Queenscliff Football Club

The Queenscliff Football Netball Club, nicknamed the Coutas (short for "barracouta", a type of fish),[1] is an Australian rules football and netball club that plays in the Bellarine Football League and situated in the township of Queenscliff, Victoria, on the Bellarine Peninsula.

Queenscliff
Names
Full nameQueenscliff Football Netball Club
Nickname(s)Coutas
Club details
Founded1884 (1884)
Colours              
CompetitionBellarine Football League
PresidentRowan Martin
CoachSteve Clark
Captain(s)Jake Hedley
Premierships15 (1910, 1913, 1920, 1929, 1937, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1975, 2011, 2012, 2013)
Ground(s)Queenscliff Recreation Reserve
Uniforms
Home

Queenscliff teams currently play in the Bellarine Football League, of which the club is a founding member. Queenscliff plays its home games at the Queenscliff Recreation Reserve.

Queenscliff also has a junior section with under 10s, under 12s, under 14s, under 16s, under 18s along with the reserves and the seniors.

History

The club was established in 1884, just as the fishing-village of Queenscliff began to gain popularity as a tourist destination, due in part to the railway line from Geelong which had recently been completed.[1] The Coutas played in an early version of the Bellarine Football League that ran from 1895 to 1914. Reformed after World War I, the club continued to play locally until 1923 when it joined the Geelong Football Association where it enjoyed some success.

Queenscliff played the 1957 season in the Polwarth Football League and continued in this league until the Bellarine Football League was formed in 1971. During its years in the Polwarth league, Queenscliff dominated it with Kevin Coltish at full-forward, winning seven premierships in eight seasons.[2]

After the formation of the Bellarine League in 1971, Queenscliff remained a power club for some time, winning a premiership in 1975. But after that achievement, a 36-year premiership drought followed. Queenscliff's return to greatness came in 2011 when the club won its second BFL premiership, repeating the feat 2012 and 2013 to mark a rare three-peat.

Premierships
  • Queenscliff Football Association (4):
    • 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902 [2]
  • Queenscliff & Bellarine Football Association (7):
    • 1904, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1913, 1920
  • Geelong Football Association (2):
    • 1929, 1937
  • Polwarth Football League (7):
    • 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968
  • Bellarine Football League (4):
    • 1975, 2011, 2012, 2013

League best and fairests
  • 1952: Keith Wayth
  • 1954: Keith Wayth
  • 1976: Robert Warren
  • 1977: Mike Birrell
  • 1978: Mike Birrell
  • 1988: Dean McNeil
  • 1993: Jamie Dalton
  • 2003: Matt Primmer
  • 2011: Dylan Chaplin-Burch

Highest win
  • 1976 season, rd 8: Queenscliff 44.23 (287) v Newcomb 5.4 (34)

Notable VFL/AFL players

Bibliography
  • Cat Country: History of Football in the Geelong Region by John Stoward – Aussie Footy Books, 2008 – ISBN 9780957751583

References
  1. Coutas hope to hook the flag on The Age, 14 August 2011
  2. History - Queenscliff on SportsTG
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.