OUR HISTORY IN BRIEF

1954 - FORMATION OF OUR CLUB 

E. J. (John) Weatherson first held discussions directed towards the formation of an old boys’ football club in 1947, two years after he left Trinity Grammar School.  However, the lack of a ground meant that it was not until 1953 that the formation of the Club was assured - in late 1953 the VAFA approved a ground at Yarra Bend for the team to play in its newly formed E Section competition in 1954.

As well as being our founder John was the Club’s inaugural captain and our Firsts best and fairest award perpetuates his memory.

Shortly after the first world war there had been an earlier attempt to form an Old Trinity club in the Victorian Metropolitan Amateur Football Association – which was re-named the VAFA in 1932.  In 1928 the team merged with Old Haileybury, but the merger lapsed in 1935, and Old Haileybury continued on its own.

The 1950s, 60s and early 70s 

The 50s and 60s were obviously difficult but we persisted despite just having one team and being in lowly E Section for fifteen years. 

However, our Reserves started in 1965 and Club success came rapidly: 

•    The Reserves played finals for seven straight years from 1967 to 1973, including four consecutive grand-finals (1967 to 1970) – which brought three premierships in a row in 67, 68 and 69.   
•    In 1968, the Club's earned its first ever promotion – from E Section to D Section by the Firsts being runners up in E Section to AMP.  
•    In 1970 we won our first ever Firsts premiership in D Section, and promotion to C Section. 
•    1971 brought promotion to B Section as runners up to Tooronga Malvern.
•    Legendary coach Alec Gardiner arrived in 1974 and led the Firsts to the B Section premiership, and promotion to A Section for the first time - where we stayed for three years.
•    1978 saw us at our seventh home ground in 25 years!
•    There was an extraordinary camaraderie of the players and supporters of the 60’s & 70s era, which was continuing well into the 2020s. Success doesn’t happen by chance.
•    Mind you, things were much simpler then – players didn’t interchange or rotate, corridors and flooding meant something else and osteitis pubis was mere gobbledegook (and still is to some!)

The late 1970s and the 80s

After climbing the mountain to reach A Section in 1975, over the next three years the Club lost a significant number of key people both on and off the field. Alec Gardiner, the coach who had led us to the summit, left at the end of 1976 and players of the calibre of Andrew Kennedy, George Fellows, Charlie Fellows, Dennis (Shadow) Stephens, Colin Piggin, Choco Johnston and Rowan Kennedy retired. Chris Hansen and Robbie Peers left to try out at Fitzroy and Hawthorn and Garry Fletcher did his knee in 1975 (requiring his second reconstruction) before moving to teach in the country. A vast loss of talent, and also experience. Chris Hansen, in particular, had been unbelievable in 1976 winning the A Section B & F with 32 votes from 16 games. His loss was monumental. In 1978 we also lost Bill Peers, a multiple B & F winner and State player, and Roberts Moore who left an enormous administrative hole.

In spite of all of that, we performed creditably in A Section in 1975 and 1976.  But then the Club “hit the wall” in 1977.  It was a tough year with a new coach and very young inexperienced team. The Firsts didn’t win a game and the Reserves only one, and we were relegated to B Section. The next 4 years were tough, with the Club falling to E Section by 1982. 

Things were also dire off the field, and a merger was proposed between the Club and a local church side. The merger was vehemently opposed by the OTGA, former Club presidents Gordon Just and Norm Latchford and by Ian Monro on behalf of the School. At an emotional Extraordinary General Meeting, it was likely that the Club would fold unless people “put up or shut up”. In typical fashion, Norm Latchford “put up” and volunteered to take on the Presidency (for the third time!), and the merger proposal lapsed.  The Club is forever in the debt of Norm Latchford, Gordon Just and Ian Monro for ensuring its survival. 

But, amongst all the doom and gloom there were some green shoots. In the modern vernacular what Old Trinity required was a major list rebuild.  Where, in the AFL the bottom team gets the first draft pick, we had to follow the old tried and true formula of knocking on doors to get recruits. Or as Club Secretary Andrew Birrell said, keep talking to them until they say yes just to make you go away.

This led to the OT’s recruiting a group of people that would set the club up for the next decade. These included, amongst others, second generation OTGAFC people like Neil Weatherson, Andrew and David Birrell, Peter Beer, Craig Robison and Richard Wardrop, as well as Paul Bunting, Andrew Maizels and Scott Cowley from the School. Ed Borghesi and David O’Shaughnessy were recruited from Xavier, and a little later Trevor Norman and Andrew Allibon were snared. This group provided premierships, captains, B & F winners, state players and 200 and 300 gamers as well as long serving administrators.

