Australian Football

Morwell East joined the Mid Gippsland Football League in 1973 and over the next few seasons gradually grew in strength, culminating in consecutive senior grade premiership wins in 1979 and 1980. Both flags were won with some comfort, by 44 points against Hazelwood Churchill in the former year and by 21 points at the expense of Trafalgar in the latter. In 1981 the Hawks made the grand final for the third straight year but opponents Hill End edged home by 4 points. It was a vastly different story when the club next contested a grand final in 1984 as Trafalgar romped to victory by 129 points after amassing a grand final record tally of 32.13 (205). The Hawks’ 1985 grand final clash with Thorpdale was much harder fought, but the result - defeat by a margin of 14 points - was the same.

The 1990s proved to be a blank decade as far as senior grade grand final appearances went but since the turn of the century the club has re-emerged as a force. In 2005 the Hawks overcame Mirboo North in the grand final by 27 points, 11.5 (71) to 6.8 (44). The following season saw the same two sides contesting the grand final, but the result was ignominious in the extreme as far as Morwell East was concerned with Mirboo North emerging victorious by 59 points, 10.8 (68) to 1.3 (9).

Over the past decade the Hawks have been regular finalists including back to back losing grand finals against Trafalgar in 2009 and 2010. The 2017 season was a rare exception  to this as, despite winning 10 of their 18 home and away matches, the Hawks only finished seventh on the ten team premiership ladder; another win would have procured finals qualification as they had a superior percentage to the two sides immediately above them, both of which had won 11 games. The 2018 season saw them finish sixth to once again narrowly miss out on finals participation.