Australian Football

North Hobart

On 14th May 1881 a couple of dozen of the more energetic male inhabitants of the district of North Hobart took part in a twelve a side scratch football match. So impressed were the participants by their prowess that they immediately decided to form a club, to be named after the district in which they resided, and then to apply for admission, as a junior member, to the Southern Tasmanian Football Association.

Matters proceeded apace and the fledgling team, adorned in the red and blue colours which were to become its trademark, took to the field for the first time on 4th July 1881 against City, the game ending in a 2-2 draw.[1]

North Hobart remained a junior club for fifteen seasons before finally gaining admission to the senior competition in 1895.

North Hobart’s first senior grade premiership came in 1902 as the side won 6 out of 8 matches for the year to top the ladder. This was followed by a 6.9 (45) to 5.7 (37) defeat of Launceston in a match billed as being for the state premiership. (Albeit unofficially; the first official Tasmanian state premiership was not contested until 1909.) A second STFA premiership was won in 1905, and the following year the name of the competition was changed to the Tasmanian Football League to bring Hobart into line with other Australian capital cities. North Hobart was one of three founder members of the TFL along with Lefroy and Derwent.

North Hobart’s first TFL premiership in 1908 was won in controversial circumstances. The premiership deciding match between North Hobart and Lefroy ended in a draw, a result which North believed entitled them to the flag on the basis of their having won a greater number of roster games than their opponents. However, “goaded by the opposition and public talk the North Hobart club requested, as the rules were unclear, to replay the match”.[2] In a tense, closely fought affair “North Hobart’s play had a little more sparkle and dash than Lefroy’s” resulting in a 2.7 (19) to 1.9 (15) win.[3]

In 1911 former Ballarat and St Kilda player George Morrissey was appointed the club’s first official coach and, although he spent only a single season in charge, he was later looked back upon as the initiator of the Reds’ (as North Hobart were then known) renowned aggressive style of play. This style finally came to fruition three years later as the team survived a poor start to the season to go on to lift both the local and state premierships, the latter for the first official time. The twin triumphs were popularly attributed to a ‘never say die spirit’, an expression which the club shrewdly latched on to and translated into one of those almost indefinable building blocks which might be said to constitute a club’s tradition.

With the competition going into recess because of the war from 1915-18 and being brought to a premature halt on resumption in 1919 because of an influenza epidemic it was to be six years before North Hobart would have the opportunity to defend their titles. This they eventually did so in style, overcoming Lefroy by 20 points in the local grand final and Launceston by 24 points for the state premiership. The next couple of seasons saw a deterioration in on field fortunes but 1923 brought a repeat of the dual success of the 1920 season with New Town (10.9 to 7.6) and North Launceston (20.13 to 18.8) the victims. The state grand final defeat of North Launceston, which took place at North Hobart Oval, was widely regarded as one of the best matches seen in Tasmania up to that point.

North Hobart did not re-emerge as a force until towards the end of the decade but when they finally did so it heralded the onset of a golden era without parallel in the history of the TFL. For fifteen consecutive seasons the Robins (as they were by this stage known) contested each and every grand final for an overall return of ten TFL and six state flags.

One of the key reasons for North Hobart’s success during the 1930s was the form of Alan Rait who, until the emergence of Peter Hudson, was arguably the greatest full forward Tasmanian football had witnessed. In eight seasons as North Hobart’s spearhead Rait ‘topped the ton’ on four occasions. At the 1930 Adelaide carnival he booted 27 goals, a total only bettered by the VFL’s Bill Mohr.

In March 1944 the TFL controversially decided that, on the resumption of full scale competition after the war, Hobart would be divided into four districts, each of which would be represented by a league club. The innovation constituted a death knell for two of the league’s established clubs in Cananore and Lefroy which were replaced by Sandy Bay and Hobart. North Hobart and New Town both survived.

The Robins initially found district football to be very much a case of ‘business as usual’ as they claimed the 1945 flag with some comfort. However, in 1946 their awe-inspiring sequence of grand final appearances came to an end as newcomers Sandy Bay dumped them from premiership contention in the first semi final.

In 1947 there was a temporary return to prominence as the Robins survived a second semi final loss to Hobart to clinch another flag.

