North Albury Football Club

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**North Albury**

Full name	North Albury Football Club
Nickname	Hoppers
Strip	dark green and gold
Founded	194?
Sport	Australian rules football
League	Ovens & Murray Football League
First season	{{{firstseason}}}
Ground	Bunton Park
Club song	Join in the Chorus
President/Chair	Lee Booth
Coach	Travis Hodgson
Captain
2006	7th of 10

The North Albury Football Club, nicknamed The Hoppers, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Ovens & Murray Football League (O&MFL). They are incorporated as part of the North Albury Sports Club licensed club at Bunton Park in North Albury, where they play their home matches. The club has won six premierships in the O&MFL. The Hoppers play in dark green and gold guernseys similar to the West Coast Eagles' classic wingtip design. A previous design consisted of a gold guernsey with two dark green vees over the yoke. The club song is a version of "Join in the Chorus" with some words altered from the AFL Kangaroos version. The current coach is Travis Hodgson.

1 History
2 Premierships
3 Sources
4 External link

[edit] History

The club was formed in the mid-1940s, and for the first few years of their existence played in the Chiltern & District Football League, then moved to the O&MFL in 1947. For a short time in the early 1950s they also played a reserves team in the Hume Football League. Bunton Park was established during the post-World War II period in an area that was quickly becoming established with housing. Bunton Park is named after Cleaver Bunton, long-time mayor of Albury, rather than his famous footballing brother Haydn Bunton, although neither played for North Albury.

In the early 1980s the club was beset by financial difficulties causing it to fall in arrears in paying match payments to its players. In the meantime the club committee was endeavouring to establish a licensed club at its ground, which would allow it to serve alcohol outside of match times and house poker machines. With the establishment of the licensed club in 1984, the club's future in the O&MFL was secured.

A number of North Albury players have gone on to play in the VFL/AFL, such as 1984 Morris Medallist Rudi Yonson, who played a number of games with the Sydney Swans, and most famously Brett Kirk, who played with North Albury up to the 1998 season and then joined the rookie list of the Sydney Swans on trial the following year, later being elevated to the main list and being an integral part of the Swans' 2005 premiership-winning side.

North Albury traditionally play an Anzac Day fixture against cross-town rivals, the Albury Tigers, with the venue alternating between the two clubs.

[edit] Premierships

O&MFL: 1948, 1955, 1980, 1984, 1999, 2002.
Chiltern & District Football League: 1946.

[edit] Sources

Johnston, David (May 20, 2004). "Green and Gold didn't fold in '84" Border Mail
Halloran, Jessica (September 10, 2004) Never-give-up Kirk arrives The Melbourne Age