Bardon Latrobe FC
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| Full name | Bardon Latrobe Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | 'Lats'; 'The Redlegs' |
| Founded | 1916 (as Latrobe Football Club) |
| Ground | Bowman Park, Bardon |
| Chairman | Rob Wheeler |
| Coach | David Bounds |
| League | Football Brisbane |
Bardon Latrobe Football Club, based at Bardon in Brisbane, Queensland, is one of the largest junior soccer clubs in Brisbane, with over 500 registered players. This iteration of the club was formed with the merging in 1970 of the Latrobe Soccer Club and the Bardon Soccer Football Club, two of the oldest clubs in the Brisbane football competition (the two clubs had previously merged for the 1941 season, as 'Latrobe-Bardon Soccer Club').
Although the local records are incomplete, the merged club, through its antecedent Latrobe Football Club (formed in 1916) appears to have had the longest continuous participation of any extant club in the Brisbane football competition. Whilst the Bardon Latrobe club's main focus since the merger has been predominantly on junior boys and girls' football, the club now has senior men's and women's teams playing in the Brisbane competition.
The club, previously known as 'Bardon Latrobe Junior Soccer Club', was officially renamed 'Bardon Latrobe Football Club' in 2014.
The contemporary club was originally formed as the 'Bardon Latrobe Soccer Football Club' for the 1970 season, with the merger of the Latrobe Soccer Club, then based at Gregory Park, Milton, and the Bardon Soccer Football Club, based at Bowman Park Bardon (see below). The merged club then played at Bowman Park, fielding both junior and senior teams, where it continues to play to this day. The reason for the merger is not recorded, but it is likely the two clubs did so to take advantage of their respective strengths in junior and senior football.
During the 1960s, the Bardon club had a reasonably large junior section, but its senior side was struggling and was relegated to the Third Division in 1969. Conversely, the Latrobe club had abandoned junior football in the mid-1960s and, despite winning three senior men's First Division premierships during the same period, had been relegated to the Second Division competition for season 1969. However, Latrobe won that Second Division premiership, providing the newly-merged club with promotion to the First Division for the 1970 season.
The newly merged club played its first season in the senior First Division (then the top tier in Brisbane football), where it finished a creditable fourth out of ten teams. The club continued playing in the First Division, but by 1976 was struggling financially as well as competitively. The decision was made to transfer the senior and reserve teams to the Mitchelton Football Club, where it would play the 1977 season as Bardon Latrobe, before being absorbed into the Mitchelton club. The club then decided to focus exclusively on junior football and was renamed the 'Bardon Latrobe Junior Soccer Club'. Despite this, a number of players subsequently elected to return to the Bardon Latrobe club and re-entered the Brisbane senior competition in the late 1970s as 'Bardon Latrobe Juniors', in a low division. The team won a number of premierships and regular promotion, culminating in promotion to Division 1 (the second tier of the newly re-structured Brisbane competition) in 1983, where they finished eighth out of twelve teams.
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