The Tuggeranong Valley Football Club is a semi-professional, community based

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 ...

club based in

Tuggeranong Tuggeranong () is a district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks and is the southernmost district of the Australian Capital Territory. The district comprise ...

, Australian Capital Territory. They competed in the

North East Australian Football League The North East Australian Football League (NEAFL ) was an Australian rules football league in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The league was formed in November 2010, and its inaugural ...

from 2011–13 and as of 2014 are a member club of the

AFL Canberra AFL Canberra is the name of the local governing body for and premier competition of Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory (and the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales). It acts as an umbrella to several competitions be ...

First Grade competition. The club also fields teams in the

rising stars (under 19) competition, third grade and women's competitions.

History

The club was actually formed as long ago as 1968 by a group of Department of Supply employees, recently transferred to

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

from

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 ...

. Adopting red and white as its colours, the team bore the name of Eastlake-Woden in recognition of the fact that it was sponsored by the Eastlake Football Club. Eastlake-Woden later became South Woden, and later still Sutherland. They first found competition in the Monaro Football League. They are the only club in graduate from a minor league into the Territory's major football competition. In 1976 Sutherland was admitted to the ACTAFL at under 19 level before adding reserves and senior teams in 1977 and 1979 respectively. Initially, the team found the going tough, but following a name change to Tuggeranong in 1983 fortunes began to improve. In 1986, under captain-coach Hans Heystraten, premiership success was finally achieved following a thrilling one-point grand final defeat of one of Canberra's foremost perennial football forces,

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the Queanbeyan-Pale ...

. In 1994 the club welcomed former St Kilda, Ainslie and Central District identity Kevin "Cowboy" Neale as senior coach and immediately adopted the Cowboys emblem, which it retained until forging an alliance with AFL club Hawthorn in 2003, whereupon it became known as the Hawks. The club has seen disappointing results since then as 2002 was the last year the first grade team made the finals. Numerous times the club has finished fifth on the ladder, just missing out on finals as well as claiming the wooden spoon from 2008–10. Since 2013, under Senior Coach Nathan Costigan the club reached back to back finals campaigns, including the 2015 preliminary final. The reserve grade side was crowned 2015 Premiers. Costigan resigned in 2017 and Peter Ashcroft was appointed Senior Coach. In 2020 the club reconstituted itself to become "Tuggeranong Valley Football Club".

Premierships

*ACTAFL 1st Grade (Men) ** 1986 *AFL Canberra 1st Grade (Women) **2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 *AFL Canberra Reserve Grade **1998, 2015 *AFL Canberra Colts/Under 18 **1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2007 *AFL Canberra 3rd Grade **2000, 2001 *AFL Canberra 4th Grade **2011 *Monaro Division **1976 (as South Woden), 1986 (in Division 2)

Notable players

The club has become a rich breeding ground for player talent, with the likes of Justin Blumfield (

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 ...

Aaron Hamill Aaron Hamill (born 20 August 1977) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who is best known for his time at the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) when he briefly captained the club. He also played fiv ...

( Carlton and St Kilda), Jacob Anstey (Carlton) and James Meiklejohn (

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

) going on to enjoy greater success in higher level competitions.

Mulrooney Medallists

*Stafford Cooper – 1998 *Luke Jess – 2003 *Craig Healey – 2009

References

External links

* * {{NEAFL AFL Canberra clubs 1968 establishments in Australia Australian rules football clubs established in 1968 2020 establishments in Australia Australian rules football clubs established in 2020 Sports clubs and teams in Canberra Former North East Australian Football League clubs