The 80s

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1980

1981

A Section Premiers

The team:

1982

1983

After trading in the red in 1982, the club again fielded four teams and reported that it would need to raise $28,000 to break even.  Membership dues were set at $20 – those who ponied up would receive a fixture of matches, a bumper sticker, fortnightly newsletters through the season and a social calendar and cut price admissions to functions.

The functions included discos, the Amateurs 83 party, the annual Revue and the Presentation evening.

In addition, the club conducted a raffle, offering a $2000 prize of a Fiji trip for two.

Bowen’s Timber provided some financial backbone with its major sponsorship.  The Old Xaverians Association  provided an interest free loan for the purpose of erecting lights at Yarra Park.

Gerard Sholly was appointed to the senior coaching position. Season 1983 began with great optimism, with nearly one hundred players attending training on the first selection night.

Life Governors of the club were treated to a luncheon at Yarra Park and then a narrow loss to Old Ivanhoe on Opening Day.  

1984

R7: Xavs hurricaned home against a pesky Kew with 10 goals in 18 minutes when Gerard Sholly swung Nick Burne into the ruck, Armstrong to full-forward and Steve Curtain to CHF.

Steve Curtain, Nick Wilton and Nick Burne represented Victoria at senior level and Richard Armstrong, Paul Curtain and Martin Beattie played in the U18 team.

S M Barrett Bros Real Estate joined Bowen’s Timber as a major sponsor.  

1985

R1: Collegians smacked the Xavs 21.12 to 7.11 with Curtain, Trainor, Ryan, Klein, Godsell and Carlin among the better players.

R16: Xavs lost to bottom placed Bulleen Templestowe 13.7 to 9.11 with Klein, O'Shaughnessy, Greetham, P Curtain, Trainor and O'Sullivan among the better players,

Bill Carroll returned to the Old Xavs in an official capacity, assuming the presidency.  With the lack of parking around the Yarra Park ground a perennial barrier to home attendance, and the committee approved the establishment of a special supporters group, Club 200, with a personalized tankard on offer for use after home games.  Cost of joining this exclusive coterie was $100, with regular membership pegged at $30.

Essendon legend Jack Clarke took over the senior coaching reins and Xavier News reported in June that the team was “settling down nicely into a coordinated football machine.”

The “amazing” John Turner coached the U19s with “relentlessly demanding tutelage”, with assistance from Greg Gleeson, who did not play on medical advice. 

Nick Wilton, Nick Bourke and Geoff Greetham were selected to play for Victoria, with Wilton also selected to play in the Australian Amateur XVIII.  Vaughan Carlin was chosen as captain of the VAFA U18 team.

Despite these individual honours, the seniors lost their way.

When the club held its Annual Dinner at the new Albert Park Function Centre on 18 September, the trophies were handed out amid the sombre realization that the Old Xaverians would be returning to B Section in 1986.  

1986

The club’s relegation to B Grade served to precipitate change.  Robert Ralph assumed the presidency and John Turner took over a senior squad that included most of the previous year’s regulars. 

Roger Cutts took charge of the U19s.

Barbecues sizzled at Yarra Park , giving patrons of home games a choice from the standard football fare of pies and sausage rolls and later in the year, the menu became totally cosmopolitan with the introduction of dim sim to the clubrooms menu.

Major sponsorships were taken up by the Kamikaze Café Bar and Bistro in South Yarra and Pro-Image Productions, a video production outfit in South Melbourne.

The Woodley family’s Cricketers’ Arms Hotel in Richmond was the favoured watering hole.

The thee Curtain brothers, Stephen, Peter and Paul, Martin Beattie, Mark Summers, Jim Peters, Mac Grummett were among the most consistent, with Cameron O’Brien representing Victoria and winning the medal for the most outstanding player of the amateur football carnival in Adelaide.

The Old Xaverians went down by 10 points to Old Paradians, coached by old friend Gerard Sholly.

The annual trophy presentation took pace at Chaucers in Canterbury on 24 October.  U19s paid $25 admission, while adults paid $35.  

1987

Danny Corcoran took over the coaching position for the Old Xavs return to A Section.  Danny had played for the club from 1979 through to his retirement in 1984, along the way captaining the club and winning the best and fairest. 

Prominent newcomers at the club included Anthony Callan, Michael Logan and Michael Atkins, who won the best and fairest in his first season.  Also prominent were Bill Denton, Mark Summers, John O’Sullivan and John and Paul Curtain.

