Australian Football

Eley Park

Following their formation in 1992 the Sharks spent their first four seasons participating only in the VAFA’s Club XVIII competition as they were not in a position to field a reserves team - a prerequisite for competing in the VAFA at senior level. In 1994 they won the Club XVIII premiership with a grand final defeat of Hawthorn Citizens and, after entering the VAFA's F Section in 1996, popped up again in 1999 to beat Albert Park in the grand final by 14 points, 8.9 (57) to 5.13 (43). This remains the club's sole senior grade premiership success. Two years later the club was again unable to field a reserves team and so was forced to return to the Club XVIII competition where they remained until 2006 when they again had sufficient players to be admitted to the VAFA's bottom senior grade tier, Division Four.

In recent seasons Eley Park have mostly competed in the VAFA's Division Four competition, with one brief foray into Division Three. They qualified for the Division Four finals in 2011, but were beaten in a semi final by Richmond Central. A year later they did slightly better, getting as far as the preliminary final which they lost to Swinburne University. Still further progress was made in 2013 when the Sharks overcame North Brunswick in a qualifying final and Hawthorn Amateurs in a preliminary final, setting up a grand final clash with Northern Blues Amateurs. The first half of the match was closely contested with Eley Park going into the main interval with a 4 point advantage. During the second half, however, the Blues gradually achieved a stranglehold on the game and they ultimately ran out comfortable victors, 10.17 (77) to 6.7 (43). 

Losing a grand final is always inordinately unpleasant but at least in this case there was the pill sweetener of promotion to Division Three. The Sharks began their inaugural Division Three campaign in 2014 promisingly, winning their opening match of the season convincingly against South Mornington and going on to win 3 of their first 5 fixtures. However, thereafter they found the going increasingly tough, and managed only 3 more victories for the year, which nevertheless was sufficient to ensure the retention of their Division Three status. Such status only lasted one further season, however, as the Sharks succumbed to relegation after a 2015 season which produced just 2 wins. The 2016 season saw them consolidating in Division Four, winning 11 of their 16 matches to qualify for a first semi final encounter with Mount Lilydale. However, despite dominating the first three quarters of the match Eley Park were outplayed during the final term and went down by three points. A year later the Sharks narrowly missed the finals after finishing half a win adrift of fourth placed Mount Lilydale with a superior percentage.

The 2018 season saw the Sharks marking time by winning eight out of 18 matches to finish seventh. A year later their tally of nine wins from 16 starts was good enough to see them come fifth.