Grand final defeat by New Town in 1948 was to be North Hobart’s last involvement on the ultimate day of the season for eight years. The club’s failure during this time was all the more surprising given the presence in its playing ranks of men of the calibre of John Noble, Ian Riley, Noel Clarke, Col Moore and, perhaps most notably of all, John Leedham.

Named Tasmania’s first ever All Australian at the 1953 Adelaide carnival (when he was playing at North Launceston) Leedham is regarded by many as being the best footballer ever produced in the Apple Isle. Too outspoken to attract many votes from umpires, his contribution to his team was arguably more telling than that of many so called ‘superstars’. In the classic style of Ron Barassi, Mal Brown, Neil Kerley and Ted Whitten, Leedham was a ‘stirrer’, pre-eminently capable of unsettling an opponent by the use of psychological as much as physical methods of intimidation. Added to this he was a superbly gifted footballer who more than made up for what he lacked in grace and smoothness of movement with an innate, untutored knack of being able to find the ball and use it effectively.

North Hobart’s next flag did not arrive until 1957 and this proved to be an isolated effort. It was not until the early 1960s that the side returned to the fore on a consistent basis with consecutive grand final defeats of Glenorchy and Clarence in 1961 and 1962 supplemented by state premierships on both occasions.

In 1964 a proposal to alter the club emblem from Robins to Demons (presumably in lieu of the resemblance of North Hobart’s playing uniform to that of VFL power club, Melbourne) was overwhelmingly defeated in a ballot of club members.

On the field of play fortunes continued to fluctuate until 1967 when, under the capable guidance of former Geelong player John Devine, the Robins achieved a memorable premiership from fourth spot. A win against East Launceston in the state preliminary final followed before North Hobart proceeded to West Park, Burnie for the state premiership decider and what turned out to be one of the most dramatic and controversial matches in Australian football history. The opposition was provided by NWFU premiers Wynyard, but as events were to prove the Robins had rather more than just the twenty opposition players to worry about.

With moments of the match remaining Wynyard led by a single point when Robins’ player coach John Devine was awarded a free kick on the forward line. He promptly passed to full forward David Collins who marked twenty metres from goal just seconds before the final siren sounded. He never got the chance to take his kick, however, as “in wild scenes of mob rule ..... the crowd swooped onto (the ground) ..... and the goal posts were removed from the North Hobart goal end.”[4]

Despite the best efforts of the police to restore order the last (and in all probability decisive) kick of the game was never taken, leading to the TFL declaring the match void; Collins still has the ball. Wynyard coach John Coughlan laid down the gauntlet saying that his side would be prepared to take on North Hobart anywhere - “on the beach if we have to” - but the Robins refused, feeling that the crowd invasion had denied them the formality of a justly earned victory.

North Hobart lost the 1968 grand final to New Norfolk but recorded another ‘double’ the following year at the expense of Clarence (TFL) and Latrobe and Launceston (state premiership). More controversially, the club committee decided to ignore the wishes of the membership and alter the club’s nickname from Robins to Demons.

Under the new emblem the side embarked on a sustained spell of mediocrity, dropping to fourth in 1970, a slump which perhaps helped precipitate John Devine’s departure, and missing the finals in each of the following three seasons.

John Devine re-assumed the coaching mantle in 1974 and the team reaped immediate dividends. Indeed, it was almost a case of déjà vu as the side fought its way through to a premiership from the first semi final. (There was no state premiership this year.)

The next dozen seasons proved to be unusually barren, however, as the Demons failed to add to their premiership tally under a succession of different coaches (six in all, including two separate spells from Devine).

The TFL commenced a statewide format in 1986 with the six Hobart-based clubs being joined by NTFA sides North Launceston and South Launceston. Further expansion came in 1987 with the admission of Devonport and Burnie Hawks (formerly Cooee) to the competition and North Hobart immediately enjoyed a spectacular return to winning ways. Grand final day brought an impressive 26 point defeat of Glenorchy but in the wake of the premiership a problem arose which, although comparatively new to North Hobart, was by this point in time familiar to most successful clubs in the major state competitions throughout Australia. No sooner had the dust settled after the Demons’ grand final lap of honour than the recruiting nets of the VFL and other mainland leagues were seemingly replete with North Hobart footballers, only a few of whom would be likely to make it to the top, but, more crucially, all of whom would be absent from their previous club’s defence of its title in 1988. Not surprisingly in the circumstances the next twelve months were a time of consolidation for the Demons.

