NEWLYN
Current Affiliation: Central Highlands Football League (CHFL) since 1979
Formed: 1900
Colours: Navy blue and white
Emblem: Cats
Senior Premierships: Clunes Football Association/League - 1932, 1935-6, 1938, 1949, 1962, 1969-70, 1975 (9 total); CHFL - 1992, 2003 (2 total)
When the Clunes Football League merged with the Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh Football League to form the Central Highlands Football League Newlyn was among the new competition's founder members. The Cats entered the competition as the CFL's most successful club, having claimed a total of nine senior premierships in forty-three seasons, two more than both Bungaree and Clunes.
Established in 1900, Newlyn Football Club commenced organised competition the following year in the Creswick District Football Association. The club competed in various district competitions for the better part of two decades, winning a total of five premierships, before helping establish the Clunes Football Association in 1931.
Newlyn quickly developed into a force in the new competition. Between 1932 and 1938 the team contested six out of seven grand finals, emerging victorious on four occasions. A fifth flag was claimed in 1949, but the 1950s proved disappointing as the side struggled. A return to form in 1961 culminated in a grand final loss to Creswick, and the following year the Cats went all the way, overcoming their 1961 nemesis by 8 points in a tightly contested, low scoring grand final.
Newlyn's final three CFL flags were gained at the expense of Springbank in 1969, and Bungaree in both 1970 and 1975. In 1978 the Cats and Clunes contested a drawn grand final, the only one in the competition's history, but in the replay Newlyn was comprehensively outplayed.
Premierships in the Central Highlands Football League have proved much harder to come by, not just for Newlyn, but for all clubs. So far, the Cats have enjoyed success at senior level twice, at the expense of Dunnstown in 1992, and over Buninyong in 2003.
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