KAMBALDA
Affiliated: Goldfields National Football League (GNFL) 1969-87; Goldfields Football League (GFL) 1988-present
Formed: 1968
Colours: Yellow and maroon
Emblem: Eagles
Premierships: 1976, 1981, 1985 (3 total)
League Fairest and Best Awards: Peter Ding 1971-2, 1974 & 1976; Kim Anderson 1978; Colin McIntyre 1979; Keith Adams 1989; Brett Lee 1990; Mick Garbin 1991; Wayne Cope 1993; D.Litchfield 1996 (8 winners/11 wins)
Formed in 1968, the Kambalda Football Club was admitted to the GNFL in 1969, and has been a member of that competition ever since.
Predictably, the club struggled at first, but its apprenticeship was comparatively short, and in 1974 it played off for the premiership against Railways, only to succumb to the heaviest grand final defeat in the league's history. In what must have been an absolute nightmare for the youthful club, Railways won by 109 points, 26.13 (169) to 8.12 (60). It says much for the character of the Eagles therefore that just two years later they achieved the satisfaction of not only reversing the result, but of doing so with considerable conviction. The margin - 60 points - may not have been of the same order as in 1974, but as testimony to the fact that the Kambalda Football Club had 'arrived' it could scarcely have been more emphatic.
With the likes of pacy on-baller Kim Anderson, prolific kick winner Colin McIntyre, and most particularly dazzlingly skilled rover Peter Ding, a former Claremont player, to the fore, Kambalda continued as a force for the remainder of the 1970s and well into the 1980s. Between 1977 and 1985 the side contested all but two grand finals, but was only successful in 'bringing home the bacon' twice. Nevertheless, there could be no doubt that the club boasted considerable strength in depth during this time, as was emphasised by its astonishing achievements in the George Krepp Memorial Champion Club Award, which since 1976 has been conferred annually on the club with the best combined record in the league's three grades (seniors, reserves and colts). During the award's first thirteen seasons Kambalda was victorious no fewer than ten times, which as of 2006 makes it still the award's most frequent recipient. Since that comparatively glittering era, however, times have tended to be somewhat lean, and a hefty grand final loss to Mines Rovers in 1993 remains the closest the Eagles have come to securing another flag. Since the turn of the century, in fact, Kambalda appear to have had a virtual mortgage on the wooden spoon, and in 2006 the team suffered the indignity of losing all 16 matches contested whilst scoring just 735 points and conceding 2,033. The reserves fared even worse (16 straight losses for a miserly percentage of 24.8%), with only the colts, who reached the preliminary final, providing so much as a morsel of hope for the future.
The 2007 season brought marginal improvement for both seniors (1-15) and reserves (2-14), but the colts slumped to last place with just a single win.
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