Hobart Football Club

Hobart
Full name Hobart Football Club
Nickname Tigers
Sport Australian Rules football
Founded 19 December 1944
First season 1945 (TFL)
League Southern Football League
Home ground TCA Ground
Colours      Yellow and      black
Anthem "Hobart Forever Boys"
President Russell Young
Head coach Steve Woods
Captain Tim Dennis
2014 (SFL) 8th (From 10)
Strip

Hobart Football Club (nicknamed The Tigers) is an Australian rules football club based in Hobart, Tasmania. They play their home fixtures at the TCA Ground on the Queens Domain, in Hobart and from 2009-2013, the club has been a member of the Tasmanian State League. At the end of the 2013 season, the Hobart Tigers executive announced its intention to withdraw for the State League competition and instead compete in the Southern Football League from 2014.[1] Following a large player turnover at the end of 2013, the club survived the looming threat of Recess to record four wins and finish 8th in the Southern Football League Competition.

Club history

The Hobart Football Club was formed at a meeting at The Continental in Hobart on 19 December 1944, and became a playing member of the Tasmanian Football League (TFL) in 1945. Hobart played under the emblem 'Tigers' and wore a yellow and black playing strip. The Tigers lost every game in its first season under coach Cecil Geappen and were similarly unsuccessful in 1946. In 1947 Hobart made the Grand Final but were beaten by North Hobart.

The club were to become a prominent finalist over the following 20 years, missing out only twice between 1947–1966, along the way collecting six TFL premierships, a State Premiership and losing four grand finals.

In 1966 Hobart defeated Glenorchy by 1 point in a thrilling Grand Final before 16,699 people. However, hard times were to hit the Tigers, with the club finishing on the bottom of the ladder from 1967–1971. In 1972 Hobart were languishing at the foot of the ladder midway through the season (and copping enormous press criticism) before staging a monumental comeback to win all bar one game from that point and making it to the Preliminary Final before losing to New Norfolk by 4 points.

Appleton's Army of 1973

After a similarly poor start to 1973, Hobart under coach Allan Appleton managed to cobble together enough wins to scrape into the Final Four. After a series of thrilling victories during the finals series, the Tigers were to face up to the might of the Rodney Olsson led Sandy Bay machine.

The Seagulls, on the back of Premierships in 1971 and 1972 had won 20 consecutive matches in 1973 (24 in a row since 1972) and were considered the hottest premiership favourites in TFL history.

So confident of success were Sandy Bay, that their banner read "21 Today! 21 Today!" and they had organised a Premiership Dinner for several hundred people at Wrest Point for that evening.

Hobart came out and put relentless pressure on Sandy Bay, and as history would have it, Appleton's Army stunned the 14,720-people on Grand Final Day. Sandy Bay were to crack in monumental circumstances as Hobart raced away to win the 1973 premiership by 20-points in the greatest boilover in Tasmanian football history.

The 1970s and beyond

Hobart were to have more finals appearances, both resulted in First Semi Final losses in 1975 and 1976 but troubles were looming on the horizon.

By 1977 the club fell to second last on the ladder and in 1978 and 1979 the Club were to, once again, finish last, but turned it all around the following year under new coach Paul Sproule to firstly take out the Winfield Statewide Cup, beating Clarence in the Grand Final at North Hobart Oval.

Hobart also won the TANFL Premiership over Glenorchy by 35-points in front of 17,111-fans – which to this day is the largest crowd to ever witness Hobart play.

1981 saw a further finals appearance but with legendary TFL and Victorian Football League full forward Peter Hudson coming out of retirement to boot 14-goals in the last three-quarters for Glenorchy the Tigers were to bow out in the First Semi Final.

1982 saw the Club enter more dark times with the TFL forcing the club to leave the TCA Ground under new ground rationalisation plans for the League, Hobart were forced to play at Glenorchy's KGV Oval until 1986, whereby the club finished last between 1982–1985.

The Statewide League era

1986 heralded many changes to the competition, the TANFL was no longer, and a new Statewide League incorporating the six former TANFL clubs along with NTFA rivals North Launceston and East Launceston was fashioned.

Hobart's first match in the new competition was against East Launceston (coached by Richard Spencer) at KGV Oval on 5 April 1986. The Demons, who had had to adopt a different playing uniform because of a clash with North Hobart, had not received their playing uniforms by the time the Round 1 clash was due to be played and had to don a green and primrose State training jumper for the match.

