Omeo & District Football League


The Omeo and District Football League is an Australian rules football League based on the Omeo
Region of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The ODFL has existed in some form since 1893, and operates under the auspices of the Victorian Country Football League. The league is situated in an area with a small population, resulting in the league playing 16-a-side rather than the standard 18-a-side, and not fielding a reserve grade.
Clubs involved in the ODFL are invited to field a men's Senior football team and boys' Junior football team. Clubs can also enter a women's Senior netball team, and girls' Junior and Midget netball teams competing in a concurrent netball league.

History

The first recorded football competition in the Omeo District, dates back to 1893. Other than short recesses resulting from the two World Wars, some type of official competition has continued uninterrupted from this time. In 1923 the competition was renamed the Omeo District Football League , and it has continued with this name until the present day.
Throughout most of its history the ODFL and its precedents has contained teams from the four main towns of the Omeo District, namely Benambra, Ensay, Omeo, and Swifts Creek. Up until around World War I, when the population of the region was significantly higher due to the lingering effects of the gold rushes, a team from the now minor locality of Cassilis was also involved in most seasons and experienced considerable success. Records indicate other historical localities from the district also occasionally fielded teams, including Bindi, Glen Wills, Little River, Reedy Creek, and Tambo Crossing. Since 1893 Omeo, or its later incarnation as the merged Omeo-Benambra team, has competed in all but possibly two seasons, while Swifts Creek has never missed a season, making it one of the oldest continuously operating Australian Rules Football or general sporting clubs in the country.
The league was named for Omeo, the largest town and traditionally the administrative centre of the region. The area was commonly referred to as the Omeo District, and existed as the independent local government Shire of Omeo, or Omeo Shire, until it was amalgamated with several other shires into the newly formed Shire of East Gippsland in 1994.
In historical times the region was relatively isolated, with the remote 52 km section of the Omeo Highway between Ensay and Bruthen mainly unsealed and regularly impassable, especially during the winter months. This made the road slow to navigate, especially before readily available motorised transport became common. This was the reason for the historical governmental separation of the region despite its low population, and explained the need for the small isolated football league.

ImageSize = width:820 height:210
PlotArea = width:600 height:130 left:200 bottom:30
AlignBars = late
BarData=
bar:ODFL text:Omeo District Football League
bar:TVFA text:Tambo Valley Football Association
bar:ODFA text:Omeo District Football Association
bar:NEC text:Noble Explosives Cup
bar:BMC text:Boyle & Mac's Challenge Cup
Colors =
id:grey value:gray
id:lgrey value:gray
id:vlgrey value:gray
id:name value:black
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1890 till:2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1890 gridcolor:lgrey
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1890 gridcolor:vlgrey
PlotData=
color:lgrey width:12
bar:ODFL
from:1923 till:1941
from:1945 till:2017
bar:TVFA
from:1907 till:1915
from:1919 till:1926
bar:ODFA
from:1899 till:1908
from:1914 till:1915
from:1919 till:1922
bar:NEC
from:1897 till:1899
bar:BMC
from:1893 till:1897
TextData=
pos: fontsize:L text:Timeline of Omeo District/Tambo Valley Football Competitions

Boyle and Mac's Challenge Cup (1893–96)

The earliest recorded history of a football competition in the Omeo District was the Boyle and Mac's Challenge Cup, referred to alternatively as the Boyle and Mac Cup, Boyle Mac Challenge Cup, or Boyle Mac trophy. This competition began in 1893, four years before the formation of the Victorian Football League, the premier football league in Victoria and Australia. It is unknown exactly why the competition had the Boyle and Mac's title, however the captain of Omeo was named Boyle.
Records indicate that the 1893 trophy was awarded following a series of games between Long Gully, Omeo, and Swifts Creek Football Clubs, with each club playing the others two times for a total of six matches. A newspaper report from early in the season suggests a final match was scheduled, presumably between the top two sides, however the same paper reported at the end of the season that the winner of the cup was decided on the top placed team at the end of the six matches, with no actual final being played.
Swifts Creek defeated Omeo in the final match of the season, placing them two points clear at the top of the ladder with two wins and a draw, from Omeo with two wins, and Long Gully with one win and a draw. The 1893 trophy is engraved on the front with:
BOYLE & MAC'S
CHALLENGE CUP
Won by
SWIFT'S CREEK
1893
with a separate engraving on the back presenting the trophy to the club's secretary. The Boyle and Mac's Challenge Cup ran from 1893 until 1896.

Noble Explosives Cup (1897–98)

Following the 1896 season the Boyle and Mac's Challenge Cup was disbanded, being replaced with the Noble Explosives Cup. This competition only ran for two seasons, 1897 and 1898, with its two premiers being Omeo and Cassilis.

