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BURNIE DOCKERS (Burnie/Cooee)
Affiliated: Burnie - NWFA 1885-1912; Burnie Football League 1913-21; NWFU 1922-31; Burnie Football League 1932-33; NWFU 1934-40; Burnie Football League 1945; NWFU 1946-86; NTFL 1987-92 Cooee - Junior competitions 1920-22 & 1930-44; NWFU 1945-86 Burnie Hawks/Dockers - TFL Statewide 1987-2000; NTFL 2001-present
Home Ground: West Park, Burnie
Formed: Burnie (as Emu Bay)1885; Cooee 1894, became Burnie Hawks 1987 and entered statewide competition; merged with Burnie in 1993, and became known as Burnie Dockers in 1995
Colours: Purple, green, red and white
Emblem: Dockers (formerly Hawks) Cooee were known as the Bulldogs
Premierships: Burnie - 1899, 1927-28, 1937, 1939, 1954, 1958-59-60, 1962-63, 1966, 1974, 1992 (14 total) Tasmanian State Premierships - 1963 (1 total) Cooee - 1931, 1933-4-5-6, 1941, 1961, 1964-5, 1973, 1978, 1982 (12 total) Tasmanian State Premierships - 1964 & 1978 (2 total) Burnie Dockers - 2001-2-3-4-5 (5 total)
Cheel Medallists: Burnie - Charlie Hallam 1928 (1 total)
S.L. Alford Medallists: Burnie - Clem Riggs 1937 (1 total)
Wander Medallists: Burnie - Ray Stokes 1954 (1 total) Cooee - Len Hayes 1949; Lou Redman 1950; Graeme Shepherd 1973; Tom Lee 1979 (4 total)
Baldock Medallists: Burnie Dockers - Nick Probert 2003 (1 total)
All Australians: Nil
NWFU Top Goalkickers: Burnie - G.Goninon (67) 1947; B.Quirk (52) 1948; M.Morse (60) 1961; D.Hodgetts (79) 1971 & (73) 1972; L.Barnes (82) 1979 (6 total) Cooee - D.Anderson (89) 1952; L.Hayes (51) 1957; S.Beaumont (73) 1972, (94) 1978, (143) 1984; A.Hodgetts (73) 1973; D.Shepherd (60) 1975 & (102) 1976 (8 total)
NTFL Top Goalkickers: Burnie Tigers - C.Reynolds (76) 1991 & (96) 1992 (2 total) Burnie Dockers - A.Hering (102) 2001 (1 total)
TFL Top Goalkickers: Burnie Dockers - J.Plapp (98) 1996 (1 total)
Highest Scores: Burnie 30.21 (201) vs. Penguin in 1963; Cooee 31.22 (208) vs. North Launceston 6.13 (49) in 1982; Burnie Dockers 49.35 (329) vs. Smithton 0.1 (1) in 2001
Most Games: Burnie - 265 by David Langmaid; Cooee - 263 by Harold 'Tiger' Dowling
Record Finals Attendance: 12,352 for 1996 TFL grand final at North Hobart Oval: Clarence 14.17 (101); Burnie 10.14 (74)
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | John Ellis Don Gale George Goninon Ron Kingston Trevor Leo Geoff 'Paddy' Martin Bill Mayman Bob Pascoe Colin Robertson Ray Stokes |
Football in Tasmania's north west coastal region has a long and convoluted history, and current NTFL club Burnie Dockers exemplifies this particularly well.
The club which developed into the original Burnie Football Club was formed in 1885 under the name Emu Bay, a moniker it retained until 1890 when it became known as Burnie. In 1901 it reverted to its original name for five seasons, became known as Romaine in 1906, and then finally settled on the name Burnie in 1909. These constant changes of identity must surely have proved unsettling, and not once during this entire period did the club manage to secure a premiership.
Prior to World War One Burnie participated in the North West Football Association until 1912, and thereafter in the Burnie Football League. The North West Football Union had been formed in 1910 and during the early post war years it was looking to expand in order to cement its role as the primary controlling body in the region. Burnie joined the NWFU in 1922 bringing the number of member clubs to six. It made an immediate impact, reaching that year's grand final in which it lost narrowly (4.12 to 5.12) to Latrobe.
