Australian Football

Eastlake

The alliance of two struggling clubs in the shape of Eastlake and Manuka Weston to form Southern District in 1991 produced immediate dividends as the fledgling organisation promptly won the ACTAFL club championship trophy, awarded to the team with the best overall record in all grades. The senior side just failed to lift the premiership, however, losing the grand final against Queanbeyan by 4 goals.

Eastlake and Manuka had joined forces before, winning the 1942 premiership during a three year wartime partnership. Moreover, they had another reason to be fairly well acquainted: between 1933 and 1977 they had met one another in no fewer than seventeen senior grand finals, easily a record.[1]

After a succession of near misses, the Demons, now bearing the Eastlake moniker, finally clinched a flag in 2001, downing Belconnen by 3 points after a thrilling tussle. Following that, however, preliminary finals in 2002 and 2006 were the side’s best AFL Canberra finishes.

In 2011 the Demons were one of five AFL Canberra member clubs to join the newly formed North East Australian Football League (NEAFL). Five years later they were the only AFL Canberra club left in the competition, and they altered their name to the Canberra Demons to reflect this.

After reaching the Eastern Conference finals[2] in each of their first three seasons the Demons dropped well out of contention in 2014 and the following year managed just a solitary win to plummet to the wooden spoon. There was marginal improvement in 2016 as the Demons finished ninth (of ten) after winning three of their 18 minor round matches following which they showed a modicum of promise to win seven games and finish seventh in 2017. The 2018 season saw some of this promise realised as the Demons got as far as a 37 point preliminary final loss to intrastate rivals and eventual premiers Southport. The NEAFL only ran for one further season, after which it went into recess because of the global coronavirus pandemic. The Demons, who reverted to the name of Eastlake,  took part in a truncated AFL Canberra First Grade competition where they finished runners-up to Queanbeyan.