In a high scoring game, East held sway for much of the day (making a mockery of their dreadful pre-season form), but it was Hobart who hurried home with a strong final quarter to hit the front in the dying minutes before a late goal for the Demons saw them snatch victory by 4 points – 18.24 (132) to 19.14 (128) – in a thriller before a crowd of only 922 people.

However, new coach Peter Hudson would instill much confidence in his young side which saw them win eight games in succession mid-season before falling away late in the season with two 100-point thrashings by eventual Grand Finallists Glenorchy and Sandy Bay.

The Tigers claimed fifth spot and made their first finals appearance since 1981 but were soundly beaten by 70-points by North Hobart in the Elimination Final. 1987 saw Hobart play all of its home matches at the North Hobart Oval and continue on in fine fashion making the finals.

Firstly defeating the Burnie Hawks in the Elimination Final at KGV Oval on a thundery afternoon, the Tigers were up against the might of Clarence the following week at the same venue in the 1st Semi Final.

In an enthralling game which was tight from the outset, Hobart's Alastair Lynch (who later went onto have a stirring Australian Football League career with Fitzroy and the Brisbane Lions) was felled by Clarence's Greg Farquhar deep into to time on and was stretchered from the field. Tiger full-forward (and the TFL's all-time greatest goalkicker) Wayne Fox took the resultant free kick, but field umpire Haydyn Nielsen incorrectly failed to pay the manadatory 15-metre penalty after Farquahar was reported.

As history would have it, Fox struggling to get the distance on the kick missed slightly, seconds later the siren sounded and Hobart went down by 4 points with the vocal Tiger contingent in the 3,885-strong crowd roaring their enormous displeasure at the umpires after the match.

Former Sydney Swans and South Melbourne legend Mark Browning was to take over the reins at Hobart as captain-coach in 1988.

Attendances were continuing to rise and the onfield results continued to improve with the club sitting second on the ladder at the completion of round 11, 1988 after defeating North Hobart by 114 points at North Hobart Oval before losing six out of its last seven matches to incredibly, miss the finals.

The Tigers were solid throughout most of the 1989 season and made a barnstorming finish to make the Grand Final against North Hobart, at one stage leading by 35points in the second quarter of the decider before the Demons raced away to win the premiership by 30 points.

In 1990 Hobart were to finally have their revenge, and assembling arguably their greatest ever squad, the Tigers won their first five matches of the season before suffering from a mid-season slump.

Hobart started to hit form after a strong win over Clarence at Bellerive Oval, then going on a rampage with a succession of solid wins leading into the finals series.

The Tigers lost the qualifying final to North Launceston at York Park before recording thrilling victories over Sandy Bay (first semi final) and Clarence (preliminary final) before facing North Launceston again in the Grand Final.

After a tight first three-quarters where both sides were level at the three-quarter time, Hobart produced arguably their most dominant quarter of football in their history, given the strong level of the competition at that time, booting 10–6 to 1–2 in the last quarter to win by 58 points.

After two further finals appearances in 1991 and 1992, the latter producing another Grand Final loss to North Hobart, this time by 35 points. No further success was to come the Tigers way.

Former Melbourne Demons player Simon Eishold was appointed Coach in 1993 but resigned before the season started and Greg Lane was given the nod as coach, during mid-season club legend Wayne Petterd was to take over the job after Lane resigned.

From 1993 Hobart Football Club were to flounder badly on the field, and in 1994 suffer from disastrous financial problems off field after running into massive debt with the Australian Taxation Office, also suffering from a large drop in attendances – Hobart's average home crowds from 1993–1996 fell to just over 920 – as on field performances remained poor.

Wayne Petterd resigned as coach after a heavy defeat to Launceston at the TCA Ground in 1996 and former Clarence legend and William Leitch Medallist Gary Williamson became the club's last TFL coach.

An exodus of more the 40 players from the Tigers senior and reserves sides over the summer of 1996–1997 as doubts grew about the longterm viability of the club, the almost daily articles in the media pushing the club to merge and player dissatisfaction with the board saw Hobart sink to its knees.

Hobart were to field a very young side for the 1997 season, but failed to win a match in either the Senior or Reserves competition, with the Under 19's making it to the 1st Semi Final.

