Australian Football

Smithton’s half a century plus stint in the Circular Head Football Association - a competition in which the standard of play was regarded for much of the time as being just below that of Tasmania’s three major leagues [1] - yielded a total of 18 senior premierships from 37 Grand Finals. When the club moved up a level in 1980 by rejoining the NWFU (in which it had previously competed between 1949 and 1951) it did not take it long to find its feet. In 1983, it reached the grand final for the first time and, after a classic, 1980s style ‘shoot-out’, overcame the challenge of Cooee by the smallest margin possible, 20.17 (137) to 21.10 (136). Not satisfied with this, the Saints (as they had become known on their elevation in 1980) also provided the season’s Wander Medallist in the shape of Stephen Parsons, and the top goal kicker in Tony Maguire, who booted 93 majors for the year.

Smithton continued to challenge strongly for the flag in each of the NWFU’s final three seasons, albeit without further success after grand final losses against Cooee (by 9 points in 1984), Penguin (8 goals, 1985) and Ulverstone (15 points, 1986).

Since 1987 the club has competed in the NTFL, reaching the grand final on three occasions, in 1989 (lost to Scottsdale by 3 goals), 1991 (won by 8 goals against Ulverstone) and 2009 (went down by 88 points to Ulverstone). 

In 2016 the club undertook a re-branding exercise in order to attempt to bolster its identity in the wider area around Smithton, known as Circular Head. This meant trading under the new name of Circular Head Giants whilst retaining the "official" name of Smithton Football Club. They finished sixth of eight in their first season under the new name before qualifying for the finals in 2017 and ultimately finishing fifth of seven teams a result that was repeated the following year.