History
The football club lobbied for a long time to find a permanent home, with the club outgrowing its temporary home at the Greenwith Oval & Greenwith Community Centre within the first two years, after rapidly growing junior numbers. [4] Despite this, the council, unfortunately, had nowhere else for the club to move to, and the club had to wait until 2001 before a decision to move from its temporary clubrooms could be made. [5] Talks were held in the 2002 pre-season for the club to move its base to Golden Grove High School. However, negotiations with the school were stopped as neither party could agree on the building of a licensed clubhouse. [6] Club officials were "disgraced" when offered a stop-gap solution by the council at the end of the 2002 season, offering to build new toilets and changerooms, but no clubrooms. [7]
A breakthrough for a permanent home occurred in 2004 when the club was given the green light for a future permanent home at Harpers Field. [8] However, there was still the major hurdle of funding for clubrooms. Originally approved for a $2.1m council grant to build clubrooms, this was later declined due to a change in federal government and the council not willing to pick up the extra 50% funding. [9] A match in 2004 was one for the history books, when the Golden Grove A Grade defeated Greenacres by an enormous 297 points. This still remains the club's biggest win, highest score and the Adelaide Footy League's 27th highest ever score in a single match - 51.21 (327) d. 5.3 (33). [10]
Late 2008 saw the final documents signed to secure a clubhouse and by the start of the 2010 season, the club was ready to operate from its new home. [11] The club made agreements with Tea Tree Gully Council to assist with the development of the Harpers Field site and this led to the work starting on the second oval. The oval was finished and ready to use at the start of the 2013 season. This gave the club two ovals and marked the end of the use of Greenwith Oval. [12] Since 2013, the club has developed the site to include goal netting, an electronic scoreboard, a canteen/kitchen extension and new lighting. The new floodlights were officially switched on at the trial game against Modbury on Saturday 21 March 2015. [13] Early in 2015 the committee signed a ten-year lease of the Harpers Field site with Tea Tree Gully which gives the club primary use of all the facilities.
More recently the club was awarded a share of a national grant to upgrade women's change rooms at sporting venues around Australia. The upgraded changerooms were completed for the beginning of the 2017 season. [14]
During the 2017 season, the 'Kookaburras' made their way through to the Division 3 Grand Final facing the Brighton Bombers who were competing in their first Adelaide Footy League season since moving from the Southern Football League, returning to the league they left 20 years ago. [15] They were comfortably beaten by 49 points, [16] however ensured their promotion into Division 2 for the 2018 season, being the highest division the club had ever competed in since its inception.
At an October 2019 Tea Tree Gully Council meeting, the Golden Grove Football Club had the motion passed for a feasibility study regarding expansion and a new clubhouse to be undertaken at Harpers Field. [17] Following this feasibility study, a grant of $12 million dollars was approved in April 2021 for a significant upgrade to the Harpers Field clubrooms and facilities. Early on-site works began in late 2022, with main building works commencing in February 2023. The project was completed and handed over in June 2024 and features four inclusive changerooms, bar, function area, grandstand with safe standing areas and viewing platform. [18]
The 2023 season was the clubs most successful season on record, as the Kookaburras gained promotion into Division 1 for the first time in their 28 year history, with club record 95pt win over PHOS Camden in the 2023 Preliminary Final. They continued their success with their biggest Grand Final win in Golden Grove's short history two weeks later, a 56pt win over Payneham Norwood Union, the first time back-to-back A Grade premierships had been won (2022, 2023). Adding to the success, the season also featured the B Grade's continued dominance, winning their fouth premiership in a row (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) with a record of 67-3 over the 4 years and the club's first ever Women's Premiership (Division 6).
