Aldinga

Senior SFL Premierships: SFL - 1927-8-9-30-1-2, 1934 (7 total); SFL Division Two - 1991, 1993 (2 total)

Senior SFL Competition Best and Fairest Awards: President's Medal (Division One) - C.Lovelock 1927 (1 total); Mail Medal (Division One) - K.Noblett 1937 (1 total); Ken Donne Medal (Division Two) - B.Veide 1982; S.Keam 1989; M.Burdett 1992 (3 total)

Recent Sharks action during a match against Morphett Vale. (Photo © Aldinga Football Club.)

The original Aldinga Football Club was formed in 1879 and for its first few years mainly engaged in informal, but no doubt fiercely contested, matches against its near neighbour Willunga. In 1886 both Aldinga and Willunga were heavily instrumental in the establishment of the first formal controlling body for football in the region, the Southern Football Association.

Aldinga's early years in the Association were noteworthy only for its difficulty in raising sufficient players to field a team each Saturday. Nevertheless, it persisted, and soon after World War One began to give notice that its days of being in the competition merely to make up the numbers would soon be at an end. In 1926, Aldinga reached the premiership deciding match for the first time, losing to Noarlunga by 9 points. What happened next could scarcely have been predicted by even the club's most ardent followers: in the eight seasons between 1927 and 1934, Aldinga qualified for every grand final bar one, and won them all. In full, the sequence went like this:

1927	Aldinga	5	13	43	Hillside	6	6	42
1928	Aldinga	8	9	57	Hillside	7	12	54
1929	Aldinga	11	10	76	Hillside	8	6	54
1930	Aldinga	13	8	86	Morphett Vale	9	13	67
1931	Aldinga	8	13	61	Willunga	5	13	43
1932	Aldinga	14	7	91	Willunga	12	10	82
1933	Aldinga finished 3rd
1934	Aldinga	16	10	106	Hillside	9	16	70

Six flags in a row, and seven in eight years, both remain SFL records. Just as remarkable as the achievements themselves is the fact that Aldinga had to battle hard to win on every occasion; there were no 'blow outs'. Clearly, whatever the level of its raw football ability, this was a team of immense mental strength.

Aldinga's fall from grace after 1934 in some ways reflected its rise, albeit in reverse. The side never again contested a grand final, and when football resumed after World War Two it once again encountered its old bugbear, a lack of players, this time brought about by the steady trickle of young men away from rural areas to Adelaide. In 1952 the Aldinga Football Club simply did not have enough available players to continue, and reluctantly disbanded.

Aldinga Football Club Mark Two was born a quarter of a century later, and promptly rejoined the SFL just as the competition was spreading its wings to encompass two divisions. Nicknamed the Sharks, Aldinga remained a constant presence in Division Two until the single division format was restored in 2002. On two occasions, in 1991 and 1993, it won the premiership.

ALDINGA