Nickname(s) Tigers Founded 1908 | Colours Black and yellow League Geelong Football League | |
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Full name Grovedale Football & Netball Club Grounds Burdoo Recreation Reserve, Grovedale | ||
Grovedale Tigers Football Netball Club plays in the Geelong Football League in Victoria, Australia. They play their home games at Burdoo Reserve.
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Club history
They were originally named Germantown, but following anti-German sentiment due to WWI the club and location was changed by the local council to Grovedale after a local homestead.
In 1920 Grovedale formed a football side. They put themselves in the Freshwater Creek DFA, which is no longer running. In 1923 they made the "Grand Final" against Belmont now known as Sth Barwon; they lost the game by 16 pts. In 1925, they made another Grand Final, in which they played Barrabool, but again they lost the game.
Merger
In 1956 they entered into the Geelong & DFL, a division that was called the Jarman Cup, and they merged with Marshall to form Marshall-Grovedale. In 1963 they made the Jarman Cup where they played against Leopold, they won by 27 pts. The following year they were promoted to the Woolworth Cup division. In 1970 they changed their name back to Grovedale Football Club.
1970s
In 1973 the GDFL had a restructure that insisted in having the senior club also provide a reserve grade side. This meant that senior clubs had to align with a junior club to survive.they had to make two divisions because there were so many teams, so the club went into Division 2. Between 1973 and 1976 Grovedale made it to every Grand Final where they played Modewarre. In '73 they lost by 19pts, and in '74 they lost again, this time by 25pts. In 1975 they won by 5pts. The following season Modewarre beat them by 21 pts. In 1978 they were promoted to Division 1 but they didn't win many games that year.
Geelong Football League
In 1979 the Geelong Football League was formed and Grovedale was one of the founding clubs. In the following 38 years the club has made the finals on seven occasions. Their best season was in 2013 when they were runners-up.
Famous players
They have always had great junior players coming up through the ranks, but they often leave and play at other clubs (notably Modewarre Football Club in recent years). Over the years, Grovedale has had numerous players who played at AFL level who started their careers at the club.
Grovedale has had David (The Mountain) Mensch, Michael Schulze and Matthew Primus all playing for the team. Even in 2004 Tim McGrath came down for a playing-coach role, and he brought a couple of good players, but not enough in this league.