The Rutherglen Football and Netball Club is an

Australian rules 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 ...

and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

club playing its home games in

Rutherglen, Victoria Rutherglen is a town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, near the Murray River border with New South Wales. The town was named after the Scottish town of Rutherglen which lies just outside Glasgow. At the , Rutherglen had a population of 2,57 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The current Rutherglen FNC was created after the merger of

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (OMFNL or O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales ...

sides

Rutherglen Rutherglen (; , ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lo ...

and

Corowa Corowa is a town in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is on the bank of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria, opposite the Victorian town of Wahgunyah. It is the largest town in the Federation Counci ...

in 1979. Surplus players from the new Corowa-Rutherglen club reformed Rutherglen (initially as Rutherglen-Corowa) and played in the

Coreen & District Football League The Coreen & District Football League was an Australian rules football competition in the Coreen, New South Wales, Coreen district of the Riverina in New South Wales, initially formed in 1909. The netball competition commenced in 1972 in line w ...

for 13 years. A stint in the

Ovens & King Football League The Ovens & King Football Netball League (OKFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in north-eastern Victoria (state), Victoria around the regional cities of Benalla, Victoria, Benalla and Wangaratta, Victoria, Wanga ...

followed before moving to the

Tallangatta & District Football League The Tallangatta and District Football League (TDFL) is an Australian rules football competition in north-eastern Victoria (state), Victoria and the southern border area of the Riverina region of New South Wales. The clubs compete across four c ...

. The club dropped the Corowa part in its name in 2002.

History

Predecessor club

The original Rutherglen FC was established in 1877, with the first recorded match being against

Wahgunyah Football Club Wahgunyah Football / Netball Club is an Australian Rules Football club based in North Eastern Victoria that currently competes in the Tallangatta & District Football League. Club history The town of Wahgunyah has had an Australian rules footba ...

on Wednesday, 3 June 1877. Football was played intermittently in the club's formative years against other local towns and districts in the late 1870s and 1880s before it joined the Ovens And Murray Football Association in 1893 as one of four original teams. The club was based at Rutherglen's Barkly Park, located just off Reid Street and just north-west of the town's center. It was a powerhouse in the Ovens And Murray Football Association during its early days competing in many finals.

The birth of the ''Cats'' (1979)

Following the establishment of the Corowa-Rutherglen Roos in 1979, after the merger of the Corowa Spiders and the Rutherglen Redlegs, a number of surplus players decided to form the Rutherglen-Corowa Cats (known in some record books as the Corowa-Rutherglen Cats). Wearing a navy blue and white hooped jersey along with navy blue shorts and navy blue and white hooped socks for the majority of its history, the club was based at Barkly Park. It joined the

, based around the farming districts north of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. The club enjoyed 13 short but successful seasons in the Coreen & District Football League, winning a total of 16 Premierships across the three respective grades, including three senior premierships from eight grand final appearances. After the 1991 season the club left the New South Wales-based Coreen & District football League for the Victorian

, based around the greater

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...

area and encompassing many former gold-rush communities. It spent 11 seasons in the Ovens & King Football League, where neither the senior side nor the reserve side contested a grand final. However, the Under 16s contested four grand finals from 1999 to 2002, claiming the club's sole premiership in 2001 over Bright by 29 points at the Tarrawingee Rec Reserve. The club officially changed its name to the Rutherglen Football Club in 2002, dropping the Corowa name 23 years after the merger. At the end of the 2003 season, the Beechworth Football Club and the Rutherglen Football Club applied for an application to join the

, but were refused by the Ovens and King board. The clubs took an appeal to the Victoria Country Football League and won the right to join the Tallangatta & District Football League for the 2004 season. The Victorian

is based around the small towns and farming districts near

Tallangatta Tallangatta () is a town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. The town lies on the banks of the Mitta Arm of Lake Hume, approximately south-east of Albury-Wodonga along the Murray Valley Highway. At the , Tallangatta had a population of 1 ...

with every finals match being held at the Sandy Creek Oval, locally referred to as the "MCG of the Bush". Since joining, the club's jersey has been varied slightly to re-introduced the white monogrammed "RFC" of the Redlegs along with keeping the navy blue and white hoops of the Cats. While the club still hasn't tasted premiership success at senior or reserve levels after playing a number of final series, the club won its first Tallangatta & District Football League Premiership in 2007 when the Under 14s defeated Yackandanda by three points. Traditionally, the club does not play on the Queen's Birthday Weekend as the town hosts the annual Winery Walkabout. However, in 2016 the Corowa-Rutherglen Roos moved their OMFL and Round 11 match against the Wodonga Bulldogs to Barkly Park. The club's numbers have continued to grow each season, including club staff, supporters and sponsors.

Honours

Premierships and achievements

Individual honours

Team of the Century (1903–2003)

;Team ref: * EssendonDesign

(1903–78) * Rutherglen fc monogram

(1903–78) * AFL North Melbourne Icon

Corowa-Rutherglen (1979–2003) ;Notes: * ¹ G. Tobias was named in the Team of the Century for his career with the Corowa FC. He was also a foundation player for the Corowa-Rutherglen FC in 1979

Hall of Famers

VFL/AFL players

The following footballers played with Rutherglen Corowa FC prior to playing senior AFL football. *

**1987 - Michael Gayfer - Collingwood **1987 -

John Longmire John Longmire (born 31 December 1970) is the former senior coach of the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2011 to 2024. As a player, he represented the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AF ...

- North Melbourne **1988 - Brett McKenzie - North Melbourne **1988 - Mark O'Donoghue - North Melbourne **1988 - Michael Garvey -

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

**2002 - Robbie Campbell - Hawthorn (2002–2009) &

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

(2011) The following footballers played VFL seniors prior to playing with RCFNC. *1984 - Vin Doolan - North Melbourne *2004? -

Nicky Winmar Neil Elvis "Nicky" Winmar (born 25 September 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer best known for his career for and the in the Australian Football League (AFL), as well as in the West Australian Football League. An Indigenous Austra ...

- St Kilda (1987–1998) &

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

(1999)

Notes

References

External links

*
Gameday website
{{Tallangatta & District Football League Ovens & Murray Football Netball League clubs Netball teams in Victoria (state) 1979 establishments in Australia Sports clubs and teams established in 1979