The Albury Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football and netball club based in Albury, a major regional city in New South Wales. Albury football and netball squads compete in the Ovens & Murray Football League.
Club history On Saturday night, 3 June 1876, upwards of twenty gentlemen of the town of Albury assembled at Day's Commercial Chambers for the purpose of establishing a football club. The chair was occupied by Mr. M P Ryan. It was resolved on the proposal of Mr. John Day 'That a football club be established to be designated the Albury Football Club.' The following gentlemen were office bearers for the ensuing year – President – Mr. John Day, Treasurer and Secretary – Mr. Phillips. The committee agreed to adopt the Victorian rules of football.
It appears from newspaper reports that the first match that Albury played was against the Beechworth Football Club on the Beechworth Cricket Ground, on Saturday, 8 July 1876, with Dr. Duncan captaining the Albury side.
There appears to be no newspaper records of the Albury Football Club in 1877.
On Saturday, 11 May 1878, a meeting was held at the Albury Hotel "to resuscitate the defunct football club....and that records of the original club were not extant". Dr. J C Duncan was elected president, John Wilkinson, Secretary and A Dawson, Treasurer.
In April 1895 at an Ovens and Murray Football Association meeting, it was decided to let both Albury and Border United Football Club (Corowa based) join the O&MFA.
In 1897 Albury had their team photo taken and can be viewed via this link.
In 1910, the O&MFA had only three teams – Albury, Excelsior and Rutherglen with Rutherglen winning the premiership.
Then in 1911, both Excelsior and Rutherglen applied to enter the Rutherglen and District Football Association. As a result, the O&MFA folded, with local teams attempting to apply to play in the Rutherglen & DFA. A ballot took place at a Rutherglen & DFA meeting on 29 April at Mackay's Hotel, Rutherglen which resulted in Balldale, North Albury, Rutherglen, South Albury and Wodonga being refused admission to join the association. Corowa, Excelsior and Lake Rovers were clubs that were admitted. In 1911, the Albury Football Club was planning to divide the club into South Albury and North Albury teams, but as they were not admitted into the Rutherglen & DFA, the club went into recess in 1911.
Albury FC and Rutherglen FC were admitted into the Rutherglen & DFA in 1912.
After a three-year break due to World War I, the O&MFA reformed for the 1919 season with only four clubs, Border United Football Club (Corowa based), Howlong, Lake Rovers and Rutherglen. Albury Football Club was reformed in early 1919 and played in the Albury Senior Football Association with two teams – South Albury and North Albury, with St. Patrick's FC defeating South Albury Football Club in the grand final on the Albury Sportsground.
In 1920 the O&MFA did not reform; "It seems strange that the O&MFA has apparently been allowed to die a natural death" with only two club's present at the O&MFA – AGM, with some clubs moving to play in the Chiltern & DFA and Coreen & DFA.
In 1920, Albury lost the Albury Senior Football Association semi final to Diggers.
In March, 1924, Albury FC and the Diggers FC decided to amalgamate and apply for admission into the Ovens and Murray Football League as Albury Football Club.
In 1927, Albury appointed former West Adelaide Football Club captain/coach and 1922 Magarey Medallist, Robert "Bobby" Barnes as coach.
On 5 March 1929 at an O&MFL meeting, most club's were very much opposed to the professionalism and paying of players payments to Albury, Hume Weir and St. Patrick's FC footballers, in which the financial resources required were out of reach for the existing clubs - Beechworth, Corowa, Rutherglen and Wangaratta. These clubs were also opposed to the pooling of gate takings too. These clubs demanded that the Albury clubs must have certain restrictions imposed on them so the other clubs could be competitive, basically to restrict the number of imported and paid players and coaches by imposing strict residential qualifications.
On 17 March 1929 at an O&M meeting it was proposed that three Albury club's be formed on a territorial / residential basis, which meant that both the Albury and St. Patrick's football decided to disband and form a local Albury competition, but both clubs later decided to form both East and West Albury football club's based on strict residential boundaries and apply for admission to the O&MFL.
