Clubs that are defunct or merged throughout Tasmania.

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Gersman said:
Well under that pretence, Mangalore must've "folded" in 1995 when they decided to change their name to Brighton when they left the country and amateur leagues and joined the Southern Football League when it started up.
Managalore is a small area with a population of around 950 in the Brighton municipality, the club played their games in a town called Pontville (population of approximately 2,500), just along the highway.
In order to get their clubrooms and bar built at Pontville Oval for their entry in the SFL in 1996, the Brighton Council requested to the club that they change their name from Mangalore to Brighton in order to take in the wider Brighton municipality (population of around 17,000 people) to broaden their appeal to the wider community as Mangalore was only a very small club with a tiny local following, which in the longterm wouldn't have been sustainable.
The club had initial misgivings but eventually went ahead with it and were doing very well for a number of years and their supporter base, although not overly large, grew from the change as did their access to player numbers.
What really ruined Brighton Football Club was the state governments plan of cleaning up parts of nearby housing department areas of Bridgewater, Gagebrook and Herdsmans Cove and relocating some of their more idiotic elements to new subdivisions in Brighton/Pontville, plus expansions of housing areas closer to it which totally ruined the area and brought a lot of social problems with it. Crime rates went up, anti-social behaviour went up, and many of these people noticeably infiltrated the football club.
A lot of the existing people in the club got sick of the poor behaviour, frequent violence and ended up deserting the club in droves.
Now that club doesn't even have a senior team, only fielding a reserves side and womens side in the SFL because they couldn't get enough players to even want to go there. A modern day Lachlan.
A good idea that went bad when the area went from semi rural to urban government housing and all the problems that went with it.
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Many thanks for your info - I really appreciate local history.

But as I said - I don't like name changes. I also don't like jumper/guernsey changes.

PS Green Bay is a small town in Wisconsin, but is still Green Bay Packers - a winning team.

Gotta be a lesson learned there somewhere.
 
deltablues said:
Nope. For me, change of name is end of club. The Kingston Tigers premiership flags back in the 50's have 'Kingston' inscribed on them. And won hard, based in the mudheap.

Why should a club founded in 1886 change its name to fit in
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Sorry, but with all due respect, that's a bit of a simplistic way of looking at it. There could be a number of factors to take into account with respect to name changes.
Kingston/Kingborough Tigers/Tigers FC have worn a number of different colours and jumpers down the years.
They used to play in the old Southern Tasmanian Football Association (later known as the TFL) from 1895-1907.
Joined the Channel Football Association in 1908 before playing in the Kingborough Football Association from 1909-1966 against other small country teams, they won ten senior premierships in that competition between 1930-1966.
When the 1967 Tasmanian bushfires destroyed most of those small towns, most of the clubs formed into one club (Channel) and Kingston absorbed Longley.
Channel and Kingston then joined the Huon Football Association.
Both Kingston (and Channel) played in the Huon Football Association from 1967-1995. Kingston won three senior premierships in their stint in the Huon FA in 1980, 1991 and 1995.
Again Kingston and Channel both jumped ship and joined the brand new Southern Football League in 1996.
The SFL was formed as a community based competition after the Tasmanian Amateur Football League (Southern Division) folded at the end of 1995, at the same time the Huon FA was also in deep trouble and both clubs could see the writing on the wall and made the move.
What was more ironic was that every other club in the Huon FA (Cygnet, Kermandie, Franklin, Huonville, Channel) absolutely hated Kingston with a passion and continued to do so when they all ended up in the SFL from 1998 onwards.
Notably, they and former TFL club Hobart, also had a bitter and at times very spiteful dislike of one another in their years in the SFL.
Kingston didn't have a very large supporter base and their home ground was best described as ordinary.
They played their games at the Kingston Beach Oval in Recreation Street, Kingston until the end of 2010.
In the 2000s the suburb and municipality of Kingston and Kingborough grew rapidly.
It went from being a small beachside suburb to growing into a large area full of young families (much like Brighton in many respects) and its population exploded.
Kingston, the suburb now has a population of around 11,000 but the whole municipality they represent has almost 40,000 people in it and hence, that's why they changed their name, to appeal to more people and grow their club and become a strong club at regional level.
This did work for a time, their junior football grew rapidly, their senior club became more successful on field and they were able to secure a brand new ground with great facilities in Firthside called the Twin Ovals.
This culminated with an SFL premiership in front of 7,000 people at KGV, the majority supporting them.
Then AFL Tasmania devised a rather devious plan to try and relocate ailing State League club Hobart down there with a view to Kingborough eventually absorbing Hobart.
Naturally, this enraged Hobart and caused their president to be sacked for discussing the plan with AFL Tas and the Kingborough Council without the rest of their board knowing about the plan.
Eventually Hobart was leaking money at TSL level like a ship full of holes and quit the TSL, and Kingborough, against the wishes of their supporters and players were promoted to the TSL in Hobart's place but were forced to refer to themselves as the bland, generic "Tigers FC" so they would not be seen as "Kingston/Kingborough" and turn off a lot of support from people in the Huon region. It hasn't worked.
In all respects it stopped being Kingston/Kingborough the day they went into the TSL in 2014.
 
