Caulfield Football Club
Encyclopedia
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
club which played in the VFA from 1965 until 1987. Nicknamed The Bears, they were based in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield
Caulfield, Victoria
Caulfield is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Glen Eira...
and wore a blue and white guernsey.
History
The suburb first had a team in the VFA during 1962 season after BrightonBrighton Football Club
Brighton Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the VFA. The club was based in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton and were nicknamed the Penguins...
had relocated there. Brighton merged with local club South Caulfield and they played in the VFA as Brighton-Caulfield. The club dropped Brighton from their name in 1965 on the request of the local council and Caulfield Football Club was formed. They replaced their maroon and gold team colors with blue and white hoops and replaced Brighton's Penguin emblem with a Bear.
Caulfield initially played in the second division and failed to make the finals during the rest of the 1960s. In 1971 they managed to lure former Richmond premiership player Tony Jewell
Tony Jewell
Tony 'TJ' Jewell is a former Australian rules football player who played in the VFL between 1964 and 1970 for the Richmond Football Club. He was recruited from Oakleigh in the VFA where he had led the club's goalkicking in 1962 and was placed 4th in the VFA's best & fairest award, the J. J. Liston...
to coach the club. They also recruited his teammates Paddy Guinane and Neville Crowe to the playing group. With VFL players in the team they had immediate success, topping the second division ladder and dropping just three games in the home and away season. Caulfield however lost their preliminary final and thus missed out on playing in the grand final. They went one better the following season and made it to the decider which they lost to Geelong West in the last minute; the Geelong club had been unbeaten all season, but Caulfield put up a fight, leading by 12 points at 3 quarter time.
In 1973 they got their first and only premiership, defeating Brunswick
Brunswick Football Club
Brunswick Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the VFA from 1897 until 1990. They were originally nicknamed the Pottery Workers before being renamed the Magpies and were based in Brunswick, Victoria. The club wore black and white guernseys...
18.20 (128) to 14.22 (106) in the grand final. Their full forward John Logan kicked six goals. This victory earned them promotion to the 1st division and they remained there until 1982. In their first season back in the 2nd division they made the grand final, losing to Northcote
Northcote Football Club
Northcote Football Club, nicknamed The Dragons, was an Australian rules football club which played in the VFA from 1908 until 1987. The club's colours were green and yellow and it was based in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote...
by 5 points. Caulfield played their last season in 1987 before financial problems forced them out of the league.
In 1988 the club merged with local club Ashburton to form Caulfield/Ashburton, and won the premiership in the South East Suburban FL first division, but the club then folded for good just prior to the 1989 season.
The Caulfield Football Club was reformed in 1993 after the merging of two clubs, St. Kevins Ormond F.C. and St. Andrews Gardenvale F.C. Both clubs had competed in the Eastern Suburban Churches Football Association and their coming together coincided with the merger of the ESCFA with the Southern Football League, which changed its name from the South East Suburban FL the previous year.
St. Kevins Ormond F.C., the dominant club, was originally formed in 1946, and competed in the C.Y.M.S. competition, winning premierships in 1948, 1952, and 1963, and then transferring to the Y.C.W. competition in 1967 and having premiership teams in 1968 and 1974. The club, church based, was one of the very few strong clubs south of the Yarra River in the seventies and eventually due to constant travelling into the northern suburbs, the club decided to move to the E.S.C.F.A. for the commencement of the 1976 football season. The players were a lot happier as there was less travel and the competition was larger and more fierce.
The club started in C grade and whilst unsuccessful in winning premierships, they were runners-up in 1983 (C Grade lost to Mazenod), 1986 (B Grade lost to Box Hill Pioneers), and 1989 (A Grade lost to Donvale). With the demise of the original Caulfield F.C. in the mid eighties, many of the players and officials became associated with St. Kevins, which became very strong in the late eighties.
In the early nineties, with the imminent league merger and the waning of St Kevins as a football power, the club decided to look to St. Andrews for a merger so as to gain access to the main oval at Princes Park and to strengthen its player base.
St Andrews had been formed in 1943 and had played in the E.S.C.F.A. the whole time. Whilst there had been moderate success, the Club had never won a premiership and by 1992 it was struggling to survive as a club. They had played all their football at Princes Park, mainly where the soccer currently resides.
The Club moved to the main oval in the late eighties and it was this tenancy which assisted with the merger at the end of 1992. St Kevins however had originally played at McKinnon Oval, moving to the E.E. Gunn Reserve in the mid fifties. In 1965 the Club moved to Bailey Reserve and finally to Koornang Park in 1980.
In 1996, the merged Club successfully moved to Princes Park where it now resides; the new Club found immediate success by winning a reserves premiership in 1993 and winning both seniors and reserves premierships in 1994 in the first division.
Since that time, ultimate success has eluded the club and it now competes in the second division in the Southern Football League. Its association with the junior club which caused the move to Koornang Park in 1980 has been successful and many current senior players have come from their ranks. With a full complement of junior teams, the club looks forward to gaining full strength and establishing itself as a permanent football club in the Glen Eira municipality in the 21st century.
Notable players
- Neville CroweNeville CroweNeville Crowe is a former Australian rules football player who played in the VFL between 1957 and 1967 for the Richmond Football Club. He served as Richmond's President from 1987 to 1993, at the helm of the club during the 1990 Save Our Skins campaign which saved the club from financial...
(Richmond) - Paddy GuinanePaddy GuinanePatrick 'Paddy' Guinane is a former Australian rules football player who played in the VFL between 1958 and 1968 for the Richmond Football Club.-References:*Hogan P: The Tigers Of Old, Richmond FC, Melbourne 1996...
(Richmond) - Tony JewellTony JewellTony 'TJ' Jewell is a former Australian rules football player who played in the VFL between 1964 and 1970 for the Richmond Football Club. He was recruited from Oakleigh in the VFA where he had led the club's goalkicking in 1962 and was placed 4th in the VFA's best & fairest award, the J. J. Liston...
(Richmond) - Darren KapplerDarren KapplerDarren Kappler is a former professional Australian rules footballer.Recruited from South Australian National Football League club South Adelaide, Kappler played 187 games for Fitzroy, Sydney Swans and Hawthorn in the Australian Football League...
(Fitzroy/Hawthorn/Sydney)