Berwick Football Club
None
Berwick Football Club | |
---|---|
![]() |
|
Names | |
Full name | Berwick Football Club |
Nickname(s) | 'Wickers |
Club details | |
Founded | 1903 ; 120 years ago ( 1903 ) |
Colours | Navy blue, White |
Competition | Eastern Football Netball League |
Ground(s) | Edwin Flack Reserve |
Uniforms | |
|
|
Other information | |
Official website | berwickfc.com.au |
The Berwick Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Eastern Football Netball League . The club previously played in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League and Outer East FL , leaving the latter at the end of 2020. The club is based at the Edwin Flack Reserve in Berwick, Victoria . The club is notable for its five-year stint in the Victorian Football Association second division during the 1980s.
History
A football match was recorded having been played in 1879 by the 'Berwick (combined)' club with Dandenong. [1] Two weeks later another match was played by a 'combined team from Berwick and Pakenham'. [2] In 1880 a team is recorded as the 'Berwick and Harkaway United club'. [3] The club, then recorded as Berwick from 1881, [4] is shown to have played annual matches against Dandenong through the 1880s. Its first known premiership success came in the Berwick District Football Association in 1910, [5] and it won one more premiership in its time in that competition, in 1925. The club later competed in the Dandenong District Football Association. It then joined the South-West Gippsland Football League in 1954, winning the premiership in its first season. [6] It became one of the SWGFL's most powerful clubs during the 1970s, and by 1982 it had contested eleven consecutive finals series and won two more premierships – back-to-back in 1977 and 1978. [7]
On 19 November 1982 Berwick was admitted to the Victorian Football Association 's second division for the 1983 season, as part of the VFA's restructuring and expansion in the early 1980s. [7] The SWGFL did not want to lose Berwick, and it refused to endorse clearances for its players to the VFA; but Berwick went to the Supreme Court of Victoria , which, in a decision which was finalised only four days prior to the start of the season, found that clearances were not legally required in a case where a club switched leagues. [8] The club spent five seasons in the VFA, without achieving any significant success, its best result a seventh placing out of eleven in 1984 with a 7–9 record from sixteen games played . The club struggled to recruit local players, in large part because the players preferred to play SWGFL games on Saturdays than VFA games on Sundays; and it found that its VFA attendances were no larger than its SWGFL crowds had been. [9] The club elected to leave the VFA after the 1987 season, and returned to the SWGFL in 1988. [10]
Over the following 25 years, the club contested the different variations of the local competition. This was initially the SWGFL from 1988 until 1994; the league was absorbed by the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League , becoming the Casey-Cardinia Division, in 1995, and the club won one premiership in that competition, in 1999. [6] In 2015, the clubs from the Casey-Cardinia Division left to found the South East FL ; Berwick won the new league's inaugural senior premiership in 2015, as well as the premierships in all four football grades (senior, reserves, under-19s and under-18s) that season, and won further senior premierships in 2017 and 2018. [11] In 2019, the league merged with AFL Yarra Ranges to become AFL Outer East , in which Berwick contested one season.
In 2020, Berwick departed the country competition and joined the metropolitan Eastern Football League , becoming its south-easternmost member, initially joining an expanded Premier Division. Its inaugural season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic , meaning 2021 will be its first season of competition. [12]
They also have multiple junior football clubs, ranging from Under 8’s to Under 19 Girls.
Club symbols
The club wears a navy blue guernsey with a white monogram, and is known by the nickname ' Wickers . While in the VFA, the club reversed its design to a white guernsey with navy blue monogram, and later a white guernsey with navy blue hoops near the waist and gold trimmings, due to a VFA requirement that its clubs not wear the same guernseys as Victorian Football League clubs (Berwick's design was the same as Carlton 's, except with a different monogram). [13]
Until 1984, the club played its games at the Arch Brown Reserve in Buchanan Rd. After a fire destroyed the pavilion in December 1984, the club moved to the newer Edwin Flack Reserve in Manuka Rd, where it remains today. [14]
Premierships
- 1910, 1925, 1954, 1977, 1978, 1999, 2015, 2017, 2018
VFA Club Records
Highest Score | 31.23 (209) v Sunshine, Round 12, 1984, Skinner Reserve |
Lowest Score | 2.2 (14) v Box Hill, Round 14, 1986, Box Hill City Oval |
Greatest Winning Margin | 123 points v Sunshine, Round 1, 1984, Arch Brown Reserve |
Greatest Losing Margin | 222 points v Box Hill, Round 14, 1986, Box Hill City Oval |
Lowest Winning Score | 13.7 (85) v Kilsyth 8.13 (61), Round 7, 1983, Arch Brown Reserve |
Highest Losing Score | 20.6 (126) v Box Hill 23.11 (149), Round 8, 1984, Box Hill City Oval |
References
- ↑ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal . Melbourne, VIC. 27 August 1879. p. 2.
- ↑ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal . Melbourne, VIC. 3 September 1879. p. 2.
- ↑ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal . Melbourne, VIC. 30 June 1880. p. 2.
- ↑ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal . Melbourne, VIC. 29 June 1881. p. 2.
- ↑ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal . Melbourne, VIC. 17 August 1910. p. 3.
- 1 2 John Devaney. "Berwick" . Australian Football . Retrieved 23 June 2014 .
- 1 2 Marc Fiddian (23 November 1982). "30 VFA teams?". The Age . Melbourne, VIC. p. 42.
- ↑ Prue Innes (31 March 1983). "Football may need govt control: judge". The Age . Melbourne, VIC. p. 22.
- ↑ Dennis Jose (3 August 1985). "Saturday trial is worth a punt". The Age . Melbourne, VIC. p. 39.
- ↑ "Berwick votes to quit VFA". The Age . Melbourne, VIC. 13 November 1987. p. 32.
- ↑ Paddy Naughton (22 September 2015). "Four Mclardy brothers share premiership glory in four different Berwick Football Club teams" . Berwick Leader . Berwick, VIC . Retrieved 22 September 2015 .
- ↑ Dan Cencic (17 August 2020). "EFL: Berwick president outlines why his club sought a move into the EFL" . Herald Sun . Retrieved 2 April 2021 .
- ↑ Marc Fiddian (14 April 1984). "Hard start for Springvale". The Age . Melbourne, VIC. p. 33.
- ↑ Meike Ruotsalainen (5 May 2014). "Berwick (VFA and CCNFL, Victoria)" . Scoreboard Pressure . Retrieved 23 May 2014 .
External links
Clubs in the
Outer East Football Netball League
|
---|
|