Recovery was quick, however, and in 1989, aided in part by the return of those of the 1987 premiership side who had failed to establish themselves on the mainland, North Hobart returned to the premiers’ dais with a 30 point grand final defeat of Hobart.

Once again there was a mass exodus of players as the VFL recruiting sharks bit deep, and once again recovery was swift. After plummeting to eighth in 1990 the Demons, under new coach Mark Yeates, a veteran of 154 VFL games in eleven seasons at Geelong, finished the 1991 roster matches in second spot. A 36 point qualifying final loss to Clarence might easily have proved to be a disaster but such was the tenacity and spirit cultivated by Yeates that the team bounced straight back the following week to annihilate Burnie Hawks by 53 points, 17.23 (125) to 10.12 (72). The good form continued in the preliminary final as revenge was achieved against Clarence to the tune of 21 points, 14.19 (103) to 11.16 (82), prompting many observers to rate North Hobart the favourite going into the grand final clash with minor premiers North Launceston.

The game was closely fought for three quarters with the Demons managing to eke out a 2 point advantage by the final change. The last term, however, was one way traffic as North Hobart surged to a 26 point triumph, 12.14 (86) to 8.12 (60). Afterwards Mark Yeates conceded “At the start of the season I would have been happy if we’d just made the five”.[5]

Perhaps surprisingly, on this occasion the player drain was less excessive than after either of the previous two flags, and the side remained highly competitive throughout 1992, winning 15 out of 18 roster games to enter the finals in second spot. Once there, the Demons were irrepressible, defeating Hobart 23.12 (150) to 7.11 (53) in the qualifying final, North Launceston 15.10 (100) to 14.13 (97) in the second semi final, and Hobart again in the grand final by 35 points, 16.12 (108) to 10.13 (73). Mark Yeates resigned as coach after the game, no doubt highly satisfied at a job impeccably done.

Under new coach Andy Bennett the Demons enjoyed another solid season in 1993, finishing third, but in both 1994 and 1995 the team missed the finals. Following the demise of statewide football North Hobart (which had changed its name briefly to ‘Hobart Demons’ during the final few years of the TFL) joined the Southern Football League in 2001, reaching a grand final the following year, when a narrow loss to Clarence eventuated.

Two years later the Demons broke through for their first Southern Football league flag with an emphatic 110 point grand final thumping of Hobart.

Over the years, North Hobart’s contributions both to Tasmanian football and the wider game have been immense, a fact which was recognised by AFL Tasmania in 2005 when the club was inducted into the official Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame. North Hobart was the first club to be so honoured, and only the most parochially purblind of rival team supporters would deny that the honour was warranted.

It was also timely, coming as it did just a year before the club would celebrate its 125th anniversary. In commemoration of this achievement, the club had a special anniversary jumper designed, which was worn by the team during what turned out to be an enormously disappointing 2006 season (just 6 wins from 18 matches - only good enough for sixth place on the nine team ladder).

The 2007 season brought a fair measure of improvement with the side getting as far as the preliminary final, which it lost to Clarence by 37 points. A year later, North Hobart reached the grand final, only to succumb to a talented Glenorchy side by 51 points.

Although there can be no doubt that the club’s status has diminished alarmingly of late, it is equally certain that Tasmanian football overall would not be in the buoyant state it is[6] had the North Hobart Football Club not made such a vibrant, distinctive and significant contribution to the game’s expansion and development over so many years. Diluted though that contribution has become, it is to be hoped that it will continue, in some form or another, for at least another 125 years. Between 2014 and 2017 the Demons were rebranded as 'Hobart City', a club which maintained the club's historic emblem and colours, but which failed to 'bring home the bacon' in terms of premiership success. As of the 2018 season the club once again traded as North Hobart after its members had voted 371-118 for the change. It proved to be  dismal year, however, as the Demons only managed to win 1 of their 18 roster matches to crash to last place on the ladder.