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Defunct footy clubs in Melbourne

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MortlockWatcher said:
Nunawading have joined forces with Forest Hill and will play as Forest Hill in 2025.

Looks like the Lions/Titans have roared for the last time.
Click to expand...

Sad but it’s only going to get harder for the clubs in locations where the demographics are changing massively.
 
South Footscray FDL had a side George Mclaren (Footscray) played there 1940s.
No idea of colours or where the ground was, some rumours say there was an oval on current Footscray hospital sight.
 
Graeme Cook said:
South Footscray FDL had a side George Mclaren (Footscray) played there 1940s.
No idea of colours or where the ground was, some rumours say there was an oval on current Footscray hospital sight.
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Melbourne 1945

Compare Melbourne as it was in 1945 with present-day satellite imagery
1945.melbourne
I had a look at the place you mentioned. The hospital didn't exist and the land there was definitely grass surrounded by patches of housing. Definitely not out of the question that footy could be played there!
 

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Connor7395 said:

Melbourne 1945

Compare Melbourne as it was in 1945 with present-day satellite imagery
1945.melbourne
I had a look at the place you mentioned. The hospital didn't exist and the land there was definitely grass surrounded by patches of housing. Definitely not out of the question that footy could be played there!
Click to expand...
 

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Connor7395 said:

Melbourne 1945

Compare Melbourne as it was in 1945 with present-day satellite imagery
1945.melbourne
I had a look at the place you mentioned. The hospital didn't exist and the land there was definitely grass surrounded by patches of housing. Definitely not out of the question that footy could be played there!
Click to expand...
I just posted a photo of George McLaren in South Footscray jumper not cleat though.
Thanks yes there could have been a ground in Elenore Street
 
Here It Is said:
Does anyone know anything about an Auburn Football Club who might have been around in the Hawthorn area in 1940?
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Hello. My father played for Auburn in the 1950's untill 1961 when i believe the club folded. Their home ground was in Rathmines rd East Hawthorn. Their jumper was a navy blue wit the AFC logo in the AFL Carlton style.I remember going to his matches as a child. 2 years ago i donated a AFC sheild to the AFL Hawthorn side which is in their Museum at Waverly. Contact me Rob Kincaid 0409807125 if you want.
 
Rob k said:
Hello. My father played for Auburn in the 1950's untill 1961 when i believe the club folded. Their home ground was in Rathmines rd East Hawthorn. Their jumper was a navy blue wit the AFC logo in the AFL Carlton style.I remember going to his matches as a child. 2 years ago i donated a AFC sheild to the AFL Hawthorn side which is in their Museum at Waverly. Contact me Rob Kincaid 0409807125 if you want.
Click to expand...
My Dad played at Auburn in the 1950's as well, he talked about a three peat he played in and a year where they had to play in the Amateurs. He passed away back in 2013 aged 87. He retired the year before my older brother was born which was 1953, he also played a season at Camberwell in the VFA. Cant find much info about them other than him playing for them in the Melbourne boys league, also pretty sure he played at Tooronga at some stage.
 
jumperfan said:
I've been making some decent progress on filling out the Former Clubs table on the Southern Football Netball League table on Wikipedia. Still looking for info on the following clubs if anyone has anything:


Ashburton: Jumper, Home Ground, Nickname, Former League, Date of establishment, years in SFNL

Burnley: Jumper, Home Ground, Nickname, Former League, date of establishment

Caulfield (not the VFA club): Jumper, Home Ground, Nickname, Former League, date of establishment

Carrum Downs: Jumper, date of establishment (supposedly blue and gold but I can't find any photos of the club despite it existing into the mid 2000s)

Burwood United: Home Ground

Carnegie: Nickname

Ashburton-Chadstone: Nickname and Home Ground

Caulfield Kontias: Nickname and Home Ground. Also not sure about their jumper, I'm sure I saw it mentioned somewhere that they wore black and white stripes but I don't have the source in my records.

Camberwell Power: Jumper and Home Ground (Apparently played at Howard Dawson Reserve in Glen Iris but would like another source on that)

Chadstone: Nickname, former league, date of establishment

Collingwood Districts: Nickname

East Bentleigh: Nickname, date of establishment

East Camberwell: Nickname, home ground

East Hawthorn: Nickname

East Malvern Amateurs: Jumper, nickname, home ground, former league,

East Sandringham: Jumper, nickname, home ground, former league, date of establishment

Essex Heights: Jumper, nickname, home ground, date of establishment

Glen Iris: Nickname, home ground (same as Glen Iris JFC?), former league, date of establishment

Hawthorn Citizens: Nickname (Hawks?), home ground (Rathmines Road Reserve?), former league, date of establishment