Omeo District Football Association (ODFA) (1899–1907, 1914–21)

The Omeo District Football Association was formed in 1899, replacing the Noble Explosives Cup. The competition ran under this name from 1899 to 1907, then from 1914 to 1921. Clubs that competed in the ODFA over this time were Cassilis, Omeo, Benambra, Swifts Creek, and Ensay, although only Omeo played in every season that the ODFA was operational. After a year's absence in 1922, the competition would relaunch in 1923 as the Omeo District Football League. Further discussion is included below on the interaction between the ODFA and the Tambo Valley Football Association during their overlapping years of operation between 1907 and 1921.

Tambo Valley Football Association (TVFA) (1907–25)

The mainstays of the early football competitions up to the ODFA were Swifts Creek and Omeo, with Long Gully/Cassilis, Benambra, and Ensay also fielding teams in some or most years. In 1907 the competition split into two branches. The ODFA continued as an 'above the gap' competition involving Omeo, Benambra, and Cassilis, while a new 'below the gap' competition, the Tambo Valley Football Association , was formed by Swifts Creek, Ensay, and a new team from the small locality at Bindi. At this time roads were poor and transport options limited, making the 70 km between Benambra and Ensay for example very significant, so presumably this split was largely to help with travel as the competition expanded to more clubs over a larger area.
In 1908, after just one year of the split competition, the ODFA temporarily folded, leaving the TVFA as the only competition in the district. In 1909 the short-lived Bindi club was discontinued, and after a year's hiatus Omeo and Cassilis joined Swifts Creek and Ensay in the TVFA competition, taking it back to four of the regular teams from the previous ODFA. Benambra did not field a team again until 1914 when the TVFA/ODFA split was again implemented. For this split competition in 1914 Bindi temporarily reformed to make up numbers in the TVFA, and the dominant Swifts Creek club which had won the last six straight premierships fielded a one-time only second team, Swifts Creek A, which would lead to the unusual situation of Swifts Creek A defeating Swifts Creek in the 1914 TVFA Grand Final.
After just one year of this re-split competition, World War I would then cause both competitions to enter recess from 1915 to 1918. Following the war in 1919 both competitions again recommenced, but Swifts Creek now returned to the ODFA along with Omeo, Benambra, and Cassilis in their last ever season. The TVFA meanwhile would consist of Ensay and two nearby minor localities, Reedy Creek and Little River. At the end of 1921 the ODFA wound up for the last time, and Omeo and Swifts Creek rejoined Ensay in the TVFA for the 1922 season. The commencement of the rebranded ODFL in 1923 would see Omeo and Swifts Creek again leave the TVFA to take part in that competition, with the TVFA having its last ever season in 1925 with Ensay, Reedy Creek, and a once only team from Tambo Crossing. After this Ensay would again join Benambra, Omeo, and Swifts Creek in the new ODFL.

ImageSize = width:800 height:370
PlotArea = width:600 height:250 left:120 bottom:50
AlignBars = late
BarData=
bar:TC text: Tambo Crossing
bar:SCA text:Swifts Creek A
bar:SC text:Swifts Creek
bar:RC text:Reedy Creek
bar:O text:Omeo
bar:LR text:Little River
bar:E text:Ensay
bar:C text:Cassilis
bar:BI text:Bindi
bar:BE text:Benambra
Colors =
id:grey value:gray
id:lgrey value:gray
id:vlgrey value:gray
id:premier value:brightblue legend: Premiers
id:name value:black
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1906 till:1925
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1907 gridcolor:lgrey
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1907 gridcolor:vlgrey
PlotData=
color:lgrey width:12
bar:TC
from:1924 till:end
bar:SCA
from:1913 till:1914
at:1914 mark:
bar:SC
from:1906 till:1914
from:1921 till:1924
at:1908 mark:
at:1909 mark:
at:1910 mark:
at:1911 mark:
at:1912 mark:
at:1913 mark:
bar:RC
from:1918 till:1921
from:1924 till:end
bar:O
from:1909 till:1911
from:1912 till:1913
from:1921 till:1924
at:1922 mark:
at:1923 mark:
at:1924 mark:
bar:LR
from:1918 till:1921
at:1921 mark:
bar:E
from:1907 till:1914
from:1918 till:end
at:1907 mark:
at:1919 mark:
at:1920 mark:
bar:C
from:1909 till:1913
bar:BI
from:1906 till:1908
from:1913 till:1914
bar:BE
from:1923 till:1924
TextData=
pos: fontsize:L text:Tambo Valley Football Association

Omeo District Football League (ODFL)/Omeo District Football Netball League (ODFNL) (1923–present)

In 1923 the Omeo District Football League was formed to replace the ODFA, and has continued with that name ever since. Following the termination of the TVFA after the 1925 season, the ODFL competition ran for more than fifty years with a stable four club structure involving the four main Tambo Valley/Omeo District towns, Benambra, Ensay, Omeo, and Swifts Creek.
In 1978 the league first expanded beyond its traditional range, with Bruthen and Buchan being admitted. Following on from this the competition later became more often referred to as the Omeo and District Football League, with the "and" recognising that it now incorporated teams from beyond the original Omeo District. In 1995 one of the four traditional clubs, Ensay, folded due a lack of players. In 1997 the league admitted two more new clubs from beyond its original range, Swan Reach and Lake Tyers. Lake Tyers would only play for two seasons, but in 2004 another outside team, Lindenow South was also admitted.
By the 2000s many clubs were struggling to find sufficient players every week, and the two historic 'above the gap' teams, Benambra and Omeo, would make the difficult decision to merge and form Omeo-Benambra from the 2007 season onwards. By this era most of the football teams in the competition had also already fully affiliated with their associated netball teams, and the competition eventually officially adopted the title of Omeo District Football Netball League .