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deltablues said:
Many thanks for your info - I really appreciate local history.

But as I said - I don't like name changes. I also don't like jumper/guernsey changes.

PS Green Bay is a small town in Wisconsin, but is still Green Bay Packers - a winning team.

Gotta be a lesson learned there somewhere.
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I also don't like name or jumper changes generally speaking.
While technically speaking, it's still the same entity, it dilutes the history and the meaning of the club in doing it.
With respect to say, Kingston/Kingborough and Mangalore/Brighton as an example, these were tiny regional/amateur clubs that had stepped up to much bigger leagues and both areas had changed from tiny little towns to large regions with rapidly expanding populations. And with the state of Australian football going the way it has done over the past 30 years, the need to reach out to more people and grow their supporter bases and gain more player numbers has become more critical than ever, so it could be understood as to why they've taken this course of action.

It has also had failures too. In north western Tasmania, a team called Smithton had played for a majority of their history at lower league levels in the north west of the state. In 1980 they joined the former NWFU to become one of the bigger clubs on the coast.
Smithton wore red, white and black and were known as the Saints. Their town population was around 3,900.
About two or three years ago their club decided to try and grow their brand by renaming themselves as the Circular Head Giants (Circular Head is the municipality where they're based at with a population of around 8,000) to encompass the wider area and gain more support and more players.
Circular Head Giants were a spectacular flop and the club went into recess only about 16 months after making the change because they weren't able to get enough players, and many of their older fans deserted the club after the name change.
What their future holds - nobody knows.

North Hobart Football Club won 27 premierships at TFL level (the highest level in Tasmanian football) between 1896 and 1992. They entered into a commercial arrangement with their major sponsor Harris Scarfe in 1999 to rename themselves the Hobart Demons much to the outrage of the already existing Hobart Football Club, then playing in the SFL.
This backfired on the Demons as they lost more than two thirds of their membership and crowd numbers slumped alarmingly due to the move.
When the TFL folded in 2000, North Hobart returned to using their name in 2001 when they joined the SFL but had to change to different playing jumpers for a number of years afterwards. A lot of their old supporters never came back.
Between 2009-2013 North Hobart were in the new TSL competition in their traditional jumpers and name but AFL Tasmania tried to force them and the Hobart Tigers to merge and play as a combined Hobart City team in the TSL.
Neither club were at all keen on the idea, Hobart pulled out of the discussions to rejoin the SFL, North Hobart also tried to get into the SFL but were blocked (presumably by AFL Tasmania from doing so) and were forced into an arrangement whereby AFL Tasmania owned 50% of their TSL licence, North Hobart owned the other 50% and the name and colours had to go.
Was badged as the Hobart City Football Club and had almost zero support. Lasted a few years before it was returned back to being North Hobart but the damage had well and truly been done.

