Darley Football Club

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**DARLEY FOOTBALL CLUB**

Fullname	Darley Football Club
Emblem	Devils
Strip	Black and White Stripes (based on Collingwood)
Founded	1919
League	Ballarat Football League
Ground	Darley Park
President	Trevor King
Coach	Gary Learmonth

The Darley Football Club, nicknamed the Devils, is an Australian Rules Football club playing in the Ballarat Football League.

The club is based in the Victorian town of Bacchus Marsh.

[edit] History

This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Darley Football Club (DFC) has a proud history of success but is trying to write the next chapter of it's story in 2008, it's 12th season in the Ballarat Football League. DFC was formed in 1919 when it was known as the Magpies, playing in the Melton and Bacchus Marsh District Football League where the club was successful winning 9 premierships between 1934 and 1957. The club then progressed into the newly formed Bacchus Marsh Football League, and was successful with premierships in 1959 and a golden era of 4 consecutive premierships from 1969 - 1972.

Darley moved into the Central Highlands Football League and again found success in 1984 before moving into the Riddell District Football League in 1986. Ruckman and local club legend Peter Keep won an amazing four consecutive league Best & Fairest awards whilst in the CHFL. The committee of management at the time saw this as a positive move of the club wanting to test itself and its players at a higher standard.

Upon entering the Riddell League, Darley was forced to change its club emblem from the Magpies as another club in the league (Wallan Football Club) was already known by the same name. Consequently the club voted to change its emblem to that of a Devil which remains to this day. During the time spent in the Riddell League, our club participated in finals football in every year except 1996, and then only missing out by percentage. Success was again attained with premierships in both 1989 and 1995, with Mick Hewat successful in winning the Bowen Medal as the league best & fairest in 1988, and Lex Miller winning the same award in 1989.

With the depth of football standard in the RDFL on the decline, together with considerable opposition from former second division clubs on the formation of one division, our club voted to make the move to the highly rated Ballarat Football League with Sunbury, Melton and Melton South clubs for the commencement of the 1997 playing season. For a league that was widely regarded as being of a higher standard than anything our club had experienced, Darley has done its football reputation no harm by being part of the September action every season.

However the club still yearns for its first BFL premiership. Devils centreman Shayne Ward won the BFL's Henderson Medal for league Best & Fairest in 1999. The club has also produced many fine players who have gone to play at higher levels. These include Collingwood Brownlow Medallist Marcus Whelan, Wayne Closter a 200 game player with Geelong Football Club, and more recently Heath Scotland drafted to Collingwood in 1999 who is now playing fine football with Carlton.

Several senior list players have also had experience at AFL Reserves and VFA/VFL Senior level.