The Ballarat Imperial 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 which formerly competed 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 ...

. The club was one of the most successful teams in the league, winning 17 premierships before it was dissolved in 1955.

History

The club was formed in the mid-1870s as the "Galatea Football Club" before becoming known as "Ballarat Imperial" in 1878. The club 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 ...

(VFA) from 1885 until 1896, taking part in the Association's administration and competing regularly against Melbourne-based VFA clubs. Ballarat Imperial was a founding member of the Ballarat Football Association in 1893, and was its dominant club through its early years, winning eleven of the first fourteen premierships. The club returned to prominence in the 1930s, winning four premierships in a row from 1934–1937. In 1937, it made an attempt to rejoin the VFA as a full member. However, it was felt that a second Ballarat-based team would have to be included to ensure that one VFA game could be played in Ballarat each weekend, and no willing co-applicant could be found. The club went into recess during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and, although it played B-Grade football for a period of time after the war, it never returned to the top grade.

Premierships

(17): 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1905, 1906, 1922, 1929, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937

References

{{VFL Ballarat Football League clubs Former Victorian Football League clubs Ballarat 1876 establishments in Australia Australian rules football clubs established in 1876 1955 disestablishments in Australia Australian rules football clubs disestablished in 1955