Australian Football

Skipton

Skipton boasted an extremely strong team during its early years, on one occasion allegedly (although perhaps not surprisingly this is unsubstantiated) going fifteen years without losing a single match. All of these matches will have been informal affairs against teams from nearby towns such as Ararat, Ballarat, Beaufort, Carngham, Lake Bolac, Linton, Lismore and Streatham.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Skipton took part in a number of semi-official, often unnamed competitions. The club is recorded as winning premierships in such competitions in 1891 and 1908. After world war one the Linton and District Football Association was formed with Skipton enjoying premiership success in 1921, 1923 and 1924. The club went on to compete in numerous different leagues during the inter-war years, regularly getting as far as the grand final, but only once, in 1937 in the Linton Carngham Football Association, ‘bringing home the bacon’. Somewhat surprisingly for a club which had been a measuring stick for most of its rivals for many years this proved to be the Emus’ last senior grade flag of the twentieth century.

Between 1953 and 1998 Skipton was a member of the Western Plains Football League but its senior grade side only once made it through to a grand final. That was in 1996, against Derrinallum, and the Emus lost by 6 points. Since commencing in the Lexton Plains Football League in 1999 Skipton’s fortunes have taken a turn for the better, with the seniors contesting eight grand finals in the twelve seasons of their involvement. In 2001 against Rokewood Corindhap, 2003, 2005 and 2009 at the expense of Carngham Linton, and 2010 versus Lexton the Emus emerged successful.                 

When the LPFL went into mothballs after the 2010 season Skipton was one of four of its member clubs to transfer to the Central Highlands Football League. The Emus have struggled somewhat in the main, with their best season so far coming in 2013 when they came tenth (of eighteen clubs) after finishing with an 8-9 record.