Vermont Football Club

The Vermont Football Club is an Australian rules football club located in Vermont, Victoria. The club is nicknamed the Eagles and whose colours are purple & gold. They play in Division 1 of the Eastern Football League. The club has won the last 3 Division 1 premierships 2007, 2006, 2005.

Captain is Ryan Mullett and Vice Captain Kris Bardon. THey have been Coached by former Box Hill defender David Banfield for since 2004.

The Jumper is Purple with a gold eagle on the front with the wings up making out to be a v. On the back at the top has the club name and underneath the numbers it has the club sponsor

In May of 1920, Vermont played its first match against Warrandyte in the Reporter District Football Association. The match was played at home and Vermont had a wonderful victory 15-17 to 1-1, even though they wore the colours Red and Blue. The colours Purple with a Gold “V” were adopted as the Club colours at a meeting in 1919/20 but the jumpers and sox could not be made in time for the first match. The red and blue jumpers were hired - Vermont is one of the few Clubs that has never changed its colours although the design has been changed.

Vermont’s first Captain was Joe Kiker, who had come from Mitcham after playing there for a number of seasons including their 1914 Premiership. Joe also played for Hawthorn in 1914 and Richmond in 1909. In those days players regularly changed Clubs and often played in more than one competition at a time. Joe moved on to Coach Ringwood in 1921.

J. Kiker (Capt), F. Finch, E. Stewart, F. Peterson, the four Mau brothers, P. Kenny, W. Tuck, S. Willcox, W. Shambrook, W. Hutton, L. Boyle, H. Jacobs, A. Aumann, H. Budge and A. Arnall were members of the first team.

Vermont’s first VFL player came from this team when F. Peterson played 5 games with Collingwood in 1921. Interestingly, the W. Shambrook mentioned is directly related to 1980’s star half back flanker, Rod Shambrook .

It was a very successful entry into competition football, only missing out on the finals due to a defeat in the last home and away game by Mitcham. Canterbury were premiers. 1921 however proved to be even a more memorable year for a number of first time events -

 Vermont played in its new jumpers, the present day colours of purple and gold. According to the late Jack Corr, who purchased the first set of jumpers, purple and gold were the “Royal” colours and very popular at the time. On the 7th May, the Club occupied the almost completed new dressing rooms (located behind Terrara Road goals_ it was a grand day especially as the home side went on to soundly defeat Box Hill.

 That day also saw the appearance of Vermont’s very fist Junior side. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm did not match their skill and after eight big losses they withdrew from the competition.

Vermont has gone on to be the most successful Australian Rules Club in Melbourne, holding an Australian Open Age Record of 61 wins in a row from 1988 to 1991 under Coach Pter Kennedy.