Australian Football

Merrigum

Merrigum Football Club’s competitive history commenced prior to world war one in the Kyabram and District Junior Football Association. In both 1909 and 1910 the club contested the grand final, losing to Undera in the former year, and defeating Kyabram Imperials in the latter.

Between the wars Merrigum competed in various leagues and associations, but details of its achievements have proved difficult to uncover. The club really came into its own after the second world war when it competed in the Kyabram District Football Association, precursor of the present day Kyabram District Football League. The club won its first premiership in this competition in 1949, a success that was repeated in each of the ensuing two seasons. Merrigum continued to perform strongly throughout the remainder of the 1950s, adding further senior grade flags in 1953 and 1957. In retrospect, this can be viewed as the club’s halcyon era, although it came close to matching it during the period between 1986 and 1994 which spawned three premierships from four grand final appearances.

After a prolonged run of "outs" the Bulldogs returned to the winners' rostrum in 2015 when they accounted for Stanhope in the grand final by 25 points, 11.9 (75) to 8.2 (50). This was their ninth senior grade KDFL flag, a tally only exceeded by Nagambie's ten.

The 2016 season again brought finals football Merrigum's way and they got as far as a first semi final loss at the hands of Stanhope. In 2017 the Bulldogs missed the finals altogether, finishing in ninth place out of thirteen teams before clambering up the ladder to seventh in 2018.