The Ballarat Football Netball Club is 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 ...

and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

club. The football squad currently competes in the

Ballarat Football League The Ballarat Football League (BFL) is an Australian rules football competition that operates in the Ballarat region of Victoria, Australia. The competition formed in 1893 as the Ballarat Football Association and was renamed Ballarat Football ...

in the

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

region of

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

. The Ballarat Football Netball Club was established on 20 May 1860, making it the 3rd oldest continually operating football club in Australia, behind

Melbourne FC The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria, and plays its home ...

(May 1859), and

Geelong FC The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2 ...

(July 1859).

History

Its first President and Captain was Lieutenant Colonel Alexander M. Greenfield. Its senior best and fairest award is named after Alexander Greenfield. Ballarat played their home matches at City Oval in Ballarat for 88 years, then moved to their current location at Alfredton Recreation Reserve in 1994. Ballarat's senior guernsey is white with Red 'V'. Ballarat was a provincial member of the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

from 1878 until 1896, taking part in the Association's administration and competing regularly against Melbourne-based VFA clubs. The club was also a founding member of the Ballarat Football Association in 1893. In 1955 the club officially applied to join the VFL. Although the application was referred to a special sub-committee that was to meet and make a recommendation, there is no evidence that the application was ever acted on by the league. Ballarat Football Netball Club's junior program has produced recent AFL players

Drew Petrie Drew Petrie (born 15 October 1982) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club and the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He came out of retirement in 2017 to pla ...

, twins

Nathan Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible * Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...

& Mitch Brown, brothers

Brad Brad may refer to: * Brad (given name), a masculine given name Places * Brad, Hunedoara, a city in Hunedoara County, Romania * Brad, a village in Berești-Bistrița Commune, Bacău County, Romania * Brad, a village in Filipeni, Bacău, Romania * ...

& Matt Crouch and

AFLW AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

player

Sophie Van De Heuvel Sophie Van De Heuvel (born 10 December 2000) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). A cricketer as well as a footballer, she competed in both sports at the national level in her juni ...

Club identity

Guernsey

The senior jumper is white with a red V. The club senior team wore red & white vertical stripes between season 2010 and 2018, however reverted to the traditional red V from season 2019. From season 2019 the junior 'Swans' division of the club have worn the red and white vertical stripes, and the junior 'Storm' division have worn red and white horizontal hoops. Both junior jumpers have historical significance as being designs worn by Ballarat FC during the 1800s.

Song

The club song is known as "Cheer, Cheer The Red and The White" and is to the tune of the '' Victory March'', the fight song of the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

in South Bend, Indiana, USA. The words are: : ''Cheer, cheer the red and the white,'' : ''Honour the name by day and by night,'' : ''Lift that noble banner high,'' : ''Shake down the thunder from the sky.'' : ''Whether the odds be great or small,'' : ''Ballarat will go and win overall,'' : ''While her loyal sons are marching'' : ''Onwards to victory!''

Mascot

The club's mascot is the angry swan.

Home ground

Since the start of the 1994 season Ballarat have played their home games at the Alfredton Recreation Reserve, in the western suburb of Alfredton. From 1906 to 1993, Ballarat played their home matches at the City Oval, beside

Lake Wendouree Lake Wendouree () is an artificially created and maintained shallow urban lake located adjacent to the suburb of the same name in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The name Wendouree comes from a local Aboriginal word ''wendaaree'' w ...

, where they were co-tenants with

Redan Redan (a French word for "projection", "salient") is a feature of fortifications. It is a work in a V-shaped salient angle towards an expected attack. It can be made from earthworks or other material. The redan developed from the lunette, o ...

. The move to Alfredton was a strategic one based on the growing population of Alfredton and the opportunity to join its junior division, who had been playing at Alfredton since 1984.

Premierships

(19): 1897, 1898, 1908, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1962, 1971, 1988, 2008

Henderson Medal winners

* 1950 Frank Pyke * 1972 Peter Merriman * 1974 Brendan Mahar * 1977

Don Discher Don Discher (born 17 April 1954) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Discher was a ruckman, who came down to St Kilda from Ballarat. He played his first league game in the ...

* 1985 Don Discher * 2014 Shane Hutchinson

Tony Lockett Medal winners

* 1927

Dave Duff David E. Duff (15 June 1901 – 31 December 1977) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Although he spent just one season at Melbourne, Duff was a member of a premiership team. He ...

113 * 1928 Dave Duff 91 * 1929 Dave Duff 96 * 1930 Harry Cooper 95 * 1934 G Anderson 72 * 1936 Max Wheeler 108 * 1939 Max Wheeler 93 * 1957 Robert Brannigan 47 * 1972 Greg Brown 72 * 1986 Phil Taglaibue 84 * 2019 Andrew Hooper 41

VFL/AFL players

- *

Mick Twomey Michael John Twomey (25 September 1931 – 14 December 2015) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). At 185cm (6'1") in height, Collingwood's Mick Twomey was ta ...

- * Geoff Tunbridge - Melbourne * David Shaw - *

Percy Beames Percy James Beames (27 July 1911 – 28 March 2004) was an Australian sportsman who played Australian rules football for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) as well as first-class cricket for Victoria in the She ...

- * John Birt - *

Robert Muir Robert Muir may refer to: * Robert Muir (pathologist) (1864–1959), Scottish pathologist *Robert Muir (politician) (1919–2011), Canadian politician * Robbie Muir (footballer) (born 1953), Australian rules footballer * Bob Muir (coach), American ...

- * Don Discher - St Kilda * Ben Ingleton - St Kilda * Drew Petrie - /

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

* Nathan Brown - / St Kilda * Mitchell Brown - * Brad Crouch - Adelaide * Matt Crouch - Adelaide *

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

(AFLW)

Club records

Most Senior Games: Paul Nicholls 248 Most Senior Goals: Max Wheeler 359 (1935-1939) Most Goals in a Game: Max Wheeler 17 (1938) Most Goals in a Senior Season: D. Duff 113 (1927) Most Greenfield Trophies (Senior B&F's):

x 6 (1977, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991) Ashley Baker x 6 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012) Most Years as Coach: Len Templar 15 years (1958-1967, 1970–1972, 1977–1978) Most Years as Captain: Harry Kaighan 8 years (1921 – 1928) Most Years as Club President: Matt Glover 21 years (1948 – 1968) Most Years as Club Secretary: J. Shannon 18 Years (1914 – 1931) Most Years as Club Treasurer: E. R. Bodycomb 26 years (1897 – 1922)

Bibliography

''History of Football in the Ballarat District'' (2008) by John Stoward -

References

* https://australianfootball.com/clubs/info/ballarat/1852 * John Devaney - Full Points Publications

External links

* {{VFL Ballarat Football League clubs B 1860 establishments in Australia Australian rules football clubs established in 1860 Former Victorian Football League clubs Sport in Ballarat Sports clubs in Australia by league Australian rules football clubs in Victoria (Australia)