Heidelberg Colts: Home ground

Kooyong: Jumper, nickname, home ground, former league, date of establishment

Middle Park: Jumper, nickname, home ground, former league, date of establishment

Mount Waverley: Jumper

Mount Waverley Burwood: Jumper

Richmond Rosellas: Jumper, date of establishment

St Bede's Old Collegians: Nickname, home ground

St Pauls Bentleigh: Nickname
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Heidelberg Colts home ground was Olympic Park or Olympic Village reserve. Were originally called St Philips but decided to go non denominational around 1966.
Wore Royal blue with a white vee but switched to Navy Blue with white HC around that time. Were a junior club in the PDJFA until starting an open age side in 1977 and won four flags in a row 1977, 78, 79, and 1980.
Went into recession after 1981 when the PDFA folded. Still had juniors in 82 and 83 and restarted in the Panton Hill Football League in 1984 which lasted until until 1987, only made the finals once in 1985 and was beaten in the Prelim by Research by a few points.
Research won the flag in 1985 and then went and joined the DVFL. So the club went into recess again and our juniors folded, they restarted again in the MNFL in 1989 and adopted their neighbours Olympic YC as a feeder club at Olympic Park.
In the MNFL they were runners up to Keon Park in 1991 and 1992 and won the flag against Fitzroy Stars in 1993 and 1994.
In 1995 we were told the comp was folding so looked for another league to play in, was initially rejected by the DVFL unless we changed our name, too many Heidelberg clubs already so applied to the Southern League and was accepted for 1995.
In 93/94 we had Neil Harvey - Boomers dad as coach, very good player in his own right at Brunswick and Nth Heidelberg, the board decided to sack him in between 94 and 95 and subsequently we lost 14 players from the Premiership team of 94, I was going to leave as well but stuck around to get my 300th club game which I got against South Yarra that year. We were seriously undermanned in 1995 in Div 3 with all the player losses, that lead to the club going belly up half way through 1995 due to in my opinion mismanagement. All old history now I guess, we were a tough side and a lot of clubs feared us. We had afair bit of success winning about 15 flags including juniors.
I played there from juniors in 1974 and on and off until 1995 until retiring at Thornbury in the ammos in 2000.
 
Barracuda64 said:
Heidelberg Colts home ground was Olympic Park or Olympic Village reserve. Were originally called St Philips but decided to go non denominational around 1966.
Wore Royal blue with a white vee but switched to Navy Blue with white HC around that time. Were a junior club in the PDJFA until starting an open age side in 1977 and won four flags in a row 1977, 78, 79, and 1980.
Went into recession after 1981 when the PDFA folded. Still had juniors in 82 and 83 and restarted in the Panton Hill Football League in 1984 which lasted until until 1987, only made the finals once in 1985 and was beaten in the Prelim by Research by a few points.
Research won the flag in 1985 and then went and joined the DVFL. So the club went into recess again and our juniors folded, they restarted again in the MNFL in 1989 and adopted their neighbours Olympic YC as a feeder club at Olympic Park.
In the MNFL they were runners up to Keon Park in 1991 and 1992 and won the flag against Fitzroy Stars in 1993 and 1994.
In 1995 we were told the comp was folding so looked for another league to play in, was initially rejected by the DVFL unless we changed our name, too many Heidelberg clubs already so applied to the Southern League and was accepted for 1995.
In 93/94 we had Neil Harvey - Boomers dad as coach, very good player in his own right at Brunswick and Nth Heidelberg, the board decided to sack him in between 94 and 95 and subsequently we lost 14 players from the Premiership team of 94, I was going to leave as well but stuck around to get my 300th club game which I got against South Yarra that year. We were seriously undermanned in 1995 in Div 3 with all the player losses, that lead to the club going belly up half way through 1995 due to in my opinion mismanagement. All old history now I guess, we were a tough side and a lot of clubs feared us. We had afair bit of success winning about 15 flags including juniors.
I played there from juniors in 1974 and on and off until 1995 until retiring at Thornbury in the ammos in 2000.
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Thanks for that, shame the club ended that way. Just wondering if you had any info on what jumper the club wore in the final season? I've seen a few photos of a navy and white tri-panel jumper with the HC in the middle but I haven't been able to connect it to a year.
 
