The History of the Rowville Junior Football Club

The Shire of Ferntree Gully graded the flat paddock below Police Road east of Stud Road to form an oval and created a table drain around the playing surface. Saplings for the goal posts were obtained from the land south of Wellington Road then owned by William Angliss. (Pioneer Quarry is now located on part of this land).

The Club's first match was an away game against Mount Evelyn in Division 4 of the Eastern District Football League. The Stud Road ground adjacent to the Police Paddocks was pretty rough in the early years. During a match in 1970, a two foot copperhead snake found its way onto the playing area but was quickly and permanently removed.

Formation of the Junior Club

In 1969 the Club fielded a junior team for the first time. This Under 14 team was coached by Kevin Burns and in the following year Kevin continued on with the lads as they moved up into the Under 15 competition. In that year - 1970 - the first Committee was set up to look after the interests of the club's junior players.

The office holders were: Joe Diamond, President; Roy D'Andrea, Secretary; Doug Dobson, Treasurer; Mark Mitchell, Vice President and Gary Diamond, Assistant Secretary. Other committee members were Gwen Diamond, Anne Dobson, Alan Best and Patrick McHugh.

In the following year it was decided to return the administration of the juniors to the control of the general committee and this arrangement continued until 1980 when the junior football committee was re-established with Warren Grant as president and Lyn Monger as secretary.

The Move to Eildon Parade

Rowville Junior Football Club progressed well during the 1980s and in 1987 it relocated to the new sports oval in Eildon Parade. This was an excellent move and marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the Junior Club. Rowville was experiencing massive growth as a residential area and soon the club was catering for Under 16s, 14s, 12s and 10s teams. The Under 10s and 12s play in leagues that do not compete for premiership points. However, on special days during the season, the clubs get together to contest lightning premierships. Rowville Under 10s have won twice in 1985 and 1991 while the Under 12s took out the lightning premiership in 1987.

In 1989 the Under 14s won the premiership flag in Section 1 of the EDFL. Their coach was Denis Richardson who is an excellent communicator with young people and who is still an active coach with the club today.

The establishment of the Rowville Junior Football Club was in the first place aimed at promoting football as a good sporting outlet for the youngsters of Rowville and developing footy skills in young people. It was also hoped that the Junior Club would prove to be a good feeding ground for the senior teams. However, while the Junior Club has become a great success, juniors unfortunately do not always continue on to play in their senior years. Indeed, with the range of sports available today, the choice for young people is unlimited.

However, there have been several players who have gone through the ranks to play senior football for Rowville. Among them are Ron Hudson, Paul Spencer, Darren Hill, Wayne Herkess, John Griffiths, Richard Leigh and David Doolan. A number of Rowville players have also gone on to play in the VFA. They include Richard Leigh, Tony Richardson, Matthew Brigham, Matthew Partridge, Scott Hoare, Dale Harris and Shane Anthony.

The current Rowville Junior Football Club Committee is led by Tony Bundy, President; John Raucci, Vice President; Lorraine Apollonio, Secretary and Peter Thomas, Treasurer. Other Committee members are Louis Apollonio, Mick Attwood, Rod Challons, Sean Doyle, Steve Fontana, Maurice Pepper, Sophie Raucci, Rosanne Sablyak, Sally Thomas and Ian Webb. The Social Secretary is Jan Bundy.

Rowville Junior Football Club Honour Roll

Year	President	Secretary
1970	Joe Diamond	Roy D'Andrea
1980	Warren Grant	Lyn Monger
1981	Peter Nash	Lyn Monger
1982	Cynthia Arfi	Heather Davies
1983	Cynthia Arfi	Chris Myers
1984	Cynthia Arfi	Chris Myers
1985	Denis Richardson	Ann Gardner
1986	Denis Richardson	Ann Gardner
1987	Gordon Lindsay	Len Anthony
1988	Gordon Lindsay	Len Anthony
1989	Gordon Lindsay	Len Anthony
1990	Geoff Almond	Tony Bundy
1991	Geoff Almond	Steve Shelton
1992	Arthur McGuinness	Rob Warren
1993	Arthur McGuinness	Rob Warren
1994	Tony Bundy	Rob Warren

Year	Under 16s Coach	Under 14s Coach	Under 12s Coach	Under 10s Coach
1969		Kevin Burns
1970	Kevin Burns (U15)
1980	Michael Whiting
1981	Michael Whiting	Peter Nash		Ian Wheeler
1982	Michael Whiting	Peter Nash	John Griffiths	Ian Wheeler/
				Denis Richardson
1983	Peter Nash		John Griffiths	Ian Wheeler
				Denis Richardson
1984	John Greasley/	Steve Merriman	Denis Richardson
	Stephen Smith
1985		Brian King	Fred Blackman	Denis Richardson
1986		D. Hawker	Michael Whiting	Denis Richardson
1987	Len Anthony	Gordon Lindsay	Denis Richardson	Geoff Bury
1988	Len Anthony	Michael Whiting	Denis Richardson	Ian Webb
1989	Len Anthony	Denis Richardson	Gordon Lindsay	Tony Bundy
1990	Ian Webb	Denis Richardson	Lance Dewhurst	Tony Bundy
1991	Denis Richardson	David Shelton	Harvey Smith	Tony Bundy
1992	Denis Richardson	Shane Harwood	Peter Falvo	Tony Bundy
1993	Denis Richardson	Shane Harwood	Peter Falvo	John Raucci
			Tony Bundy	Peter Thomas
1994	Shane Harwood	Robert Skilton	John Raucci	Denis Richardson
			Peter Thomas

Year	Under 14s	Under 16s
1969	Graeme Diamond
1970	Andrew Dobson (Under 15)
1980		John Griffiths
1981		R. Whitfield
1983	Darryl Franks
1984		David Doolan
1987		Andrew Pronk
1988	B. Andrews
1989	Tony Richardson
1990	Dale Harris	Amish Hamed
1991	Daniel Micallef/Billy Richardson	Tony Richardson
1992	Billy Raucci	Aaron Zanussi
1993	Joel Cooke	Bill Richardson
1994	Steven Van Der Zwan	Bill Raucci

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