The TFL had already decided not to renew the club's license for 1998 after 53 seasons in the League, and there was news of an impending three-way merger between Hobart, Sandy Bay and North Hobart Football Club's for the 1998 season (talks later broke down and the three way partnership dissolved as North opted to go it alone in the TFL and Sandy Bay opted to close down).

The Hobart Tigers final TFL appearance was on 23 August 1997 where the Tigers lost 11.6 (72) to North Hobart 18.12 (120) at North Hobart Oval.

Hobart rises from the ashes

1998 saw Hobart join the Southern Football League (SFL) under coach Ray O'Rourke. As a prerequisite of joining the League the club were forced to abandon their traditional jumper and Tigers emblem because of Kingston already laying claim to that emblem in the League.

Hobart's first tentative steps into its new environment was a home match against Kingston at the TCA Ground on 11 April 1998.

The young Hobart side, after leading for much of the day were eventually overrun by a bigger bodied Kingston team by 17 points in front of 826 patrons.

1999 saw Hobart, under Steven Gilbee take out their first SFL premiership by defeating Brighton by 51 points at Huonville Recreation Ground before 3896 fans on Grand Final day. Hobart won a club record 18 wins for that season.

Hobart's 2000 campaign got underway in fine style winning 15 out of their first 16 matches (many by huge margins) for the season before a plethora of injury problems plagued the side late in the season.

Hobart finished minor premiers but were defeated by New Norfolk by 1 point in the first qualifying final, later defeating Cygnet by 70-points in the second semi final the following week before bowing out to eventual premier Kermandie in the rain at Pontville Oval in the Preliminary Final by 8 points.

The club continued to find heartbreak in finals, bowing out to Brighton in the first semi final in 2001 by one point.

The club failed to make the finals in 2002 and coach Steven Gillbee retired as player and coach, with the club giving him a stylish send off and a 55-point win over Glenorchy in the final roster match.

Hobart signed Michael "Jock" McGregor as coach in 2003 and the club had a rollercoaster season, winning several matches early in the season before winning just two out of its final ten matches going into the finals.

Hobart rallied to defeat Glenorchy by 22-points (elimination final), New Norfolk by 51 points (first semi final) and Clarence by 1 point in an epic Preliminary Final at North Hobart Oval.

Grand Final day was a disastrous one for Hobart, who had three tough finals matches in the lead-up, including only a five-day break between matches, whereby, its opponent North Hobart were well rested and were able to add listed Tasmanian Devils players to its line up on the day.

The result saw North Hobart win by a record 110 points in front of a crowd just 4,289 people at North Hobart Oval.

In 2004 Hobart were relatively uncompetitive for the greater part but scraped into the finals, playing Kingborough (Kingston) in the Elimination Final at North Hobart Oval losing by 25 points, 9.14 (68) – 14.9 (93).

At the time of this match, strong rumour surrounded the club that this was to be the last match played by the club in its traditional colours.

A Tiger or a Lion?

After five seasons without their beloved Tiger identity, Hobart's financial members voted for incumbent president Phillip Baker to take over the top job after John Blake (1998–2002) resigned from his position at the end of that season.

A sizeable section of the club's membership, supporter base and players had felt that there was a strong conflict of interest within the SFL and in particular the League's General Manager Noel Morrison (who had close ties with the Kingborough Football Club) over the club's treatment and constant siding with Kingborough on the issue.

Members had also been unhappy for some time at the board's perceived failure to take a stand and make any reasonable attempt at regaining the club's identity and emplored with the new president to make every effort possible during 2003 to regain the former emblem and former playing strip.

Upon hearing the news that every effort would be made to fight the League and Kingborough over the denial of Hobart's true identity, membership almost doubled from the previous year.

However, there were rumblings within the club early in 2004 that moves were afoot to change the colours of the club and align itself with AFL clubs firstly St Kilda and later powerhouse Brisbane Lions.

Many supporters showed their disappointment and crowd attendances plummeted rapidly during the season. Late in the season a group of senior players and outgoing coach Michael McGregor were making statements in the press agitating for change, which threatened to split an already fractured club even further.

In a bloody coup which split the club down the middle – and to this day there is still some bitterness over the situation amongst older supporters – a meeting on 1 December 2004 saw the club elect to adopt a Brisbane Lions playing jumper and use the Lions logo in future. A large number of long-time supporters walked away in disgust and an extremely tense atmosphere existed between pro-Tiger and pro-Lions fans for several years after as the club's membership tally fell from 232 in 2003 to just 29 by 2008.

