Australian Football

Noarlunga

Boasting the somewhat quaint, and quite possibly unique, nickname of the Shoes, Noarlunga Football Club first surfaced at least as long ago as the 1890s, since when it has enjoyed almost continuous involvement in the Southern Football League/Association. Records of the competition prior to world war one are scant, but once the war was over Noarlunga was quick to establish itself as a force. When the Association resumed operations in 1919, Noarlunga reached the premiership deciding match, but lost to Willunga. Two years later, however, it broke through for the first of two successive flags, the second of which, against McLaren Vale, involved the only replayed grand final in SFA/L history. Further premiership triumphs in 1925 and 1926 made the 1920s far and away the most successful decade in Noarlunga’s history to date. The 1930s, by contrast, proved a truly dire period, with the club on occasion facing a real struggle merely to survive. In 1936 and ‘37 things were so tough that it was forced to enter into a temporary merger arrangement with Morphett Vale, which like Noarlunga had fallen on hard times. The Shoes’ fortunes did not noticeably improve after world war two, but at least the club was still in business. The seniors finally made another grand final in 1970, and scored a tense 4 point win over Reynella. Since then, the club has added five more senior grade premierships, the most recent of which was in 2014 thanks to a 10.7 (67) to 9.9 (63) grand final defeat of Reynella. In the three seasons since the Shoes have reached preliminary finals, losing by 39 points to Brighton Bombers in 2015 and by 24 points to Flagstaff Hill in 2016 before getting as far as a grand final defeat at the hands of Flagstaff Hill in 2017. They dropped to third place in 2018.