Short History of Upper Ferntree Gully Football Club

 

Upper Ferntree Gully Football Club was founded in late 1948, with their first game played in 1949 in the Mountain District Football Association. The club won their first game against Olinda and went on to win ten games and finish fifth just missing finals after losing the last game of the season.

 

Their ground was a cow paddock off Talaskia Rd with an old railway shed as change rooms. The land that the ground was situated on was leased by club benefactor Tommy Hayes who allowed the club its use. Bert Tonkin was the first President and Norm Griffiths was Captain/ Coach. Leading Goalkicker in the clubs first year was Fred Rosenbrock with 97 for the season, while Alec Cody was the first best and fairest winner for the club. The first jumper design was navy blue with a light blue V.

 

1950 saw the club move to the Croydon-FTG League and also field a reserves side. In 1952 and 1953, the club moved to Brenock Park for home matches. They returned to Talaskia Rd until 1957 when they moved (along with the old change rooms) to Kings Park as well as returning to the MDFA. Jack King won four senior Club Best and Fairest Awards between 1951 and 1954 then also went on to win three reserves Best and Fairests.

 

In 1954 Frank “Bags” Lowrie was appointed as coach. “Bags” went on to fulfil the captain/coach role for 10 years straight. The club changed to Geelong jumpers in 1955 due to the cost of getting non VFL jumpers. In 1957 Upper Gully were runners up. The next year, 1958 the club won its first premiership and went on to win again in 1959 along with the Under 16’s.

 

In 1962, new club rooms were completed and the seconds won their first premiership. The seniors won in 1963 which was “Bags” last year.

 

“Tiger” Lawson was appointed captain/coach in 1964, a year in which the club won another premiership. Norm Reeves broke the club goalkicking record during 1964 finishing with 108 goals for the season. The seconds won the 1965 premiership. The club moved to the EDFL for the 1966 season before changing to Port Melbourne jumpers in 1968. This was due to a clash of colors with existing EDFL clubs, while the change of colors was an easy decision due to the ongoing link with Port Melbourne through coaches “Bags” Lowrie and “Tiger” Lawson, as well as numerous players during the sixties.

 

Peter Jensen became the first Upper Gully player to win a senior league Best and Fairest award in 1971. In the early 1970’s, Neville Roberts came to the club. Neville captain/coached the side to a  premiership in 1974, which broke a 10 year drought. Neville would go on to win a club record six senior Best and Fairest Awards as well as the 1975 EFL Senior Best and Fairest Award. 1976 saw the Under 15’s win the flag. Wayne McIntyre led the club to another  senior premiership in 1979, the reseves and Under 15’s were also premiers in 1979.

 

The 1980’s saw the club continue to strive for success both on and off the field led by  numerous coaches and committee members. Training lights were installed at Kings Park during this period and the Under 16’s won the flag in 1986. Dave Leathem became only the third  Upper Gully player to win a senior league Best and Fairest in 1986.

 

The reserves won a premiership in 1996. In 1998 the club celebrated its 50^th anniversary. Later that year the clubrooms partially burnt down. 1998 was capped off with a senior premiership, coached by Danny Bourke, the first for 19 years.

 

1998 also the Senior club merge with the St Johns-Bluebirds Junior Football Club, who had played in the KJFA since 1972, so coming a full circle as the Bluebirds had been formed to compete in the Knox Junior Football Association in 1972 due to the efforts of Hugh McAllister and others at the senior club. The club now entered junior sides in the EFL which resulted in premierships for the Under 16’s in 2001, Under 13’s in 2005 and the Under 15’s in 2006.

 

The reserves completed back to back premierships in 2002 and 2003.

In 2004 the clubrooms were extensively renovated and officially opened on 29^th May.

 

The 2006 season saw Grant Noonan become only the second Upper Gully player to kick a ton in the seniors, finishing with 110 goals for the season and breaking the club record.

 

2008 witnessed the first Colts Premiership for the club and then in 2010 under Robbie Coccaro the seniors won the flag allowing Upper to return to 2^nd Division for 2011. Also during 2010 the club, finally after many years of work, saw the extensions with glass viewing area completed to the clubrooms.

 

The Juniors had their most successful season during 2011 with the Under 11’s, Under 13’s and Under 14’s all winning premierships.

 

During 2012 the first games were played on the Kings Park top ground by both the juniors and the newly formed Upper Gully Vets team while towards the end of the season the club unveiled a new electronic scoreboard replacing the wooden one that had stood for many years. 2014 saw the Under 17’s win the premiership while the junior club were off Dobson Park while the ground was being redone.

 

2015 saw the installation of new Coaches boxes and the formation of an Upper Gully Netball side playing in the EFL Netball Competition, while the Vets went into recess for the year. The Under 12’s won the flag and Tim Riseley won the EFL senior Best and Fairest Award and also his fourth senior club Best and Fairest.

 

The seniors won the Premiership in 2016 with Chad Rogers in charge. The Vets again fielded a side in 2016 and the Division 4 Netball side played off in the grand final, a first for the Netballers. With the growth in women’s football, 2016 also saw the juniors welcome an U12 girl’s side for the first time in the clubs history followed by a senior women’s team in 2017 alongside 3 girls teams. The U15’s boy’s side were premiers in 2016 and 2017 while the U12 boy’s side won the 2017 Premiership.

 

History was made at the end of 2016 with Upper Gully having 2 players drafted into the AFL. Josh Begley was picked up by Essendon and Tim Smith by Melbourne, Tim went on to debut in 2017 while Josh made his debut in 2018 to become the only players after Mark Lisle in the 1980’s to play VFL/AFL football after playing senior football with Upper Gully.

 

Joel Perry who started with our juniors before playing with North Melbourne was appointed coach for the 2018 season and took the seniors to the preliminary final of 2^nd Division which was the clubs highest finish since making the grand final of 2^nd Division in 1968.

 

In 2019 the club unveiled lights on the top oval. The seniors missed the finals after losing to bottom placed Knox in the last game of the season while our Netballers won the Clubs first Netball Premiership.

The 2020 season was lost due to Covid while 2021 didn't fare much better getting cancelled after only 11 games.

 

Unfortunately we were unable to get a Womens team on the field  during 2021 and also entered 2022 without a team despite the efforts by a number of people around the club.