Victor Harbor

Victor Harbor was a founder member of the Great Southern Football League in 1923 and the club has continued in the competition to the present day. Its tally of twenty-four senior grade premierships is easily a record. The first of these premierships was claimed at the end of the GSFL’s inaugural season thanks to a 9.11 (65) to 2.4 (16) grand final defeat of Port Elliott. Victor Harbor went on to confront Port Elliott in another four grand finals during the 1920s, winning in 1924, 1926 and 1928, with the sole reversal coming in 1929.\n\nPort Elliott got a measure of revenge during the 1930s by defeating Victor Harbor in the grand finals of 1931, 1935, 1936 and 1937. Victor Harbor’s twin premiership successes during the decade came at the expense of Strathalbyn in 1930 and Port Elliott four years later.\n\nThe GSFL went into recess because of the war between 1941 and 1945 and when it resumed Victor Harbor embarked on an unprecedented run of success capturing the first seven post-war flags. The ‘Roos grand final victims were Encounter Bay every year from 1946 to 1950, then Goolwa in 1951 and Yankalilla in 1952. Victor Harbor claimed two more premierships in the 1950s, downing Yankalilla by 22 points in the grand final of 1955, and Encounter Bay a couple of years later by a 7 point margin. There then followed the longest premiership drought in the club’s history up to that point, which was not broken until 1972. During the intervening time the ‘Roos got as far as the grand final on five occasions only to lose every time.\n\nFar from heralding the dawn of a new era of triumph the 1972 premiership was followed by an even longer flag drought than that which had preceded it. Moreover, the club’s level of performance during this period was probably the most consistently poor of its existence. Only once, in 1975, did it manage to get as far as the grand final, and then it was comfortably defeated by Goolwa.\n\nIn contrast to the 1972 flag the ‘Roos’ next triumph in 1990 did indeed initiate a prolonged phase of success, with the decade as a whole yielding eight grand final appearances, all of which resulted in victory. The first half dozen of these premierships were won successively, a sequence of success that has only once been bettered - by the ‘Roos themselves, of course.\n\nVictor Harbor’s twenty-fourth and, to date, last senior grade premiership was claimed in 1999 by means of a 10.5 (65) to 6.11 (47) grand final defeat of Langhorne Creek. The 1999 season also saw the reserves capturing their eighth and most recent flag with a grand final victory over Yankalilla.