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Sebastopol Football & Netball Club

SEBASTOPOL FOOTBALL & NETBALL CLUB

The Sebastopol Football Club was formed in 1893, and completed in the Ballarat football Association. In that year, the club wore red & white colours. In 1894 the SFC changed their colours to blue & white, it was not until 1922 that the club adopted the blue and gold colours that we wear today.

The SFC was a founding club of the BFA and in its 1 year the club finished 4th. The Sebastopol FCX continued in this competition for several years and won our 1st premiership in 1920 and went onto repeat this success in 1929.

The SFC joined the B&DFA in 1930 and was Premiers in this competition in 1936 and runner up in 1937.

The SFC joined the BFL in 1938 and after finishing the home and away season in 4th place managed to make the Grand Final where they were defeated by South Ballarat.

The SFC joined the Clunes FA in 1939, where they experienced immediate success by taking the premiership. The club continued its nomadic period be re-joining the BFL in 1940.

Due to shortage of players caused by World War 2, South Ballarat and Sebastopol merged to become the South Ballarat/ Sebastopol FC.

Due to the War the BFL competition was put into recess in 1941 and the BFL Under 18 competition and BFL Under 16 competition merged to become the BFA, which was organised into 2 grades. A grade (for players under 21) and B grade (for players under 16). Sebastopol entered sides in both competitions. In 1942 the A grade competition become open age.

In 1943 the BFL was reformed but the SFC re-joined the Clunes FA in 1946. In 1947/48 Sebastopol competed in the BFL B grade competition where SFC drew with Wendouree in the Grand Final, only to lose the replay. This marked the beginning of a very successful era for the SFC who went onto win the BFL B grade competition (competing against clubs such as Burrumbeet, Creswick, Ballarat Imperials, Mt Clear, North City, Buninyong and Wendouree). The SFC were premiers in every year from 1950 to 1954.

The BFL B grade competition was renamed the BFL District Section in 1959 and the SFC remained in this competition until 1973, where we won a further premiership in 1965, 1967 and 1969.
The SFC joined and merged Ballarat Football League District Section and the Bacchus Marsh FL into the newly formed Ballarat & BMFL in 1973 and were runner up to Maddingley (Bacchus Marsh) in that year. The SFC remained in this competition until 1978 and won the Premiership in 1975.

The SFC re-joined the BFL in 1978 and was runner up in 1985 to North Ballarat and in 2000 to Melton FC.

Following a very successful recruiting campaign in 2000, the club finished 5th after the home and away season and through sheer grit and determination fought their way to a Grand Final appearance. With every chance for a win some 50/50 decisions went against us, losing by just 8 points.

With high hopes of suing the promising group to build on for the future the side was decimated by three transfers to the VFL side North Ballarat, on to AFL Bulldogs Rookie List and two students returning home to their home regional centre. Despite gaining a handful of very talented players from time to time to add to our local talent, we have yet to re-build a team of the calibre of the 2000 side.

Premierships
1920, 1929, 1936, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1975

 

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