The Lion years: 2005–2008

The Lions first season was a poor one missing the finals and winning few games under new coach Ian Wilson.

As a heavy pall hung over the club, crowd attendances and club memberships continued to slide miserably, the onfield performances continued to remain largely poor.

After the sacking of Ian Wilson during the 2006 season after a player revolt, the club embarked on recruiting 1990 Hobart premiership player and former Melbourne AFL player Andrew Lamprill as his replacement as senior coach. Under Lamprill's tenure, the senior team made a strong improvement from that point in the season, winning a string of games, Lamprill's young squad eventually bowing out to New Norfolk in the First Semi Final at Boyer Oval.

Disappointment was to return in the following two seasons, both seasons seeing the Lions bowing out in largely uncompetitive circumstances in the Elimination Final to New Norfolk (2007) and Lauderdale (2008).

The final game for the Hobart Lions was the SFL Premier League elimination final on 23 August 2008 which saw Lauderdale trounce the Lions 18.5 (113) to 9.12 (66) at the TCA Ground.

Hobart joins the TSL: The Tiger returns

In 2008, The Hobart Football Club received an official invitation from AFL Tasmania to join a revamped Statewide competition named the Tasmanian State League in 2009.

After a meeting of club members, delegates and supporters, the club unanimously voted in August 2008 to leave the SFL Premier League and join the new league.

As a result of joining the TSL, the club voted at their AGM on 15 December 2008 to return to their original Tiger emblem and colours.

The club's first match in the reformed Tasmanian State League competition took place on 10 April 2009 against eventual grand finalist Glenorchy at the TCA Ground.

A crowd of more than 2,000 saw Glenorchy run rampant over an inexperienced Hobart team and win by 92 points.

The Tigers season improved somewhat as the year progressed, with the sacking of coach Todd Lewis mid-season, former player Graham Fox took over and guided his young side to six wins for the season, the Tigers were still a credible shot at a finals position late in the season but narrow losses to Lauderdale (twice) and Devonport late in the season saw the team finish in eighth position.

After a tough start to the 2010 TSL season in which the Tigers faced the previous year's grand finalists (Clarence and Glenorchy) and an improved North Hobart side in the first three rounds and suffered from three heavy defeats, the young Hobart team began to show plenty of promise with victories over Lauderdale, Burnie, South Launceston and an inspiring victory over North Hobart under lights at a freezing Bellerive Oval to sit inside the top six for the first time by round 8 (and the first time the club had been inside the top half of the ladder in Statewide Football since 1992), but a costly mid-season slump in which Hobart would lose seven games in succession (and being in a position to win five of those in the latter stages) proved disastrous.

As somewhat of a pointer to Hobart's season of great inconsistency, the Tigers ended their seven match losing streak by thrashing finalist Glenorchy by 93 points at the TCA Ground on 31 July, the victory was the largest Hobart had registered over New Town/Glenorchy in 65 years but they again suffered large defeats in their final two matches to finish in second-last place.

The club's 2011 season proved to be somewhat of an annus horribilus as constant speculation surrounded Hobart's future in the TSL competition post-2012 with AFL Tasmania's threats firstly to relocate the club to Kingston's new Twin Ovals' Facility which would lead to an eventual takeover/amalgamation with the Kingborough Tigers and later a concerted push to amalgamate the club with North Hobart which was met with disapproval from both clubs' financial members.

AFL Tasmania has stated that there will be only one TSL license available for inner-city clubs after a review at the completion of the 2012 season.

Adding to the club's woes was an ugly slanging match in the media with the Hobart City Council over the poor standard of facilities at the TCA Ground, the club lambasting the Council over their perceived lack of activity in maintaining and improving facilities at their home ground.

With all the uncertainty surrounding the club, on-field performances were very poor with the club winning only three matches for the season whilst crowd numbers remained poor.

Whilst the club were competitive in many matches, an injury crisis during the middle part of the season saw an acute lack of depth exposed which resulted in a string of humiliating losses, including the Tigers heaviest defeat at the TCA Ground in the club's history (to Clarence by 133 points), scoring the lowest senior level score ever recorded at KGV (going goalless for the third time in the club's history in dreadful conditions) and suffering from a humiliating loss away to a struggling South Launceston.

The only highlights in an otherwise forgettable season for the Tigers were victories over struggling Devonport and Glenorchy (both at home) and an upset final round victory away to Lauderdale to deny the young Bombers a maiden TSL finals appearance.

