SEYMOUR
Current Affiliation: Goulburn Valley Football League (GVFL) since 1976
Formed: 1880, possibly earlier (see below)
Colours: Red, gold and blue
Emblem: Lions
Senior Premierships: Hume Highway Football League (HHFL) 1902 (1 total); Waranga North East Football League (WNEFL) 1920, 1923, 1928, 1934-5, 1947*, 1948, 1959, 1966, 1975 (10 total); GVFL 1976, 1981-2, 1991, 2005-6-7 (7 total)
Most Games: 314 by Michael O'Donnell
* The competition was known as the Waranga North East Football Association at this time.
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Jack Bacquie Leon Baker |
Seymour players celebrate their 2006 grand final win over Benalla.
Winning premierships was something Seymour was well accustomed to by the time the club returned for a second stint in the Goulburn Valley Football League in 1976. As a member of the Waranga North East Football League between 1913 and 1975 (apart from a three season stint in the GVFL just before and after World War Two) the side had contested no fewer than nineteen grand finals, for ten wins. Since rejoining the GVFL on a more permanent basis Seymour's success has shown no sign of abating. Indeed, in terms of premiership wins the Lions have been the GVFL's most successful club of the last three decades which, considering that the town of Seymour boasts barely 10,000 inhabitants, is a remarkable achievement.
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The origins of the Seymour Football Club can be traced at least as far back as 1880, although Euroa claims to have played a match against Seymour one year earlier than that. During the nineteenth century Seymour, in common with many other clubs from the Goulburn Valley region, played numerous scratch matches as well as participating in a number of short-lived, often exotically named competitions, the records of which are, alas, extremely difficult to uncover (see footnote 1). What is known for certain is that Seymour was a member of the Hume Highway Football League at the beginning of the twentieth century and achieved a premiership in that competition. In 1913 the Waranga North East Football League was formed, and Seymour was one of the new competition's six inaugural members. During the 1920s the side achieved the phenomenal record of contesting every grand final. However, on only three occasions - 1920, 1923 and 1928 - was it successful in lifting the premiership. The 1923 flag was won unbeaten. |
Seymour's 1978 Morrison Medallist, Greg Liddell. (Click to enlarge.) |
Seymour's success continued into the 1930s with further flags in 1934 and 1935. Then, in 1939 the club was invited to help make up the numbers in a GVFL competition that had just lost two key members, Mooroopna and Shepparton, in reaction to the league's decision to introduce Saturday football. (The GVFL had, since its inception, been a Wednesday afternoon competition.)
Seymour's initial involvement in the GVFL produced no premierships, but it did manage to get as far as a losing preliminary final against Nagambie in 1946, which proved to be its last season in the competition for the time being.
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Steve Daniel |
Seymour returned to the WNEFL in style in 1947, winning the first of two successive flags. Over the remaining three decades of its participation in the competition it was an almost perennial challenger for the premiership, with its tenth and last winning grand final in the WNEFL coming in 1975, on the eve of its resumption in the GVFL. To suggest that the Lions took the GVFL by storm in 1976 would be putting it mildly. Playing a fast, open, extremely cohesive brand of football they left every other club trailing in their wake as they triumphantly surged to a shock, but thoroughly warranted, premiership. The grand final clash with Echuca, which attracted one of the biggest crowds in league history, revealed that Seymour's exceptional football talents were supplemented by equally impressive mental qualities. Early in the third term the match appeared to be as good as over, with Seymour leading by 45 points. The Murray Bombers then unleashed a sustained burst of ferocious pressure football that saw them gradually claw their way back into the game before hitting the front midway through the final quarter. A lesser side than Seymour would have crumbled at this point, but instead the Lions rose to the occasion magnificently, adding the last 4 goals of the match to win 'pulling away'. Final scores saw Seymour 16.5 (101) defeating Echuca 10.20 (80). |
Among the many fine footballers to have fronted up in the Seymour colours over the years (see footnote 2) have been 1978 Morrison Medallist and triple club best and fairest winner Greg Liddell, Russell Richards and Michael O'Sullivan, both of whom went on to play VFL football, full forward Ray Stomann who topped the GVFL goal kicking list in 1978 with 97 goals, ruckman Jon Soloman, key position defenders Ian Shelton and Les Dixon, and centreman Jack Purdon.
With a hat trick of premierships in 2005-6-7 the Seymour Football Club's standing as a pre-eminent force in GVFL football continues to be enhanced. In 2006 the reserves side also won the flag, while a year later the under eighteens were successful. The Lions seniors were coached to the 2005 and 2006 premierships by Steve Daniel, with Bernie Haberman taking over the reins in 2007.
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Footnotes
1. These competitions - not all of which necessarily involved Seymour - included the J.T. Riley Cup, the Heinze Cup, the Skaller Cup, and the Lindley Cowen Cup. Return to Main Text
2. Originally, these colours were maroon with a royal blue vee. In 1964 a maroon jumper with yellow insignia was adopted, and when the club entered the GVFL in 1976 this was replaced with a red, yellow and royal blue uniform resembling that worn by Fitzroy in the VFL. Return to Main Text