Australian Football

North Ballarat

After serving a six season apprenticeship in the Ballarat Football League’s B grade as ‘North City’ the club became a full member of the league in 1952 when it changed its name to ‘Ballarat North City’. A further name modification occurred in 1960 with the club becoming known as ‘North City-Wendouree’ but after just one season under this moniker there was a third and (so far) final change the following season to North Ballarat, under which name all of the club’s senior grade on-field success has been achieved.

By the time the Roosters transferred to the VFL, along with Traralgon, in 1996 they had won a total of fifteen senior flags in thirty-three seasons, as well as reaching the grand final of the Victorian Premiers Cup in 1992. After a slow start to its VFL career, the club began to give signs of developing into a genuine power, and, after finishing third in 1998, it reached its first VFL grand final the following year, only to succumb by 10 goals to a powerful Springvale combination.

Season 2000 brought a similar end result, albeit at the hands of Sandringham on this occasion. The Zebras, who were in association with AFL club Melbourne by this time, kicked four goals to none in the opening term and maintained this lead more or less throughout the match en route to a 15.18 (108) to 11.11 (77) triumph. The crowd of just 8,652, spread thinly around the vacuous stands at Waverley, was more than a trifle disappointing, and emphasised the significant drop in profile of the VFL, which by this point in time was little better than an AFL reserves competition.

In 2008, the Roosters announced themselves as a VFL powerhouse, flourishing under the astute coaching of Gerald FitzGerald. They won the premiership that year, after defeating Port Melbourne in the Grand Final and in 2009 they went back-to-back by beating the Northern Bullants by 23 points in the grand final held at Etihad Stadium. Then, in 2010, they made it three in a row when they again beat the Bullants on grand final day - by 47 points this time - at Etihad Stadium.

Between 2006 and 2015, North Ballarat was in a partial alignment with AFL club North Melbourne. Under the arrangement, half of the players not selected in the North Melbourne AFL team were allocated to play with North Ballarat; the other half played with Tasmania between 2006 and 2007, and with Werribee between 2008 and 2015. The arrangement ended after the 2015 season, and North Ballarat then became a standalone club, but found life difficult, winning just 3 matches to finish the 2016 season in second to last place. A year later they were even less impressive, winning just once all season to slump to the wooden spoon. At the end of the 2017 season, AFL Victoria revoked North Ballarat's VFL licence because of issues with the club's governance as well as its poor on-field performance. The Roosters will be given the opportunity to re-apply for a licence in 2019.