The Ironbank Football Club was born in 1986 after a handful of players were dissatisfied with other clubs they were playing for. Permission to play football on the cherry Gardens Oval had to be granted by the Recreation Committee. Late in 1985 permission was granted from the Hills Football League for a team to be entered in the Division 1 A3 competition. After numerous meetings and discussions the club was formed and incorporated. Brian Morgan was elected President and Ron Axford Vice President. The Clubs colours and logo flowed on from the long standing tradition of the the Cricket Club that already occupied the ground.
Now the hard work began. We scraped and scrounged and after many working bees we erected our goal posts. These were Athol Morgans (Uncle Athols) irrigation pipes. We bought a line marker from the Stirling Council garage sale for $2. At this stage we had no showers and the only building was the small clubroom near the entrance to the ground. (Can be seen at the far “right” in picture on the Home page.)
The team was built by word of mouth. The first coach resigned due to work committments, so one of the players; a former North Adelaide Player; Bob Koehne became our first coach. Training had to be on Sundays as the ground didn’t have any lights. Two poles were eventually erected with pullies on them. Two old ex-show ground lights were pulled up before every practice. They swung around in the breeze and made it extremely difficult to catch the light when it was windy.
Ron Axford and Daryl Morgan purchased an old caravan which had been converted for selling merchandise from at the games. It was painted green & gold and became the canteen and bar. It also used as a grand stand on occassion by a well oiled John Hayden and Bill Wigzell. It of course had to be packed up after every game and towed away.
Our first jumper presentation was highlighted with the appearance of Barrie Robran who trained with the team. An old brown football was painted white by Daryl Morgan to make us look professional for night training. Barrie is still a patron of the club today and showed much interest in our development and has attended most presentation nights.
At long last the season started. Our first game was at Thunder Park against Echunga. The Captain being Ron Axford and the Vice Captain, Peter Harris. We even had to lend the opposition a player. Both teams and the Umpire changed in the small clubroom. Tony Armour was Ironbank’s first goal umpire and completed the first four games before
“Ajax” (Alan Axford) took over the role and “Bazza” (Barrie Axford) became our time keeper. They are both still continuing on in these positions today.
The day was a roaring success as we won by 20 goals. Ron Axford was best on ground with 6 goals. The Umpire complained to the Hills League that we didn’t have any showers. So something had to be done. The next game was an away game and then there was a long weekend following that. It was decided that showers would be built in this time. After a lot of donations, and hard work we erected our first change rooms with hot showers. The Happy Valley Council decided that this building did not conform to standards but let it stay for the duration of the football season. After the season the building was demolished and today “The Hill” stands as a memorial to the old change rooms.
After each home game, steak sandwiches were made and beers were consumed around the camp fire. Only a handful of people had kids (approx. 6). Crafers pub, a major sponsor, was our clubroom for many years. Many Saturday nights were spent there celebrating our victories.
We went through our first season undefeated and it wasn’t until the last minor round game when we met Mt. Lofty that we were beaten. We lost by 9 points in atrocious conditions. Nine people were out from the side that day with the flu yet we were still able to field a team. We went on to meet Mt. Lofty in the Grand Final and made ammends for our earlier loss by beating them 91 points to 35 points. A decisive Grand Final win. Our first Premiership in our first year.
One of the highlights of the finals series was the debut of the “Thunderettes.” This was made up of wives and girlfriends of the players. Their first appearance was in the second semi final at Uraidla in wet and very muddy conditions. The girls got our on the oval and enjoyed the mud after the game. They reappeared for the Grand Final and inspired us to a fantastic win.
1987 brought us new Change rooms and showers with council approval and our second senior team. Our “A Grade” played in Division 2 A2 and our “B Grade” played in Division 1 A3. Both teams made it to the finals but were not successful in taking our premierships.
Our first Junior team was formed in 1988 consisting of kids of players and Upper Sturt Primary School kids. Some of these people are playing today Daniel Axford, Daniel McLean and Guy Morris.
Club Rooms, Light Towers, Sprinklers and lots of hard work followed over the years to create what we have today.