Coburg Football Club

After competing in junior competitions, Coburg was always keen to be promoted up the ranks. They joined the Melbourne District Association and were premiers in 1913, 1914 and again in 1920 (premiers and champions), their strength helped them get promoted to the Victorian Football League seconds from 1921 until 1924, Coburg was admitted as a senior club in the Victorian Football Association in 1925[1] – as a response to Footscray, North Melbourne and Hawthorn joining the VFL [2]

Coburg was immediately successful in the VFA, playing finals in its first season and winning three consecutive premierships from 1926 until 1928; however, these were the club's last top-division premiership for more than fifty years. Coburg was runners-up to the Northcote Football Club in three successive seasons from 1932 to 1934, and was also runners-up in 1941. The club was dominant in the junior/seconds competition from its inception in 1928 up to World War II, winning nine seconds premierships in thirteen seasons, including four in a row from 1937 until 1940.[3]

Coburg has the second highest number of reported players in a VFA match, which occurred in the 1933 Grand final against Northcote Football Club.

The Lions gained prolific goal kickers Lance Collins and Bob Pratt during the 1930s and 1940s. Collins, in his first full season in 1936 (he was injured in 1935 and played one game), kicked 16, 12, 11 and 10 goals in separate games to kick 116 goals for the season; in 98 games for Coburg Football Club (VFA) his tally was 432 goals. Bob Pratt, who crossed from the VFL without a clearance early in the throw-pass era, kicked 183 goals in the 1941 VFA season for Coburg, which was then the highest number of goals kicked in a VFA season until Ron Todd of Williamstown (VFA) beat that record and kicked 188 goals in 1945. Pratt and Collins together hold the record for the most goals by two players in a season: they kicked a total of 256 goals in 1941. Pratt kicked 22 goals in a match against Sandringham Football Club: a club record.

The club's existence was threatened in 1965, when the City of Coburg leased Coburg Oval to the VFL's North Melbourne Football Club, leaving the club without a home ground.[4] After going into debt attempting to fight the council's move,[5] the club came to an arrangement to merge with North Melbourne,[6] and fourteen committeemen left the club and moved to North Melbourne as part of the merge; but, dissenting committeemen and life members opposed to the merger formed a rival committee, and with the support of the VFA executive, were able to continue operating Coburg as a stand-alone club in 1965,[7] playing games in Port Melbourne. The club's future was still in doubt until it could find a new permanent home ground; but North Melbourne's move to Coburg Oval, which was intended to be long-term, ended up lasting only one season, allowing Coburg to return to Coburg Oval and continue operating there from 1966 onwards.

The only J.J. Liston trophy winner for Coburg was Jim Sullivan in 1967. Prior to 1943 the Best and Fairest Award in the VFA was the 'Recorder Cup'. Coburg VFA winners were Peter Reville (ex-South Melbourne VFL) who was the equal winner in 1936 and E. "Snowy" Martin in 1927.

Jim Sullivan was credited by club statistics to have amassed 54 kicks in a match in 1969, which is the second highest recorded in senior football competition and the highest in the VFA competition.

After many years in the doldrums, the club enjoyed somewhat of a rebirth in the late 1970s, with a continued period of success until the 1990. During that time, the club won three flags (1979, 1988 and 1989), finished runner-up another two times (1980 and 1986) and won four minor premierships (1980, 1986, 1988 and 1989). Even so, the club's off-field position was not secure during this time, and the club was at risk of folding in 1982-83.[8] VFA legend Phil Cleary was a member of all these games, as either a player or a coach.

After the success of the 1970s and 80s, the 1990s proved to be lean years for Coburg.

After the departure of club legend Phil Cleary as coach in 1992, the club hired the services of Alex Jeaseaulenko, who coached the club to a winless season in 1993.

Coburg would subsequently go onto finish last in both the 1997 and 1998 seasons.

For the 1999 and 2000 seasons, Coburg entered into a partnership with the Fitzroy Football Club.

Fitzroy, which had played in the VFA between 1884 and 1896, then in the VFL/AFL from 1897 until 1996, no longer operated a football team following the creation of the Brisbane Lions in late 1996, but it still had an administrative presence. Under what was effectively a sponsorship arrangement, Coburg became known as the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions, taking its new name at the beginning of August 1999. The club retained navy blue and red as its main colours, but adopted Fitzroy's red, royal blue and gold colours as an alternative strip

Despite large crowds of both Lions fans attending the home games, financial problems and AFL pressure, meant that Coburg were forced to align with an AFL reserves side, and the partnership with Fitzroy was severed at the end of the 2000 season.

Coburg's logo when they were known as the Coburg Tigers in their alignment with Richmond

From 2001 until 2013, Coburg had an alignment in place with the AFL's Richmond Football Club, which saw Richmond's players eligible to play senior football for Coburg when not selected in the AFL. During this time, the club changed its nickname from the Lions to the Tigers, and its best performance during that time was during 2007, when the seniors finished as runners-up and the reserves side won the premiership.

The affiliation ended after the 2013 season;[9] Coburg returned to operations as a stand-alone senior club in the VFL from 2014, and returned to the nickname 'Lions'. The club appointed former North Melbourne player and former Western Bulldogs assistant coach Peter German from 2014 until 2017.[10]

German's first year at the helm, despite only notching up five wins, was seen as a success after most experts had tipped the Lions to finish with no wins in either competition. Further success was shown with Adam Saad, Ozgur Uysal & Lech Featherstone all named in the 2014 VFL Team of the Year. Saad would win the Best & Fairest in a tie with Daniel Venditti, & would eventually be taken at Pick #25 in that years Rookie Draft by the Gold Coast Suns.