Hobart Football Club played in the TFL as the Tigers from 1945 to 1997. Joined the SFL in 1998 after being reportedly up to half a million bucks in debt, low membership and terrible on field.
Had to drop their Tigers emblem and jumper when they played in the SFL (because Kingston/Kingborough were already using it) and they played in a simple gold jumper with HFC monogram on the chest. They also didn't elect to use a nickname during that time.
Under pressure from a meddlesome AFL Tasmania and several newcomers to the club, the club waged a very divisive campaign against many of its own longtime supporters, members and ex-players and changed itself to the Hobart Lions between 2005-2008.
In many respects that was pretty much the death knell for them as up to 70% of their membership walked out on the club and never returned.
When they joined the TSL in 2009, they supposedly had a membership of just 28 people but were granted full use of their original emblem, colours and jumper.
While their membership expanded with the return of their identity, many of their former fans and members refused to return because the same people responsible for the identity change originally were still in charge of the club then.
Coupled with their terrible on field performances and low support base, the club was hemorrhaging money in copious amounts and was to lose supposedly $300k in four years along with being deliberately undermined by AFL Tasmania (same as North) and returned to the SFL in 2014. They continued to slide into the abyss in the SFL and apart from making one final about three years ago, have been near the bottom every year and their supporter base has continued to shrink to horribly low numbers.
 
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Just learned 2 of my former clubs in Triabunna and Channel Saints no longer exist.

WTF happened?
 
boncer34 said:
Just learned 2 of my former clubs in Triabunna and Channel Saints no longer exist.

WTF happened?
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Triabunna still going. Playing in the ODFA.
For a time there when they joined the SFL they were that uncompetitive that they entered into this sort of, half-hearted partnership with Lauderdale where the team would play as the East Coast Bombers and use players from both Triabunna and Lauderdale reserves. In the end Lauderdale were virtually providing all the players and there was no real input from Triabunna.
Crowds were always abysmal every time you had to play them.
Triabunna backed out of the partnership and rejoined the ODFA about three years ago.

Channel had heaps of coin supposedly but couldn't attract players down there.
Went from being a power club in the old Huon FA and the SFL to falling away badly from 2000 onwards, after years of being uncompetitive they eventually dropped out of the SFL in about 2006-ish and joined the Old Scholars FA in Hobart where they stayed for about nine or ten years without any success and eventually collapsed because of a lack of player numbers.
Pretty much the same situation why Kermandie fell over.
 
fumbler said:
Post them and i will add them to this list, maybe the AFL will take heed.

Bothwell District FA / Southern Tasmania Country FA - ?
Montacute ? - ?
Dennistoun ? - ?
Ouse ?- ?
Ellendale ? - ?

Circular Head FA
City ? - 1995
Trowutta ? - 1992 recess to 1995
*+ Trowutta - City Bulldogs - 2014

Darwin FA
Myalla Tigers - 2006

Esk Deloraine FA - 1993


Fingal District FA - 1992
Avoca ? - 1989
St Marys Tigers - 2002

Southern FL
*+ Central Hawks** - 2012
Franklin Lions / Huonville Bulldogs - 1997 merged to become Huonville Lions
Kermandie Robins - 2010
Lachlan Bombers / Dockers - 1997

Leven FA - 2016
Upper Castra ? - 2015
Latrobe Saints formerly Mersey Valley Saints - 1987-2011
Mole Creek Bulldogs - 2015
Motton Rovers - 2000
Railton Tigers - 1891-2015
Wilmot Robins - 1896 - 2015
Zeehan Bulldogs - 1998

North East FU
Branxholm Wanderers - 2014
Fingal Valley Kangaroos - 2015
Ringarooma Robins - 2012
Winnaleah Magpies - 2018

North Tasmania FA
Cressy ? - 2000
Exeter ? - 1991
Hagley ? - 2001
Northern Districts Crows - 2000
Prospect Hawks - 2017 - Western Storm in the TSL.
St Marys ? - 2002


North Western FA
Don ? - ?
Gowrie Park - ?
Latrobe Rovers - ?
Melrose ? - ?
Mersey ? - 1915
Sassafras ? - ?


