Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

Mordialloc

Members of the VFA for thirty full seasons, Mordialloc’s only flag came in 1977 in Second Division. In the grand final that year Geoff Rosenow captain-coached the Bloods to a 19.19 (133) to 14.11 (95) defeat of Yarraville. The side had lost the previous year’s grand final to Williamstown but never again made the ‘big one’. Its only other grand final appearance had been in 1965 (once again in second division) when Preston had emerged victorious by 38 points.

Mordialloc’s geographical situation twenty-five kilometres from the centre of Melbourne, bounded on the one side by swamp land and the other by sea, was always a major factor in hindering the club’s development.

The Bloodhounds’ greatest goalkicker was Peter Neville who ‘topped the ton’ on three occasions. Other notable players during its involvement in the VFA included Wayne Judson, the aforementioned Geoff Rosenow, All Australian wingman Barry Metcalfe, the long-serving William Lang, and Terry Walsh.

After three matches of the 1988 season the club was forced to secede from the VFA for financial reasons. Since then, it would be fair to suggest that Mordialloc has experienced varied fortune, with the highlights being Division Two Southern Football League premierships in 1999 and 2014. (The South East Suburban Football League had been renamed as the SFL in 1992, retaining this name when it merged with the Eastern Suburban Churches Football Association the following year.)

Mordialloc currently compete in the SFL's top division and twice in recent years they have reached the grand final, only to lose on both occasions to Dingley. In 2015 the deficit was 52 points while two years later it was 41 points after the Bloods had led at every change. The loss was all the more disquieting in that Mordialloc had won the second semi final encounter between the sides by over 10 goals. In 2018 the Bloodhounds went close to making another grand final but preliminary final opponents East Malvern just held on to win by 3 points, 7.6 (48) to 6.9 (45).

Source

John Devaney - Full Points Publications

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.