Barracuda64 said:
Heidelberg Colts home ground was Olympic Park or Olympic Village reserve. Were originally called St Philips but decided to go non denominational around 1966.
Wore Royal blue with a white vee but switched to Navy Blue with white HC around that time. Were a junior club in the PDJFA until starting an open age side in 1977 and won four flags in a row 1977, 78, 79, and 1980.
Went into recession after 1981 when the PDFA folded. Still had juniors in 82 and 83 and restarted in the Panton Hill Football League in 1984 which lasted until until 1987, only made the finals once in 1985 and was beaten in the Prelim by Research by a few points.
Research won the flag in 1985 and then went and joined the DVFL. So the club went into recess again and our juniors folded, they restarted again in the MNFL in 1989 and adopted their neighbours Olympic YC as a feeder club at Olympic Park.
In the MNFL they were runners up to Keon Park in 1991 and 1992 and won the flag against Fitzroy Stars in 1993 and 1994.
In 1995 we were told the comp was folding so looked for another league to play in, was initially rejected by the DVFL unless we changed our name, too many Heidelberg clubs already so applied to the Southern League and was accepted for 1995.
In 93/94 we had Neil Harvey - Boomers dad as coach, very good player in his own right at Brunswick and Nth Heidelberg, the board decided to sack him in between 94 and 95 and subsequently we lost 14 players from the Premiership team of 94, I was going to leave as well but stuck around to get my 300th club game which I got against South Yarra that year. We were seriously undermanned in 1995 in Div 3 with all the player losses, that lead to the club going belly up half way through 1995 due to in my opinion mismanagement. All old history now I guess, we were a tough side and a lot of clubs feared us. We had afair bit of success winning about 15 flags including juniors.
I played there from juniors in 1974 and on and off until 1995 until retiring at Thornbury in the ammos in 2000.
Click to expand...
Was aware the Colts played in the Melbourne North comp and those GFs v Keon Park and Fitzroy Stars. But didn't know they started in the MNFL in 1989.
I had some weird belief Bellfield had some kind of connection to Heidelberg Colts in the late 80s.
Question: When Heidelberg Colts started to field an open age side after the PDJFA years, what league was that in? (77ish thru 81ish) Was that still the same Preston JDFA? I guess I've always been thrown by the "Junior" despite that league having an open age grade.
 
Bellfield played only about 2km away down oriel road at Ford park, which now after a ton of govt money has a fantastic surface and lighting but no senior club using it.
( brown guernsey with a red V)
I grew up in the Heidelberg area and Colts & Nth Heid were clubs no one wanted to face in the 90s.
 

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Does anyone know if Skye FC in the Southern FNL are a continuation of Carrum Downs from the MPFNL? Just seems like too much of a coincidence that they both play at the same ground and that Skye played its first season in 2006 after Carrum Downs folded at the end of 2005.
 
jumperfan said:
Does anyone know if Skye FC in the Southern FNL are a continuation of Carrum Downs from the MPFNL? Just seems like too much of a coincidence that they both play at the same ground and that Skye played its first season in 2006 after Carrum Downs folded at the end of 2005.
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No they are different clubs. Although I think at the time quite a few players ended up playing for Skye
 
Paddywagon said:
sad to read about a proud club. They can take solace that clubs have come back from this and still goin.
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When you read into the situation a bit more it’s a lot of the clubs own doing.
 
I know it's kind of been done to death in this thread so far but I've been working on a Wikipedia page for the ESCFL for the past few weeks and was wondering if anyone had any information they could add to fill in the gaps?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Suburban_Churches_Football_League

Few general questions:
  • Are Box Hill Methodist and Whitehorse United the same club?
  • Did Deepdene, Glen Waverley or Elwood play in any other leagues before joining the ESCFL?
  • South Caulfield-Malvern is mentioned as merging with Murrumbeena District in 1981 - who were Murrumbeena District? Were they a junior club? Can't find much on them.
  • The ESCFL history on the SFNL website lists a club simply known as "Blackburn" as playing one season in D-grade in 1979 before disappearing - any info on that?

Specific stuff I'm looking for that I feel is realistic to find includes:

Guernsey designs/colours
  • Richmond Amateurs
  • Deepdene/Deepdene United
  • St Patricks Mentone
  • Whitehorse United
  • St Marys East Malvern - Listed on page 6 as wearing "dark blue with white bands" - is this meant to be the same as the Caulfield Grammarians guernsey design?
  • Elwood - Listed on pages 6 and 14 here as wearing two different designs in the same season - which is correct?
  • Glen Waverley are listed on page 4 here as wearing "green with a gold yoke and sash" - is this correct? Would be one of the more bizarre guernsey designs I've heard of.

