Australian Football

In 1913, Avenel was a foundation member of the Waranga North East Football Association, in which it continued to compete after world war one. The club claimed premierships in 1921, 1932 and 1933 before spending brief periods both prior to and after the second world war in different competitions. The 1947 season saw Avenel resuming in the WNEFA where it tended to struggle. In 1956 the club merged with Longwood, and competed in the WNEFA as Avenel Longwood for the next twenty seasons.

Since 1976 the Swans, now known simply as Avenel once more, have been affiliated with the Kyabram District Football League. They reached the grand final in their second season, but lost to Nagambie. In 1978 they claimed the premiership as champions and backed this up with a second flag the following year. The period between 1977 and 1990 was a halcyon one for the club whose seniors contested every finals series and won four flags from a total of ten grand final appearances. Meanwhile the reserves also enjoyed regular success, qualifying for seven grand finals for three wins during the same period.

By comparison, the seasons since 1990 have proved considerably tougher, and the Swans’ seniors did not feature on grand final day between 1994, when they downed Merrigum, and 2016 when they lost to Nagambie. The reserves contested successive grand finals in 2002 and 2003, overcoming Lancaster in the former, but succumbing in the latter to Stanhope.

After contesting the finals in 2004 the seniors endured two dismal seasons followed by an impressive recovery in 2007, when an 11-7 win/loss record only narrowly failed to procure major round involvement. In 2008 the Swans won 8 of their 18 matches to finish sixth of twelve clubs. The ensuing five seasons were comparatively undistinguished but in 2014 the Swans qualified for the finals and ended up in fifth place. The 2015 season saw them clamber one place up the premiership ladder before contesting the aforementioned grand final in 2016, in which they went down by 18 points to Nagambie. They failed to build on this promising foundation in 2017 as they tumbled down the ladder to seventh before displaying marginal improvement during a 2018 season which saw them finish sixth. A year later they returned to the finals fray only to bow out of the flag reckoning at the first hurdle against Lancaster.