Australian Football

Mount Evelyn

Established in 1931, Mount Evelyn Football Club spent its first three seasons competing in the Mountain District Football Association. In 1934 the club crossed to the Ringwood District Football Association and reached that year’s second division grand final, losing to Lilydale All Stars.

After the war, Mount Evelyn transferred to the Yarra Valley Football Association where it found life a struggle at first before making its finals debut in 1950. The 1952 season saw the club on the move once more, this time to the Croydon Ferntree Gully Football League, but after a promising first season the club was unable to recruit enough players to field a team, and was forced to disband. After an aborted resumption in 1955 the club finally returned to the fray in 1957, but performances over the remainder of the decade were poor.

In 1962 the Croydon Ferntree Gully Football League was renamed the Eastern Districts Football League. Under its new name the competition expanded rapidly, and within five years Mount Evelyn found itself competing in the bottom division of a three tiered competition. At last, the club appeared to have found its level, as it quickly proved by reaching a grand final in 1968, which it was extremely unfortunate to lose by 3 points after managing seven more scoring shots than its opponent, Yarra Glen. Amends were soon made, however, thanks to consecutive third division grand final wins over North Ringwood in 1969 and 1970. Winning a premiership did not automatically guarantee promotion, but after claiming its third Division Three flag in as many years in 1972 Mount Evelyn was finally adjudged worthy of elevation to the next level.

The remainder of the 1970s and the early 1980s saw the club’s fortunes going into decline, and when the EDFL introduced a fourth division in 1986 that was where Mount Evelyn found itself. The club’s two most recent premierships were won in that division.

At the end of the 2001 season Mount Evelyn’s members voted to sever the club’s association with the EDFL, and accept an invitation from the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League to join its first division, in which it still competes, albeit with scant success. For example, the last three seasons have seen them finish ninth (2015), eighth (2016), seventh (2017) and sixth (2018) on the ten team premiership ladder.