Key events in competition history

Note: unless otherwise stated, all items refer to senior football teams. Netball and junior teams often, but not always, follow the senior football teams. There are also insufficient available data sources relating to netball and juniors, including when the competitions originated.
Note that details given in this section refer to senior football teams. In terms of colours and jumper designs, junior football teams generally follow the same design as senior teams. Netball teams share much the same colour combination, typically with a skirt of one of the primary team colours and a top of the other colour. Years in the league for other teams are also mainly in line with the club's senior football, although clubs are not always able to field all teams in any given year.

Current

* Note that the jumper design shown is a representation of the club's most recent jumper design. Most designs have been changed over the years, some quite significantly.

Previous

* Note that the jumper design shown is a representation of the club's final known jumper design. Where the design is unknown, a representation of the club colours, if known, is displayed instead.

Premierships

Senior football

As ODFL

Pre-ODFL

Junior football is open to all players under sixteen years of age on the first of January each year. Due to the low population and the number of players needed for football teams this is the only junior competition available, raising the unusual challenge that teenagers as old as sixteen may be playing against children as young as six.
SeasonPremierRunner UpScoreMargin
2019Lindenow SouthBruthen18.18 – 3.4
104
2018Omeo-BenambraSwan Reach11.17 – 5.6
47
2017Swan ReachOmeo-Benambra8.13 – 4.6
31
2016Swan ReachOmeo-Benambra11.19 – 5.3
52
2015BruthenBuchan10.12 – 6.8
28
2014BruthenOmeo-Benambra11.13 – 11.9
4
2013BuchanSwan Reach17.10 – 13.7
27
2012BuchanSwan Reach12.12 – 5.9
45
2011Omeo-BenambraSwifts Creek12.8 – 8.10
22
2010BruthenSwifts Creek13.8 – 3.3
65
2009BruthenOmeo-Benambra8.13 – 7.5
14
2008Bruthen
2007Bruthen
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002OmeoSwifts Creek13.18 – 7.7
47
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997Bruthen
1996Bruthen
1995Swifts Creek
1994Swifts Creek
1993Swifts CreekBenambra
70
1992Benambra
1991Bruthen
1990Buchan
1989Omeo
1988Omeo
1987Bruthen
1986Bruthen
1985Bruthen
1984BruthenSwifts Creek
1983Ensay
1982Swifts CreekEnsay
23
1981BruthenSwifts Creek15.12 – 3.0
84
1980BuchanBruthen
72
1979BruthenBuchan12.17 – 5.1
58
1978BuchanSwifts Creek
1977Swifts Creek
1976Swifts Creek
1975Swifts Creek
1974Ensay
1973Omeo
1972Omeo
1971Omeo
1970Ensay
1969Omeo
1968Swifts Creek
1967Omeo

Senior netball

"B" Grade
SeasonPremierRunner UpScoreMargin
2019Lindenow SouthBuchan
26 - 11
15
2018Lindenow South'''Bruthen
27 - 23
4

Junior netball (17 and Under)

Junior netball is open to all female players seventeen years of age and under as of the first of January each year. Prior to 2019 it was an Under 16 competition, open to girls under sixteen years of age as of the first of January. While potentially any juniors can play in these teams, in practical terms girls under twelve will generally only play midgets. Junior boys may also participate in the netball teams.
SeasonPremierRunner UpScoreMargin
2019BuchanLindenow South
29 – 26
3
2018Lindenow SouthSwifts Creek
27 – 26
1
2017Swifts CreekBruthen
32 – 29
3
2016Swan ReachSwifts Creek
30 – 24
6
2015Swan ReachOmeo
15 – 13
2
2014OmeoSwifts Creek
21 – 9
12
2013BuchanOmeo-Benambra
2012
2011Swifts CreekBruthen
23 – 21
2
2010
2009Swifts CreekOmeo
23 – 20
3

Midget netball (Under 12)

Midget netball is open to players under twelve years of age as at the first of January of each year; while it is primarily a female sport, boys may also compete. Prior to 2019 is was open to players attending primary school, effectively making it approximately an under eleven competition. Finals are not played in midget netball; the team that finishes at the top of the ladder at the end of the regular season is regarded as the premier team.
SeasonPremierRunner Up
2019Swifts CreekOmeo-Benambra
2018Omeo-BenambraSwifts Creek
2017BuchanSwifts Creek
2011Swifts Creek

Senior football final ladders

2010 Ladder

2011 Ladder

2012 Ladder

2013 Ladder

2014 Ladder

  • Buchan were disqualified for playing an ineligible player

    2015 Ladder