where the surrounding farmers play.
United FC in the Adelaide Plains League play at Long Plains which would be lucky to have 20 people
 

bards

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Cora Lynn, now in the West Gippsland a Football comp has a population of 236. There is nothing in Cora Lynn accept the football club, an old cheese factory and farms. No church, no hall, no school. It is only 15 minutes from Pakenham though.

Catania is just down the road, and also has a football team, population 256, but they have a church!
 

Herne Hill Hammer

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Katamatite as of the 2011 census has a population of 433 and I wouldn't imagine that it's grown. It's about 20km south west of Cobram or 45km north east of Shepparton on the Benalla / Tocumwal Road.

Out of Katamatite has come Darren Flanigan (Geelong), Gary Cameron (Geelong) and Sam Wright (North). It has also produced a Stawell Gift winner in Glenn Crawford.
 

Garlic muncher

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This wasnt even a town, the music is a bit dramatic, but great shot a few minutes into it of the old wooden football posts.

 
Plenty of places like that in the Riverina, no towns but more farms close and a football ground seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Does Osborne count as one of those?
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JA27

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Nirranda FC, currently playing in the Warrnambool & District FL.

there is no actual town that i know of, church/footy oval/netball courts/cemetery scattered around the district but no shops or even grouped houses,

there was originally a 2nd team, Nirranda South FC, but they merged to form one team in 1975.

former nearby clubs such as Scotts Creek (1997), South Purrumbete (2000) & Ecklin (1991) were under similar circumstances. high density dairy farming.
 
Nirranda FC, currently playing in the Warrnambool & District FL.

there is no actual town that i know of, church/footy oval/netball courts/cemetery scattered around the district but no shops or even grouped houses,

there was originally a 2nd team, Nirranda South FC, but they merged to form one team in 1975.

former nearby clubs such as Scotts Creek (1997), South Purrumbete (2000) & Ecklin (1991) were under similar circumstances. high density dairy farming.
Todman knows a bit about a couple of those un-towns!
 

Yatmax

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One could be the town of Curramulka on the Yorke Peninsula. In the 2006 census their population was a very small 148 people. Their team was the Curramulka Magpies who played at the oval in the town until a three-way merger with both Minlaton and Stansbury football clubs to become the Curramulka-Minlaton-Stansbury Crows. They now play in the town of Minlaton.

They still have a netball team there though...
 
There's a few "towns" in north west vic that have footy teams in the Millewa Footy league.

Although their teams aren't based there these days places like Bambill, Werrimull and Meringur have teams. bambill doesn't even come up on google maps. In the same league Nangiloc and Gol Gol are also pretty small too, but still play genuine home games at ovals in their town
 
There's a few "towns" in north west vic that have footy teams in the Millewa Footy league.

Although their teams aren't based there these days places like Bambill, Werrimull and Meringur have teams. bambill doesn't even come up on google maps. In the same league Nangiloc and Gol Gol are also pretty small too, but still play genuine home games at ovals in their town
Nangiloc has a great pub. And the name link between it and nearby Colignan is always something I can bring up at parties in order to appear clever :)
 
I'd never heard of the place until recent years. You a local?
No, my Dad used to go fishing up there with his mates, sometimes I'd go with them. Had been there a few times on fishing trips, and also did a camping trip with the missus once in the same region. I came from down wimmera way at the time.
 

Kingpin

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In Tasmania, there's Oatlands District FA club named Mount Pleasant (there's actually not a place on the map of that name) but play out of an area called Pawtella which has a population of 160.
A former ODFA club, Woodsdale, had a population in the 340's when the club folded up not long ago.
Bothwell had a population of 391 five years ago according to the census, Richmond 880, Campbell Town 772, Swansea 597, Oatlands 540, Campania 742, Triabunna 2049 are the town populations of each ODFA club.
Will have to have a dig through some of the North Western town clubs, some of the Darwin FA, Circular Head FA or NWFA ones would be small.
 
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Oh I forgot about Kalkee.
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Also In the Horsham District FL are teams from localities (not towns) including Taylors Lake (ironically their ground is located straight across the Western Highway from Green Lake, with the actual Taylors Lake some kilometres distant) and Laharum at the foot of the Grampians. Kalkee and its associated netball club have won a swag of premierships over the last 20 years despite being only a farming area. However all the clubs mentioned here draw upon Horsham for many of their players (Horsham having no actual teams in the Horsham District FL, but two in the higher standard Wimmera League).
 

Punt Road Feral

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Just stumbled across this thread.

Couple that I know of is Greta in the Ovens & King.
I don't think there's anything in the town itself but they have a very nice ground in the middle of no-where and have a population of 107.

Western Eagles in the Colac District is based in Irrewillipe and there is no general store or anything like that. It has a population of 125.
You drive passed the ground on the way to Timboon and Port Campbell but the whole area is just farms.

I have a lot of respect for these types of clubs that still keep the doors open against the odds.
 

Todman

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Just stumbled across this thread.

Couple that I know of is Greta in the Ovens & King.
I don't think there's anything in the town itself but they have a very nice ground in the middle of no-where and have a population of 107.

Western Eagles in the Colac District is based in Irrewillipe and there is no general store or anything like that. It has a population of 125.
You drive passed the ground on the way to Timboon and Port Campbell but the whole area is just farms.

I have a lot of respect for these types of clubs that still keep the doors open against the odds.
Irrewillipe wore Footscray jumpers, and though I played for South Purrumbete I never played on the Irrewilipe ground for the decade
I was a player. Western Eagles were a merger of Irrewillipe and Pirron Yallock (Richmond jumper). Seemed to play at Pirron's home ground in Swan Marsh every year. Qwerk of the CDFL fixture.
 

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