MOUNT LOFTY
Current Affiliation: Hill Football League (HFL) since 1986
Club Address: P.O. Box 715, Stirling, South Australia 5152
Home Ground: Heathfield Community Oval
Formed: 1st December 1978, by the amalgamation of Stirling and Heathfield-Aldgate United Football Clubs
Colours: Red and white
Emblem: Mountain Devils
Senior A Grade Premierships: South Australian Football Association 2nd Division - 1981 (1 total); HFL Central Division - 1986, 1990, 2006-7-8 (5 total)
Mail Medallists: Adam Trzesinski 2006 (1 total)
Most A Grade Games: 256 by Leith Dawes 1988-2006 (still playing in 2007)
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Wayne Broadbridge |
The Mountain Devils celebrate their most recent A Grade premiership success in 2006. (Photograph © Mount Lofty Football Club - click to enlarge.)
The Mount Lofty Football Club may only have been established as recently as 1978 but it already boasts an enviable tradition. This is hardly surprising when you consider the quality of its lineage, for Mount Lofty was born out of a merger between two of the Hills region's most notable clubs in Heathfield-Aldgate and Stirling. For many years, these two clubs had been fierce rivals in the Hills competition, with Heathfield-Aldgate winning no fewer than 9 A Grade flags in the top division, which remains a record. However, in electing to bury the hatchet the erstwhile foes ensured that football's already rich history in the locality would be extended and enhanced.
From 1979 to 1985 the Mountain Devils competed, with some success, in the SAFA. Initially placed in 2nd Division, they achieved promotion to 1st Division as premiers in 1981. The premiership team was coached by former Port Adelaide player Wayne Broadbridge. Four years later, satisfied that they had made their mark in what at the time was possibly the second strongest competition in South Australia, the Devils opted to return to their roots by crossing to the HFL, where they served emphatic notice that they would be a force to be reckoned with by winning the 1986 Central Division premierships in both A and B Grade.
Nowadays Mount Lofty fields teams in A Grade and B Grade, plus Senior Colts, Junior Colts, Senior Primary and Junior Primary levels. The 2006 season was truly one to remember for the club as it won premierships in the first three of those levels, with the A Grade side losing only once all year en route to their first flag since 1990.
Further success followed in 2007 as Mount Lofty's A Grade combination qualified for the finals in 2nd place before overcoming Uraidla Districts, which had not previously lost a game all season, in both the 2nd semi final and grand final.
The 2008 season brought a fifth successive premiership triumph, a record only bettered by Heathfield-Aldate's seven flags in a row between 1971 and 1977.
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