Shepparton Football Club

The Shepparton Football Netball Club, nicknamed the Bears, is an Australian rules football and netball club in the Goulburn Valley Football League. The team, known as the "Bears", (once known as the "maroons"), are based in Shepparton and play their home games at the Deakin Reserve, the premier football ground in the town. They share the ground with the Shepparton United Football Club.

Shepparton
Names
Full nameShepparton Football Netball Club
Nickname(s)Bears
Club details
Founded1880s[1]
Colours   
CompetitionGoulburn Valley Football League
CoachSean Harrap
Premierships27
Ground(s)Deakin Reserve (capacity: 15,000)
Uniforms
Home
Other information
Official websitesheppartonfnc.com.au

History

Football was played locally in and around Shepparton from the early 1880s, it was not until the formation of Goulburn Valley District Football Association in 1894 that a coherent competitive framework for the sport emerged.

Shepparton was one of six founder members of the GVDFA. It won its first flag in 1899, followed by another four years later, and then from 1906 until the competition went into recess because of world war one it established a veritable premiership dynasty, going top no fewer than six times in nine seasons. From 1911 until early in the 1913 season in particular, Shepparton was widely regarded, and indeed often described in the local press, as ‘invincible’. At the end of the 1913 season this evaluation was further enhanced when Shepparton beat South Bendigo by 3 points in a special challenge match for ‘the championship of the north’.

After world war one Shepparton continued to enjoy regular success, but they left the GVFL in 1939 because the league decided to change from a Wednesday competition to a Saturday. They joined the Central Goulburn Valley Football League and only returned to the GVFL in 1951.

In 1961 the club appointed Tom Hafey, a former back pocket player with Richmond, who preached a fast paced, aggressive, highly team-orientated football. Hafey coached the club to a hattrick of flags before Richmond offered him the main coaching position in the VFL. Hafey made sure to sign the best young talent in the GVFL and in his second year got the Tigers a flag.

Zoning came in in 1968 and Shepparton was given to Melbourne.

Further premierships followed in 1968-9 under Ken Rowe, and in 1972-3 under Bill Sykes. Since then the club has enjoyed only sporadic success, at least by its own lofty standards, but there is little doubt that dynastic potential still simmers not far beneath the surface.

Football Premierships
Seniors
LeagueTotal flagsPremiership years
Goulburn Valley Football Association
2
1892,[2] 1893[3]
Goulburn Valley Football League
27
1899, 1903, 1906, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1920, 1925, 1929, 1934, 1951, 1957, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2018
Central Goulburn Valley Football League
1
1949[4][5]

VFL/AFL players

References
  1. John, Devaney. "Australian Football - Shepparton Football Club - Stats". australianfootball.com. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  2. "1892 - Goulburn Valley FA - Grand Final match review". Trove Newspapers. The Sportsman newspaper. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  3. "1893 - Goulburn Valley FA - Grand Final side". Trove Newspapers. Shepparton Advertiser. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  4. "1949 - CGVFL - Grand Final Match Preview / Teams". Trove Newspapers. Shepparton Advertiser. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  5. "1949 - CGVFL - Grand Final match review". Trove Newspapers. Shepparton Advertiser. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
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