North West FU


Oatlands District FA
Colebrook Saints - 1994
Kempton Magpies - 2003
Parattah Robins - 1986
Ross Demons - 2008
Triabunna Roos - 2017 - Were also known as East Coast Bombers in the reserves TSL and SFL.
Tunbridge Redlegs - 1981
Tunnack Eagles - 2001
Woodsdale Lions - 2015

Old Scholars FA
Channel Saints - 2016
Friends Bulldogs - 2005
New Town Old Scholars - 1995

Peninsula FA
Eaglehawk Neck Coutas - 2001
Premaydena Bombers - 2001
Port Arthur Kangaroos - 2001
Nubeena Tigers - 2001

Southern Tasmania FA - 1986
Maydena ? - 1986



Tasman FA
Cambridge Magpies - 1999

Canarvon ? - ?

Copping ? - ?




Dunalley Bulldogs - ?







Fortescue Bay ? - ?










Koonya ? - ?













Mangalore ? - 1980














North Derwent Forresters - 2001











Port Arthur ? - 2001
Railway ? - 1998
Risdon Vale ? - 1999

Saltwater River ? - 1960
Tarana ? - ?
T.P.T Rovers - ? / Tasman Rovers??
Tunnel Bay ? - ?
Wedge Bay ? - ?

Tasmanian State League, TFL, TANFL, etc
Sandy Bay Seagulls - 1997
*+ Southern Districts Cats - 1999 - A two year part merger of Sandy Bay, Channel and Kingston.

Western Tasmania FA - 1994
*+ Lyell Maroons / Gormanston Blues merged in 1976 to form Lyell-Gormanston Lions - 1976-1994.
Mines United ? - ??
Queenstown Blues - 1993
Railway Robins - ??

Strahan Seals - 1994
Tullah-Savage River Raiders - ?

Zeehan FA - 1952


VFL
Tasmania Devils - 2008


*Merged clubs that still play.

- City Magpies and Smelters Robins Football Clubs merge in 1977 to form the Queenstown Blues -- Lyell-Gormanston Lions merged with Queenstown Blues to become *Queenstown Crows
and play in the Darwin FA.

- Cooee Bulldogs (NWFU) 1894-1986 - Renamed Burnie Hawks (TFL) 1987-1994, Burnie Tigers (NWFU, NTFL) 1885-1993, Burnie Hawks absorbed Burnie Tigers in 1994 and merged to become *Burnie Dockers and currently play in the NWFL.
- Forest ? (CHFA) 1900 - 1962 and Stanley ? (CHFA) 1900 - 1962 became *Forest Stanley Demons in 1963 and still play in the Circular Heads FA
- East Launceston (NTFA, TFL) 1948-1986, City-South Redlegs (NTFA) 1879-1986, Merged 26th May 1986 to become *South Launceston Bulldogs and currently play in the NTFA Div 1.
- Toorak Tigers and Rosebery Saints merged in 1987 to become *Rosebery-Toorak Hawks and play in the NWFA.

** Central Hawks were made up from Bothwell, Oatlands and Kempton and while technically they did not become defunct both Oatlands Tigers and Bothwell Rabbits re-entered the ODFA on their own accords and left Kempton without a side.

*+ Merged clubs that are defunct.
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Kingston Tigers - merged but = dead.
 
Smithton Football Club (Circular Head Giants) has now been officially wound up after 100 years.