Between 1927 and 1930 Burnie, with players like Charlie Hallam, Ray Townsend, Mick Lucas and Claude Bennett to the fore, fielded its strongest teams up to that point. It contested the grand final in all four of those years, downing Devonport in 1927 and 1928, but losing to Circular Head in 1929, and Latrobe the following year (see the entry on Devonport for details of the structural changes forced on the NWFU during this period after the washing away of the Forth Bridge). Fortunes declined somewhat during the first half of the 1930s, and indeed between 1932 and 1933 Burnie left the NWFU and participated in the Burnie Football League once more, but the side was back as a force during the years leading up to the onset of another world war. Between 1936 and 1939 Burnie contested every grand final. It lost to Devonport in 1936, despite managing 26 scoring shots to 25, but gained revenge in 1937 after edging home in a 5 point thriller. Outclassed to the tune of 37 points by Devonport in 1938 it was much too good for Latrobe the following season, in the last grand final before the war, winning 16.10 (106) to 8.13 (61). Particularly notable among many prominent players for Burnie during this period was 1937 Alford Medallist and triple club champion Clem Riggs.
| When football on the north west coast resumed after the war in 1945 it found Burnie once again competing in the Burnie Football League with its place in the NWFU taken by another Burnie-based club, Cooee. Like Burnie, Cooee had already up to that point had a long and somewhat tortuous history. Originally formed in 1894, the club had endured two prolonged spells in abeyance (1896 to 1919, and 1923 to 1929) before emerging as a pivotal force in the Burnie Football Association, in which it won a total of five flags between 1931 and 1936. In 1938 Cooee was one of four founder members of the Darwin Football Association and won the 1941 premiership of that competition with a 34 point win over Upper Burnie. |
Keenan Reynolds |
Between 1945 and 1948 the NWFU comprised separate Eastern and Western Divisions, and Burnie left the BFL to join its near neighbour Cooee in Western Division in 1946. Over the course of the next forty-one seasons, as the timeline below reveals, Burnie and Cooee competed alongside one another with fluctuating degrees of success:
| Year | Burnie | Cooee |
| 1946 | Lost grand final to East Devonport by 16 points | |
| 1947 | Lost grand final to Ulverstone by 41 points | |
| 1948 | ||
| 1949 | Len Hayes won Wander Medal | |
| 1950 | Lou Redman won Wander Medal | |
| 1951 | Lost grand final to Ulverstone by 65 points | |
| 1952 | ||
| 1953 | ||
| 1954 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Wynyard 9.13 (67)
to 8.10 (58) in grand final
Ray Stokes won Wander Medal |
|
| 1955 | Lost grand final to Ulverstone by 5 points | |
| 1956 | 
Triple Burnie best and fairest award winner, Kevin Symons. |
Lost grand final to Ulverstone by 37 points |
| 1957 | ||
| 1958 | PREMIERS: Defeated
East Devonport 19.15 (129) to 13.13 (91) in grand final
Lost state grand final to Glenorchy |
Geoff 'Paddy' Martin, playing coach in each of Burnie's 1958, 1959 and 1960 premiership-winning teams. |
| 1959 | PREMIERS: Defeated
East Devonport 16.10 (106) to 11.10 (76) in grand final
Lost state grand final to Hobart by 27 points |
|
| 1960 | GRAND FINAL: Burnie 12.10
(82) defeated Cooee 7.15 (57)
Burnie lost state grand final to City-South by 18 points |
|
| 1961 | GRAND FINAL:
Cooee 8.10
(58) defeated Burnie 8.5 (53)
Cooee lost state grand final to North Hobart by 28 points |
|
| 1962 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Devonport 12.20 (92) to 13.4 (82) in grand final
Lost state grand final to North Hobart |
|
| 1963 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Ulverstone
15.15 (105) to 13.11 (89) in grand final
STATE PREMIERS: Defeated North Launceston 8.25 (73) to 6.13 (49) in state grand final |
|
| 1964 |
|
PREMIERS: Defeated
Ulverstone
17.12 (114) to 5.14 (44) in grand final
STATE PREMIERS: Defeated Scottsdale 15.16 (106) to 14.14 (98) in state grand final |
| 1965 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Ulverstone
12.14 (86) to 7.9 (51) in grand final
Failed to qualify for state grand final |
|
| 1966 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Latrobe 7.7 (49) to 5.11 (41) in grand final
Failed to qualify for state grand final |
John Bonney, triple Cooee club champion, and joint 1965 Lefroy Medallist. |
| 1967 | Lost grand final to Wynyard by 36 points | |
| 1968 | ||
| 1969 | ||
| 1970 | ||
