Australian Football

In 1910, the Ardrossan Football Club was embarking on its seventh season when it became a founder member of the Northern Yorke Peninsula Football Association. With the exception of a brief stint in the Yorke Peninsula Football Association in the late 1930s and early ‘40s it would remain in this competition, which after world war one was renamed the Yorke Valley Football Association, until 1995, claiming a total of 13 senior grade flags. The club’s first premiership triumph was achieved in 1913 when Port Victoria was overcome on grand final day by 42 points, 9.9 (63) to 3.3 (21). A second success followed a couple of years later courtesy of a 7.8 (50) to 7.5 (47) grand final defeat of Maitland.

Ardrossan was particularly strong during the 1920s, contesting a total of five grand finals for the decade, and emerging victorious from those of 1921 against Port Victoria and 1926 against Maitland. By contrast the 1930s produced just a single, losing grand final appearance, in 1934 against Currumulka.

Between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s the ‘Roos fielded some of the strongest teams in their history, qualifying for no fewer than 11 consecutive senior grade grand finals. In 1965 against Kadina, 1967 against Maitland, 1968 versus Moonta, and 1970, ‘71, ‘72 and ‘74 against Bute they were successful. Their defeats of Bute in 1972 and 1974 were especially noteworthy being by margins of 103 and 97 points respectively.

When the Yorke Peninsula Football League was formed at the end of the 1995 season Ardrossan was among the new competition’s foundation members. To date, it has only played off for the senior grade premiership once, in 2004, when it scored a comfortable 14.13 (97) to 9.6 (60) victory over Bute. Recent seasons have spawned fluctuating fortunes. For example, they reached the finals and finished fourth in both 2015 and 2018, while in both 2016 and 2017 they finished just one place off the bottom of the ladder. In 2019 they ended up with the wooden spoon after managing just three wins from 16 matches for the year.