LAUNCESTON (Tamar Rowing Club)
Affiliated: NFA 1882-1885; NTFA 1886-1986; NTFL 1987-93; TFL Statewide 1994-97; NTFL 1998-present
Home Ground: Windsor Park, Riverside
Formed: 1875 (merged with Tamar Rowing Club in 1888)
Colours: Navy blue and white
Emblem: Blues
Premierships: 1888-89, 1892-93-94, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1909, 1913, 1920, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1933-34-35-36-37-38, 1940, 1945, 1951, 1969, 1976, 1985, 2006-7-8 (29 total) Tasmanian State Premierships - 1933-34-35, 1937-38 (5 total)
Tasman Shield Trophy winners: Neil Edwards 1928; Jim Milbourne 1929; K.W. 'Bill' Cahill 1933 & 1936; Tom Ryan 1939; Lance Crosswell 1946-47; Darrell Crosswell 1951; R. 'Bob' Bye 1959-60 (7 winners/10 wins)
Hec Smith Memorial Medallists: Alby Dunn 1968; Paul Ellis 1976; Grant Alford 1980; Darren Cook 1986 (4 total)
Baldock Medallists: A.Sanders 2003; A.Taylor 2004; B.Finch 2005 (3 total)
All Australians: Graeme 'Gypsy' Lee 1966 (1 total)
NTFA Top Goalkickers: H.Murray (9) 1889; P.Tabart (9) 1892; R.Lawrence (11) 1893 & (12) 1894; J.Gorman (16) 1896; P.Bird (15) 1900; S.Willett (8) 1905; V.Valentine (12) 1906; A.Ramsay (6) & R.Thomas (6) 1911; B.Freeland (25) 1925; J.Foley (70) 1930 & (52) 1931; H.Ranson (62) 1933; A.Waddle (44) 1935; L.Smith (59) 1937 & (73) 1938; M.Flood (71) 1945; R.McCrimmon (102) 1948, (83) 1949, (76) 1950 & (55) 1951; C.Tabe (67) 1955; D.Seen (50) 1967; A.West (65) 1969 & (50) 1970; R.Smith (94) 1976 & (63) 1977; I.Donnachy (63) 1978 & (78) 1982 (30 total)
NTFL Top Goalkickers: A.Derbyshire (93) 2005 & (133) 2006 (2 total)
Launceston's Official 'Team of the Century': Click here
Highest Score: 29.20 (194) vs. Burnie Tigers 15.8 (98) in 1991
Most Games: 252 by Paul Ellis from 1973 to 1985
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Ray Bailey Phil Haughan Graeme 'Gypsy' Lee Harold 'Joe' Littler Geoff 'Paddy' Martin Hec Smith Algy Tynan Viv Valentine |
The history of Australian football in Tasmania dates back to the 1860s. In 1867 a committee was established in Launceston to oversee the Victorian code in that city, but initially at least it would seem that the sport was only played on a social basis.
The Launceston Football Club was formed in 1875, making it the oldest club in Tasmania, but it was not until 1882, and the establishment of the Northern Football Association, that organised football can genuinely be said to have commenced (see footnote 1). This inaugural Association only lasted four years before being replaced in 1886 by the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA), which would endure until the inception of a Tasmanian statewide competition precisely a hundred years later.
Launceston was one of three senior clubs to participate in the NTFA in its initial year, but one of the other clubs, Longford, was involved in a dispute with the association which eventually led to its withdrawal from the competition in July. This left Launceston to compete - unsuccessfully as it transpired - with City for the inaugural NTFA flag; Launceston thus achieved the rare 'double' of a wooden spoon and a runners-up berth in the same year.
In 1887 the competition expanded to four clubs with the admission of South Launceston (see footnote 2) and Tamar Rowing Club, and the following year Launceston and Tamar Rowing Club combined forces, winning the first of two consecutive premierships.
|
|
The 1890s was a depressed period
economically, and this inevitably had an inimical effect on football. By
the middle of the decade the NTFA was in dire straits, and only two clubs -
Launceston and Fitzroy - contested the 1896 season. In 1900 the Northern
Tasmanian Cricket Association stepped in and undertook control of the
competition, an arrangement which lasted until 1914.
