North Ballarat Football Club

History

The club was established in 1882, playing in a number of regional competitions before entering Ballarat's "B" grade league in 1946 where it won its first premiership. Six years later, the NBFC was admitted to the Ballarat Football League and won the flag on its second Grand Final appearance in 1963 against Ballarat. They would go on to claim a further 14 flags in the period spanning the 1970–1995 seasons, during which in the 1990s they claimed five. That feat was no doubt what prompted an invitation to join the re-constructed Victorian Football League for the 1996 season.

After two VFL Grand Final appearances in 1999 and 2000, in 2008 the Roosters became premiers, after defeating the Port Melbourne Football Club in the Grand Final and in 2009 they gained back-to-back premierships by beating the Northern Bullants in the Grand Final held at the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne.

AFL links

Between 2006 and 2015, North Ballarat was in a partial reserves affiliation with the AFL's North Melbourne Football Club. Under the arrangement, half of the players not selected in the North Melbourne AFL team were allocated to play with North Ballarat; the other half played with Tasmania between 2006 and 2007, and with Werribee between 2008 and 2015. The arrangement ended after the 2015 season, and North Ballarat will have no AFL affiliation from the 2016 season onwards.

Club song

North Ballarat have had many versions of their club song in the past. All contain the same lyrics, but have been changed rhythm wise to keep up with the times. The lyrics and tune, by well known Australian singer/songwriter Johnny Mac, are the only completely original written in the league, as all the other clubs have written lyrics to well known tunes. The most recent version was brought in during the early 2000s, but all versions can still be found on the club song CD.

They also share the tune with the North Adelaide Roosters of the SANFL.

North Ballarat City

A consequence of having joined the VFL was that the club's juniors no longer had a local-level senior team to play in; once the players were old enough, they had to move to a different local senior club and management was concerned that the connection with the club was cut and lost. To overcome this, the club established a new local senior team under the name North Ballarat City in 2006. The club applied to enter the team in the Ballarat Football League, but the Ballarat clubs vetoed the idea; the team then instead joined the Bendigo Football League. In their first year they were winless but improved to win five games in 2007.

In 2008, the Ballarat Football League relented, and admitted North Ballarat City to its senior ranks, but it put several restrictions on the club dealing with recruitment of players, to which the club agreed. The first three years the club won four games each season but in 2011 they advanced only to lose the Preliminary Final. North Ballarat City won their first BFL premiership in 2013, defeating Sunbury. Their Under 18.5 team also won a premiership in 2013, defeating Melton South.

Women's Team

North Ballarat also have a women's team that play in the VWFL North West division. They finished the 2009 season 2nd on the ladder but were unable to make the finals. 2009 saw the team with little experience, with an average age of 17. The women's team unlike their male counterparts is called the 'Eagles'.

Records

Premierships

Ballarat Football League:

1946 1963 1970 1973 1978 1979 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1991 1992 1994 1995 1996 2013 2014

1971 1987 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996

1963 1970 1972 1973 1974 1975 1982 1983 1990 1994 1995 2012 2013 2014

Victorian Football League:

2008 2009 2010

1999 2000

Total:

Other Division 1 Awards

1999, 2000

2009

2003