STANHOPE
Current Affiliation: Kyabram District Football League (KDFL) since 1995
Colours: Maroon and gold
Emblem: Lions
Senior Premierships: Heathcote District Football League (HDFL) - 1976, 1986-7 (3 total); KDFL - 2000, 2003, 2007 (3 total)
Senior Competition Best and Fairest Awards: Morrison Medal (Goulburn Valley Football League) - A.Downing 1946; K.Dunstall 1948*; R.Barrett 1952*; E.Murray 1966 (4 total) Cheatly Medal (HDFL) - Robert Newton 1978; Robert Harrison 1984-5; Rick De Marte 1992 (3 Medallists/4 Medals) McNamara Medal (KDFL) - Darryl Harrison 2003 (1 total)
* Stanhope merged with Girgarre between 1948 and 1955.
In terms of premiership success at senior level, Stanhope's record does not appear all that noteworthy, but the club has been an important part of the football landscape in and around the Goulburn Valley region for more than eight decades (see footnote 1).
Initially formed as a junior club in 1921, Stanhope fielded a senior team the following year in the Cooma Football Association. Over the ensuing couple of decades, the club flitted back and forth between a number of different competitions without ever appearing settled, and without achieving much in the way of success. After World War Two, however, a major step forward was taken when the club was admitted to the powerful Goulburn Valley Football League, where it would spend the better part of three decades. Although no senior premierships were won, Stanhope was by no means simply there to make up the numbers, as was evidenced by the club's achievement in providing the Morrison Medallist for the league's best player on four occasions.
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Stanhope's 1948 Morrison Medal winner, Ken Dunstall. (Click to enlarge.) |
During the 1960s and '70s country football, particularly in the stronger leagues like the GVFL, gradually took on more of the practices and perspectives of a big business, making it increasingly difficult for small clubs like Stanhope to hold their own (see footnote 2). At the end of the 1974 season the club publicly acknowledged what it had no doubt privately been aware of for some time, which was that life as a tiddler in a large pool served no discernible purpose other than to give the larger fish easy pickings. From 1975 therefore, Stanhope would be competing in the Heathcote District Football League - meaning, to extend the analogy, that it would be swimming in a medium-sized pool with fish of comparable size to itself. Almost immediately, the move bore fruit. In only its second season, Stanhope reached a grand final against Colbinabbin, from which it emerged victorious. After more than half a century as a senior club, the Lions had won a flag! Further grand final appearances followed, if not exactly thick and fast, at least regularly enough to reassure. The 1980s proved to be by some measure the most successful decade in the club's history, highlighted by resounding grand final wins over Broadford by 16 goals in 1986 and over White Hills by 73 points the following year. |
The 1995 season saw Stanhope on the move once more, this time to the Kyabram District Football League. After a slow start, the Lions emerged as a perennial competition pace-setter, contesting six grand finals between 2000 and 2007, for wins in 2000, 2003 and 2007. The 2003 premiership was especially meritorious in that it was achieved unbeaten, and coincided with the club's reserves side going top as well. Former Geelong and Fitzroy forward Gavin Exell was a key member of Stanhope's 2003 premiership combination, kicking 126 goals in 20 matches to top the league's goal kicking list for the third time. With Darryl Harrison securing the club's first McNamara Medal for the best and fairest player in the league the Lions achieved a highly memorable 'clean sweep'.
After successive losing grand final appearances against Tallygaroopna in 2005 and Ardmona in 2006 the Lions collected a third KDFL flag in 2007 when they trounced Ardmona in the grand final by 87 points, 18.13 (121) to 4.10 (34). The triumph came as the culmination of a near perfect season during which the side only tasted defeat on one occasion.
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Footnotes
1. The town of Stanhope is situated about 30 kilometres to the west of Shepparton, in a region famous for the quality of its dairy produce. Return to Main Text
2. The term 'small' is relative, of course, but to put it into some sort of context, the town of Stanhope today boasts a population in the region of 550, compared to 1,000 for Rushworth, 5,750 for Kyabram, 10,000 for Echuca, and 31,950 for Shepparton. (Source: AAA Essential Guide To Australia 2003.) Return to Main Text