Both Albury and St. Patrick's did not disband due to religious tension or because of sectarian lines as reported at Ovens and Murray Football League, (although there was apparently a significant amount of religious tension between St. Patrick's and Albury, but no actual documented proof) but due to pressure and new rules placed on them by other O&MFL club's to weaken their strength and to halt player payments by these two Albury teams. These are actual documented facts as per the references/citations in the above two paragraphs.
East Albury Football Club and Weir United Football Club merged in 1933 to become the Border United Football Club (Albury based) and wore green and white jumpers. In 1933 West Albury Football Club changed its name to the Albury Football Club and remained in the West Albury colours of maroon and blue.
At the 1934 O&MFL Annual General Meeting, the Albury FC requested to change it football jumpers to black and yellow, which was granted.
Triple Brownlow Medallist and triple Sandover Medallist, Haydn Bunton senior played with the Albury Rovers Football Club in 1926 and 1927, then Albury Football Club in 1928 and 1929 and then with West Albury Football Club in 1930 and 1931. The 1936 Brownlow Medallist, Denis Ryan actually played with the Albury Rovers Football Club, in the Albury & District Football League prior to joining Fitzroy Football Club in 1935.
In 1936, Border United Football Club (Albury based) would merge with the Albury FC when both clubs were short of players and both in debt and took on the name of Albury Football Club!
Between 1927 and 1935, Albury Football Club and its affiliated club's participated in nine consecutive O&MFL grand finals: 1927 and 1928 – Albury; 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932 – West Albury; 1933, 1934 and 1935 – Border United. Albury FC then played in the 1937, 1939 and 1940 grand finals. Then immediately after the World War II recess, Albury played in the 1946, 1947 and 1948 grand finals, thus playing in 15 out of 17 grand finals, missing out in 1936 and 1938.
In July 1953, the Memorial Scoreboard at the Albury Sports Ground was officially opened to perpetuate, the memory of Albury sportsmen who died in World War One and World War Two.
In 1972, Albury seniors did not win a game and finished on the bottom of the ladder.
This club history is a continual work in progress.
Football leagues Albury have played in the following football competitions - Ovens & Murray Football League 1895 to 1902 Albury FC in recess 1903 to 1906 Ovens & Murray Football League 1907 to 1910 Albury FC in recess (In 1911, both Albury & Rutherglen were not admitted into the Rutherglen & DFA due to their previous strength) 1911 Rutherglen & District Football Association 1912 & 1913 Ovens & Murray Football League 1914 & 1915 World War I (O&MFL and Albury FC in recess) 1916 to 1918 Albury Senior Football Association 1919 Albury & Border Football Association 1920 to 1923 Ovens & Murray Football League 1924 to 1928 (In 1924 Albury FC & Diggers FC decide to merge, both from the Albury & Border FA & enter the O&MFA as Albury FC) Ovens & Murray Football League 1929 to 1932 (In 1929, both Albury & St. Patrick's FC's disband and two teams entered as East Albury & West Albury FC's) Ovens & Murray Football League 1933 to 1935 (In 1933 East Albury merged with Weir United & became Border United FC. West Albury changed its name to Albury FC in 1933) Ovens & Murray Football League 1936 to 1940 (In 1936 Border United merged with Albury and took on the name Albury FC) World War II 1941 to 1945 (Albury and the O&MFL in recess) Ovens & Murray Football League 1946 to 2020 (Albury FC)
Football premierships Seniors Albury Football Club Ovens & Murray Football League (22): 1902 1908 1913 1928 1937, 1939 1940, 1947 1956 1966 1982, 1985 1995, 1996, 1997 2009 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
West Albury Football Club 1929
Border United Football Club (Albury based) 1934
Football – runners up Seniors Albury Football Club Ovens and Murray Football League (17) 1899, 1901, 1907, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1927, 1946, 1948, 1953, 1957, 1981, 1983, 1999, 2012, 2013, 2017 East Albury Football Club 1929 West Albury Football Club 1930, 1931, 1932 Border United Football Club (Albury based) 1933, 1935
Albury Senior Football Association 1919 (South Albury)
Albury & Border Football Association 1921, 1922
Morris Medal winners
1935. Noel Barnett 1956. Lance Mann 1963. Ken Bennett 1965. Joe Ambrose 1981. Rod Coelli 1982. Peter Gorski 1993. Tim Scott 1994. Tim Scott 1995. Ken Howe 1996. Leigh Newton 2011. Shaun Daly 2012. Joel Mackie 2015. Joel Mackie 2017. Chris Hyde
Albury Football Club players who played in the VFL / AFL The following 68 footballers played with Albury and / or (East Albury, West Albury & Border United in the 1930s) prior to playing senior football in the VFL/AFL, with the year indicating their VFL/AFL debut or draft year.
