Central District Bulldogs

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**Central District**

Full name	Central District Football Club
Nickname	The Bulldogs
Strip	Royal blue base with red and white hoops.
Founded	1959
Sport	Australian rules football
League	South Australian National Football League
First season	1964
Ground	Hamra Homes Oval Elizabeth (formerly known as Elizabeth Oval and NAP Oval)
Club song	We're a Winning Team at Centrals
President/Chair	Kris Grant
Coach	Roy Laird
Captain	Nathan Steinberner
2006	2nd of 9

The Central District Bulldogs is an Australian rules football club based in the city of Elizabeth about 40km to the north of Adelaide, South Australia.

1 Origins and Background
2 Little initial success
3 Recent successes
4 Premierships
5 Runners Up
6 Minor Premierships (top of the table before Finals Series)
7 Magarey Medalists
8 Coachs
9 Post-War Placings
10 External links

[edit] Origins and Background

The areas to the north of Adelaide, including the towns of Elizabeth, Salisbury and Gawler, were noticeable by their absence from SANFL ranks during the late 1950s. To rectify this situation Central Districts was formed in 1959, and served a five year apprenticeship in the SANFL reserves competition, before entering the senior ranks for the 1964 season.

One of the better supported clubs in the SANFL, Centrals have a strong British migrant supporter base as Elizabeth was a centre of UK migrant settlements in South Australia. The colours and emblem of the club also reflect this rich British background. To this day, Union Flags and UK soccer shirts remain the attire of choice for many Centrals fans at SANFL matches.

With this British background, Centrals fans also have a reputation for singing and chanting in the manner of UK soccer supporters. The chant 'Ceeeeeeeeeenntttrrrrraaaaaaaaaaalllllllllssssss' is one of the most well known supporter chants/songs in South Australian football.

[edit] Little initial success

From its first season of league football in 1964, Centrals usually struggled for success and became known as something of a choking team (ie. it plays well except for when it really matters.) Although often extremely competitive in the course of the normal season, Centrals lost every single finals match they contested between 1973 and 1993, and were the last SANFL team to win an inaugural premiership in 2000.

[edit] Recent successes

Since 2000 however, Centrals have built a dynasty surpassed in SANFL history only by the great Port teams of the 1950s and 1990s and Sturt Football Club of the 1960s. However, Centrals dynasty has not ended yet, and it is possible that they may forge the most successful period for single club in SANFL history in the next 3-4 years. Centrals are clearly the dominant side in modern SANFL football winning 5 of the last 6 premierships, appearing in every Grand Final since the new millennium and have become the wealthiest SANFL club by some considerable margin. It is surprising to note that Centrals now have won more premierships than the famous Glenelg Football Club (who have been in the SANFL for approx. 40 years longer than Centrals.) This would have been an unthinkable scenario even as recently as the late 1980s. Long established SANFL records have also tumbled since the advent of the Dogs dynasty, the final margin of 125 points in the 2004 Grand Final against Woodville-West Torrens is the biggest winning margin of any SANFL final match ever played.

2006 saw the introduction of night SANFL matches under lights at Elizabeth Oval. In the first league match under lights a crowd of just over 7,000 attended the match against Sturt FC. Central District appear to be growing from strength to strength and will clearly continue to dominate the SANFL for many years. To highlight this, on September 24th 2006, Central District made their seventh consecutive SANFL Grand Final by defeating the Eagles in the Second Semi Final. This simultaneously equalled the record for the most consecutive Grand Final appearances, and also set a new SANFL benchmark for a seventh second-semi final win in succession. This was despite a relatively poor season by the Bulldogs in light of their recent high standards. However, this was not to be as the Bulldogs hold over the Eagles was brought to rest when the Bulldogs suffered a 76 point loss to the Eagles in the 2006 Grand Final.

[edit] Premierships

2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 & 2005

[edit] Runners Up

1995, 1996, 2002, 2006

[edit] Minor Premierships (top of the table before Finals Series)

1979, 1995, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005

[edit] Magarey Medalists

Five players from Centrals have won the Magarey Medal for best and fairest player in the League throughout a season.

Gary Window (1965)
John Duckworth (1979)
John Platten (1984)
Gilbert McAdam (1989)
Paul Thomas (2004)

[edit] Coachs

K Eustice (1964-1967), D Jones (1968-1971), A Casserly (1972-1975), G Window (1976-1977),D Hicks (1978-1983), K Neale (1984-1987), D N Kerley (1988-1990), A Stewart (1991-1995), S Wright (1996-1997), P Jonas (1998-2000), A Clarkson (2001-2002), R.Laird (2003-)

[edit] Post-War Placings

1964 10, 1965 7, 1966 9, 1967 9, 1968 8, 1969 8, 1970 7, 1971 3, 1972 3, 1973 6, 1974 6, 1975 7, 1976 6, 1977 10, 1978 8, 1979 3, 1980 6, 1981 7, 1982 5, 1983 8, 1984 4, 1985 6, 1986 6, 1987 8, 1988 4, 1989 4, 1990 7, 1991 8, 1992 8, 1993 5, 1994 3, 1995 2, 1996 2, 1997 3, 1998 5, 1999 7, 2000 1, 2001 1, 2002 2, 2003 1, 2004 1, 2005 1, 2006 2