Launceston provided a number of players for each of Tasmania's teams at the three pre-World War One Australian Football carnivals, and at Adelaide in 1911 it supplied two of the very best in the shape of Gordon Challis (shown left), who was awarded the Senator Keating Medal as Tasmania's outstanding player of the carnival, and A.D. ('Algy') Tynan, who was named at full back in an unofficial 'All Australian' side selected at the conclusion of championships. |
Launceston was intermittently successful during the pre-war period, contesting eight grand finals between 1900 and 1914 for three flags. After winning the 1909 premiership, Launceston was involved in the first ever official play off to determine the Tasmanian state premiers, but lost to Cananore by 30 points in Hobart. Four years later it again qualified to meet Cananore in the state premiership decider but, dissatisfied with the umpire appointed to take charge of the game, refused to take the field. The state title was awarded to Cananore, and the TFL, as the official controlling body for football throughout the state of Tasmania, suspended Launceston. It was not until midway through the 1914 season that this disqualification was finally lifted, by which time Launceston's fellow NTFA clubs, City and North Launceston, had effectively also undergone suspension (at least as far as the TFL was concerned) for agreeing to play against Launceston in roster matches. The entire affair left something of a bitter after taste, but by the time it was resolved events in Europe had begun to supplant mere sporting considerations in most people's minds.
During the early post-World War One phase the NTFA comprised three evenly matched clubs, Launceston, City and North Launceston, each of which secured two flags apiece between 1920 and 1925. In 1926 Longford re-entered the association after a forty year break but the other three clubs would continue to dominate for some time yet. Launceston won its thirteenth premiership that year and, in the state premiership play off against Cananore, was desperately unlucky to lose by 2 points after amassing 25 scoring shots to 17.
| The Launceston teams of the 1930s were
some of the finest ever to grace Tasmanian football ovals. With players
like 'Bill' Cahill, Roy Cooper, Tom Ryan and Doug Wheeler to the fore, the side
won six consecutive flags between 1933 and 1938. Only North
Hobart in 1936 prevented what would have been an identical sequence of wins
in the Tasmanian State premiership.
Success since the 1930s has proved considerably harder to achieve. The NTFA expanded to six clubs in 1948 with the admission of Cornwall (later East Launceston) and Scottsdale, and the balance of power tended to rest more heavily with the second of these newcomers, together with North Launceston and City/City-South, than it did with Tasmania's oldest club. Launceston continued to provide a football home to a large number of accomplished players, such as the club's only official All Australian, Graeme 'Gypsy' Lee (pictured right), Alby Dunn, Paul Vinar, Grant Alford, Paul Ellis and Wim Vaessan. In 1994 the Blues entered the TFL statewide competition but in four seasons in what was by that stage a declining concern failed to make much of an impression, finishing last without a win in their debut season, last again with just 1 win in 1995, before improving marginally in 1996 (7th out of 11 clubs) and 1997 (9th out of 11). |
|
Since 1998 Launceston has participated in the NTFL. After a twenty-one year wait, the side finally broke through to record its twenty-seventh senior premiership victory in 2006 after impressively downing Devonport in the grand final. In front of a crowd of 5,192 at Latrobe, the final scoreboard showed Launceston 22.14 (146) defeated Devonport 13.11 (89).
A year later it was Ulverstone on the receiving end as the Blues claimed their first back to back premiership triumphs since the 1930s. Watched by a respectable crowd of almost 5,500 at Latrobe, Launceston had to battle hard for victory, with the Robins getting to within 4 points at one stage during the last term. However, the Blues were able to steady and pull away to record a 15 point triumph, 19.9 (123) to 16.12 (108).
Launceston made it a hat trick of flags in 2008 courtesy of a hard fought 13 point grand final defeat of Burnie Dockers. The Blues seemed wholly in control early but Burnie rallied and late in the final term managed to get within a couple of points. However, Launceston's professionalism and experience then came to the fore and a couple of quick goals made the game safe. Since 2009 the Blues have been one of five northern clubs competing in a fresh incarnation of the statewide league.
With Tasmania increasingly being treated as little better than a backwater by the powers which control the game it would seem that the best that can be hoped for in future by the Apple Island's oldest club is continued existence, interspersed with occasional high points like the 2006, 2007 and 2008 grand finals. However, once the current generation has disappeared, will anyone be left watching such events?
Where now?
or
Footnotes
1. The Hobart-based Tasmanian Football Association, precursor of the T(AN)FL, was formed in 1879. Return to Main Text
2. This was a short-lived club, not to be confused with the 20th century outfit of the same name which was formed after a merger between City-South and East Launceston in 1986. Return to Main Text