Burnie Dockers | |||
---|---|---|---|
Names | |||
Full name | Burnie Dockers Football Club | ||
Nickname(s) | Dockers | ||
Club song | "We're a happy team at Burnie" | ||
2020 (NWFL) season | |||
After finals | Premiers | ||
Leading goalkicker | Harry Walters (25) | ||
Club details | |||
Founded | 1995 | ||
Colours | |||
Competition | NWFL | ||
President | Peter Vincent | ||
Coach | TBA | ||
Ground(s) | West Park, Burnie (capacity: 12,000) | ||
Uniforms | |||
| |||
Other information | |||
Official website | burniedockers.com.au |
Burnie Dockers Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Burnie Tasmania, Australia. The club currently competes in the North West Football League (NWFL).
The Burnie Dockers were formed as a result of a merger between former TFL Statewide League club Burnie Hawks (formerly known as Cooee) and NTFL club the Burnie Tigers. After several years of bitter hatred in the city between the two rival clubs, both clubs were struggling both on-field and financially by the early 1990s.
In late 1993 the Burnie Hawks absorbed the Burnie Tigers and merged, however the club still played as the Burnie Hawks until, with the arrival of former North Melbourne champion Peter German, the club adopted a new emblem, colours and jumper designed to appease both sides of the divide.
From 1995 the Burnie Dockers were successful, making the 1996 and 1997 Grand Finals, but ultimately losing both to Southern powerhouse, Clarence. Shortly after, the Dockers found themselves (like many TFL clubs during the 1990s) in serious financial trouble and facing extinction until a late bailout by the Burnie City Council saved them. The Dockers participated in the Tasmanian Football League until 2000 when it announced it would be pulling out of the fledgling competition, the League therefore folding and the Dockers joined the Northern Tasmanian Football League in 2001.
Success was never far away and the Dockers became arguably Tasmanian football's most powerful domestic club during the early part of the 2000s, winning five consecutive NTFL premierships from 2001 to 2005. After two lean years, the Dockers bounced back in 2008. Playing in a thrilling NTFL grand final, the Dockers fought tenaciously against the all-conquering Launceston Blues, but fell short by 13 points in front of 5,274 fans at Latrobe.
Burnie rejoined the newly re-established Tasmanian State League (TSL) competition in 2009, and has played there since. Since 2015, its reserves team has competed in the North West Football League seniors, and it has also fielded teams in the junior grades of that competition. [1]
Burnie Dockers first fielded a women's team in 2013 in the Tasmanian Women's League. The Dockers competed in 3 consecutive grand finals taking out the TWL premierships in 2014 and 2016.
In 2017, Burnie withdrew from the NWFL seniors and reserves competitions due to lack of players. [2] In 2018, they withdrew from the Tasmanian Football League and rejoined the NWFL seniors, citing lack of players and raising questions about AFL support of local footy. [3] [4]
The club song is "We're a happy team at Burnie" which is based on "The Yankee Doodle Boy".
Affiliations – Burnie Tigers:
Affiliations – Cooee Bulldogs/Burnie Hawks:
Affiliations – Burnie Dockers:
Home ground:
Formed:
Colours:
Emblem:
Premierships – Burnie Tigers:
Tasmanian State Premierships:
Premierships – Cooee Bulldogs:
Tasmanian State Premierships:
Premierships – Burnie Dockers:
TSL Premierships:
Cheel Medallists:
S.L Alford Medallists:
Wander Medallists:
Baldock Medallists:
All-Australians:
NWFU leading goalkickers:
NTFL leading goalkickers:
TFL Statewide League leading goalkickers:
Highest scores:
Most games:
Record finals attendance:
There is a list of past and present Burnie Dockers players who have played at AFL:
The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the Tasmanian Football League (TFL) (formerly known as the Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL) and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian rules football league in Tasmania, Australia.
The North West Football League is an Australian rules football competition in North West Tasmania. The league was previously known as the "Northern Tasmanian Football League" from its inception in 1987 until the end of the 2014 season.
