Australian Football

East Geelong

Competing in the Geelong District Football League East Geelong won its first premiership in 1919, downing Geelong West in the grand final by 11 points, 7.12 (54) to 5.13 (43). The following season it went ‘back to back’ by comfortably accounting for Barwon on grand final day with final scores of 8.6 (54) to 2.11 (23).

In 1933 the club transferred to the Geelong Football Association and was once again successful in claiming consecutive flags after overcoming Railways and North Shore in the grand finals of 1933 and 1934 respectively. The 1939 season saw East Geelong resuming in its former competition, which now went by the name of the Geelong District Football Association. The side won the A Grade grand final both that year and the next to once more procure successive premierships in its first two seasons in a competition.

After the war it went one better. As a foundation member in 1946 of the Geelong and District Football League it won the competition’s first three top grade flags. There then followed a prolonged premiership drought which was not broken until 1970. During the interim East Geelong was a losing grand finalist in 1949, 1952, 1953, 1960 and 1964. The 1970 grand final triumph was achieved at the expense of North Shore. This was followed three seasons later by the Eagles’ penultimate top level senior grade premiership to date which came courtesy of a 15.10 (100) to 11.11 (77) grand final defeat of St Mary’s. Their next senior grade flag came in Division Two in 1993 at a time when the club was temporarily known as Eastern Suburbs. This remains their only second tier premiership triumph.

East Geelong have generally been quite competitive in recent seasons, and in 2007 played off in the senior grade grand final against Belmont Lions when they had opportunities to win the game but ultimately went down by 4 points. In 2008 the seniors bowed out of the premiership race at the elimination final stage. A year later they made conclusive amends by topping the ladder ahead of the finals and then battling their way to a long overdue premiership on the strength of wins over Bell Post Hill in both the second semi final (by 10 points) and grand final (21 points).

After capturing their 2009 flag the Eagles continued to perform strongly for a time, finishing third in 2010, runners-up in 2011 and 2012, third in 2013, and fourth in 2014. The next five seasons were rather less noteworthy, yielding a hat trick of eighth place finishes followed by a drop to second from last in 2018. The 2019 season saw significant improvement as the Eagles qualified for the finals and ultimately came fifth.