"ANNOUNCEMENT- The Smithton Football Club held its AGM last night, and, as advertised, outside the normal agenda items the main discussions were held on the immediate future of the Football Club after being in recession for the 2019 season.
Anyone that has followed the club since our decision to go into recession in February knows that the club was 30 players or more short to be sustainable in the NWFL competition.
Over the past seven months the Board have been in discussion with former players, potential future players and other various community members. It was abundantly clear that as we moved forward into the 2020 football season that unfortunately this player shortage number had grown due to some players from last years committed list either retiring, committing to other clubs, not playing at all or not returning for various other reasons.
All possibilities were discussed at the AGM. Including a return in any format or to any Association, but playing numbers, long term sustainability, financial viability, responsibility to our members and life members, volunteers, competition and opposition clubs meant unfortunately in the current climate none of these provided a sustainable option both in the immediate or foreseeable future.
After long deliberations and discussions, at the Board meeting held after the AGM, the regrettable decision was made to officially remove the Club from recession and voluntary wind up the Smithton Football Club due purely to the lack of numbers required to be able to fill the necessary teams. This is by far the hardest decision the Football Club Board has ever had to make and has been very heartbreaking for everyone involved.
People are passionate about their football and this decision will raise a lot of emotion and potential criticism. As President I ask that everyone respects this extremely difficult decision and remembers all involved are volunteers who have done their absolute best in trying to keep the Club alive as the communities representative Club.
We all had hoped for a better outcome. Thankyou for all those who attended last nights AGM and provided comment and thoughts we appreciate your time taken to attend the meeting.
As President and on behalf of the Football Club Board I apologise for this outcome and we do sincerely wish we could be communicating much better news to everyone. In closing again, it is asked that any comments are made in a respectful manner and any inappropriate comments will be deleted.

Regards Nic Bellinger
President Smithton Football Club"
 
Gersman said:
Well under that pretence, Mangalore must've "folded" in 1995 when they decided to change their name to Brighton when they left the country and amateur leagues and joined the Southern Football League when it started up.
Managalore is a small area with a population of around 950 in the Brighton municipality, the club played their games in a town called Pontville (population of approximately 2,500), just along the highway.
In order to get their clubrooms and bar built at Pontville Oval for their entry in the SFL in 1996, the Brighton Council requested to the club that they change their name from Mangalore to Brighton in order to take in the wider Brighton municipality (population of around 17,000 people) to broaden their appeal to the wider community as Mangalore was only a very small club with a tiny local following, which in the longterm wouldn't have been sustainable.
The club had initial misgivings but eventually went ahead with it and were doing very well for a number of years and their supporter base, although not overly large, grew from the change as did their access to player numbers.
What really ruined Brighton Football Club was the state governments plan of cleaning up parts of nearby housing department areas of Bridgewater, Gagebrook and Herdsmans Cove and relocating some of their more idiotic elements to new subdivisions in Brighton/Pontville, plus expansions of housing areas closer to it which totally ruined the area and brought a lot of social problems with it. Crime rates went up, anti-social behaviour went up, and many of these people noticeably infiltrated the football club.
A lot of the existing people in the club got sick of the poor behaviour, frequent violence and ended up deserting the club in droves.
Now that club doesn't even have a senior team, only fielding a reserves side and womens side in the SFL because they couldn't get enough players to even want to go there. A modern day Lachlan.
A good idea that went bad when the area went from semi rural to urban government housing and all the problems that went with it.
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I grew up in mangalore played my junior football at Brighton the clubrooms and facilities were there well before 1996 I’m not sure where you got that information from mate I’m pretty sure they were built in the mid eighties!
 

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Ozguy said:
Unfortunately, I can see this list growing in the near future :(
Click to expand...
Yep, I'm with ya there. Who are the ones in the gun this time?
I believe at least 40% of the current clubs currently trading in Tasmanian football will be consigned to history within the next 15-20 years. There's just not enough kids and youths taking up football anymore, all the volunteers are either middle-aged or elderly people, crowd numbers keep plummeting and overheads keep climbing.
Lack of good sponsorship and media interest in local affairs remain a stumbling block in renewing interest in the sport.
 
