Balmain Australian Football Club is a NSWFL foundation

Australian Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

club competing in the

Sydney AFL AFL Sydney is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia which has been run since 1903. In 1980 was known as the "Sydney Football League" and renamed the "Sydney AFL" in 1998 before adopting its current name ...

Premier League and based out of the Sydney suburb of Balmain. The team train at Rozelle Parklands from 6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Home games were played at HJ Mahoney Park in Marrickville. In 2025, Balmain will play its home games at Rozelle Parklands.

History

The club formed in 1903 as the ''Balmain Football Club'', a founding member of the Sydney Football League. The Tigers won the Sydney AFL flag most recently in 2014.

Famous players

Jack Ashley played for Balmain before being recruited by , taking part in the clubs 1913

Championship of Australia The Championship of Australia was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested between football clubs from the Victoria, Australia, Victorian and South Australian football leagues for most of its history, with clubs from the West ...

victory and winning the

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Willi ...

the following year.

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

player

Troy Luff Troy Luff (born 22 November 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League. Football career Troy Luff grew up in the town of Traralgon, Victoria, where he lived until high school age. He ...

played for Balmain after retiring from the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

from 2002 onward.

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

player

Wally Messenger Walter Messenger (9 July 1891 – 1 January 1961) was the youngest son of Charles A. Messenger and Annie (née Atkinson). He was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1910s and into the 1920s. He was a state and national repr ...

(the brother of

Dally Messenger Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger, (12 April 1883 – 24 November 1959) was an Australian rugby league and rugby union player. One of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, he is recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in eit ...

) played for the club in its early days. Players to make

VFL/AFL The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

level from the Balmain Tigers over the years included John Stephenson (1907,

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington United Kin ...

), Jack Armstrong (1925, St Kilda), Neil Davies (1955,

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

Paul Feltham Paul Feltham (1 October 1948 – 19 December 2019) was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He played 154 games for and in the Victorian Football League between 1970 and 1978, and later served as the caretaker senior coach of the Brisbane ...

(1970–78,

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

, Richmond) and

Ray Hall Ray Hall may refer to: * Ray Hall (Australian footballer) (born 1980), Australian rules footballer * Ray Hall (American football) (born 1971), American football player * Ray Hall (basketball) (born 1962), American basketball player and coach * ...

(1999, Richmond). In 2010 and 2011 Nic Fosdike (

) was the senior playing coach while Nick Davis (

), Jason Saddington (

) and Chad Fletcher (

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

) played alongside Fosdike. In 2014 the club broke a 16-year drought to take out the Division 1 premiership

External links

* * Australian rules football clubs in Sydney Australian rules football clubs established in 1903 1903 establishments in Australia Balmain, New South Wales {{AFL-team-stub