NIGHTCLIFF (Works and Housing)
Affiliated: NTFL 1950/51-present
Club Address: P.O. Box 833, Darwin 0801
Home Ground: Nightcliff Oval
Formed: 1950 (as Works and Housing Football Club)
Colours: Black and gold
Emblem: Tigers
Premierships: 1956/57, 1960/61 & 1964/65 (3 total)
Nichols Medallists: Harold Muir 1956/57; Joe Bonson 1958/59 & 1959/60; Benny Lew Fatt 1963/64; Ken Bonson 1970/71; Joe Daby 1972/73 & 1980/81; Mark Motlop 1977/78; John Tye 1978/79; Norm Murphy 1996-97 & 1997-98; Warren Berto 2007-8 (9 Medallists/12 Medals)
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Colin Hounsell Keith Pattinson Greg Turbill John 'Bubba' Tye |
A Nightcliff senior line-up from the 1960s, the decade which yielded two of the club's only three premierships to date.
The Works and Housing Football Club (re-named Nightcliff in 1963) joined the NTFL, which at that point operated a senior competition only, in the 1950/51 season. The ostensible original aim of the club was to provide an opportunity for fringe players from other clubs, particularly Buffaloes, to participate in organised football on a regular basis. In this context, on field success would doubtless have been viewed as an unlikely bonus. However, the Tigers' early performances exceeded all expectations and they contested the finals in four of their first six seasons before clinching a first premiership in 1956/57. The grand final opposition for that debut flag was, somewhat ironically, provided by Buffaloes, and Works and Housing won by 27 points, 15.11 (101) to 12.2 (74).
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Another grand final followed the next year but Wanderers scored a hard fought 9 point victory. The Tigers' second premiership came in 1960/61 when accuracy in front of goal consigned St Marys to a 14 point defeat, 10.8 (68) to 6.18 (54). In 1964/65 the grand final victims were Darwin (previously known as Buffaloes), Nightcliff winning somewhat more comfortably this time by 39 points, 11.13 (79) to 5.10 (40). However, as far as senior premierships go, that is where the story ends. Despite qualifying for the finals in two thirds of the seasons since '64/65 the Tigers' overall senior premiership tally remains at just three grand finals in 1965/66, 1973/74, 1978/79, 1985/86, 2001/2 and 2003/4 resulted in losses respectively to St Marys (by 37 points), Waratahs (3 points), St Marys (31 points), St Marys again by an ignominious margin of nearly 30 goals, Palmerston by 58 points, and finally St Marys once more by 19 points. Arguably Nightcliff's most famous playing export is Michael McLean who was an outstanding junior with the club and played 35 senior games before embarking on an auspicious VFL/AFL career with Footscray and Brisbane. Meanwhile John 'Bubba' Tye who, with the exception of a brief stint with Norwood in 1974, spent his entire playing career in Darwin remains, in the view of many, the greatest Northern Territory footballer of them all. |
A group of 8 individuals with Nightcliff associations pictured during the 1988 Bicentennial carnival in Adelaide. From L-R: Noel 'Kelly' O'Donnell, Mark Motlop, Rohan Helyar, Michael McLean, Paul Motlop, Peter McCann, Michael Gregory. (Click to enlarge.) |
Other key Tigers, both on and off the field, down the years include Stewie Clark, Keith Smart, Frank Griffin, Ken Utting, Ian White, Tom Blackley, Mike Crawshaw, John Greenoff, Costa Karaolias, Eddie Motlop, Paul Bleile and Cedric Suardi (see footnote 1).
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Footnotes
1. I am indebted to football historian and ardent Nightcliff fan Costa Karaolias for supplying me with this list of former club stalwarts, as well as for corroborating much of the detail included in this entry. Costa also kindly provided the photographs used to support the entry, as well as other Nightcliff-related images used elsewhere in the site, notably in the Teams sections of the Picture Gallery. Return to Main Text