Australian Football

Cheltenham

For more than a decade, Cheltenham engaged mainly in scratch matches, sometimes against opposition teams from as far afield as Ballarat. In 1909 a local competition, the Federal Football Association, was formed, and the Rosellas as Cheltenham were already known became one of the four inaugural member clubs. In that year’s grand final they defeated Ellindale to claim their first ever premiership, with two more following before the first world war.

During the 1920s Cheltenham was a consistent force to be reckoned with and added further FFA flags in 1922 and 1925. Percy Watt had the unique distinction of playing in the first five of the Rosellas’ premiership winning sides.

Cheltenham’s sixth flag arrived in 1934, with the club’s reserves team taking out their premiership as well for good measure. However, there then followed a six decade premiership drought for the seniors during which they continued to qualify regularly for the finals without ever managing to take the ultimate step.

In 1981 the FFA folded and Cheltenham crossed to the South East Suburban Football League, contesting the finals in three straight seasons from 1984. In 1992 the Rosellas finally procured a long overdue senior grade flag.

The 1993 season saw the formation of a new competition, the Southern Football League, of which the Rosellas were founder members, and in which they found immediate success taking out the Division Two premiership on debut. A second Division Two flag followed in 1995 but although the side has been a competitive Division One force for much of the time since there have been no further grand final triumphs to celebrate, at any rate at senior grade level. Their last finals appearance came in 2014 when they fell at the first hurdle against Chelsea Heights, a result which saw them finish fifth. Thee past five seasons have seen them finish eighth in both 2015 and 2016, sixth in 2017, when they failed to make the finals only on percentage, and seventh in 2018 before making a long overdue grand final appearance. Opposed by Dingley the Rosellas were in contention for the entire match but ultimately fell short by a couple of straight kicks.