Encounter Bay Football Club
| File:Encounter Bay FC logo.png | |
| Full name | Encounter Bay Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Eagles |
| Sport | Australian rules football |
| Founded | 1921 |
| League | Great Southern Football League |
| Home ground | Encounter Bay Oval, Victor Harbor |
The Encounter Bay Eagles are an Australian rules football club based in Encounter Bay, South Australia that plays in the Great Southern Football League.
Club History
The game of Australian rules football on the Fleurieu Peninsula dates back to the 1860s-1870s when the Goolwa Football Club was established in 1878. Matches between the local towns organised on a 'friendly' basis where teams often agreed to play each other. Onward from this period, it was thought that a stable league was to be founded to provide some sort of oversight to the competition. That league was the Great Southern Football League what Encounter Bay joined two years after the club's founding, in 1921.
In Encounter Bay's first few years of existence, the team was primarily made of players from the Victor Harbor area. The club's first match was against Victor Harbor that same year and played games against Hindmarsh Valley and Finniss.The club first saw premiership glory in 1940, beating Port Elliot 10.15.75 to 7.5.47, playing home games at a paddock off Maude Street, Encounter Bay. Originally, Encounter Bay's colours were red and white and the current yellow and blue they play with was the result of a split in 1946. After World War II there were a group of men who couldn't get a game. They asked for support from the local areas of Back Valley, Lower Inman and Inman Valley, and so a breakaway football club was formed - the Valleys Football Club. The Valleys FC had their home games played at the Back Valley Oval, next to the Back Valley Tennis Club, and by 1953 the club were finding difficulties to win games and so they re-amalgamated with Encounter Bay to form the Bay Valley Rovers.
The new team had the blue and gold colours of the former Valleys and the merger lasted until 1957 when the name was changed to Encounter Bay. The 1958 season saw the change from a gold sash to an eagle what is still worn on the guernsey and the Eagles won the A and B-Grade premiership that same year. Throughout the Eagles' history in the 1960s, the club dominated the decade by making numerous grand finals and winning in 1960, 1961, 1965 and 1967. Encounter Bay saw a twenty-two year premiership drought until 1989 when the Eagles won another A-Grade flag after being bridesmaids to Willunga the year before, in 1988 and won again in 1996.[1][2][3]
GSFL A-Grade Premierships
- 1958
- 1960
- 1961
- 1965
- 1967
- 1989
- 1996
References
Other Links
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