1982 was a turning point. After some late season wins, we were able to stop the rot and avoid relegation to F Section. 1983 saw the Club return to finals and despite losing the grand final we were promoted to D Section. After finishing third in 1984 we won the 1985 D Section flag, beating MHSOB, earning promotion to C Section, and the Club was returning to its glory days. We were back in B Section by 1987 and in 1989 our U19s won the Section 3 premiership in their first year.

The 1990s

The 1990’s were exhilarating yet frustrating and another three home-ground changes did not help. B Section was pretty much a doddle, but A Section was always something else. We were B premiers in 1992, 1994 & 1996. In each case, in the following year we finished in the bottom two in A Section and were relegated back to B. No wonder we were known as the yo-yo club!  Twice B Grade premiership coach Alan Johnson, a former Melbourne legend, tried everything in his four-year tenure, including playing, but we could not stay up.  

A real highlight of the decade was our 1995 return to Trinity Grammar School’s playing fields in Bulleen as our home ground.  Bulleen had been our home from 1983 to 1987, but we were nomads for the intervening years.  

The return to Bulleen was underpinned by the rebuilding of what had become a strained relationship between the Club, the School and the Old Boys Association.  A number of committed people worked to rebuild the relationship, not least Andrew Kennedy (then president of the OTGA) and his predecessor Ron Joseph, School Councillor Neil Willams, TGS’s Rohan Brown, our Ian Jervis and the headmaster Peter Crawley.  

Andrew Kennedy succeeded Rob Stanley as president in 1997 – Rob had been the Club’s longest serving president from 1988 to1996.

During our topsy turvy 90s, our financial position had seriously deteriorated, and our relationship with the VAFA had become strained.  Dramatic action was necessary, and by the end of the decade, by dint of much hard work by the committee, the finances were repaired, and our standing with the VAFA was back on an even keel.    

The 2000s

The fourth B Section premiership of the decade in 1999 led back to A Section in 2000 where we were to stay for a remarkable nine years.  Our first ever A Section finals appearance (and first ever finals victory) came in 2004 – a win in the 1st semi-final, followed by a loss in the preliminary final.  Despite our longevity in A Section, that was destined to be our only finals appearance in the 2000s, although the U19s were premiers in Section 2 in 2008.

The years 2005 – 2008 brought an annual struggle to avoid relegation, and we finally succumbed in 2008.  But we immediately bounced back, earning promotion back to A Section in 2009 from 4th position in B Section - winning the 1st semi & preliminary finals (followed by a loss in the grand final). 

In 2000 the Club also re-formed a Thirds team in the VAFA’s Section 2, having disbanded it after one year in 1995. The Thirds has become an intrinsic part of the club with several finals appearances, including a first premiership in 2016. 
 
The 2010s

Our time back Premier Section (renamed that from A Section in 2010) again turned into an annual battle to avoid relegation.  We did that in 2010 & 2011 (finishing 8th in both years), but slipped to 9th in 2012 and were again relegated to Premier B.  But once again we bounced back the following year after topping the ladder, losing the second semi-final, winning the preliminary final (by one point), and losing the grand final.

Promotion back to Premier A in 2014 heralded our most successful period in the top section.  We played in two grand finals in 2015 & 2016.  Heartbreakingly losing both by narrow margins of 8 points and 7 points, despite having more shots on goal in both matches.  We made the finals again in 2018, but after winning the second semi-final, went down in the preliminary.

Other highlights of the 2010s were:
•    The U19s winning the Section 2 premiership from 3rd in 2014.
•    The formation in 2017 of an Old Trinity Women’s team for the first time – and the team finishing fourth in their first year.  Fittingly it was decided that their Best & Fairest award should be named the “Joan Martin Trophy”.  The women’s programme was paused in 2025 due to a shortage of players, with the aim of re-establishing it as early as possible.

The 2020s

The Covid pandemic saw the 2020 season cancelled.  In 2021 our annual battle against relegation resumed, and we were spared an almost certain drop when Covid intervened again, and the season was abandoned with us sitting on 1 win from 11 games.  But it was a temporary stay of execution, and 2022 saw a 9th place finish, and relegation to Premier B.   2024 brought more heartbreak in B, when we won the 1st semi but denied ourselves promotion by losing the preliminary final.  

However, 2024 brought a Reserves premiership. Remarkably it was the Reserves first premiership in 63 years.  There had only ever been three other Reserves premierships – the three-peat in 1967, 1968 & 1969!

In 2025 the Senior’s made amends for their preliminary final loss in the previous year by winning the premiership and promotion back to Premier Section.  The Thirds were also premiers in Division 1.  

Winning four of the first five games in 2026 saw us equal top of the ladder, but injuries and unavailability saw us slide into relegation territory.  A come-back from behind last kick victory in the last game ensured another year in Premier in 2027.

A footnote

Football clubs are, first and foremost, about people – different people from different backgrounds with different priorities. And, for all manner of reasons, amateur football clubs are especially different, if not unique.