Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

KEY FACTS

Known as
Federal

Formed
1924

Disbanded
1927

Colours
Black and red

Affiliation (Current)
Federal Territory Australian Rules Football League (FTARFL) 1924–2024

Senior Premierships
Federal Territory Australian Football League - 1925-6 (2 total)

Federal

The Federal Football Club - popularly referred to as Federals - was a founder member in 1924 of the Federal Territory Australian Rules Football League. The club’s players were all labourers and miners working on the construction of Canberra’s first sewerage system. The man responsible for hiring these workers was FTARFL president Jerry Dillon, who by coincidence was also heavily involved with Federals. It was reputed that Dillon would only take on a sewerage worker if he had demonstrable football talent, and, whatever the truth of the matter, Federals was certainly a strong team, winning premierships in 1925 and 1926. The club’s existence was to be short-lived, however: once work on the sewers had ended in 1927, Federals disbanded.

Source

John Devaney - Full Points Publications


 

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.