Australian Football

The Eagles competed initially in Division Two of the Southern Football League, reaching the 2000 grand final, but losing to Kangarilla. Their sole premiership since commencing in the Great Southern Football League in 2001 came via a 16.12 (108) to 15.6 (96) grand final defeat of Strathalbyn in 2003. They have not contested a grand final since and indeed in recent seasons they have tended to struggle including succumbing to wooden spoons in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and making no finals appearances at all since 2012.

McLaren Flat had been established in 1946 and, prior to its merger with McLaren Vale, had contested a total of ten senior grade grand finals in various competitions, emerging victorious in 1946, 1947, 1966, 1976, 1983, 1988 and 1989. McLaren Vale could trace its history as far back as 1886 and won the first of an eventual ten senior grade flags in 1906.