Australian rules football in Tasmania, has been played since the late 1860s and draws the largest audience for a football code in the state.
The New Norfolk District Football Club, nicknamed The Eagles, is an Australian rules football club currently playing in the Southern Football League, in Tasmania, Australia.
Cooee is a small town on the north-west coast of Tasmania immediately west of Burnie, to which it is in effect a dormitory suburb. At the 2011 census, Cooee had a population of 559.
The Ulverstone Football Club, nicknamed the Robins, is an Australian rules football club based in Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia. The club fields three teams in the North West Football League and also fields two junior teams in the AFL Tasmania North West Competition.
Garry McIntosh is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Norwood Football Club in the South Australian Football League (SANFL).
West Park Oval is an Australian Rules football, cycling and athletics venue located on the shores of Bass Strait in Burnie, Tasmania. It is the current home of the Burnie Dockers in the Tasmanian State League and previously in the NTFL and in the original TFL Statewide League.
Devonport Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Devonport, Tasmania. The club currently competes in the North West Football League (NWFL). The club previously competed in the Northern Tasmanian Football League, but from 2009 it joined the newly reformed Tasmanian State League, where it played until withdrawing before the 2018 season.
The North West Football Union (NWFU) was an Australian rules football competition which ran from 1910 to 1986. In its time it was one of the three main leagues in Tasmania, with the Tasmanian Football League and Northern Tasmanian Football Association representing the rest of the state. Burnie, Latrobe and Ulverstone were the most successful clubs with 12 premierships each.
The Tasmanian State Premiership was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested at the conclusion of the season, initially between the reigning Tasmanian Football League (TFL/TANFL) and Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA) premiers, and then from 1950 also by the NWFU premiers, to determine an overall premier team for the state of Tasmania. The state premiership was contested 57 times between 1909 and 1978.
Justin Plapp is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Justin was born in Penguin, Tasmania and attended Penguin High School.
The Latrobe Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in the town of Latrobe in northern Tasmania. The club competed in the North West Football Union throughout the competition's entire existence from 1910 until 1986, and has competed in its successor, the North West Football League, since 1987. Latrobe was one of the most successful NWFU clubs, and its tally of 12 premierships is a joint record shared with Burnie and Ulverstone. It was the only club to win four successive NWFU premierships, achieved from 1969 to 1972. In 2013, it became the first Tasmanian club outside of the State League to be inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame.
The South Launceston Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association. They were formed through a merger between City-South and East Launceston in 1986, clubs in the former Northern Tasmanian Football Association. South Launceston was in the TFL Statewide League from 1986 to 1997, then the Northern Tasmanian Football League until 2008, then in the Tasmanian Football League until 2013.
The North Western Football Association is an Australian rules football competition based on the North West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
The East Devonport Football Club is an Australian rules football club based on Devonport, Tasmania. The club competed in the North West Football League since 1987 until going into recess in 2021. The club currently has a full junior program in the NWFL.
Circular Head Football Club is an Australian rules football team that plays in the North West Football League, as the Circular Head Saints, based in the town of Smithton. Known throughout most of its history as the Smithton Saints, the club competed in the North West Football Union in two different stints, from 1949 to 1951 and then 1980 to 1986, then in the NWFL since 1987. It adopted the colours and nickname of Greater Western Sydney, becoming the Circular Head Giants from 2015 to 2019. In February 2019, the club went into recess due to a lack of player numbers, and folded in October of that year. It then reformed, and rejoined the NWFL from 2022, now adopting the name Circular Head Saints.
Statewide Australian rules football competition has been played in Tasmania, Australia under the umbrella of the Tasmanian Football League from 1986–1998, Football Tasmania from 1999–2000 until the competition was disbanded in December 2000 and AFL Tasmania from 2009 when a new ten-club competition, this time known as the Tasmanian State League, was formed.
The Burnie Hawks Football Club was an Australian rules football club based in Burnie, Tasmania, Australia from 1987 to 1994.
Athol Raymond Hodgetts is a former Australian rules football player and administrator, who played for North Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL), and served as the executive director of the Victorian Football Association.