Australian Football

In 1919, Lorne entered a team in the Shire of Winchelsea Football Association. However, neither the club, nor the competition, survived very long.

The direct antecedent of today’s Lorne Football Club emerged during the late 1920s, when it affiliated with the Polwarth Junior Football Association, crossing to the Polwarth Football Association in 1933. The team wore black and white striped jumpers, and although the design of the jumpers has varied over the years, the black and white colours have endured. Nowadays known as the Dolphins, Lorne were sometimes referred to as the Seasiders in the early years.

Lorne’s first couple of decades in the PFA/L were extremely successful and by 1950 the club boasted an impressive haul of eight senior premierships. By contrast, the next couple of decades were a lean time, at any rate as far as the seniors were concerned. The reserves, however, maintained the club's honour with premierships in 1959-60-1-2-3 and 1966.

Since transferring to the Colac and District Football League in 1971 Lorne has established itself as one of the competition’s leading clubs. After claiming two senior grade premierships in the 1970s the club created a league record, which still stands, by starting the 1980s with a sequence of four flag wins in a row. By comparison, the remainder of the 1980s through into the early 1990s were disappointing.

In 1997, Lorne reached the grand final, but lost to South Colac. This was followed by a premiership in 1998, thanks to an 11.9 (75) to 6.11 (47) grand final defeat of Alvie. Next came a losing preliminary final in 1999, and another grand final loss, this time to Alvie, in 2000.

From the opening round of the 2001 season until the 2002 second semi final Lorne engaged in a total of 37 premiership fixtures, and won them all. Included in this sequence was an 18.17 (125) to 6.8 (44) thumping of South Colac in the 2001 grand final. In the aforementioned 2002 second semi final, Lorne annihilated South Colac to the tune of 99 points to enter the premiership decider at unbackable odds to retain their title. However, in one of those crazy, perverse and inexplicable twists that help make football simultaneously so alluring and so infuriating, the Dolphins somehow contrived to produce their worst performance in two years just when it mattered most, and they went down to the Kangas by 9 points.

It would be four long years before they managed to put things right, but even then, they made their supporters sweat. Unbeaten ladder leaders heading into the finals, and boasting the astonishing percentage of 273.6%, they had to rely on the double chance to reach the grand final after losing a hard fought second semi final to Irrewarra Beeac by 10 points. The following week’s preliminary final against Forrest was no cakewalk, but the Dolphins did just enough to edge home by two straight kicks. Then, in the grand final, they reminded everyone exactly why they had been the team to beat for almost all of 2006, skating away from the opposition to score an emphatic win by 62 points, 21.9 (135) to Irrewarra Beeac’s 10.13 (73).

A year later the same two clubs were opposed on grand final day, with the Dolphins again emerging triumphant to secure their tenth senior grade flag. Final scores were Lorne 13.12 (90) defeated Irrewarra Beeac 9.8 (62).

The 2008 season produced another Dolphins-Bombers grand final clash, but on this occasion Lorne had to bow to a much superior opponent, succumbing in the end by 61 points.

Since 2008 the Dolphins have remained among the competition pace setters, contesting another four grand finals for a loss to Forrest in 2012, victory over Colac Imperials, with scores of 15.11 (101) to 11.6 (72), the following year, defeat at the hands of Birregurra in 2017 and an 8.10 (58) to 5.7 (37) win against Birredgurra in 2018.