CARDIFF
Current Affiliation: Black Diamond Australian Football League (BDAFL) since 2000
Home Ground: Bill Elliott Oval
Formed: 1967; fielded a reserves team only 1968-9; seniors commenced 1970
Colours: Maroon and gold
Emblem: Hawks
Senior Premierships: Newcastle Australian Football League (NAFL) - 1979-80, 1996 (3 total); BDAFL - 2002, 2004-5-6 (4 total)
Elliott-Davey Medallists: Troy Bayliss 2000; Shawn Simpson 2001; Tim Sheldon 2007 (3 total)
Most Games: 329 by Paul Redman
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Neil Davies |
Cardiff Football Club came into being at a meeting at the town's Evans Oval Soccer Hall on 14th November 1967. The club, which was the collective brainchild of a group of ex-pupils of the local High School, fielded a team in the Newcastle Football League's reserve grade competition in 1968-9 before being accorded full senior status in 1970.
After struggling to hold its own at first, Cardiff gradually improved, and in 1974 the side contested its first senior grand final, losing to RAAF. In 1979, under the coaching of former Glenelg champion Neil Davies, the Hawks went top for the first time, overcoming the setback of a major semi final loss to Newcastle City to defeat the same opponent three weeks later in the grand final. The reason for the three week gap was that Cardiff needed a replay to dispense with the preliminary final challenge of Western Suburbs.
Under Davies's replacement as coach, Mick Storck, Cardiff enjoyed arguably the greatest season in its history to date in 1980 when it claimed the premiership undefeated. The ensuing couple of seasons brought losing grand finals against Newcastle City and Western Suburbs, but there then followed a prolonged period of decline, which was only arrested when Andrew Larkin was appointed senior coach in 1997. Under Larkin, the Hawks contested the next three grand finals, losing the first and last of these by narrow margins, but winning in conclusive fashion in 1998 to seal another undefeated premiership.
The 2000 season saw a restructuring of football in the region with the Newcastle and Central AFL competitions merging to form the Black Diamond AFL. To date, Cardiff has been easily the league's most successful club, contesting eight of the nine grand finals so far played, for victories in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
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