Eastern Football League club Mitcham set to celebrate its 130th year
IT HELPED give the legendary Bob Pratt his start in the game and next month Mitcham Football Club will celebrate a milestone only a handful of suburban football clubs have reached.
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MITCHAM is rightfully proud of its standing in suburban football.
Fifteen premierships, including five Eastern Football League Division 1 flags, makes it one of the most successful clubs in the competition.
Mitcham also gave Hall of Fame legend Bob Pratt his start in the game, recruited from the Tigers to South Melbourne in 1930 at the age of 17.
But this year marks a milestone only a handful of clubs have reached.
The Tigers are turning 130, a mark only bettered by Lilydale, which was established in 1872.
Mitcham also stands as the oldest club in the City of Whitehorse.
Photos from every premiership team dating back to the early 1900s adorn the walls at Walker Park, where the Tigers have played since 1912.
Mitcham’s first premierships came in 1903 and 1904 in the Reporter District competition before an era of dominance pre and post World War I.
The competition went into recess from 1916 to 1918, with the Tigers winnings four flags in five seasons either side of the war.
“They were real halcyon days for the Mitcham Football Club and had it not been for WWI, we could have won considerably more premierships,” club historian Garry Wathen said.
But the next 49 years produced just three premierships (1935, 1947 and 1952) until the Tigers again ruled under captain-coach Ron Thomas in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
With Tony Andrews the focal point up forward, Mitcham became just the second EFL club to win a hat-trick of flags from 1979 to 1981.
Thomas said the side’s camaraderie and ability to rise to finals football made the Tigers a powerhouse.
“To look back on it now, each one of those players that participated are all still good friends,” Thomas said.
“We’ve keep in contact with each other and it is just fantastic in life to look back on things like that.”
Thomas said that side should be regarded as one of the greatest teams in the EFL, featuring in six grand finals in seven years.
“Our culture went right through firsts, seconds and thirds and everyone really wanted to put that jumper on and give their utmost,” he said.
“The test of character and strength was put on show and everyone just wanted to do it for each other and it’s just something that looking back, everyone would know they put everything on the line for their teammates.”
Andrews topped the league goalkicking in four years from 1979 to 1983, including kicking 132 goals when Mitcham’s reign came to an end in 1982 at the hands of new league powerhouse Vermont.
Wathen said the game plan was to kick the ball to Andrews.
“It was fantastic for the spectators and the supporters because they knew as soon as that was done, they just watched that ball and watched Tony mark it as the players fell around him,” he said.
More recently Mitcham has endured leaner times, collecting consecutive wooden spoons in 2006 and 2007.
President Matt McCubbin said financial difficulties and an exodus of players saw the club dive to Division 3 as the Tigers suffered one of the darkest periods in their history.
“When you are down on your knees, you’re not the most attractive club for people to want to come (to),” McCubbin said.
“They’re not exactly knocking the door down to join so we had to go out and source those players.”
The Tigers claimed the 2015 premiership to be promoted back to Division 2 but is again facing the possibility of demotion in 2018.
But now boasting more than 600 juniors, including four girls teams, McCubbin said the club was determined to return to the top flight.
“My committee has always had the mentality that we want to get the club back to where it should be and that is Division 1,” he said.
“We can get there, we just have to stay focused and do it the right way and not just buy our way back through.”
Mitcham will hold a gala dinner at St John’s Primary School on July 14 to mark its 130th year.
Contact the club through its website or Facebook for more information.
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