About
hahndorf soccer club inc.
We are a not for profit sporting club based at the Hahndorf Community Recreation and Sport Ground in Hahndorf, South Australia.
Formed in 1979 with two junior teams, it is now the largest junior soccer club in the Adelaide Hills Region with over 200 junior players in 15 junior teams, including 3 all-female teams, which play in the Adelaide Hills Junior Soccer Association Competition.
In addition, the club fields 3 senior men’s teams in the South Australian Amateur Soccer League Competition and 1 women’s team in the Football Federation of South Australia Community Football competition. Overall, the club has 19 teams with 260 players. Approximately 30% of the players are female.
The club has developed and maintains its own playing facilities at the Hahndorf Sport & Recreation Ground consisting of a fenced turf pitch, canteen, toilets, covered seating area and home and away change rooms suitable for both male and female players. These facilities are fully utilised every Saturday during the playing season for junior’s and men’s games while senior women’s games are played on Sunday mornings. Pre-season training and trial games extend the usage from about mid-January to early September. Non-competitive “Miniroos” teams utilise the ground for in-season training every week.
The soccer club is a member of the Hahndorf Community Recreation & Sports Ground Committee, which provides security of tenure and year-round access to the facility. The club also hires a ground at Mylor, an adjoining township for in-season training for competitive juniors and seniors and a local school oval for non-competitive Miniroos games.
Hahndorf Soccer Club
History
The Hahndorf Soccer Club was founded in 1979 by Richard Jones with teams from under 8s through to under 12s competing at St Michael’s School in the inaugural season of the Adelaide Hills Junior Soccer Association (AHJSA).
In the years since that time, the Hahndorf Soccer Club has grown to become the strongest of the junior clubs in the Hills competition, winning the Association Cup, League Titles and AHJSA Carnival more times in every age group than any other club.
From these humble beginnings as a junior club, we now field teams from under 8s to under 16s in the AHJSA Open Competition, three teams (under 13s and under 17s) in the AHJSA ‘G’ (Girls) League, Firsts and Reserves in the South Australian Amateur League 3rd Division and a ‘C’ Grade side in the Saturday 6th Division.
The Magpies inaugural senior team competed in its first season in 1995 under the enthusiastic direction of David Parr. In a tough initiation the Club finished second bottom that year but was inspirationally led on the field by Doug Montgomery with 7 goals and 7 points in the League Best & Fairest count. Montgomery later went on to Captain the Hills Hawks State League side.
Among those original Magpies were Peter Allen and Graham Phillips. Graham is still playing in our C Grade team while Peter continued to pull on the Black & White stripes for a decade before retiring at the end of 2005. Rick Dew took over the reins in 1996, and a new look Magpies finished 4th – unbeaten for 14 games and suffering only one loss on the road. Notable League results included a 4-0 win against Adelaide Monarchs at Regency Park and a 2-2 draw with eventual League Winners Metro Knights at Klemzig after being 2-0 down at half time. These were the same Metro Knights that went onto become Metro Stars and win the FFSA State Title.
The Club’s first major trophy also came in 1996 – Hahndorf’s First Team the best of 86 amateur clubs in SA finishing 2-1 winners over Fulham Utd in the final of the Newsfront Cup at Grange.
In 1997 Dew guided Hahndorf to 3rd spot in the League with a memorable double over Adelaide Monarchs, a historic 3-0 victory against Stirling at Bradwood Park, and a nail biting victory over St Peters coming with a last-minute Tony Carter header.
Bob McIntyre took over the reins in the Senior Coaching position for the 1998 season and Hahndorf was able to maintain its growing stature at the top end of the Second Division table, being promoted to the First Division for season 1999. A fair achievement by any standard after only 4 seasons of senior competition! To get there the Magpies nearly doubled their number of goals scored from previous year. A 6-0 win over Strathalbyn and a massive 8-2 thrashing of Murray Bridge helping lift the tally. Hahndorf also recorded another morale boosting victory over Stirling in the Adelaide Hills derby at Bradwood Park.
In 2000 season, The Club scored a record 72 goals and finished Division 2 runners up for the second time with a 1-1 draw against Olympic at Pine Avenue on the last day of season. Hahndorf had beaten Olympic 4-1 at Port Adelaide earlier in the season.
The 2nd Division in 2002 proved to be a fiercely contested competition. An exciting last round victory over Cougars resulted in only goal difference separating Hahndorf and Stirling at the top of the table after 18 League Rounds. Once again, the title eluded the Magpies. The 39 league points were a new record for the club, and a 12-0 victory over Mt Barker also a record for the league.
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Although 2003 promised to be a tough year from the outset with the return to the 1st Division, Hodgskin’s Magpies began the season positively – encouraged by several quality recruits to the club during a strong pre-season and aiming for a top half of the table finish. Unfortunately, this early optimism failed to translate to points on the park and the Club was relegated in the last game of the year.
Bob McIntyre was back in the top job in 2004 and the Club started firm favourites to win the Second Division. Competition proved to be tighter than expected however, and after upset losses to Southern Breakers and Adelaide Monarchs, it appeared that a first Championship and indeed even promotion might again elude the Club. However, McIntyre’s men rallied and took full points from the final five rounds scoring 17 goals in the process and restoring some pride with a 5-2 hiding of Southern Breakers in the season’s return match.
Hahndorf celebrated the Club’s first ever title win with a week to spare. Celebrations continued on to the Club’s well supported end of season family trip to Barmera, and also brought news of the retirements from the First Team of Tony Carter, Peter Allen and Terry Kent.
In 2005 Allen took on the unenviable task of player-coach with an ill-prepared Magpies next foray into the top flight. Despite his best efforts limited personnel meant Hahndorf were always going to struggle to be competitive and the Club remained firmly rooted at the bottom of the table throughout the season.
The year wasn’t without its highlights however, Hills Hawk and former Hahndorf junior Matthew Norris returned to the Club and won the First Team Best & Fairest in his first season back. Long-time midfield stalwart and 2005 Captain Aaron Amos received a fitting farewell on announcing his retirement collecting the Player’s Player award.
The Club was also able to field a third senior side, ‘The Super C’s’ for the first time, captained and co-coordinated by Wayne Forrester.
2007 has proven to be a successful but frustrating season. Although the seniors narrowly missed promotion, finishing in third position two points behind second, they dominated the teams below them with some big score lines. The only team not defeated by The Magpies were runaway champions Adelaide Villa. The Reserves went one better and finished in second spot, handing champions Villa their only loss of the season and going undefeated for the entire second round.
Our 30th Anniversary came and went in 2009. Construction of the new change rooms commenced and the laying of cable to the pitch for the ultimate connection of power began in earnest. Once these projects are completed, Pine Avenue will be the best football facility in the hills. On the playing side, the seniors gained a new Head Coach in Steve Handley and Bob McIntyre returned as his assistant. We fielded teams in every junior grade and our level of participation at representative level was most impressive. Both the First Team and Reserves finished runners-up in the league in 2010. The Reserve Team also went on an exciting cup run making it all the way to the final. A stirring 5-1 defeat of Moduby Vista in the semi-final was unfortunately the high-point. This marked the first time a Hahndorf team played at Hindmarsh Stadium. Heading towards 2011, the influx of new talented players look set to continue and the club should only go from strength to strength. The future looks bright and it is black and white!
