North Coast Australian Football League

The North Coast Australian Football League (also known as AFL North Coast) is an Australian rules football competition in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales.

A meeting to form an Australian Football club in Coffs Harbour was held in the Coffs Hotel on 6 December 1976. The meeting to form the Coffs Harbour club was attended by 12 enthusiastic people - all of whom were elected to the committee. Fred Miller, who had led the charge to establish the code in the district, was elected as President. The first Secretary-Treasurer was Brian Saville. The club did not have enough players for a team, or a coach, nor a ground to play on yet they commenced training at 5pm on Tuesdays in December at the St Augustine’s school oval such was their enthusiasm for the game. The new club chose to adopt the colours of North Melbourne Football Club, at that time enjoying great success in the then VFL, while the Dehnert brothers, Noel and Phil volunteered to provide timber saplings for the goal posts.

The first-ever Australian football match played in Coffs Harbour was in 1977 between a University of New England team and Coffs Harbour 12 March at the Coffs Harbour Racecourse – the university side won the match 13.12 (80) to 4.13 (37). The Coffs Coast Advocate reported that the match attracted about 50 spectators and "despite the heavy conditions was enjoyed by everyone there". Some club scratch matches were played that year but the match at Coffs Harbour racecourse was the only official match played in Coffs in 1977. A North Coast team made of players from Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie played in the Northern NSW Country Championships at Gunnedah in May 1977 but lost both matches to New England and a North-West team. It was decided at these championships to play the 1978 series at Coffs Harbour to promote the game on the North Coast.

The Coffs Harbour club joined the New England AFL for the 1978 season. The competition had four teams based around the New England university and Uralla who had also entered the New England competition that year. There were two major challenges for the Coffs Harbour club now that it had a competition to play in. The first hurdle to overcome was to secure a ground to train and play on. The second issue was to travel for away games across to Armidale almost 180 kilometres away via Dorrigo Mountain with a large unsealed section of road at Ebor. The club was very fortunate to have Mike Cain as a committee member as he was working at the time as a town planner with the Coffs Harbour Shire Council. It was largely through his efforts that the club secured England’s Park as a home ground. Coffs Harbour enjoyed almost immediate success in this league finishing third in its initial season in the New England league then taking out the premiership in 1979.

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