Australian Football

Tocumwal

The Tocumwal Football Club was established in 1893 when it is recorded as having played home and away matches against Cobram, both of which were lost. The following year saw the establishment of the Murray Border Football Association with Tocumwal among the foundation members. Tocumwal defeated Muckatah in the new Association’s inaugural grand final but the result was controversially, for reasons now unclear, overturned on protest.

The MBFA ran between 1894 and 1901, with Tocumwal achieving premiership honours twice, in 1895 and 1898. The club did not manage to claim another flag until 1928 when it was competing in the Southern Riverina Football Association. Three years later Tocumwal was one of five founder members of the Murray Football League, the competition in which it continued to participate for more than eight decades.

The Bloods’ first MuFL grand final appearance came in 1935 and resulted in an emphatic 13.12 (90) to 5.8 (38) defeat of Berrigan. There were no further pre-world war two premierships but when the league resumed after the war in 1946 Tocumwal was first out of the blocks with victory over Nathalia in that year’s grand final. In what was arguably the club’s greatest ever season both its reserves and juniors also went top.

The Bloods’ next five senior grade grand final appearances, in 1953, 1954, 1956, 1965 and 1966, all ended in defeat. They finally reversed the trend in the 1967 grand final with a hard fought but ultimately comfortable defeat of Cobram.

The 1970s and 1980s were predominantly bleak times for Tocumwal, with the seniors only contesting a single grand final, in 1989, which was heavily lost to Jerilderie. A year later the Bloods again contested the grand final and gave a much better account of themselves before going down by 11 points to Mulwala. Finally, in 1991, Tocumwal laid hands on its seventh senior grade flag and its fourth in the MuFL, when it accounted for the grand final challenge of Finley by a 57 point margin which actually rather flattered the losers.

The Bloods played off for the MuFL senior grade premiership three more times, going down to Deniliquin in 2003 and Nathalia two years later, and overcoming Moama by a single straight kick in 2009.

In addition to their five senior grade MuFL premierships the Bloods claimed three reserve grade flags, all of which were won in succession between 1969 and 1971.

In 2014 Tocumwal transferred to the Picola and District Football League in which they have performed quite strongly without as yet making it as far as the grand final.