The Burnie Hawks Football Club was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club based in

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popul ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia from 1987 to 1994.

History

The club was founded in 1987 after former

North West Football Union The North West Football Union (NWFU) was an Australian rules football competition which ran from 1910 to 1986. In its time it was one of the three main leagues in Tasmania, with the Tasmanian Football League and Northern Tasmanian Football Asso ...

(NWFU) club Cooee Bulldogs (1894–1986) closed down its operation in order to wipe out its large debts and rebrand itself with a more metropolitan-based name for its inclusion in the

Tasmanian Football League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the "Tasmanian Football League (TFL)" (formerly known as the "Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL)" and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian ru ...

(TFL) in that year. Cooee had been locked in a battle with its West Park co-tenant (Burnie Tigers) to desperately gain a licence to join the Tasmanian competition from midway through 1986, and it was the rebranding of the club which was seen to have tipped the scales in favour of Cooee/Burnie Hawks. The move did however cause much controversy with a bitter and at times spiteful rivalry forming with fellow former NWFU and later

Northern Tasmanian Football League The North West Football League is an Australian rules football competition in North West Tasmania. The league was previously known as the "Northern Tasmanian Football League" from its inception in 1987 until the end of the 2014 season. History ...

club Burnie Tigers, so much so that after a period of good onfield success for the new Hawks venture, Burnie Hawks junior development coach and ABC Radio commentator Geoff White stated in an interview on ABC Radio Football on 18 April 1992 that "sponsorship was becoming difficult to obtain, with businesses in the Burnie area refusing to support one club over the other for fear of a backlash by supporters of each club, it's just so divided at the moment, it's a real crying shame because this town (Burnie) could field a great team in State League football." After making the finals in their inaugural season in 1987 the Hawks, on the back of solid crowd support powered to a preliminary final showdown with Glenorchy the following year but suffered a disastrous 110-point loss to the Magpies at

North Hobart Oval North Hobart Oval is a Stadium, sports venue in North Hobart, Tasmania, used for Australian rules football. History North Hobart Oval started its existence as Hobart Town's brickfields in 1844 before becoming a Brickfields Hiring Depot, convi ...

. In 1989 and 1990 the Hawks narrowly missed out on finals appearances (their reserves team broke through for a premiership in 1990 however) but despite a finals appearance in 1991, the club was struggling for support and by the following season the club itself was in serious jeopardy with large debts and a rapidly sinking supporter base, so much so that the club had sought a merger with Burnie Tigers, as both clubs were struggling under the harsh economic recession hitting the state at the time. The Burnie Hawks eventually absorbed the Burnie Tigers after the 1993 season had finished and from 1994, whilst still struggling with poor attendances, would play on as the Burnie Hawks despite the merger. The Hawks' final season saw them once again play in the finals, their final match saw them defeated by Devonport by 46-points in front of a crowd of 4,210 at

Devonport Oval Devonport Oval is an Australian rules football, cricket and athletics stadium in Devonport, Tasmania. It is the home stadium for the Devonport Football Club in the Tasmanian State League (TSL) and for the Devonport Cricket Club in the NWTCA comp ...

in the 1994 Elimination Final on 4 September. At the end of 1994 the club signed former North Melbourne player

Peter German Peter German (born 2 February 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer. Since retiring he has become a successful coach. German coached Subiaco to the 2004 and 2006 WAFL premierships and was rewarded by being named as an assistant to ...

as captain-coach and one of his first tasks was to attempt to reunify the supporters of both clubs, as a result he adopted a full change of uniforms, colours and a new emblem as the Burnie Dockers.

Summary

*Home ground –

West Park Oval West Park Oval is an Australian Rules football, cycling and athletics venue located on the shores of Bass Strait in Burnie, Tasmania. It is the current home of the Burnie Dockers in the Tasmanian State League and previously in the NTFL and in ...

*Established – 1987 *Playing colours – Brown and gold stripes *Emblem – Hawks *Club theme song – "We're a happy team at Burnie" (Tune: "

Yankee Doodle "Yankee Doodle" is a traditional song and nursery rhyme, the early versions of which predate the Seven Years' War and American Revolution. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today. It is the state anthem of Connecticut. Its ...

") *Affiliations – TFL Statewide League (1987–1994) *Matches played – 158 (77–79–2) including finals

Honours

TFL Premierships

Nil

TFL Runner Up

Nil

NWFU Premierships (Cooee)

1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1982

Tasmanian State Premiership The Tasmanian State Premiership was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested at the conclusion of the season, initially between the reigning Tasmanian Football League (TFL/TANFL) and Northern Tasmanian Football Association (18 ...
s (Cooee)

1964, 1978

Individual

George Watt Medal winners (Burnie Hawks)
(Best & Fairest Player in TFL Reserves)
1987 – Mark Radford (tied)
1994 – Stephen Jackson Wander Medallists (Cooee)
(Best & Fairest Player in NWFU Seniors)
1949 – Len Hayes
1950 – Lou Redman
1973 –

Graeme Shephard Graeme Shephard (born 8 March 1949) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1970s. Shephard, a Cooee 'best and fairest' winner in 1969, had his first stint at Coll ...

1979 – Tom Lee

Senior Best & Fairest Winners (Burnie Hawks)

* 1987 – Dale Whish-Wilson * 1988 – Wayne Keegan * 1989 – Steven Cole * 1990 – Paul Atkins * 1991 – Paul Atkins * 1992 – Leigh Heath * 1993 – Paul Atkins * 1994 – Brett Jones

Senior coaches

* 1987 – Warren "Putt" McCarthy * 1988 – Warren "Putt" McCarthy * 1989 – Colin Robertson * 1990 - Mark Scott * 1991 – Richard Lakeland * 1992 – Richard Lakeland * 1993 – Michael Schulze * 1994 – Mark Lee

Club record match attendance

* 6,631 – Burnie Hawks v Glenorchy at

for the 1988 TFL Preliminary Final

Club record home attendance

* 5,423 – Burnie Hawks v Devonport at

on 24 April 1988

Club record score

* 30.18 (198) – Burnie Hawks v Devonport 18.15 (123) at

on 30 July 1989

Bibliography

* * ABC Radio Football (7ZR and 7NT) – Saturday, 18 April 1992.

References

{{TFL clubs Australian rules football clubs in Tasmania Australian rules football clubs established in 1987 1987 establishments in Australia Australian rules football clubs disestablished in 1994 1994 disestablishments in Australia Tasmanian Football League clubs Sport in Burnie, Tasmania