Mulgrave Football Club: the first 100 years are worth celebrating
Mulgrave Football Club is getting ready to blow out 100 candles on an incredibly special birthday cake.
At its Centenary Gala - at the MCG (Olympic Room) on Saturday 31 May - past players, supporters, officials and club legends will come together to toast the club’s first 100 years.
Over the course of the night, the tall tales will get taller; the towering marks and bone crunching heroics will grow in stature and those 50m after-the-siren match-winning goals will stretch to 70m, 80m, 90m and beyond.
But all will be united in a lifelong bond that is the love of their local, suburban footy club.
Mark Haywood, Mulgrave Football Club secretary, said the club had been preparing for the milestone for a number of years.
“It’s been on everyone’s radar for a few years now,” he said. “The club celebrated its 90th birthday, but that was a decade ago.
The centenary celebrations come at the perfect time for Mulgrave with a number of disruptions keeping the club on its toes over the past five years. After a ground redevelopment, the ravages of the COVID years and, more recently, an 18-month pavilion development, Mark said it was great to be back at the club’s outstanding Garnett Road home ground.
“It’s a really good time (to celebrate),” he said. “We’re in great new facilities and the boys are showing plenty on the field, led by some great locals.”
Interest in the centenary year, and the gala event in particular, has been extremely encouraging.
“We’ve got a really good network of past players and key personal (to get the message out),” he said. “We’ve had a lot of interest. Talking to some of the past players it’s a real eye-opener (how important the club is to them). They made so many friendships here. For some, they grew up around the place. Maybe they’ve drifted away, but they still keep an eye on the club.”
And, while the current generation might be doing the organising, Mark said the club owed so much to those that have come before.
“That’s one of the key messages of the celebrations, it’s a ‘congratulations to everyone for keeping things moving for 100 years’.”
Formed by a group of local farmers in 1925, Mulgrave Football Club is the oldest football club in the area and was a founding member of what was to become the Eastern Football League. Originally, the club was located on land in Police Road, but later relocated to its current home on Garnett Road, in what is now Wheelers Hill.
Initially affiliated with the Berwick District Football Association, success came immediately for Mulgrave with a grand final appearance in the club’s first season. Though defeated by Berwick that day, Mulgrave claimed its first premiership in 1927 - just its third season.
Though the club went into recess in 1935 and throughout World War II, 1947 saw a group of determined locals came together to get the club back on the field in the Dandenong District Football Association. In 1954, Mulgrave moved to the Croydon-Ferntree Gully Football League, which changed its name to the Eastern Districts Football League in 1962.
The league later changed its name to the Eastern Football League, and then the Eastern Football Netball League, and Mulgrave has enjoyed a steady run of success from that time until the present.
In recent years, the Eastern Football Netball League has introduced a netball competition. Mulgrave first took part in 2016, winning its first netball premiership in 2018
BIG EVENT 100 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Mulgrave Football Club will be holding its Centenary Gala at the MCG (Olympic Room) on Saturday 31 May. The club is urging all supporters to come along and celebrate the 100-year history of the club in a room full of Mulgrave people - past and present – on the club’s night of nights, hosted by sports media personality Bruce Eva.
WHEN: Saturday 31 May
WHAT TIME: 7:30pm
WHERE: Olympic Room, MCG
TICKETS: $175 per person (includes a three-course dinner, beer and wine). Book to celebrate the club centenary
ANY QUESTIONS: Contact the club at mulgrave@efnl.org.au
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE LIONS
Home ground: Mulgrave Reserve (140 Garnett Road, Wheelers Hill, Victoria)
Email: mulgrave@efnl.org.au
Website: www.mulgravefc.com.au
EFNL Fixtures: come watch Mulgrave in action
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mulgrave.fc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mulgravefc