North Beach celebrates 60 years

One of the biggest and most successful amateur football clubs in Australia, North Beach will celebrate its 60th anniversary at Charles Riley Reserve on Saturday, June 15.

The club that spawned from humble beginnings – open air changes rooms and cold showers – now boasts the best of community facilities and takes pride in creating opportunities for people of all backgrounds and abilities to play Australian football.

North Beach fields 11 teams each week – six senior men’s sides, two men’s under-19s teams, two women’s teams and an all-abilities combination.

That diversity is the cornerstone of a club that has won 13 A-Grade premierships and myriad of other levels across its history. At its peak the club won 10 A-Grade premierships in 12 seasons between 1999 and 2010 when 1984 Essendon Norm Smith medallist Bill Duckworth was at the helm.

Significantly, when the club celebrates its 60th anniversary, it will host reunions for the 1994 C Colts premiership team as well as the A-Grade flag it won in 2004. A large portion of players from those successful teams have committed to be on hand for special reunions.

The club will host Kingsway on that day and after the action on the ground it will hold another historic event in the club’s social rooms with the fifth induction into its Hall of Fame, from 6.30pm.

Club president Stephen Hooper is calling on all people with a connection to the club to join in the celebration.

“Thousands of people have helped to build what we have today and we would love to see as many of them as possible on June 15,” Hooper said.

“This club has been a community connector on a broad scale for six decades and we are deeply proud of what it has become.

“From the pioneers who launched North Beach Amateur Football Club in 1964 to all those who have played and served the club over the journey we would like to celebrate their contributions on that day.

“It really does promise to be a day to remember.”