1898 – Conrad ten Brink – Essendon 1904 - Peter McCann - South Melbourne 1904 - Arthur Percy - South Melbourne 1904 – Bill Strang – South Melbourne 1904 – Syd Wright – South Melbourne 1905 - Frank Dunne - St. Kilda 1910 - Les Frauenfelder - Richmond 1913 – Dick Fitzgerald – South Melbourne 1914 – Paddy Abbott – South Melbourne, Fitzroy, Richmond 1925 - Hope Evans - Carlton 1928 - Ray Usher - Melbourne 1930 - Frank Beggs - Fitzroy 1930 - Alex Clarke: North Melbourne 1931 – Haydn Bunton – Fitzroy 1931 – Doug Strang – Richmond 1931 – Gordon Strang – Richmond 1932 - Charlie Kolb - Richmond 1932 - Laurie Plunkett - Fitzroy 1933 – Bert Clarke – North Melbourne 1933 - Noel Barnett - Melbourne 1933 – Colin Strang – St. Kilda 1936 - Peter Chitty - St. Kilda 1939 - Frederick William Terrence "Tom" Davey - Hawthorn 1939 - Don Seymour - Footscray 1940 – Norm Betson – Essendon 1941 – Les Main – Collingwood 1942 – Jim Matthews – St. Kilda 1944 – Leslie Gregory – Carlton 1944 – Bill Wood – Footscray 1946 - Jack Eames - Richmond 1947 – Allan Strang – South Melbourne 1951 – Lance Mann – Essendon 1951 – Loy Stewart – Geelong 1954 – Keith Thomas – South Melbourne 1955 - Colin Barton - Geelong 1955 – Barry Takle – Hawthorn 1959 – Dick Grimmond – Richmond 1961 – Ray Thomas – Collingwood 1962 - Neville Forge - South Melbourne 1962 – Bill Lieschke – Essendon 1965 – Geoff Strang – Richmond 1965 – Bruce Waite – Essendon 1967 - Wennie Van Lint - South Melbourne 1968 - Bernie Brady - Collingwood 1969 – John Duthie – North Melbourne 1971 – Phil Baker – North Melbourne 1974 – Peter Taylor – North Melbourne 1976 – Gary Gray – North Melbourne 1976 - Don Mattson - Richmond & Essendon 1981 – Dennis Carroll – South Melbourne 1984 – Tony Hughes – Sydney Swans 1985 – Paul Spargo – North Melbourne & Brisbane Bears 1986 - Donald Thompson - Sydney Swans 1991 – Ben Doolan – Sydney Swans 1995 – Tim Scott – Sydney Swans 1997 – Leigh Newton – Melbourne 2001 - Justin Koschitzke - St. Kilda 2002 – Daniel Cross – Footscray & Melbourne 2013 - Zac Williams - Greater Western Sydney 2015 - Dougal Howard - Port Adelaide 2015 - Nicholas Coughlan - St. Kilda 2016 - Lachie Tiziani - Greater Western Sydney 2017 - Max Lynch - Collingwood 2017 - Will Setterfield - Greater Western Sydney & Carlton 2018 – Charlie Spargo – Melbourne 2018 - Mathew Walker - Hawthorn 2019 – Zach Sproule – Greater Western Sydney