Munglinup Football Club

The first informal game of Football at Munglinup was played on Newleigh in August 1966. The following report was in the Esperance Advertiser to mark the occasion. I remember the game well as I was tackled by Joe Riggs and was accidently driven face first into a partially baked cow pat. Joe was trying to apologise but was laughing so hard he couldn't get the words out.

The Ravensthorpe and Districts Football Association was formed following a meeting at Ravensthorpe in mid March 1968. It was decided at the meeting that those men wishing to play football from Ravensthorpe would be split into two teams based on whether they lived North (Tigers) or South (Southerners) of the Esperance to Ongerup Road. A team from Lake King was admitted to the Association at the meeting. Thus initially a three team competition was formed. Ref: The Esperance Advertiser 22 March 1968

Interestingly Ron Gibson was originally allocated to the Ravensthorpe North team but soon became Munglinup's inaugural Captain and playing Coach as the Munglinup Demons were also was admitted to the competition following an inaugural meeting at Munglinup on 4 April 1968. The Minutes of this meeting recorded by the late Reg Brooks can be found below.

The inaugural President was Reg Brooks, Secretary Ivan Collins and Captain Coach Ron Gibson.

The Demons won their first game which was played at Ravensthorpe against the Tigers on 5th May 1968 scoring 7.11 to 6.12 in a game that was described by the press as "scrambly but with some patches of excellent football".

Albert Fuss was named as best on ground with my 37 year old dad Geoff Jamieson and young Bob Pearce the leading goal scorers with two each.

Other players mentioned included Bill Muntz, Kelvin Jenkins, Ian Palmer and Bob Harris.

The Esperance Advertiser 10 May 1968

The first game to be played at the MCG (Munglinup Cricket Ground) was played the following week Sunday 12 May 1968 against Lake King. The ground was described by the Press as a "good oval and suitably marked".

It was a pretty hard and unforgiving surface and I remember an early game where the ground was covered by 3 inches of water. I have told the story many times, with perhaps a small level of hyperbole, it was so wet that Richard Field dislocated his shoulder doing breaststroke and a Lake King player was taken by a shark!

Based on the Official Records and Newspaper Reports named below are some of the players who played in that first season (Games played): Ron Gibson (16), Geoff Jamieson (9), Bob Pearce (6), Bill Muntz (10), Kelvin Jenkins (2), Ian Palmer (16), Bob Harris (8), Albert Fuss (16), Richard Field (2), Wally Deane (5), Bruce Hutchinson (12), John Reynolds (5), Greg Reynolds (16), Bill Brooks (16), Charlie Scadding (4), Geoff Pickersgill (15). Bill Benson (13), Ray Turton (15), K Beveridge (3), Ivan Collins (6), Gerhardt Frey (1), Phil Giles (1), Joe Riggs (3), Barry Martin (16), Kevin Jenkins (8), M Smart (2), Bill Smart (1), C Walker (4), G Gregory (2), J Hawkesford (13), Graham MacDonald (3), Richard Verco (9), C Preston (5), Ron Watt (10), I Nicholas (4), John Vagg (12), D Cameron (7), Paul Van Dyl (13), J Lucas (3), G Thorpe (1), and I Quinn (3).

If you know of other players or can provide more details please contact me.

The Munglinup Demons won the Premiership for the first time on Sunday 19th September 1971 scoring 11.11 to beat the Tigers by 12 points at Ravensthorpe.

Best players were John Hadley, Ian McArthur, Dave Lawrence, Ian Palmer, Andrew McDonald and Ron Gibson.

Goalscorers were Kevin Mahoney 3, Alan Gibson 2, Andrew McDonald 2, David Aggiss, 1, Ron Gibson 1, Ian McArthur 1 (The paper failed to attribute one goal).

Below are the original Games Played Record I recently found in an exercise book at Munglinup.