Australian Football

It has been a long time between drinks for the Tigers, who last enjoyed senior premiership success in 1970. By contrast, the two and a half decade period prior to that was the most successful in the club’s history. When the Kerang and District Football League was formed in 1945 Macorna was among the competition’s initial contingent of seven clubs, and wasted little time asserting itself. In the six seasons between 1947 and 1953 the Tigers only once failed to claim the premiership, and they remained a force for the remainder of the decade and on into the 1960s, when two further flags were won.

Football in Macorna has a long history even if the precise origin’s of today’s Macorna Football Club are unclear. When formal competition commenced in the area during the 1890s a club known as Macorna Wanderers emerged. In 1892, this club won a premiership in the Pyramid Hill District Football Association, the same competition in which Macorna would compete in the years leading up to the start of the Great War. It is of course possible that Macorna Wanderers and Macorna were actually one and the same, but further research is needed to clarify the matter.

In 1913 and 1914 Macorna is recorded as having played off against Pyramid Hill for the PHDFA premiership, losing by 11 points in the former year, but winning 6.4 (40) to 5.7 (37) in the latter.

Between the wars Macorna participated in a number of different competitions and contested grand finals on at least four occasions. However, only in the Leaghur Football Association grand final of 1939 did it achieve success, downing Wandella by the narrowest of margins, 12.7 (79) to 12.6 (78).

After reaching the 2002 grand final, in which they went under to Ultima by 57 points, the Tigers tended to struggle for a time, and in 2006 they only managed to avoid the wooden spoon on percentage. The 2007 season was rather more satisfactory as the Tigers managed to win half their matches, good enough for fifth place on the ten team ladder, while in 2008 they improved still further, qualifying for the finals in third place only to suffer a surprisingly heavy first semi final defeat at the hands of Murrabit and end up fourth.

Over the past decade or so the Tigers have been fairly regular finals participants and in 2015 they got as far as the grand final only to lose by 15 points to Ultima. The 2016 to 2018 seasons brought a gradual decline in fortunes with the side going from sixth of eight in the first of these years to eighth of nine in both 2017 and 2018.