Australian Football

Hampton Rovers

The club which evolved into Hampton Rovers began life in 1918 as an outlet for members of the First Hampton Scout Group who wished to play football. For over a decade, matches were played on a strictly informal basis, usually against other scout groups. However, in 1931 the club entered the Metropolitan Football League, assuming the name of Hampton Rovers in the process. After two seasons it moved to the Victorian Amateur Football Association, where it has remained ever since.

The VAFA during the 1930s comprised four senior grades, with Hampton Rovers commencing its involvement in the lowest of these, D Section. After taking a few seasons to find its feet it mounted its first legitimate premiership challenge in 1938, ultimately finishing third. The following year saw it clamber onto the first rung of the promotion ladder with a 16.11 (107) to 14.13 (97) D Section grand final defeat of South Camberwell. The VAFA then went into recess for six seasons owing to the war, but when it resumed in 1946 so did Rovers’ progress upward, courtesy of successive grand final wins over Parkside (C Section) and Old Melburnians (B Section). This meant that the club had now arrived at the dizzy heights of A Section, a status its performances over the next few seasons proved was well warranted.

Consecutive finals appearances in 1948 and 1949 sent out a clear message to established A Section heavyweights such as University Blacks, Ormond and Old Scotch Collegians that a bona fide new power in amateur football had arrived. In 1951, captained by Doug Arnold, and with players like 1949 Woodrow Medallist Sam Birtles and club legend Col Adamson to the fore, Hampton Rovers achieved the ultimate, scoring a hard fought and thoroughly deserved 5 point victory over Ormond in the A Section grand final.

If getting to the top is hard, however, staying there is even harder, as the side was soon to discover. Indeed, when it next contested a senior grand final five years later it was in the VAFA’s C Section, so sharp and sudden had been its fall from grace.

Football, particularly in its amateur incarnation, is about much more than the winning of premierships, though, and although Hampton Rovers have spent most of the last half century alternating between Sections C and D (or their equivalents) the club has been a trend-setter in other ways. The facilities at the club’s primary home ground of Boss James Reserve, for instance, are among the finest to be found in any grade of the VAFA. They include spacious changing rooms, a canteen, a medical room, a licensed bar, and a modern, fully equipped gymnasium. The oval itself can be floodlit when required to a standard sufficient for training or junior matches. Meanwhile, the club’s secondary home ground at Ludstone Street, used by several of its junior grades, has also been developed to a high standard.

The club is rightly proud of its history, as well as of its ever evolving tradition as both football club and community focal point. On the field, premierships have continued to arrive almost annually, with well in excess of fifty having been achieved by the end of the 2008 season, seven of them at senior level. In 2008, Hampton Rovers fielded a total of twenty-one teams each week ranging from under-nines to the senior side coached by former Coburg star and 1988 Liston Trophy winner Gary Sheldon. The club’s senior team competed in D1 Section, and did well, earning promotion to C Section as runner-up. It performed extremely well in C Section, topping the ladder heading into the finals and reaching a second straight grand final, only to lose to Ormond by 38 points. Hampton Rovers were therefore promoted to B Section in 2009, which was where they remained until a disastrous 2011 season which produced just 2 wins and a draw and saw them relegated back to Premier C, as C Section was known by this time. A winless 2012 season then saw the Rovers drop to Division One, but recovery was quick as in 2013 they won all but 1 match for the year en route to a 17.20 (122) to 9.10 (64) grand final defeat of Ormond. Even better was to follow as in 2014 the Rovers overcame a sluggish start to the season to win their last 9 matches culminating in a 14.7 (91) to 9.10 (64) grand final victory over Parkdale Vultures, thereby obtaining promotion to Premier B.

The 2015 season saw Hampton Rovers manage half a dozen wins to consolidate their position in Premier C but the following year produced just 4 victories and saw the Rovers slump to the wooden spoon, and with it demotion back to Premier C. Even worse was to follow as in 2017 Rovers suffered a second successive relegation after finishing ninth on the ten team Premier C premiership ladder. Recovery was swift, as in 2018 Rovers were minor premiers of Division One, although the fact that they were ultimately unable to "bring home the bacon" will have been disappointing to say the least. Standing in Rovers' way were Ormond who scored victories in both the second semi final, by 28 points, and grand final, by a single straight kick. Promotion back to Premier C for 2019 nevertheless represents a highly acceptable consolation prize.

Despite their recent mixed fortunes, considering its humble origins, the club’s achievements stand as testimony both to the hard work and commitment of those who have served it down the years, and to the enduring appeal of football at a time when counter attractions have probably never been so persuasive and so plentiful.