Australian Football

Maryborough

The Maryborough Football Club had been in existence for more than half a century before it took its bows in organised senior competition. The club was established in 1872, and played its first matches against an external opponent (Dunolly) the following year. Informal fixtures of this type continued sporadically for many years until, in 1924, the club was admitted, along with Ararat, to the powerful Ballarat Football League, bringing the total number of clubs in the competition to six. The four traditional BFL clubs soon found that neither of the newcomers, particularly Maryborough, were simply there to make up the numbers. With 9 wins and a draw from their 14 home and away matches the Magpies, as Maryborough were known, comfortably qualified for the finals in second place, and then proceeded to astonish everyone, not least themselves, by overcoming first South Ballarat and then minor premiers Ballarat twice to claim the premiership. The excitement generated by the new arrival’s performances attracted record finals series crowds and provided precisely the kind of injection of new life that the competition, which prior to 1924 had been contested by the same four clubs since 1908, was felt by many to badly need.

Proving its triumph was no fluke, Maryborough went top again in 1925, ran fourth in 1926, once more claimed the flag in 1927, and finished fourth in 1928. In 1929, however, the local Maryborough council made the bewildering decision to restrict use of the town’s Prince’s Park Oval, which had been the Magpies’ home ground, to the Maryborough District Football Association. Maryborough was thus forced into temporary abeyance, and did not resume until 1931. The team quickly showed it had lost none of its flair, however, by claiming its fourth flag thanks to a comfortable 29 point defeat of Ballarat Imperial in what was technically the BFL’s first true grand final, the league having implemented the Page-McIntyre system of playing finals that season.

Once again, however, Maryborough’s players and supporters were soon to have their celebrations undermined, although on this occasion it could be argued that the club had only itself to blame. During the break between the 1931 and 1932 seasons the club committee submitted what it believed was a clandestine application to be admitted to the Bendigo Football League but the Ballarat authorities soon got wind of the scheme and were far from amused. The upshot was that Maryborough was disqualified by the BFL, leaving the vast majority of its players without a club for 1932. The VCFL publicly supported the BFL’s stance, although there were behind the scenes attempts to encourage a change of heart.

The 1932 season saw the formation of a completely new club, Maryborough United, which competed in the Bendigo Football League for a total of eight full seasons, highlighted by losing grand final appearances against Sandhurst in 1933 and Golden Square in 1939. Three matches into the 1940 season the club disbanded.

In 1945 a reconstituted Maryborough Football Club was born, and after a season in the Maryborough District Football League was readmitted to the Ballarat competition, reaching a grand final at the first time of asking, only to lose to Redan. Two years later the Magpies again contested the grand final, but went down by 3 points against Golden Point in front of a league record attendance of 14,602, while in 1949 they lost the decisive match of the year to East Ballarat.

The 1950s produced just one grand final appearance in 1958 and it was wholly forgettable as the sided managed just 1.6 (12) for the match in losing to Geelong West by 52 points.

Maryborough was a force in the competition for most of the 1960s, claiming three flags from five grand finals. The next decade started poorly with two successive wooden spoons before an astonishing turnaround, culminating in a premiership, in 1972. The Magpies’ next flag in 1974 was equally memorable as the side had to battle its way from the elimination final.

The 1974 grand final was Maryborough’s last in the Ballarat Football League. The club struggled for the remainder of the 1970s and for most of the 1980s as well. In 1992 it sought, and was granted, a clearance to the Bendigo Football League, where it has competed ever since, claiming back to back premierships in 1998 and 1999. Recent seasons have, on the whole, been rather less productive, however, with the side running eighth (of nine) in 2005, and seventh (of ten) in both 2006 and 2007. In 2008 the Magpies showed considerable improvement to rise to fifth place on the ladder going into the finals, but in their elimination final clash with Golden Square they performed poorly, and went down by the humiliating margin of 69 points. Their next finals participation in 2010 started promisingly with a 15 point elimination final defeat of Sandhurst but South Bendigo in the following week's first semi final proved much too strong, winning by 71 points.

The Magpies have not qualified for the finals since, or indeed even come close to doing so. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 they suffered the humiliation of finishing in last place whilst only managing a single win from the 54 matches contested during the period.