Marist Australian Football Club
A short History

The Club Motto is “Promoting and Developing Australian Football in the Marist and ACT Communities”.

The Club was established in 1973 when an Under12 and an Under 13 team were entered in local Canberra AFL Competition. 

The Club is managed and run by parents, all volunteers, is self funded and participates in the AFL Canberra Junior League and the AFL Canberra Senior League.

The Under 10s and Under 11s play modified non-contact rules and play on a smaller ground. No scores are kept and there are no points or ladders, just a round robin season amongst the southern clubs and a separate northern clubs comp.

The Under 12s through to Under 16 teams, however, do participate in a full competition with full rules, scores, results, ladders and play for competition premierships. This competition is managed by the AFL Canberra Junior League.

The Marist First XVIII participates in the Under 18 competition that is managed separately by the AFL Canberra Senior League.

The Clubs aim is to have accredited coaches for each team, including senior PE teachers from the College and senior players from current AFL Canberra clubs and parents who themselves played for the College and senior AFL Clubs.

MAFC is committed to promoting Australian Football and to the personal development of all our players. Whilst success is judged in part by the on field performance of our teams we are committed to the enjoyment and development of the individual. By providing high quality playing, training and first aid equipment, qualified coaching and support staff for each team we strive to provide personal and sporting development for each and every player.

The Club also aims to be the best run Junior AFL Club in the ACT with regard to administration and has won that honour three times now, being awarded the Prime Minister’s Trophy for ACT Junior Club of the Year in 1990, 2001 and in 2008.

The Marist Australian Football Club and the College continues to invest significant monies into improvements to the AFL equipment and facilities at the College.

In 2008 through the very generous donation of the Freebody family a picket fence was added to Lindwall Oval and the playing area leveled. The 2009 season has seen a new look Lindwall Oval with picket fence, new goal posts, new goal post padding, interchange benches in the picket fence and a new electronic scoreboard making Lindwall Oval a truly great oval.  

 

Season 2009
Was yet another good year for the club, with 201 boys registering to play AFL, equal to our best ever registration year.  The U12s, U14-1s, U16-1s and the U18 teams made the Finals.

The U18s were back to back Premiers, achieving this accolade for the second time this decade repeating the feats of 2003/04 teams. Hayden Armstrong was once again Best on Ground in the Grand Final and Dan Campbell was the Leagues Leading Goal Kicker with 93 goals for the season, sensational!

Captain Sam Smith was second in the AFL Canberra U18 B&F, Dan Campbell third and Hayden Armstrong fourth and Shae Darcy won the AFL Canberra Under 14 Div 1 Best & Fairest.
The Club had 20 players in ACT/NSW representative level in SSSA, PSSA and ACT/South Coast CATS teams.

Thirteen boys and one teacher from the school umpired at Junior and Senior AFL Canberra level, including Chris Simms who was appointed to the National AFL Competition Umpires list and umpired several matches at Manuka Oval, the SCG and ANZ Stadium in Sydney.

Season 2008
was a very successful year for the Club. All six of our competition teams made the top four in their respective comps and were therefore in the play offs for finals, winning three grand finals and runners up in two.

The First XVIII team won both the Under 18 AFL NSW/ACT Swans Cup, winning the playoff in Sydney and they were the AFL Canberra Under 18 Premiers as well.
Sam Smith won the Swans Cup Championships B&F player and Hayden Armstrong was Best on Ground in the AFL Canberra Under18 Grand Final.

The U16 Div 1 team were the AFL Canberra U16 Premiers, Dan Campbell was the AFL Canberra U16 Best & Fairest Player.

The Under 14-D1 team had won every game for the season, including the Under 14 AFL NSW/ACT Swans Cup winners, but were runners up in the AFL Canberra U14 Grand Final.
Ciaran O’Rourke was the ACT Swans Cup Championships B&F Player.

James Colmer was the AFL Canberra U14-D2 Best & Fairest Player.

The Under 12 team won the AFL Canberra Premiership, James Hicks was Best on Ground in Grand final.

The Club had 21 players in ACT/NSW representative level teams in SSSA, PSSA and ACT/South Coast CATS teams.

Fifteen boys from the school, 12 of them players, umpired at Junior and Senior ACT levels.

