NORTH GEELONG
Current Affiliation: Geelong and District Football League (G&DFL) since 1946
Club Address: Swinburne Street, North Geelong, Victoria 3215
Formed: 1875
Colours: Black and white
Emblem: Magpies
Senior Premierships: Geelong Junior Football Association (GJFA) - 1925, 1930 (2 total); G&DFL - 1949-50-1-2-3-4-5, 1958, 1968-9, 1990, 1992-3, 2002 (14 total)
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Tom Arklay Andrew Bews Bill Goggin Tom Morrow |
Details of North Geelong's early history are patchy, but from the early 1920s the picture becomes clearer. At that time, the Magpies competed in the Geelong Junior Football Association. In 1922, they played off for the premiership against Chilwell, but lost by 9 points. Three years later when they again met Chilwell in the decisive match of the season they achieved revenge by precisely the same margin.
North Geelong won a second GJFA flag in 1930, but it was after World War Two that the club would experience its greatest successes. The 1946 season saw the formation of the Geelong and District Football League, of which the Magpies were inaugural members. After finishing runners-up to East Geelong in 1947 and 1948 they embarked on a glittering sequence of seven successive grand final wins, which remains comfortably a competition record (see footnote 1).
In the half century or so since the seven-in-a-row era successes have continued to come the Magpies way quite regularly, and their overall tally of 14 senior G&DFL premierships is unsurpassed. The most recent of these triumphs, in 2002, was especially memorable as the side edged out flag favourites Corio by the narrowest of margins, having lost to the same opponent two weeks earlier in the 2nd semi final.
In 2006, North Geelong finished 3rd after the home and aways with a 13-5 record, but then disappointingly bowed out of premiership contention with successive finals losses to Bannockburn, by 67 points, and Bell Post Hill, by an agonising 5 point margin. Meanwhile, the Magpies under eighteens maintained club honour with their second successive flag, and their fourth in all, while the reserves, who have three premierships to their credit, had a somewhat disappointing year, finishing 5th.
By comparison, the 2007 season was somewhat disappointing with the seniors finishing 8th (of 12) and the reserves and under eighteens both 5th.
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Footnotes
1. The next best sequence of flag wins is four by Newtown and Chilwell between 1962 and 1965. Return to Main Text