Australian Football

The undoubted highlight of Federal’s history to date was their unmatched achievement in claiming seven successive Central Australian Football League premierships between 1958 and 1963. The club had been a founder member of the competition in 1947, and had reached the grand final on debut. However, it was not until their third grand final appearance, in 1950, that the Demons were successful thanks to a 10.11 (71) to 7.9 (51) defeat of Rovers.

Following the seven in a row era, Federals achieved just one senior grade premiership success in over four decades. That was in 1974, when they downed Rovers in the grand final by 59 points. Over the ensuing three and a half decades, the Demons made it as far as the grand final just half a dozen times, only to lose on every occasion, often quite heavily. The 2009 grand final was an exception to this, however, as they ended up losing to Pioneers by just 3 points in a match which necessitated the playing of extra time. Another 3 point grand final loss to Pioneers followed in 2010 but over the past eight seasons Federals have unequivocally stamped themselves as the competition's pace setters, contesting all but two grand finals for triumphs in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Their tally of 13 senior grade flags makes them AFL Central Australia's second most successful club, after Pioneers (with 32). They reached the grand final in 2017 but lost to Rovers by 29 points. A year later they dropped one place to third while in 2019 they dropped one further place after losing the first semi final to Pioneers. An abbreviated 2020 competition followed during which Federal ran third after a disappointing "straight sets" exit from the finals.