Australian Football

Old Brighton

Admitted to the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association in 1921, Old Brightonians found the standard of the competition too tough, and after losing every match for the year disbanded. Three years later the club was reformed, and rejoined the MAFA, which was now a two division competition, but once again it proved unable to establish itself and at the end of the 1926 season withdrew.

The club’s third incarnation commenced in 1932, and was rather more enduring, as well as slightly more successful. The MAFA underwent the latest in a series of expansions that year, and Old Brightonians was one of several clubs admitted to a newly formed D Section. Between 1932 and 1939 the side contested the finals on three occasions, with consecutive third place finishes in 1935-6 its best results. In 1940, however, following the onset of war, the club proved unable or unwilling to continue to field a side, and for the third time in its somewhat staccato existence went into recess. Midway through the 1940 season the Victorian Amateur Football Association, which was the name the MAFA had assumed in 1933, followed suit.

Organised amateur football in Melbourne resumed in 1946, but Old Brighton Grammarians, as the club would henceforth be known, did not resurface until a decade later. On 28th June 1956 Nick Walsh, who had played for the club during the 1930s, applied to the VAFA for its re-admission, which was ultimately accepted. The following year the side took its bows in E Section, taking the first step on a long, sometimes tortuous journey to a destination that must, at the time, have seemed, to all practical intents and purposes, inaccessible.

Suggestions that this time ‘round the club was in it for the long haul were evident right from the outset. For a start, close ties were established with the Grammar School from which the club derives its name, and in return for a sizeable annual donation to school funds the team was granted the use of the school oval. Secondly, the club was fortunate during its early days to procure the services of a group of individuals of real energy, purpose and vision, whose hard work ensured that Nick Walsh’s initial idea was rapidly and purposefully fleshed out. With Bill Fitzgerald as the team’s first coach improvement was slow but measurable. The Warriors, as they soon became popularly known, once again  proved unable to establish themselves, and at the end of the 1926 season withdrew.

The club’s third incarnation commenced in 1932, and was rather more enduring, as well as slightly more successful. The MAFA underwent the latest in a series of expansions that year, and Old Brightonians was one of several clubs admitted to a newly formed D Section. Between 1932 and 1939 the side contested the finals on three occasions, with consecutive third place finishes in 1935-6 its best results. In 1940, however, following the onset of war, the club proved unable or unwilling to continue to field a side, and for the third time in its somewhat staccato existence went into recess. Midway through the 1940 season the Victorian Amateur Football Association, which was the name the MAFA had assumed in 1933, followed suit.

Organised amateur football in Melbourne resumed in 1946, but Old Brighton Grammarians, as the club would henceforth be known, did not resurface until a decade later. On 28th June 1956 Nick Walsh, who had played for the club during the 1930s, applied to the VAFA for its re-admission, which was ultimately accepted. The following year the side took its bows in E Section, taking the first step on a long, sometimes tortuous journey to a destination that must, at the time, have seemed, to all practical intents and purposes, inaccessible.

Suggestions that this time ‘round the club was in it for the long haul were evident right from the outset. For a start, close ties were established with the Grammar School from which the club derives its name, and in return for a sizeable annual donation to school funds the team was granted the use of the school oval. Secondly, the club was fortunate during its early days to procure the services of a group of individuals of real energy, purpose and vision, whose hard work ensured that Nick Walsh’s initial idea was rapidly and purposefully fleshed out.

With Bill Fitzgerald as the team’s first coach improvement was slow but measurable. The Warriors, as they soon became popularly known, qualified for the finals in their second season, finishing fourth, and in 1959 reached a grand final for the first time in the club’s history. After a closely fought game, Preston emerged victorious by 9 points, but as far as Old Brighton was concerned it was still a case of ‘mission accomplished’ as promotion to D Section had been achieved. Such are the vagaries of football that twelve months later the Warriors were reflecting on a highly promising season that had seen them reach the D Section finals, while their conquerors of the previous year were licking their wounds and preparing for life back in E Section.

Escape from D Section took only slightly longer than from E Section, but there would doubtless have been a modicum of disappointment that it was achieved in the same way, via a losing grand final. St. Bernard’s Old Collegians provided the opposition on an afternoon when the fickle forces of fate were clearly bedecked in black, blue and gold, as final scores of 15.2 (92) to 7.18 (60) confirm. The side was far from disgraced during its first stint in D Section, and indeed in 1967 contested the finals, but when it next reached a grand final, in 1972, it was back in E Section. This time the loss which eventuated was even harder to bear as Parkside took - or stole - the match and premiership by the barest of margins.

The year of 1977 is one that people remember for many different reasons: it was the year of Jimmy Carter’s inauguration as the thirty-ninth president of the USA, of the deaths of Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Gary Gilmore and Hamida Djandoubi, of a drawn VFL grand final between North Melbourne and Collingwood, of the birth of the so-called ‘Star Wars’ phenomenon as well as the premiere of ‘Saturday Night Fever’, of the New York black-out, of the first apple II computer being unveiled, and of the Gang of Four’s expulsion from the Chinese Communist Party. Of somewhat less global significance, it was also the year that Old Brighton Grammarians won their first premiership, thrashing Alphington 24.13 (157) to 14.11 (95) in that season’s D Section grand final.

Three years later they did it again, this time in C Section, thanks to a 20.6 (126) to 15.15 (105) victory over Geelong Amateurs. The ensuing decade, which included losing C Section grand finals in 1984 and 1988, saw the side alternating between B and C Sections whilst continuing to grow as a club both on and off the field. In 1992, the Tonners reached A Section for the first time after a hard fought 8 point loss to Old Trinity Grammarians in the B Section grand final. Relegation and promotion between A and B Sections have occurred three times since, with the side’s elevation in 1997 coming via a third senior grade flag courtesy of a 16.20 (116) to 11.17 (83) grand final win over St Kevin’s.

Old Brighton Grammarians were back in A Section in 2007, having lost the previous year’s B Section grand final to Collegians. They went on to enjoy a fine season, qualifying for the finals in second place and ultimately reaching their first - and only - ever A Section grand final. There was no fairy tale end, however, as minor premiers Old Xavs emerged victorious by 47 points. The Tonners have spent time in both Premier A and Premier B (as A Section and B Section are respectively now known) over the past decade, with the arguable highlight coming in 2013 when they won the Premier B flag. Opposed in the grand final by Old Trinity the Tonners dominated the opening term to establish a 23 point advantage but the Milkmen fought back and at half time it was they who held a slender 1 point lead. Thereafter the scores remained close until the death, with Old Brighton just pulling clear at the end to procure a hard fought but well deserved 8 point win.

In 2014 the Tonners struggled somewhat, winning just 5 Premier A section matches to succumb to relegation back to Premier B, which is where they remained until the 2017 when they obtained promotion as premiers, downing Old Scotch in the grand final by 36 points, 11.13 (79) to 6.7 (43). A year later they enjoyed another fine season culminating in a first semi final loss to Old Trinity.

After a number of false starts Old Brighton has developed into a highly respected member of the VAFA community, and if premierships have so far been comparatively thin on the ground there can nevertheless be no doubt that it has spent most of its history since 1957 moving steadily and steadfastly in the right direction.