A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RMFL
by Harold G McLaren
A meeting was held in the Murray Bridge Institute Wednesday May 27 1931 with a decision taken to form a local football association. Key officials elected were A W Channon (chairman and arbitrator) and Sid Bradford (secretary treasurer).
The recently formed Murray Bridge Football Club had been split as evenly as possible into two clubs, Murray Bridge Imperials and Murray Bridge Ramblers. Ray Heinrich, who played for Imperials in 1931, recalled in an interview in late 1994 that he attended a meeting in Short's Bridge Street Cafe (Beauchamp’s for many decades) called to discuss the formation of both clubs.
These two new Murray Bridge clubs, together with Mypolonga, formed the River Murray Football Association the forerunner of today’s River Murray Football League. The Imperial and Rambler clubs are the two youngest in the RMFL competition.
At delegates meeting February 24 1953 ‘association’ was changed to ‘league’ on the motion of Merv Rowley and seconded by Cecil Heinrich. Twelve delegates supported the motion with four supporting an amendment by Mannum delegates Wakefield and Hese that there be no change. The reason for this change remains unknown.
Names of the various football competitions in existence in the late 1920s and early 1930s were often muddled in newspaper reports. The RMFA was often referred to in 1931 as the Murray Bridge Association. The 1930 River Murray Football Association competition comprised four teams - Port Mannum, Mypolonga, Ponde and Bridgeport. However some 1931 press reports referred to this competition as the Murray River Association whilst another report called it the Lower Murray Association.
Murray Bridge Imperials won the first ever match in the RMFA when they defeated Murray Bridge Ramblers 11-10 (76) to 10-13 (73) on Monday June 8th 1931. On the Saturday of that weekend a trial match between the two teams ended in a draw.
In a hard fought grand-final, ‘inclined at times to roughness’, Imperials took out the inaugural premiership by eight points. Scores were MB Imperials 4-14 (38) to MB Ramblers 4-6 (30).
Today (2008) the competition consists of seven clubs. They are Imperials (the most successful club), Jervois, Mannum, Meningie, Mypolonga, Ramblers and Tailem Bend. Since the formation of the competition only the three inaugural clubs have never played in any other competition. Clubs that have at some stage over the past 77 years played in the RMFL are Callington, Bremer, Palmer, Murray Bridge, Border Downs, Monteith, Border Downs/Tintinara, Murray Bridge Redlegs and Nairne Bremer.
Although football was played in Mannum in 1891 the town had numerous teams well into the 1920s and thus Meningie can lay claim to being the oldest single entity club in the competition. Football was played in Tailem Bend in the early 1900s but the town had various teams at times until the 1940s. Mypolonga and Jervois Football Clubs were both formed in the late 1920s. Research indicates some claims made by various clubs concerning early history, premiership success etc. are questionable if not incorrect.
Season 1937 saw the introduction of a B grade competition. Callington won the first three premierships before the second World War intervened. B grade matches were resumed in 1946. After several years of discussion a Colts competition was introduced in 1956. Season 1964 saw this competition split into Senior and Junior Colts. These grades later became Under 17.5s and Under 15s.
The current RMFL final five system introduced in season 1985. It has been retained despite the number of competing clubs being reduced from ten to seven.