ORMOND
Current Affiliation: Victorian Football Association (VAFA) since 1932
Home Ground: E.E. Gunn Reserve, Malane Street, Ormond
Formed: 1931
Colours: Brown and blue
Senior VAFA Premierships: A Section - 1950, 1971-2-3, 1985, 1987-8-9-90 (9 total); B Section - 1968 (1 total); C Section - 1934 (1 total); D Section - 1933 (1 total)
Senior Competition Best and Fairest Awards: J.N. Woodrow Medal (A Section) - S.Rowe 1947; L.Mithen 1953; R.Fenton-Smith 1955; M.Brook 1957; B.Bourne 1974; P.Meehrten 1986; M.McConvill 1995-6 (7 Medallists/8 Medals); G.T. Moore Medal (B Section) - M.McConvill 2001 (1 total); L.S. Zachariah Medal (C Section) - S. Keleher 2006 & 2007 (1 Medallist/2 Medals); L.S. Pepper Medal (D1 Section) - M.Miller 2004 & 2005*; S.Keleher 2005* (2 Medallists/3 Medals)
* indicates tied for the Medal
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Barry Beecroft Dave McNamara Laurie Mithen Brian Walsh Colin Wilson |
The VAFA had already been in existence for forty years when Ormond was admitted to the newly formed D Section in 1932, but the club quickly made up for any lost time, reaching A Grade within five seasons, and going on to establish itself as, by some measure, the competition's most successful district club.
After a tentative start to its debut season, Ormond recovered well, and ended up only narrowly failing to qualify for the finals. The inspiration behind the marked change in fortune was football legend Dave McNamara, formerly of St Kilda and Essendon A, who took over the coaching reins a couple of months into the season after the side had won just 1 of its opening 5 fixtures. As it had been almost a decade since his final VFL game, McNamara managed to acquire reinstatement as an amateur, enabling him to function as a playing-coach. News that he planned to do this captured the headlines, and during Ormond's early days in the VAFA the team regularly played in front of crowds of several thousand - this at a time when the only other amateur match to attract comparable attendances each year was the A Section grand final.
Ormond's helter-skelter ascent through the grades got underway in earnest in 1933, when it won the D Section challenge final by 3 goals from North Melbourne Christian Brothers College Old Boys. Despite the fact that Dave McNamara was no longer either coaching or playing, a crowd of about 4,000 spectators attended the match, while the B and A Grade flag deciders were watched by just 500 and 2,500 patrons respectively.
Ormond and North Melbourne CBCOB more or less kept pace with one another, and ahead of the rest of the C Section field, throughout the next season, but in the end it was the men in brown and blue who wore the bigger grins, thanks to a hard fought 9.7 (61) to 8.3 (51) victory in the grand final.
After three seasons in the VAFA Ormond had an overall success rate of 69.3%, and had won two premierships. In 1935 it went close to making it three, but an 18 point loss to University Blues meant that neither flag nor promotion were achieved (see footnote 1). The delay in Ormond's upward progress was only brief, however, as in 1936 the side recovered from a poor start to the season which had seen it lose 3 of its first 4 matches to lose just 1 more in qualifying for the finals with some comfort. A convincing 19.16 (130) to 10.11 (71) semi final defeat of East Malvern then set up a premiership deciding encounter with Ivanhoe, but the 'Hoes had been one nut that Ormond had been unable to crack all year, and so it proved again. Ivanhoe won quite comfortably by 37 points, but in the final wash-up it mattered little as Ormond's primary objective, that of promotion to A Grade, had been achieved.
Cynical observers may have expected, perhaps even wanted, the Ormond bubble to burst at this stage, but they were to be disappointed. Although the side did not end up winning the A Section premiership at the first time of asking, there is no doubt that the 1937 season was the finest in the club's short history up to that point; indeed, in the context of the times, especially bearing in mind the fact that the club had not even existed at the beginning of the decade, it was arguably one of Ormond's finest seasons ever.
During the home and away rounds the side managed to beat every other team in the section at least once in compiling 13 wins from 18 starts, which was good enough to secure pole position heading into the finals. It was there, unaccountably, that the team faltered, losing consecutive finals matches to Old Scotch Collegians and Collegians to finish with nothing, not even the (admittedly major) consolation of promotion. Nevertheless, what it had managed to do was establish beyond question that a new power in amateur football had arrived - and one, moreover, that would endure.
Ormond's initial stint in A Section lasted twenty-one seasons and saw the club contest the finals thirteen times, from which it secured a place in the premiership deciding match on nine occasions. Somewhat puzzlingly, however, only one of these matches - which were not, strictly speaking, 'grand finals' until 1957 - was won, that of 1950 against University Blacks. Even that was a close run thing, as it needed a goal from Jack Boland moments before the final siren to secure victory by 4 points. Thus, although there could be no doubt that many highly talented groups of footballers had taken the field down the years in the trademark brown and blue that had been the club's official colours from its inception, there must have been more than a touch of frustration at the persistent failure to take that vital, final step, which when all is said and done is the only measure of greatness the sport of football allows.
