Australian Football

Mernda

Mernda has enjoyed considerable success in various competitions over the years, under three different names. The club has been in existence for well over a century, having been established, under the name of South Yan Yean, in1891. Competing in the Northern Football Clubs Association the fledgling club won premierships in both its debut season and 1892. The 1904 season saw the club joining the Whittlesea District Football Association as a foundation member. After two seasons in this competition South Yan Yean transferred to the Bourke Evelyn Football League where it would remain for the better part of three decades, claiming a total of half a dozen premierships including four in a row from 1909 to 1912.

At the end of the 1913 season (or early 1914 - reports differ) the club was renamed Mernda. It continued under that name until 1933 when it became known as Plenty Rovers. This change coincided with a move to the Panton Hill and District Football League in which the team performed strongly, reaching the finals in 1934 and 1935, and winning a premiership in 1936. Between 1937 and 1939 Plenty Rovers competed in the Diamond Valley Football League for the first time, but the move was not a success, and the 1940 season found the club back in the PHDFL.

After the war Plenty Rovers had a second stint in the DVFL but after just a single season the club left to become a founder member in 1947 of the Panton Hill Football League. Over the course of its forty season stint in this competition the club achieved senior grade premiership success eight times. Since 1965 the club has been known as Mernda. Its most recent senior flag came in 2012 in Division Three of the Northern Football League, in which it began competing in 1987 (when the competition was known as the Diamond Valley Football League). Opposed in the grand final by Panton Hill the Demons won convincingly by 93 points, 19.18 (132) to 6.3 (39). Promoted to Division Two as a result of this triumph Mernda consolidated in 2013 by coming fifth before qualifying for the finals in 2014 for a third place finish. Perhaps surprisingly, the Demons failed to build on this good form and the 2015 season saw them nosedive to last place after managing just a single win all year. Back in Division Three in 2016 Mernda finished fifth, equal on points with both third placed St. Mary's and fourth team South Morang, but with an inferior percentage. The 2017 season saw the Demons drop down the ladder to seventh before clambering up to fifth a year later.