HOBART
Affiliated: TFL 1945-1997; Southern Tasmanian Football League (SthFL) from 1998
Club Address: P.O. Box 56, Hobart 7001, Tasmania
Home Grounds: TCA Ground 1945-82 and 1998-present; King George V Park 1983-86; North Hobart Oval 1987-97
Colours: Maroon, gold and blue (formerly black and gold)
Emblem: Lions (formerly Tigers)
Premierships: TFL - 1950, 1954, 1959-60, 1963, 1966, 1973, 1980, 1990 (9 total); SFL - 1999 (1 total) Tasmanian State Premierships - 1959 (1 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - TFL Statewide Cup 1980 (1 total - only time the competition was conducted)
William Leitch Medallists: J.D.Sullivan 1947; T.J.Leo 1957; M.Pascoe 1959; D.Sullivan 1964; B.Payne 1965 & 1966; S.Wade 1984 (6 Medallists/7 Medals)
Horrie Gorringe Medallists: Nil
TFL Top Goalkickers: B.Waldron (47) 1953; M.Pascoe (75) 1959 & (57) 1960; C.Smith (49) 1977; P.Courto (86) 1980; W.Fox (110) 1988; K.Robinson (76) 1993 (7 total)
SthFL Top Goalkickers: D.Hall (88) 1999 (1 total)
Hobart's Official 'Best Team 1947 to 2002': Click here
Highest Score: TFL - 31.17 (203) vs. South Launceston 15.21 (111) on 22 August 1990 at York Park; SFL - 36.14 (230) vs. Channel 10.6 (66) on 7 April 2000 at TCA Ground
Most Games: 287 by D.K. 'Kerry' Wilson
Record Home Attendance: 8,760 on 14 June 1949 vs. New Town at TCA Ground
Record Finals Attendance: 17,111 for 1980 grand final at North Hobart Oval: Hobart 14.9 (93); Glenorchy 7.16 (58)
NOTE: I am indebted to Matt Cramond for his assistance in compiling some of the above statistics, as well as some of the historical information about the club detailed below. Any errors are mine.
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Mark Browning Scott Clayton Craig Hoyer Trevor Leo Ron McGowan Mal Pascoe 'Burnie' Payne Dennis Powell Ian Stewart John Watts |
Just prior to the start of the 1973 grand final, Hobart players prepare to break through their cheer squad's banner which reads 'GUTS GAINS GLORY'. The side's eventual premiership that year epitomised both: having only just scraped into the finals in 4th place after losing all but 1 of their last 8 roster matches, the Tigers fought their way through to the grand final before overcoming raging hot flag favourites Sandy Bay 11.19 (85) to 10.5 (65) in one of the biggest boilovers in Tasmanian football history.
Hobart may have only spent fifty-three seasons in the TFL but their success in winning nine premierships from fifteen grand finals during that time represents the commendable return of a flag every 5.9 years, a record which few clubs anywhere can match. Sadly, however, by the mid to late 1990s the club was finding itself unable to cope with the increasing economic demands which life in the expanded TFL involved. At the end of the 1997 season Hobart was expelled from the competition.
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Hobart's first season in the TFL in 1945 coincided with the re-organisation of the league along district lines. Hobart and Sandy Bay replaced Cananore and Lefroy and joined established clubs New Town and North Hobart in forming a four team competition which expanded to six clubs with the admission of Clarence and New Norfolk two seasons later. Given the small number of opposition clubs it was perhaps not all that difficult to make an impact. The Tigers reached the grand final for the first time in 1947, losing to North Hobart by 10 points. Two years later they were again on the wrong side of the ledger, this time against New Town, but the following year they turned the tables on the Eagles with a nerve-wracking 3 point triumph. |
Hobart's 1957 Leitch Medallist, Trevor Leo. |
Hobart played off for the flag on average every other season during the 1950s, winning three times and losing twice. The 1959 season was particularly noteworthy in that the Tigers held TFL grand final opponents New Norfolk to the miserly total of 2.9 (21) before going on to win the state flag for the first and only time. The following season saw back to back premierships being procured for the only time in the club's history, but the state flag went north to NTFA side City-South.
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Peter Nevin marks strongly for Hobart in front of Glenorchy's Peter Hudson. (Click on the image to view an enlarged version.) |
Hobart's 1960 premiership victory was emulated on each of
the club's next four grand final appearances, the last of which, in 1980, coincided
with a memorable victory over Clarence in the grand final of the first ever
statewide premiership, which was played as an adjunct to the TFL's, NTFA's and
NWFU's regular competitions. When the TFL itself embarked on the road toward
becoming a statewide competition in 1986 Hobart's involvement was taken for
granted. The side reached a grand final in 1989, losing to North
Hobart, but won
comfortably in 1990 against North Launceston. The Tigers were still a force as
late as 1992, reaching the grand final of that year only to succumb once more to
Mark Yeates' all conquering North Hobart combination. Five seasons later Hobart's TFL career was all over.
For season 1998 Hobart took its place in the Southern Football League, which had been formed as recently as 1996. Because league founder members Kingston had already laid claim to the 'Tigers' emblem Hobart elected to adopt a simple 'HFC' logo whilst retaining the club's traditional colours of black and gold. |
Success under the new guise was not long in coming: in 1999, with Dale Hall bagging 88 majors for the season to top the league list, Hobart scored a comfortable grand final victory over Brighton. Hobart won 20.9 (129) to 11.12 (78), a margin of 51 points. The Hobart candle might, of necessity, have dimmed somewhat, but it still burned.
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In January 2001 the news emerged that the statewide TFL was no more. Consequently, for season 2001 Hobart would be joined in the SFL by four former TFL opponents: New Norfolk (which had joined in 2000), Clarence, Glenorchy and North Hobart. Meanwhile a composite Tasmanian team was granted probationary admission to the VFL, thereby further diminishing the profile of the Southern Football League and its member clubs. Hobart reached the SFL grand final in 2003, but suffered a cataclysmic 110 point loss to North Hobart. At the end of the following season the club entered into a controversial alignment with AFL powerhouse Brisbane which saw many long-term supporters walk away in disgust. From 2005, Hobart took to the field in maroon, gold and blue playing uniforms, and became known as the Lions. Presumably the financial benefits to the club of such an arrangement are considerable, but there are costs involved as well, not least in terms of yet more compromise and dilution to the identity and tradition that so many had worked so hard to establish over the preceding half a century and more. On the field of play, the club's first season as the Lions was an unmitigated disaster, as it managed just 4 wins from 18 roster matches to finish in 7th place in an 8 team competition. |
Hobart players celebrate after beating Clarence in the 2003 preliminary final. Sadly, the celebrations proved to be premature, as the side suffered a 100 point annihilation in the following week's grand final. (Photo courtesy of Dan Garlick of OzVox Media - click to enlarge.) |
The 2006 season brought significant improvement, however, as the side qualified for the finals in 4th spot with an 11-7 record before trouncing Kingborough in the elimination final by 10 goals. A hard fought 28 point loss to New Norfolk in the 1st semi final followed, and while this inevitably generated a certain measure of disappointment, overall the signs are that the club is on the right track to re-establish itself as a bona fide power in Tasmanian football.
Where now?
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