AFL Canberra Players:
A long list of MAFC players have gone onto play for senior football with ACT (Canberra) teams and have played in representative ACT Teams and the Sydney Swans Reserves:

Including but not limited to those playing in 2010:

Sam Smith; Declan O’Rourke; Xavier McMahon ;
John van Meurs – 2009 Gary Robb Rising Star winner; Matt Smith; Josh Bowden
Dan Nulley; Will Ryan; Rhys O’Brien; Will Shafron; James Brown; Joel Bourchier
Alex Hayward; Tim Gray; Andrew Nunn; Matt Williams; Josh Box; Dean Roulstone (ACT Rep)
Justin Mesman; Chris McLachlan  

Marist Students and Players that have gone on to play AFL at the highest level include:
Phil Davies (Marist 2000-03) family moved to SA in 2004, recruited by Adelaide in 2009.
Craig Bolton (Marist 1993-98) played with Brisbane, then Sydney Swans, was appointed
Swans Co-Captain in 2008, still playing 2010;
James Meiklejohn (Marist 1997-2000) played with Sydney Swans;
Brad Fuller (Marist 1991-95) played with Collingwood;
Justan Fuller (Marist 1988-93) played with Sydney Swans;
Matthew Mahoney (Marist 1981-1986) played with Melbourne;
Aaron Hamill (Marist 1989-90) played with Carlton & St Kilda;
Adrian Barich (Marist 1976-81) played with Perth and the inaugural West Coast Eagles team;

Premierships:
The Marist First XVIII have been Premiers in the AFL Canberra Under 18/U17 competition nine times since the early 1980s:
1981 & 1986 as U17 teams;
As U18s in 1993, 1999, 2001, 2003 & 2004, 2008 & 2009. 
Runners-Up in 1980, 1983, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2005.

The U18 team was undefeated in 2004 winning back to back Premierships and the Clubs first Championship and were Back to back Premiers again in 2008 & 2009 losing just one game in 2009.

The 2008 First VXIIIs were also the inaugural NSW/ACT Swans Cup Champions in 2008 and backed up again as the 2009 U18 ACT Swans Cup Champions.

Over the years Marist Junior teams have played in many finals including the following premierships in recent years.
U12s in 2008 & 2003;
U13’s in 1984;
U14s in 1997, 2000 & 2002; 
U16 Div-1 in 2008 & 1990
and 15 times finished as Runners Up
In 2009 the U14s were the ACT Swans Cup Champions and runners up in the GF, losing just that one game!

MAFC Players who have won League Awards Marist player achievements highlights include:
Winners of AFL Canberra’s Mulrooney Medal in 2003 - Luke Jess and the Junior League Best and Fairest GV Mahoney Memorial Medal in 1983 - Michael Waddingham; 1984 - Ben Larkey;
1990 - Mark Birks and 1995 - Richard Wharton.

AFL Canberra Under 16 Best & Fairest 2006 – Ben Kane;
AFL Canberra Under 14-3 Best & Fairest 2007 - Sam Kobal;
AFL Canberra Under 18 Best & Fairest in 2007 - Xavier McMahon;
AFL Canberra  Under 16 Best & Fairest  2008 Daniel Campbell
AFL Canberra  Under 14 Div II Gold Best & Fairest 2008 – James Colmer;
AFL Canberra  Under 14 Div 1 Best & Fairest 2009 – Shae Darcy.

LIFE Members
The following stalwarts of Marist Australian Football club served the club for many years in many roles, and have been bestowed Life Membership.

2008  – Brendan O’Rourke
2006  – Joe Box
2005  – Andy Finlay and Peter Woods
2004  – Anne Davies
2003  – Honorary Life Membership – Br Mark May
2002  – John Sirr & Kerry Woods
2001  – Denis Heritage
2000  – Paul Sullivan and Sue Sullivan
1998  – The Silver Jubilee Year -
              David Bailey, Denis Sweeney, Peter Verdon
              Tom Wharton and Mark Winchester
1986  – John Brown

[footnote:  MAFC is always happy to receive updates to our History – if you have any old “Aussie Rules” or “High Marks” or information that predates 1980, perhaps photos that you could lend us to copy and post on this web-site, we would be more than happy to speak with you, please contact us at Secretary@mafc.com.au ]