Northcote Football Club
| Northcote | ||
|---|---|---|
| Names | ||
| Full name | Northcote Football Club | |
| Nickname(s) | Dragons, Brickfielders, Rosellas, Cotes | |
| Club details | ||
| Founded | 1870s | |
| Dissolved | 1987 | |
| Colours | Green and Yellow | |
| Competition | Victorian Football Association | |
| Premierships | 7: Div 1 – 1929, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936; Div 2 – 1961, 1982 | |
| Ground(s) | Northcote Park (1908) Croxton Park (1909–1914) Northcote Park (1915–1987) |
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Northcote Football Club (/ˈnoːθ.kət/), nicknamed The Dragons, was an Australian rules football club which played in the VFA from 1908 until 1987. The club's colours for most of its time in the VFA were green and yellow and it was based in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote.
Northcote joined the VFA from the Victorian Junior Football Association in 1908. Prior to the 1912 season, Northcote and neighbouring northern suburban club Preston, who were both struggling on-field, amalgamated; the merged club played in Northcote, and competed for a few years under the name Northcote-Preston, before reverting to Northcote. Prior to 1915, the Association forced the club to move its playing base to Northcote Park from its preferred home ground at Croxton Park, because the latter – a private ground adjoining the Croxton Park Hotel – had been notorious for more than a decade for the unruly conduct of its patrons; Northcote Park was shared with the Northcote Cricket Club, and it served as the club's home ground for the remainder of its time in the VFA.
For its first two decades in the VFA, Northcote failed to have a significant impact. This changed in 1929, when the club won its first premiership and began the most prolific period in its history. The club won five premierships, five minor premierships, and finished runners-up on a further two occasions in eight seasons from 1929 until 1936. The club did not win another top division premiership in its time in the Association.
As the Association expanded through the 1950s, Northcote became one of the weakest clubs in the Association. The club had a low supporter base, and could only offer lower match payments than most other clubs, to the point when the club was fully amateur from 1953 until 1955, then again in 1958. This weakness was reflected in generally poor onfield performances – with the notable exception of a preliminary final appearance in 1954 when the club was fully amateur.
After the Association split into two divisions, Northcote won the inaugural Division 2 premiership in 1961, but spent only two seasons in Division 1 before being relegated at the end of 1963. It never returned to the top division, and spent the next 24 years competing in Division 2. The club remained middle-of-the-pack in Division 2 throughout the 1960s and 1970s, often finishing just outside the finals. The club won its second Division 2 premiership in 1982; it was not promoted to Division 1 after the premiership due to a restructure of the two-division system, but the club later commented that it probably could not have afforded the extra expense of playing in the top division.
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