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Berwick Football Club

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Berwick Football Club
Names
Full nameBerwick Football Club
Nickname(s)'Wickers
Club details
Founded1903; 121 years ago (1903)
Colours  Navy blue,   White
CompetitionEastern Football Netball League
Ground(s)Edwin Flack Reserve
Uniforms
Home
Other information
Official websiteberwickfc.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]

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

  1. ^ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal. Melbourne, VIC. 27 August 1879. p. 2.
  2. ^ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal. Melbourne, VIC. 3 September 1879. p. 2.
  3. ^ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal. Melbourne, VIC. 30 June 1880. p. 2.
  4. ^ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal. Melbourne, VIC. 29 June 1881. p. 2.
  5. ^ "Football". The South Bourke and Mornington Journal. Melbourne, VIC. 17 August 1910. p. 3.
  6. ^ a b John Devaney. "Berwick". Australian Football. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. ^ a b Marc Fiddian (23 November 1982). "30 VFA teams?". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 42.
  8. ^ Prue Innes (31 March 1983). "Football may need govt control: judge". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 22.
  9. ^ Dennis Jose (3 August 1985). "Saturday trial is worth a punt". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 39.
  10. ^ "Berwick votes to quit VFA". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 13 November 1987. p. 32.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Dan Cencic (17 August 2020). "EFL: Berwick president outlines why his club sought a move into the EFL". Herald Sun. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  13. ^ Marc Fiddian (14 April 1984). "Hard start for Springvale". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 33.
  14. ^ Meike Ruotsalainen (5 May 2014). "Berwick (VFA and CCNFL, Victoria)". Scoreboard Pressure. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
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