Australian Football

Thornton Eildon

The Boners won their first senior grade flag in 1961, which was only their fourth season. They went on to contest losing grand finals in 1963 in the Waranga North East Football League, the same competition as had spawned the premiership, and 1981 in Division Two of the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League. Thornton Eildon’s initial stint in the YVMDFL ran between 1977 and 1985, after which the club affiliated with the Benalla and District Football League. It was in this competition that the Boners would enjoy their greatest successes to date, with the seniors claiming a hat trick of flags between 1991 and 1993 and the reserves playing off in four grand finals for two wins.

Between 1996 and 1998 the club competed in Division Two of the Goulburn Valley Football League and after that, until 2005, in its successor competition the Central Goulburn Football League.

The 2006 season saw a return to the YVMDFL with the Boners reaching Division Two grand finals in each of their first three seasons, and capturing a premiership in 2007 at the expense of Belgrave. Scores in the grand final were Thornton Eildon 22.11 (143) to Belgrave 6.9 (45).

In 2009 the club was badly affected by the Black Saturday bushfires and after struggling on for a couple of seasons was forced to go into recess. It did not reform until 2014 when it affiliated with the Yarra Ranges Football Netball League, as the YVMDFL was now known. The Boners' first five seasons back in the competition yielded third and fourth place finishes followed by a hat trick of wooden spoons, all in Division Two. In both 2016 and 2018 they suffered the additional indignity of losing every match contested.