Home Grounds
  • Canterbury North Balwyn
  • Wattle Park Presbyterian/United
  • Dandenong South
  • Balwyn Baptist/North Balwyn Church of Christ
  • Blackburn Baptist
  • Blackburn United
  • Box Hill Church of Christ
  • Box Hill Methodist
  • Brighton United
  • Camberwell Baptist
  • Canterbury Presbyterian
  • Clayton Methodist
  • Dandenong Methodist
  • Deepdene
  • East Kew Combined
  • Eastern Salvation Army
  • Elsternwick United
  • Elwood
  • Gardiner Church of Christ
  • Glenhuntly St Anthonys
  • Glen Waverley
  • Hawthorn YCW
  • Kew Baptist
  • Koonung/Koonung Heights Methodist
  • Malvern South Methodist
  • Mazenod
  • North Balwyn Methodist
  • OLV-South Camberwell
  • Preston Methodist
  • Salvo Saints
  • Sandringham Sacred Heart
  • St Andrews Box Hill/Presbyterian
  • St Georges Reservoir
  • St Marys East Malvern
  • St Stephens Presbyterian
  • Surrey Hills Presbyterian
  • Whitehorse United
 

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jumperfan said:
ALL NOTATIONS HAVE BEEN SOURCED FROM THE 1983 ESCFA HANDBOOK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Suburban_Churches_Football_League (ASSOCIATION, NOT LEAGUE)

Specific stuff I'm looking for that I feel is realistic to find includes:

Guernsey designs/colours
  • Richmond Amateurs
  • Deepdene/Deepdene United (Red with White Vee, Black Shorts)
  • St Patricks Mentone (Red, Blue and Yellow)
  • Whitehorse United
  • St Marys East Malvern - Listed on page 6 as wearing "dark blue with white bands" - is this meant to be the same as the Caulfield Grammarians guernsey design? (Black with Gold Monogram)
  • Elwood - Listed on pages 6 and 14 here as wearing two different designs in the same season - which is correct? (Navy Blue with Gold Monogram)
  • Glen Waverley are listed on page 4 here as wearing "green with a gold yoke and sash" - is this correct? Would be one of the more bizarre guernsey designs I've heard of. (Green with Gold Sash)

Home Grounds
  • Canterbury North Balwyn (Macleay Park, North Balwyn)
  • Wattle Park Presbyterian/United (Bennetswood Reserve North Oval, Burwood)
  • Dandenong South
  • Balwyn Baptist/North Balwyn Church of Christ
  • Blackburn NORTH Baptist (Koonung Reserve, Blackburn North)
  • Blackburn United
  • Box Hill Church of Christ (Mont Albert Reserve, Box Hill North)
  • Box Hill Methodist
  • Brighton United (William Street Reserve, Brighton)
  • Camberwell Baptist
  • Canterbury Presbyterian
  • Clayton Methodist
  • Dandenong Methodist
  • Deepdene (Deepdene Park, Balwyn)
  • East Kew Combined
  • Eastern Salvation Army
  • Elsternwick United (Princes Park No.2 Oval, Caulfield)
  • Elwood (Wattie Watson Oval, Elwood)
  • Gardiner Church of Christ
  • Glenhuntly St Anthonys (Glenhuntly Reserve, Glenhuntly)
  • Glen Waverley (Brentwood Reserve, Glen Waverley)
  • Hawthorn YCW (Rathmines Reserve, Hawthorn)
  • Kew Baptist
  • Koonung/Koonung Heights Methodist (Elgar Park South East Oval, Box Hill North)
  • Malvern South Methodist
  • Mazenod (Mulgrave Reserve West Oval, Mulgrave)
  • North Balwyn Methodist
  • OLV-South Camberwell
  • Preston Methodist
  • Salvo Saints
  • Sandringham Sacred Heart
  • St Andrews Box Hill/Presbyterian (Springfield Park West Oval, Box Hill North)
  • St Georges Reservoir
  • St Marys East Malvern (Ferndale Park, Glen Iris)
  • St Stephens Presbyterian
  • Surrey Hills Presbyterian
  • Whitehorse United
Click to expand...
 
jumperfan said:
Thanks MortlockWatcher, really appreciate it!
Click to expand...
Just wanted to confirm one thing - you've corrected Blackburn Baptist to Blackburn North Baptist but the ESCFA history on the SFNL website lists them as separate clubs - Blackburn Baptist became Blackburn South in the early 1980s and BNB folded after the 1989 season - do you know if this is correct?
 
jumperfan said:
Just wanted to confirm one thing - you've corrected Blackburn Baptist to Blackburn North Baptist but the ESCFA history on the SFNL website lists them as separate clubs - Blackburn Baptist became Blackburn South in the early 1980s and BNB folded after the 1989 season - do you know if this is correct?
Click to expand...

My bad.
1983 has Blackburn North Baptist (E Grade/Collingwood jumpers/Koonung Res) and Blackburn South (D Grade/Green with black yoke/Eley Park Res).
 
MortlockWatcher said:
My bad.
1983 has Blackburn North Baptist (E Grade/Collingwood jumpers/Koonung Res) and Blackburn South (D Grade/Green with black yoke/Eley Park Res).
Click to expand...
Sorry, just realised I forgot to include this in the original post - does the handbook have a home ground listed for St Pats Mentone?

Also I think you may have confused St Marys Church of England (now St Mary's Salesian) with St Marys East Malvern (folded circa 1987) - the former played at Ferndale Park.
 
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