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Kingpin said:
Yep, I'm with ya there. Who ate the ones in the gun this time?
I believe at least 40% of the current clubs currently trading in Tasmanian football will be consigned to history within the next 15-20 years. There's just not enough kids and youths taking up football anymore, all the volunteers are either middle-aged or elderly people, crowd numbers keep plummeting and overheads keep climbing.
Lack of good sponsorship and media interest in local affairs remain a stumbling block in renewing interest in the sport.
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I can actually see an entire competition going under sooner rather than later.

If football in the state was ran by people who could clearly see these very issues, and actually addressed them, it would be in far better condition than it is now.
 
Ozguy said:
I can actually see an entire competition going under sooner rather than later.

If football in the state was ran by people who could clearly see these very issues, and actually addressed them, it would be in far better condition than it is now.
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The way the SFL's been heading for the past seven or eight years, that's one competition that I could see heading for the scrapyard.
It has been allowed to amble on rudderless with poor leadership for several years with no improvement or publicity.
The same two or three teams dominating the competition over the past ten or twelve years with one other club occasionally putting in a cameo, but the rest have only been making up numbers.
All the clubs appear to have lost a lot of supporters and grand final attendances have slipped noticeably in recent years.
Playing standards significantly poorer than 15 years ago and no legitimate naming rights sponsors in recent seasons.
Will be interesting to see what this new person, David Manshanden is like and whether things improve.
 
Kingpin said:
The way the SFL's been heading for the past seven or eight years, that's one competition that I could see heading for the scrapyard.
It has been allowed to amble on rudderless with poor leadership for several years with no improvement or publicity.
The same two or three teams dominating the competition over the past ten or twelve years with one other club occasionally putting in a cameo, but the rest have only been making up numbers.
All the clubs appear to have lost a lot of supporters and grand final attendances have slipped noticeably in recent years.
Playing standards significantly poorer than 15 years ago and no legitimate naming rights sponsors in recent seasons.
Will be interesting to see what this new person, David Manshanden is like and whether things improve.
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I still can't understand why the OSFA don't align to AFLTAS and amalgamate with the SFL to form a two division Southern Competition.
I think that would be the best outcome for both competitions IMO.
 
JM71 said:
I still can't understand why the OSFA don't align to AFLTAS and amalgamate with the SFL to form a two division Southern Competition.
I think that would be the best outcome for both competitions IMO.
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Apparently they have been approached about it before but declined the invitation for varying reasons.
They view their competition as more of a social type league with less training and less travel than the SFL and wish to keep it that way.
Old Scholars only fields Seniors and Reserves so there's that pressure to field Colts if they combine if its deemed a requirement.
Although the way the SFL Colts is going, who knows where that may end up.
I do agree though that a combination of the two leagues and a complete rebranding would be ideal but they'd have to want to do it, and the Old Scholars has probably been the better run competition over the past several years.
I would say they're very evenly matched in playing standard, some OSFA clubs are better than their SFL counterparts, crowds are a little higher at SFL games though.
Who knows, if more clubs disappear then it may end up having to combine down the track.
 
I saw the other day that Uni-Mowbray Football Club in the NTFA have decided to drop the Mowbray name and the Eagles emblem and are now known as the University Of Tasmania Football Club, UTas Lions.
 
nobbyiscool said:
This is BF's most depressing thread.

The most upsetting are the teams like Winnaleah and Scottsdale Crows
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Scottsdale was bloody competitive when I grew up. Longford not bad either. First game of footy I saw was north vs launceston at york park. Absolutely packed as it was a final. Better atmosphere than an AFL game with 50k.

Highlights on local tv every sunday.

Absolute tragedy. AFL telecasts destroyed it along with incompetent administrators.
 
Gersman said:
Well I guess you could add Smithton and Natone to that list. Both gone.
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North West Tassie used to be a footbal factory! So many great players from there back in the 70s/80s.

IIRC Tassie produced more VFL players per head than any other state.
 
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