| 1971 | ||
| 1972 | Lost grand final to Latrobe by 22 points | |
| 1973 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Latrobe 14.12 (96) to 10.10 (70) in grand final
Lost state grand final to Scottsdale by 11 points Graeme Shepherd won Wander Medal |
|
| 1974 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Latrobe 14.15 (99) to 9.12 (66) in grand final
State premiership suspended |
|
| 1975 | ||
| 1976 | ||
| 1977 | Lost grand final to Penguin by 4 points | |
| 1978 | PREMIERS: Defeated
Wynyard 20.11 (131) to 13.30 (108) in grand final
STATE PREMIERS: Defeated Sandy Bay in last ever state grand final |
|
| 1979 | Lost grand final to
Wynyard by 53
points
Tom Lee won Wander Medal |
|
| 1980 | ||
| 1981 | ||
| 1982 | PREMIERS: Defeated Penguin 16.15 (111) to 16.5 (101) in grand final | |
| 1983 | Lost grand final to Smithton by 1 point | |
| 1984 | PREMIERS: Defeated Smithton 18.16 (124) to 17.13 (115) in grand final | |
| 1985 | ||
| 1986 | ||
After many years of speculation and promise, statewide football of a sort arrived in 1986 when an eight team competition was formed involving the six TFL clubs (all based in and around Hobart) together with North Launceston and South Launceston. The response from the public was broadly positive, and in 1987 the new league made an incursion into the domain of the NWFU, inviting Devonport and Cooee to participate.
On commencing in the statewide competition, Cooee adopted the new name of the Burnie Hawks. Coached by Warren McCarthy, and with former Hawthorn star Colin Robertson as their on field leader, the Hawks were competitive from the start, finishing fifth out of ten clubs in their debut year, repeating this result in 1988, and proving consistently strong, without ever quite managing to break through for a flag, throughout their fourteen year involvement in statewide football. In 1995, two years after absorbing NTFL side Burnie Tigers, the club embarked on a partnership with fledgling AFL club Fremantle, becoming known as the Dockers in the process.
|
Triple Dockers fairest and best winner, Leigh Heath |
Since the collapse of the statewide competition at the end of the 2000 season Burnie has competed in the NTFL, with considerable success. In 2001, under the coaching of former Collingwood champion Mick McGuane, the side went through the roster matches unbeaten and won the flag with a 17.14 (116) to 7.10 (52) grand final defeat of fellow ex-statewide club Northern Bombers. It repeated this success the following year, this time with Nick Probert holding the coaching reins, when it overcame a spirited early challenge from Ulverstone to win in the end with some comfort, 14.5 (89) to 5.12 (42). Then, in 2003, the Dockers made it three in a row in fine style by overcoming the previously unbeaten Northern Bombers in a surprisingly one-sided grand final, 14.11 (95) to 6.13 (49). |
Going from strength to strength, in 2004 the Dockers secured their most conclusive premiership victory yet, with their 23.19 (157) to 7.8 (50) annihilation of Devonport constituting an all time record margin of victory for an NTFL grand final. It was also the biggest win in a coastal grand final since Ulverstone defeated Latrobe by 126 points in 1957 (see footnote 1).
The 2005 season brought a league record-equalling fifth successive flag thanks to a hard fought 17 point grand final victory over perennial victims Devonport, and few people would have been prepared to bet against a sixth consecutive premiership win in 2006. However, it was not to be, as the side endured a frankly abysmal year, managing just 8 wins and conclusively failing to qualify for the finals. That failure was repeated twelve months later, albeit after a slightly more positive campaign that yielded a 9-9 record and a positive percentage to boot.
Among the many fine players to have represented the merged club since its inception have been Wayne Keegan, Paul Atkins, Errol Bourne, Leigh Heath, Keenan Reynolds, Brad Davis and Nick Barnes.
In common with most other states, Tasmania has, over recent years, been continually forced to modify its football infrastructure in order to keep in step with developments in the sport's highest tier, the AFL. Such frequent change has not made life easy for clubs like the Burnie Dockers, but it is high testimony to those in charge that the club has continued to thrive.
Where now?
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Footnotes
1. I am indebted to Tasmanian football historian Nathan Bester for bringing these facts to my attention. Return to Main Text