Deloraine Football Association
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| Most recent season or competition: 1983 | |
| Sport | Australian rules football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1926 |
| First season | 1926 |
| Ceased | 1983 |
| No. of teams | 5 (1983), 12 (historical) |
| Country | Australia |
| Last champion | Elizabeth Town (1983) |
| Most titles | Mole Creek (14) |
| Related competitions | Esk FA Esk-Deloraine FA |
The Deloraine Football Association was an Australian rules football competition based in the Meander Valley region of Tasmania, featuring clubs from small communities around the town of Deloraine.
The competition began as the Chudleigh Football Association in 1926, with Caveside, Chudleigh and Mole Creek competing in the initial season.[1] The early seasons of the competition featured a rotating cast of clubs, with Meander joining in 1927, Caveside folding during that season,[2] and Red Hills, Dairy Plains and Weegena also having stints in the league.[3] The CFA appears not to have run during the 1933 season, but it returned the following year. Kimberley joined in 1938 and won two premierships in its first two seasons in the CFA.[4] The CFA entered recess following the 1939 season as WWII enlistments prevented clubs from being able to field a team.
The Chudleigh FA was revived in the form of the Central Junior Football Association in 1946. While this was initially the junior grade competition of the Central FA, the disbandment of that league following the 1945 season saw the junior competition continue with a mixture of junior sides and senior clubs. 8 teams competed in 1946, however Hagley and Westbury Juniors both left the league a year later which cut the number of clubs to 6.[5] Kimberley folded after the 1949 season and were replaced by a re-formed Red Hills in 1950.[6] This year also saw the competition adopt the Deloraine Football Association name for the first time.
Following the departure of Deloraine Juniors for the NTDFL in 1954,[7] the competition remained stable with 5 clubs for the next 2 decades. Hagley, which had played in the Esk Football Association until entering recess in 1966, re-formed and joined the DFA in 1970. Meander briefly played in the Esk FA during the 1970s, but returned to the DFA in 1976.[8] Despite winning back-to-back premierships in 1978 and 1979 the club would find itself with a lack of players prior to the 1982 season, forcing it to fold.[8] Other DFA clubs were also experiencing player shortages, which prompted both it and the Esk FA to bring about a merger of the two competitions. The resulting Esk-Deloraine FA began competition in 1984.[9]
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