Australian Football

The amalgamation of three Oatlands District Football Association Clubs in Bothwell, Oatlands and Kempton gave rise to the Central Hawks, who commenced involvement in the SthFL’s regional league in 2006. Coached by Dean Clark, the side won its opening four matches of the season, and continued to perform creditably in achieving nine wins from 18 games to finish sixth of 10 clubs, thereby only narrowly missing finals participation.

In 2007 the Hawks lost a hard fought first semi final to Claremont by a couple of points, thereby finishing fourth, but the following year they were unable to build on this and missed the finals entirely. The Hawks disbanded after the 2012 season.

Prior to the merger Bothwell had amassed the impressive total of twenty-three senior grade premierships in various competitions over the course of an existence stretching back to the 1880s. Oatlands could trace its history back even further, but the club had been slightly less successful than Bothwell with ‘only’ sixteen senior grade flags to its credit. Kempton claimed to have been established as early as 1864, although this seems highly questionable. Known as the Magpies, the club had won at least five senior grade premierships, although there might well have been more as records prior to the 1930s are sketchy at best.