ABOUT US
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Football in the early years was confined to local competitions, as teams were not able to travel long distances and money was not available for equipment and facilities. Players provided their own jumpers and as can be seen in early photos, there were rarely two jumpers alike. Grounds were rough and changing facilities did not exist. The Sea Lake Football Club was formed in 1894. The competition in that year was called the Sea Lake District Football Competition. The competition varied from year to year. In 1901 only three teams competed – Sea Lake, Berriwillock and Green Lake. In 1902 teams were Sea Lake, Ultima, Berriwillock and Kaneira. Competing against Berriwillock, Kaneira and Tyrrell Downs in 1904, Sea Lake won the premiership. More teams entered the newly formed Sea Lake District Association and in 1906 Waitchie, Tyrrell Downs and Ultima joined Sea Lake, Berriwillock, Kaneira and Myall.
The Association selected a team in 1907 to challenge Mildura. The team supports met the 10.30pm night train, with some travelling to catch the train at Lascelles riding bicycles, a few in their own vehicles (which was rare) but most travelled by horse and drag. After a brutal game, Mildura went on to win by two points. The Sea Lake team acquitted itself very well and the players were extremely popular with the Mildura crowd. On returning to Minapre (Lascelles) by train, arriving at midnight the team had to bed down in the hotel chaff-house. Another premiership was won by Sea Lake in 1914, against teams from Berriwillock, Myall and Kaneira. The night of the grand final, when celebrations were just warming up, saw the most disastrous fire in Sea Lake’s history when 14 shops were destroyed in Best Street. A long drought of football success followed through to the 1920’s when the Northern Mallee District Football Association operated from Nandaly to Charlton – special trains taking teams down the line one week and up the line the next. In 1929, Berriwillock, the “blue and whites” became the “Green and Golds” called the “Bullfrogs”. The league had expanded in that year to include Culgoa, Charlton, Berriwillock, Wycheproof, Sea Lake, Nullawil, Nandaly and Narraport. In 1930, Charlton dropped out of the Northern Mallee District Football Association. In 1933 there were plenty of players and another club, known as the Rovers was formed and played in the Nandaly-Mittyack League. The drought ended in 1934 when the club obtained the services of Arthur Roberts of St. Kilda as captain-coach and won their first premiership for 20 years, defeating Berriwillock by 7 points. Again Sea Lake won the flag in 1935, defeating Berriwillock and to celebrate the team went on a trip to Adelaide. In 1938 Sea Lake withdrew from the Southern Mallee League and joined the Waitchie-Manangatang League and was again premiers. They had attempted to join the Wycheproof District League but were rejected; however after an appeal, the senior team was admitted to the league in 1939. The league consisted of teams from Narraport, Wooroonook (a second team only), Quambatook and Berriwillock. The latter two teams were admitted from the Southern Mallee League the previous year. After the war, players and enthusiasm returned, and in 1946, the Tyrrell League was formed. Teams in the league were Sea Lake, Berriwillock, Narraport, Birchip, Culgoa, Nullawil, Wycheproof and Curyo. After success in 1947, defeating Narraport, it was 12 years before the next success for our club. The league lost Curyo, Narraport, Birchip and Wycheproof to the North Central League but gained Ultima, Nandaly, Manangatang and Chinkapook to retain the eight team competition. Parallel to this journey of the football has been the development of netball. It is uncertain when netball, or basketball as it was first known, was first played in the area but probably from about the 1950s girls took to the courts on a Saturday, to play following the football fixture. Courts were usually dirt or maybe gypsum before evolving into asphalt, cement and the Rebound Ace surfaces of today. Earlier in the game married women were not allowed to play, goal rings had no chains, hand stitched leather balls were used, box pleated tunics were the preferred uniform and there were no playing bibs. The netball uniforms have probably changed more substantially than the football jumpers, both in design and colour as have the court surfaces and equipment used. An official under-16 football competition began in 1966 and the mini’s competition was introduced in 1970. The amalgamation of Chinkapook and Manangatang in 1971 reduced the league to 7 teams. Moves began in 1975 to amalgamate three leagues, the Mallee, Tyrrell and Southern Mallee into two. Amalgamation was again the hot topic in 1978, but the Mallee League opposed joining with the Southern Mallee League. The Tyrrell League generally favoured one big league, but this too was opposed by the Mallee and Southern Mallee Leagues. Sea Lake responded by applying to join the Mid-Murray League, however this application was rejected.
The Tyrrell League was wound up at the end of 1978 and Sea Lake allocated to the new Northern Mallee League, together with Nandaly and Manangatang. A merged Berriwillock-Culgoa, and Nullawil joined the Southern Mallee League and Ultima, the Kerang District League. Nandaly had the distinction of winning the first flag in the Northern Mallee League and Nullawil and Ultima also winning the premiership in their first year of their respective leagues. Another dramatic change took place in 1982, with the construction of the Community Centre on land adjacent to Tyrrell College with a new oval and clubrooms set aside for the use of the football club.
A new era began in November 1993 when the Nandaly Football Club, no longer viable alone, voted to merge with Sea Lake and the Sea Lake-Nandaly Football Club was born. With the Northern Mallee Football League reduced to five teams due to mergers, Sea Lake-Nandaly applied to join the Southern Mallee League but was denied. The club experienced a time of rebuilding with the merging of former foes. Success was not far off however, and the club scored a brilliant win in the 1995 Seniors Grand Final. With all teams from the Northern and Southern Mallee Leagues back in a melting pot, a decision was made in 1996 to form one Mallee League from 1997. At the conclusion of the 2002 season Berriwillock-Culoga merged with Sea Lake-Nandaly. The club took on the Berri-Culgoa Tiger colours with the home base being in Sea Lake – and this now represents our current club today.
2003 was our first season as the Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers, a combined football and netball club (and now hockey) administered as one identity. For a period of time, although the home base was at Sea Lake, games were still played at Berriwillock and Culgoa. At the end of the 2015 season, the Mallee League was disbanded, and the Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers were accepted into the North Central, a unique fixture which involves football, netball and hockey.
The Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers took the opportunity in its stride, and has welcomed (and developed) a cohort of hockey players, fielding every side since our acceptance into the league, from the clubs first North Central season in 2016. Other changes also included Sea Lake being the only ground at which the Tigers would play home games. Since our merged days as Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers, the club has celebrated multiple netball premierships, with the last senior netball premiers being the “A” and “B” grade in 2013.
In sixteen seasons, the senior team has reached nine grand finals with four premierships in 2009, 2014, 2015 and 2019. The reserves have won 4 flags in their seven grand final appearances. The seniors have only missed the finals 4 times in 16 years and under-16s have also played in three grand finals, runners up in all of them. In 2018, our under-13 football side took home our first North Central premiership flag.
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2019 was a successful year for the club with the Tigers claiming the title of ‘Premiers’ for our Senior, Reserves, and U16 sides, with the U13s being the runner ups. We look forward to the results in 2022 - where for the first time we have had at least one team in all cohorts make it to finals.
