THIS WEEKS GAMES

OUR GREAT GAME | Devonport: rich in football history
The origins of football in Tasmania’s North West coastal region are uncertain. It is possible
that the game was played in mining settlements from the 1870s, brought there from the
mainland, or by miners who travelled west from Launceston.
By 1881, however, the game was definitely being
played in both Latrobe and Devonport with clubs
being formed in both settlements.
The Devonport club was known as Formby, and this
became the Devonport Football Club in 1890. The
Club has, with the exception of the 1900 season,
been a permanent fixture in Tasmanian football ever
since.
A major landmark in the development of football
in the region came in 1910 with the establishment
of the 5 club North West Football Union which
Devonport joined in 1911. The club reached its first
grand final in 1914, downing Latrobe, and it repeated
this success the following year over Ulverstone.
Football was in recess from 1916-1918 due to the
Great War, and its resumption in 1919 was curtailed
throughout Australia due to the influenza epidemic.
In 1920 and 1921 Devonport fielded a 2nd team,
known as ‘Diggers’, which comprised returning
servicemen. This team won the 1921 NWFU
premiership with a win over Latrobe.
New club Burnie proved Devonport’s nemesis
on each of its next 2 grand final appearances, in
1927 and 1928, and the following year the entire
competition was thrown into disarray when the
Forth Bridge, which linked Latrobe and Devonport
to the other settlements in the area, washed away.
The 1929 and 1930 seasons saw Devonport and
Latrobe play against Deloraine and Kentish in an
‘Eastern Division’ of the NWFU. Dissatisfied with this
arrangement, Devonport withdrew from the NWFU in
1931 and spent the next 3 seasons participating in
the NWFA, winning a premiership in 1933.
In 1934 Devonport re-entered the new one
divisional NWFU and found the break at the height
of the Great Depression had not diminished their
competitiveness. The Club promptly reached the
next 5 grand finals, winning in 1934, 1936 and
1938.
While the Club has encountered lean times in
respect of premierships won at regional level since
the 1930s, only breaking through in 1981 for a
memorable triumph in the NWFU, many former
Devonport players have gone on to be community
leaders and outstanding citizens. More recently
Devonport has produced AFL players such as
Matthew Richardson, Jade and Brady Rawlings and
Grant Birchall.
Devonport also retains the honour of being the first
and only north-west Club to triumph in the original
Statewide competition. In the 1988 season the
Club was known as the Devonport Blues and much
acclaim surrounded the defeat of Glenorchy at North
Hobart Oval in arguably the most rugged State Grand
Final in Tasmanian football history.
4