Eastlake

The alliance of two struggling clubs in the shape of Eastlake and Manuka Weston to form Southern District in 1991 produced immediate dividends as the fledgling organisation promptly won the ACTAFL club championship trophy, awarded to the team with the best overall record in all grades. The senior side just failed to lift the premiership, however, losing the grand final against Queanbeyan by 4 goals.

Eastlake and Manuka had joined forces before, of course, winning the 1942 premiership during a three year wartime partnership. Moreover, they had another reason to be fairly well acquainted: between 1933 and 1977 they had met one another in no fewer than seventeen senior grand finals, easily a record.1

After a succession of near misses, the Demons, now bearing the Eastlake monicker, finally clinched a flag in 2001, downing Belconnen by 3 points after a thrilling tussle. Since then, however, preliminary finals in 2002 and 2006 have been the side’s best finishes.

Although scarcely any senior football club at any level in the country can be properly described as inviolable, the administrations at Eastlake and Manuka Weston have done everything practicable to ensure that at least some vestiges of their respective clubs’ traditions and heritage endure well into the twenty-first century.