Australian Football

Modbury

Modbury’s history is a proud one, as befits one of the oldest football clubs in Australia. In addition to its eighteen senior grade premiership the club has, since 1972, won a total of forty-eight flags in other grades at a strike rate of better than one per season. It is a record that few rival clubs even come close to matching.

The first references to a Modbury Football Club date back to 1862. That was the year that the club engaged in a match against South Australia’s oldest club, Adelaide, which emerged victorious by a score of 2 goals to nil. The following year the same two clubs played out a scoreless draw, but there are few details of the club’s activities during the remainder of the nineteenth century.

Between 1906 and 1931 and again in 1933 Modbury was a member of the Hills Football Association in which its achievements were modest. This changed after a transfer to the North Eastern Hills Football Association with Modbury capturing its first ever premiership in 1934 and immediately repeating its success the following year. There then followed a brief stint in the East Torrens Football Association after which the club disbanded for the better part of a decade. 

Upon its reformation in 1947 it affiliated with the North Adelaide District Football Association, but a shortage of players led to two further periods of recess, between 1951 and 1953, and from 1959 to 1962. On a more positive note the 1950s and 1960s were notable for the contributions made to the club by two former North Adelaide champions, dual Magarey Medallist Ron Phillips who played for and captained the club for a time, and Don Gilbourne, who spent the 1964 and 1965 seasons as coach. After reforming in 1963 Modbury quickly developed into a major force in the competition and the senior grade side was successful in claiming premierships on three occasions during the 1960s. A ten season stint in the Norwood North Adelaide Football League spawned another couple of flags, as did the club’s ten year involvement in the South Australian Football Association. 

After commencing in the South Australian Amateur Football League in 1988 Modbury steadily worked its way up through the divisions. Commencing in A6 the Hawks had by 1995 reached the league’s top division only to succumb to an equally dramatic decline in fortune which saw them back in Division Five by the end of the decade. Since the turn of the century Modbury has once again become upwardly mobile, claiming flags in Division Five in 2001, Division Four in 2004, Division Three the following year, Division Two in 2008, Division Three in 2014 and Division Two in 2016. 

The Hawks' 2016 premiership was won in emphatic fashion. After topping the ladder with a 17-1 minor round record they accounted for St. Peter's Old Collegians in both the second semi final, by 18 points, and the grand final by the rather more comfortable margin of 49 points. Given the degree of their dominance would have felt justified in expecting, at very least, to hold their own in Division One in 2017, and this indeed is what transpired, with their tally of 4 wins enabling them to finish just above the relegation places. Unfortunately, however, this proved to be but a brief reprieve as the 2018 season brought losses in all 18 matches contested which inevitably entailed relegation back to Division Two.