After an outstanding off season recruiting campaign prior to 2015, headlined by the signing of former top five draft pick Cale Morton, much improvement was expected and finals was touted as a real possibility. However sitting 3-9 with six games remaining, a massive upset over reigning Premiers Footscray saw its season spark back into life. It was followed by wins over fellow stand alones Port Melbourne & Frankston, & a big win over the old aligned side in Richmond at Punt Road. All of a sudden the Lions were in finals contention, however needed to dislodge Casey who were in 8th position. Despite a three-goal lead at half time, the Lions would lose by 17 points, ending their season. It would also turn out to be the last game for Captain and club legend Nick Carnell, in game 168.

More success was followed- key defender & Team of the Year Member Michael Hartley would go on to be drafted by Essendon with pick 68 in that years draft. The Development League side would reach the Preliminary Final after achieving 2 wins in 2014.

Further improvement was expected in 2016, despite losing club stalwarts Carnell, Hartley, Ben Clifton & Daniel Venditti. But all this was compensated with the recruitment of ex St. Kilda Forward Ahmed Saad whom would end up winning the Frosty Miller Medal with 49 goals for the season. After plenty of off season hype and excitement building, Coburg would lose five of its first six games by under 2 goals- which ultimately cost them a finals berth. Winning six games for the season, individual success was topped off with the drafting of Luke Ryan to Fremantle & Robbie Fox to the Sydney Swans.

Season 2017 would turn out to be the Peter German's last, announcing his resignation with 4 rounds left. The Lions would beat North Ballarat Football Club in its last home game of the season for its second win of the season, avoiding the wooden spoon.

Season 2018 would bring in further changes, with ex-North Melbourne player Leigh Adams signed on as German's replacement.

Despite coming last (only notching one win against Frankston, and a controversial draw against Sandringham), the club's off-field situation improved. The local and state government pledged money to develop and improve the facilities at Pirahna Park over the 2020 season, giving the club much needed stability.

After a big pre-season drive, membership rose dramatically. Peaking at 250 members in the 2017 season, Coburg finished the 2018 season with 700 members, a club record at the time and a huge achievement for the stand-alone club.

Membership continued to rise at the start of 2019 as the club embarked on their 'Target 1000' membership campaign, designed to get 1000 members signed up for the 2019 VFL season.

As of March 2019, the club had amassed over 870 members, passing their previous highest membership record.

On 28 March 2019 the club announced that it had reached its goal of 1,000 members.

On the field, the club was highly competitive and dodged the wooden spoon with two wins. With three rounds remaining, Leigh Adams announced his resignation after two years at the helm [11].

For the 2020 season, ex-player Andrew Sturgess was announced as the club's new senior coach on an initial 2 year agreement.[12]

• Coburg: 1891–1999
• Coburg-Fitzroy: 2000
• Coburg Tigers: 2001–2013
• Coburg Lions: 2014 -onward

The club has strong rivalries with Port Melbourne and, until their demise in 2020, Preston .

The rivalry with Port Melbourne stems from both clubs particularly spiteful encounters throughout the 1980 VFA season culminating in the 1980 grand final which Port won by 11 points. This was added to further in 2018 when Lions captain Tom Goodwin walked out of the club to play for Port Melbourne.

Coburg and the Preston/Northern Bullants shared a strong local rivalry and competed in the Battle Of Bell Street until Preston/Northern's demise as a result of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020.

Coburg City Oval has the home ground of the Coburg Football Club throughout its history, except in 1965, when it served as the home of the North Melbourne Football Club in the VFL season; during that season, Coburg played its home matches at North Port Oval in Port Melbourne.[13] The ground has a grandstand on the southern end near the goals. Terraces surround the rest of the ground. The capacity of the ground is 15,000, and the highest attendance recorded was 21,695. There are seats for approximately 3,000–5,000 people. From 2011, Coburg City Oval was known as Mantello Holden Oval. In 2014, club General Manager Craig Lees signed a three-year naming rights deal with Piranha Foods , with the ground to be known as Piranha Park until 2016. The Naming Rights deal was extended for another three seasons in September, 2016.

From early 2020 to May 2021 the ground underwent a much needed redevelopment, with works done on the grandstand, club offices, club facilities, and ground drainage.

List of General Managers since the breakup of the Coburg-Richmond alignment.

VFA/VFL Premierships – 1st Division

• 6 (1926, 1927, 1928, 1979, 1988, 1989)

VFA Premierships – 2nd Division

• 2 (1970, 1974)

• Runners-ups (8): 1932, 1933, 1934, 1941, 1959, 1980, 1986, 2007
• Minor Premierships (8): 1926, 1927, 1928, 1945, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1989
• Wooden Spoons (6): 1968, 1973, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2018

Games records

Dave Starbuck holds the club record for games, with 219, played mostly in the 1950s. He is closely followed by cult figure, Vin "The Tank" Taranto, who played during the 1980s and the dark days of the 1990s, when the club was at its lowest and almost folded. Third on the games list, on 205 games, is Cleary.