At the end of a 1964 season that saw the side succumb to relegation to B Section aspirations of greatness must have seemed more elusive than ever, but when Ormond returned to A Grade four years later it was with a newfound conviction and cohesion, as well a greatly reinforced club spirit. The side would go on to dominate amateur football in the early seventies, winning three consecutive A Section flags from 1971 to 1973, as well as finishing runner-up in 1969 and 1974. A key reason for this success was the club's introduction, in the mid-1960s, of a number of junior grades - under 13s, under 15s and under 17s - which produced eventual senior players like Bruce Bourne, Rod Cameron and Ray Jenkins, who were the nucleus of the premiership-winning combinations. Coached by Ted Farrell, other fine Ormond players of this era included Ian Cameron, captain of the 1971 and 1972 flag winning sides, Roger Wood, who succeeded him in 1973, Kevin Ladd, Terry Crumpton and Alan Naylor. The 1972 season was especially noteworthy in that the side won 18 and drew 1 of its 20 fixtures for the year, culminating in a resounding 19.13 (127) to 8.13 (61) grand final defeat of Old Paradians. Then, in 1973, Ormond procured premierships in no fewer than four grades, seniors, reserves, under nineteens and under seventeens, making it perhaps the greatest all round season the club has enjoyed.
The remainder of the 1970s and first three years of the 1980s saw Ormond consistently among the A Section pace-setters, but it was not until 1984, under the astute coaching of Mike McArthur-Allen, that another grand final was reached. De La Salle Old Collegians proved too strong on that occasion, but many champion teams seem to use the pain associated with being the proverbial 'bridesmaid' as a springboard to greatness, and such was certainly the case with Ormond. Having achieved revenge over De La Salle in the 1985 grand final, the side endured a slight premiership hangover the following year, dropping to fourth, before embarking on a club record sequence of four consecutive flag wins. Only once during that sequence did it look as if the bubble might burst, and that was in 1990, when a lack lustre ending to the home and away series saw the side go from 11-1 after round 12 to 13-4-1 at season's end, and follow that up with an undistinguished loss to Collegians in the 2nd semi final. The final margin was only 34 points, but in all round play Collegians were consummately superior, as final scores of 19.17 (131) to 15.7 (97) confirm. At that point, the knives were out for Ormond, and few expected the team to survive its preliminary final clash with a Marcellin Old Collegians side that had convincingly defeated it as recently as round seventeen.
As Ricky Ponting is fond of observing, the very best teams only reveal their true quality when the chips are down. Thus, while McArthur-Allen plotted, planned, and perhaps fumed a little, the players re-grouped, re-focused, and emerged a stronger, more united unit. In the preliminary final, Marcellin's challenge was dealt with unceremoniously and emphatically, Ormond winning by 26 points, 18.13 (121) to 14.11 (95). The grand final clash with Collegians was a much tougher, tighter and altogether more intense affair. At half time only a single point separated the teams, in Ormond's favour, after Collegians had enjoyed the lion's share of the possession. According to 'Inside Football' reporter Andrew Maher, most people felt that "once Collegians began to convert they would tear this game apart" (see footnote 2), but in the third quarter quite the opposite transpired as Ormond rattled on 5 unanswered goals to take a 35 point advantage into the final break.
The last term was finals football par excellence, as Collegians chipped, niggled, and tried to eat away at Ormond's lead, with the men in brown and blue defending frantically, en masse, and at times almost heroically. At the end the magnificent electronic scoreboard at Elsternwick Park showed a 7 point win to Ormond, 14.12 (96) to 12.17 (89). According to Maher:
Some people will say that Collegians should have won this game. They kicked poorly and had their chances, but that would be denying Ormond the credit it thoroughly deserves. There was no doubt that the reigning premier was staggering at the end, but the depths to which it can dig when the occasion demands proved too great for Collegians to counter. (See footnote 3)
Among a swag of fine players for Ormond during this era were Russell Barnes, skipper in 1987-8-9, Mark McDonald, who fought off injury to be a major part of the 1990 grand final victory, Justin Clarkson, Brad Nash and "the volatile, aggressive Phil Kingston" (see footnote 4).
There have been no further senior premierships since 1990, and indeed in recent years the side has had to learn to swim at previously unimagined depths, including D1 Section for a time. In 2008 it will be attempting to achieve promotion from C Grade, having finished fifth last year.
Despite the recent decline in its on-field fortunes - a decline that one assumes will be temporary - Ormond's status as one of Melbourne's truly great amateur football clubs remains undiminished. Just as integral to that status as the winning of premierships is the ongoing adherence to and manifestation of the distinctive ideals that make amateur Australian football so unique, as well as, in the context of the health and well-being of the sport as a whole, so vitally important. Put another way, as long as clubs like Ormond can not only exist, but thrive, the future of football, which as recently as two decades ago appeared under very distinct and definite threat, looks at least reasonably promising.
Where now?
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Footnotes
1. The VAFA still used the challenge system of playing finals at this stage, and indeed did so until 1957. In the 1935 B Grade finals series a challenge final was required because minor premier Teachers' College had lost to University Blues in a semi final. Return to Main Text
2. 'Inside Football', 26/9/90, page 31. Return to Main Text
3. Ibid., page 31. Return to Main Text
4. For The Love Of The Game: The Centenary History Of The Victorian Amateur Football Association 1892-1992 by Joseph Johnson, page 198. Return to Main Text