Kedron Football Club has been part of Brisbane’s northern suburbs since 1937, when former students from Kedron and Wooloowin schools joined forces to establish a new Australian rules club. Brisbane City Council heritage records confirm the newly formed club was based at Melrose Park, Kalinga.
Success came quickly. Kedron’s second 18 won a premiership in the club’s first season, while Harold Jackson and Gordon “Freckles” Phelan represented Queensland in 1938. By the early 1940s, Kedron had become a force in senior football. After grand final losses in 1939 and 1940, the club won its first senior premiership in 1941. Further QAFL flags followed in 1943, 1944, 1946 and 1948.
One of Kedron’s standout players of this period was Erwin Dornau. A Brisbane-born centre half back, Dornau played senior football for Kedron and represented Queensland before joining South Melbourne in 1948. AFL Queensland records him as the first Queensland-born and raised player to play at VFL/AFL level. He went on to play 54 games for South Melbourne between 1948 and 1952.
Modern Relocations, Rebuilding, and Recent Premiership Success
Kedron claimed another QAFL premiership in 1959. The club’s home base also changed over the years, with training moving from Melrose Park to Gibson Park at Stafford. In 1963, Kedron took a seven-year lease over former rubbish-tip land at 24 Mercer Avenue. Members and supporters helped develop the site, later known as Mercer Park, and the Kedron Sporting Club began operating from its present building in 1976.
A surviving team photograph records Kedron Districts Football Club’s A Grade side as runners-up in 1971. Nine years later, Kedron returned to the top, defeating Coorparoo by 48 points to win the 1980 QAFL premiership.
Kedron later merged with Wilston Grange at the end of 1989, with the combined club competing for seven seasons. After that arrangement ended, Kedron eventually returned to senior football and won QFA premierships in 2006 and 2007. Another senior flag followed in 2015, when Kedron went undefeated through the home-and-away season before defeating Woodsmen in the grand final. In 2019, the Lady Lions added another milestone, defeating Burleigh Heads 42-38 to win their first QFAW Division 1 premiership.
Thank you to Kedron Districts Football Club.
Featured image: Kedron Districts Football Club Q.A.F.L. A Grade team, 1971 | Image courtesy of Kedron Football Club Archives
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