Australian Football

Epping

Epping’s history dates back at least as far as 1904, when the club was a founder member of the Whittlesea District Football Association. Right from the outset the club boasted navy blue and white as its colours. Its first recorded premiership came in 1913 in the Bourke Evelyn Football League. It captured a second BEFL flag in 1919, and then during the 1920s was by some measure the competition’s most successful club, finishing top on no fewer than seven occasions.

The 1933 season saw Epping commencing in the Diamond Valley Football League, direct forerunner of today’s Northern Football League. Once again the club succeeded in imposing itself on the competition in quite emphatic fashion, emerging victorious from the grand finals of 1933, 1935, 1936, 1939 and 1940. The interwar years remain far and away the most successful phase in Epping’s history.

Since world war two the Blues have only enjoyed top grade premiership success once, in 1963. Their three subsequent grand final triumphs, in 1986, 1990 and 2012 came in the DVFL’s Division Two competition, which was instigated in 1981.

The 2007 season saw the DVFL undergo a metamorphosis into the Northern Football League. Epping commenced in Division One of this competition, only to succumb immediately to relegation. In 2008 the Blues qualified for the Division Two finals in fourth place but then lost their elimination final clash with Watsonia by 4 points. The reserves meanwhile topped the ladder with some comfort only to bow out of the finals race in straight sets. Subsequent seasons saw the Blues continuing to perform competitively and in 2012 they lost just one match all year en route to the Division Two premiership. The grand final, however, was a close run thing, with Epping almost kicking themselves out of contention in accumulating a tally of 15.21 (111) to North Heidelberg's 17.5 (107).

The 2013 season brought a sharp contrast in fortunes as, after managing just four wins from 18 matches, the Blues slumped to the Division One wooden spoon and were relegated back to Division Two. Still worse was to follow as in 2014 Epping tumbled down the list to succumb to a second successive relegation. In both 2013 and 2014 the Blues finished last only on percentage after winning the same number of games as the second from bottom club.

Epping's first two seasons in Division Three produced back to back losing grand final appearances against Reservoir in 2015 and Watsonia a year later. In 2017 they dropped one place on the premiership ladder after losing the preliminary final to South Morang before finishing sixth in Division Two, following a restructure of the league, in 2018. After that the 2019 season was immensely disappointing as the Blues won just once in succumbing to the wooden spoon.