Though stepping up a grade, the Old Xavs again reached the Grand Final. Again, however, there was disappointment in the ranks as the seniors lost a squeaker to Ormond by 17 points after winning the second semi comfortably.

The U19s under Chris O’Neill won the flag by 8 points against Marcellin when they kicked six goals to two in the final 16 minutes of the game.  Marcellin had inflicted the Xavs first defeat of the season in the second semi a fortnight earlier.

The Reserves under coach Mick Carlin finished in 3^rd position.

Weston’s Biscuits became the club’s new major sponsor, while Melbourne City Council rescinded the club’s parking rights on the grass area around the Yarra Park arena to exacerbate a long-time problem.  

The U19s defeated Marcellin by six points to take the flag.

1988

Prior to the season, Peter Curtain was named Deputy-Vice Captain of the Australian Amateurs for the Bicentennial Football Carnival.  Of the 24 players selected in the 24 man squad, representing the cream of Australia’s amateur talent, four were Old Xaverians.

Joining Curtain were Nick Burne, Mark Summers (who had joined Richmond) and James Morrissey (who had joined Hawthorn).

Danny Corcoran again held the coaching reins, again assisted by Mick Carlin, Chris O’Neill and Steve Moloney.

Despite the continuing parking problems at the club’s home ground, President Robert Ralph signaled the intent to stay at Yarra Park for the years ahead.  Weston’s Biscuits continued their major sponsorship of the club.

The year began on a strong note with the Old Xavs beating 1987 nemesis Ormond at headquarters and then tossing Scotch at home. 

Losses to Collegians and Uni Blues sandwiched a magnificent win against Paradians at Bundoora, which Peter Curtain described as “the best game I’ve ever played.”

Curtain was joined in the Victorian squad for the AAFL carnival by Mick Atkins, Nick Bourke and Anthony Callan.  Geoff Greetham was later added and was the only Old Xav to play in the team.

Sam Furphy was chosen in the U19 Victorian team that played on the MCG.

With Atkins, Callan, Dermott Dann, and Graham Gooding in top form as the finals approached, there was reason for optimism in the Red ‘n’ Black camp.  Again Grand Final Day brought despair as the Xavs fell to Ormond, this time by 6 goals.

Mick Atkins picked up his second successive B+F and Mick Rush received the inaugural W H Denton Perpetual Trophy for service to the club from Bill’s widow Anne in front of 285 Old Xavs at Leonda.

During the season, the club catered for disparate social factions by holding a Revue at the Richmond Social Club at $20 per ticket, while the Banquet Dinner was held at the Hyatt on Collins at $200 per head, with VFL head honcho Jack Hamilton as guest speaker.   

The U19s also fell at the final hurdle to a strong De La Salle outfit, but the Crocs under Paul Lefebvre brought home the silverware when they trounced St Kevins, keeping them goalless and preserving their unbeaten, untied season record.

1989

R5: Five goals from Meagher and solid performances from Curtain and Meehan were not enough as Parkside registered their first ever win in A Section.

As part of the club’s Long Term Development Program, the Old Xavs returned to their ancestral home at Barkers Road for three Saturday engagements.

Danny Corcoran again took the helm and 21 year old Chris Mortensen assumed the captaincy as the club looked to its third consecutive grand final appearance.  

By mid-season, that optimism had turned to thoughts of avoiding relegation, with the departure of a number of senior players through retirement or work commitments.

In the end, however, it was a year of experiment and rebuilding that paid dividends.  The seniors won 5 of their final 6 games, the club stayed in A Section and Mark McClelland won the Woodrow Medal for the competition’s Best and Fairest.

Richard Dalton won the U19  Medal, despite playing some games in the seniors.

Young guns Robert Visentini, Mark Ellis, Dermott Dann, Richard Curtain and Damian Stoney showed enough to suggest they would figure heavily in the club’s future.  More seasoned players to shine were John Curtain, Laurie Meehan, Dan Meagher, Michael Brennan, Paul Klein and Tony Klvac.

The Reserves finished in 5^th spot, the U19s again fell to De La Salle in the Grand Final and the Crocodiles missed the four narrowly after being promoted to G Section.

At the star-studded annual dinner, McClelland carried off the Best and Fairest, while Andrew Dillon collected the U19 award.  At the dinner, special mention was made of the team support staff, Samantha Adams, Sally Clarke, Bronwyn Spinks and Davina Connors.