The Ainslie Football Club was formed in March 1927. In April 1929 the Senior Club formed the Ainslie Juniors and within days had 25 interested boys. They played in an unstructured competition against 4 other teams, Westridge (Yarralumla), Eastlake, Telopea Park and Manuka. Ainslie Juniors won their first game against "Westridge" but ended the season losing the semi-final against the same team. In 1930 the competition was organised by a Junior Subcommittee but the Canberra Australian National Football League officially formalised the Junior League early in 1931. The competition originally only had one age group called the "Juniors" for under 19s. Player's ages ranged from 9 to 18 with the average age of 15.
Ainslie Juniors won their first Premiership in 1930 when they defeated Eastlake in a controversial Grand Final. The Junior League was officially formed in 1931 and Ainslie again won the Premiership.
The thirties was a period of great success for the Ainslie Juniors. They won six successive Grand Finals from 1930 to 1935 but were defeated in the 1936 Grand Final by Eastlake (8 points). In 1937 under the guidance of Coach and Senior player Lionel James they fought back to go through the season undefeated to win their 7th premiership. They repeated this in 1938 to win their 8th Premiership.
Changes occurred during the years leading up to the war. The Junior grade changed to under 15 and a Sub-junior under 13 grade was introduced along with an under 20 Intermediate grade. In 1941 Ainslie won their first Intermediate and Sub-junior Premierships and the Juniors were again successful in 1942.
With the pressure of war and the movement of young boys enlisting in the armed forces, the Junior competition fell away from 1943 and did not officially resume until 1946.
Ainslie won Premierships in 1946 in the Junior grade and in the Sub-juniors. The competition continued to grow with new grades being introduced. Midgets grade (U11) were formed in 1948, Atoms (U9) in 1951 and Sub-atoms (U7) in 1963. From 1946 to 1963 Ainslie won 21 Premierships spread over all the junior grades. The Juniors were a major source of players for the Senior Club and contributed greatly to their success. Success followed the hard work of some long serving volunteers whose names now are recognised through the Junior Club's perpetual awards. People such as Stan Ray, Ralph Lewis, Cliff Kennard, Harry Gaylard, Tom Laird, Bob Bloomfield and James Keegan devoted much of their time to the Juniors.
Up until 1962 the Junior Club was run as an extension of the Senior Club. In 1963 Bob Bloomfield organised a meeting to form a Committee to administer the Junior Club. On the 20th of March, 1963 the first Ainslie Junior Football Club Committee was elected and Ralph Lewis was appointed as the first President.
During the sixties the Club continued to grow and fielded multiple teams in some of the grades. 18 further Premierships were won from 1964 to 1969. In 1968 the Junior League was restructured and grades from under 7 to under 15 were introduced.
Ainslie Juniors had two very successful decades from 1970 until 1989. During the 70s when all teams from U7 to U16 played finals Ainslie Juniors won 26 Premierships and played in 55 Grand Finals. From the early 80s finals were no longer played at ages u11 and under but in the 80s Ainslie Juniors still managed 12 Premierships and played in 22 Grand Finals
In 1975 the U14 Ainslie team completed a record 103 successive winning games. They were undefeated since the Under 8 Preliminary Final in 1969 winning six successively Premierships. They were coached by Don Cowie. In 1976 Ainslie Juniors won 6 Premierships and three teams (u9, u10 and u11) went through the season undefeated. 1982 produced 3 premierships (u15, u13 and u11) with the u15s going through undefeated.
Success is not measured just in Premierships but also by participation. Junior Footy was booming during the 70s and Ainslie often fielded an Ainslie North and South team in age groups and had between 12 and 20 teams most years, some of which were local school teams managed by Ainslie. During the 80s numbers dropped but Ainslie always fielded at least one team in every age group.
The U13 Best and Fairest Award (then called the Peerless Trophy) was won by some great players during the 80s. In 1982 - Shaun Smith, 1985 - Nathan Buckley, 1986 - James Hird and 1987 - Todd Pulford.
The Presidents during the period from 1970 to 1989 included Tom Talsma, D. Eddowes, Brian Palmer, Clare Palmer and Tony White. In 1986 Ainslie Juniors were awarded their first Prime Minister's Cup (introduced in 1983) for being the best performed Club in the Junior competition.
The period from 1990 has been a challenging time for the Junior Club. With greater competition from other sports and activities player numbers fell away in the 1990s. The Club had limited success in the 90s winning only 2 Premierships from 7 Grand Finals and failed to field teams in all grades.
However by the end of the nineties and past the year 2000 the Club has been able to increase player numbers and has once again become one of the leading Junior Clubs in the ACT. In 2005 the Club was again awarded the Prime Minister's Cup and the past 3 seasons has seen success on the field winning 4 Premierships in the U12 (2004), U13 (2006) and U14 (2005 and 2006) age groups.
Last Modified on 22/11/2006 11:22