Following on from the 2011 season the club decided not to renew coach Graham Fox's contract and following an extensive application process Anthony McConnon was appointed as the new coach in what was to turn out to be a disastrous season for the club.

The Tigers endured a winless 2012 season and with constant speculation over the club's future as a member of the competition, both Hobart and North Hobart put together submissions to AFL Tasmania to compete for the sole inner-city licence.

For some time it appeared that Hobart were the front runners but after AFL Tasmania extended the deadline to allow North Hobart's members to vote on a 50/50 alignment with the Hobart, North Hobart's membership accepted to do so from the 2014 season with both clubs final seasons in their own right at TSL level being in 2013.

Tigers Withdraw from TSL

After over 12 months of supporting the process to be 50% stakeholders with North Hobart Football Club in the new TSL Inner-City Licence, the Tigers announced on 8 August 2013 that they intended to withdraw from the TSL following the completion of the 2013 season.[2] This had come after speculation that the Kingborough Football Club would be admitted into the competition as the Tigers, something which drew the anger of Hobart faithful.[3] On August 15, AFL Tasmania announced that the new Kingborough-Huon TSL team would simply be known as "The Tigers" which was seen as an insult to Huon fans, as well as Hobart fans who had their fears realised.[4] On the same day the new TSL club announced its intentions to sign up to 15 Hobart Senior Players.[5]

Back to the Future: The Return to the S.F.L

2014 saw the club in a familiar position following the club opting to leave the Tasmanian State League and rejoin the SFL Competition under new Coach Steven Woods, this saw the club in a position where rumours were circulating that the club would go into Recess due to a lack of players. Rumours strongly circulated, and this was not strengthened by only 3 players turning up for the first post-Christmas training session. However, the club underwent significant radio advertising and managed to retain a small number of Senior players and Colts from the 2013 list. Tim Dennis announced he would be staying on board to Captain the club, and all of a sudden a groundswell of numbers saw the club in a position where it was able to field both a Seniors and Reserves side managing four wins in the Seniors and a single win in the Reserves.

Stadiums, achievements and club records

Affiliations

Home grounds and information

Premiership titles

TANFL/TFL Statewide League premierships

TANFL/TFL Statewide League runners-up

Tasmanian State premierships

Winfield Statewide Cup champions

Southern Football League premierships

Southern Football League runners-up

Tasmanian State League premierships

Tasmanian State League runners-up

Medal winners

William Leitch Medal winners

Darrel Baldock Medal winners

George Watt Medal winners

Major V. A. Geard Medal winners

D. R. Plaister Medal Winners

Tassie Medal winners

Competition leading goalkickers

TANFL/TFL Statewide League leading goalkicker

SFL leading goalkickers

Tasmanian State League leading goalkicker

Club attendance records

Record home attendance – TANFL

Record home attendance – TFL Statewide League

Record finals attendance – TANFL

Record finals attendance – TFL Statewide League

Record finals attendance – Southern Football League

Club record scores

Club record score

Club record quarter

Most goals in a match (individual)

Club record games holder

Senior coaches

The Hobart Football Club has had thirty-one senior coaches in its sixty-nine-year history.

The longest serving coach is Mal Pascoe, who coached the club for a period of nine seasons from 1959–1965 and again from 1978–1979.

Pascoe is also the leading premiership coach with Hobart, having coached the club to three flags in 1959, 1960 and 1963.

Jack Sullivan 1947, 1949 and 1950 along with Mal Pascoe 1959, 1960 and 1963 and Mark Browning 1989, 1990 and 1992 have all coached Hobart in three Grand Finals – the most by any Hobart senior coach.

Senior best and fairest winners

Notes

  1. ↑ Tigers to withdraw from TSL
  2. ↑ http://www.hobartfc.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=73&ArticleID=18, Munts93, "Tigers to withdraw from TSL", Hobart Football Club, 8 August 2013.
  3. ↑ http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/08/05/384982_sport-news.html, James Bresnehan, "The Ire of the Tiger", The Mercury, 5 August 2013.
  4. ↑ http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/08/16/385715_sport-news.html, Brett Stubbs, "Huon cries foul over branding", The Mercury, 16 August 2013.
  5. ↑ http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/08/16/385724_sport-news.html, James Bresnehan, "New Tigers go a-hunting", The Mercury, 16 August 2013.

External links

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