Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association
The Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association, more commonly referred to as the BL&GFA, is an Australian rules football competition based in the Barossa Valley, Gawler Region and Light Region of South Australia, Australia. Just 42 kilometres north of the state capital of Adelaide, the BL&GFA is an affiliated member of the South Australian National Football League. In 2024, the Willaston Donnybrooks secured their twenty-fifth premiership overall and their third in the BLGFA. The current president of the League is Mick Brien and the major sponsor of the league is the Grant Burge Winery.
History
The Kapunda Football Club is one of the oldest football clubs in the world to enjoy an uninterrupted identity. It was first originated by copper miners in 1866, while nearby the Gawler Football Club soon formed in 1868. These two clubs sent delegates to a meeting of 13 clubs which formed the South Australia Football Association in 1877. Even though they didn't compete in the SAFA competition at first, they played invitational fixtures against visiting senior clubs from Adelaide.In 1894, Kapunda formed an informal association with Angaston, Kapunda North, Greenock and Truro, most likely a precursor to the Barossa and Light Football Association which Kapunda later helped establish.
Gawler Football
The first football club in Gawler was formed in 1868. In 1877 it was a foundation club of the South Australian Football Association.In 1880, a number of distinct new junior clubs were also formed in Gawler – Albion, Athenian and Havelock. Seven years later, the original senior Gawler and junior Albion clubs merged to form a senior club bearing the name of Gawler Albion. This club was admitted with full senior status to the South Australian Football Association for the 1887 Season. In 1890, after four seasons in the SAFA, the Gawler Football Club left what is now the South Australian National Football League – but a 'junior' club competition created in 1889 in the Gawler area to feed this main 'senior' club remained, to become the Gawler Football Association which initially consisted of 3 clubs - Gawler Centrals, Gawler South and Willaston.
The Gawler Junior Football Association was formed on 23 April 1889 by founding clubs Gawler Central, Gawler South and Willaston. Teams from Church Hill, Gawler South and Willaston had actually been playing each other in scratch matches around Gawler as early as 1885, 1886 and 1887 – long before the GJFA. Church Hill was most likely the genesis of Gawler Central. And at times Willaston and South would even combine to play the main Gawler side who participated in the city.
In 1890 the Gawler Junior Football Association changed its name to Gawler Football Association in which later early member clubs would include Roseworthy College, Salisbury and Hamley Bridge. Throughout the twentieth century a number of transient clubs from within the town - such as Shamrocks, Rivals, Imperials, North Gawler, Rovers and Gawler Colts, along with others outside of Gawler - including Greenock, Sandy Creek, Wasleys, Roseworthy, Rurals, One Tree Hill, Kangaroo Flat and Angle Vale, would also spasmodically compete in the GFA first and second grades.
By 1955 the GFA reached its greatest extent, becoming the giant Gawler and Districts Football League, with clubs competing in three senior divisions - Elizabeth, Elizabeth North, Gawler Central, Hamley Bridge, Lyndoch, Roseworthy, Roseworthy College, Salisbury, Salisbury North, Smithfield, Gawler South, Two Wells, Virginia, Willaston and Williamstown. Although over the next few decades, several of the more rural clubs departed for the neighbouring Adelaide Plains Football League, and following the inception of the Central District Bulldogs into the SANFL, the formation of the Central District Football Association saw the metropolitan clubs also eventually leave the GDFL.
Barossa & Light Football
The Barossa & Light Football Association was inaugurated in 1908 with founding clubs comprising Angaston, Freeling, Kapunda, Nuriootpa and Tanunda, followed by Eudunda in 1910. Clubs such as Hamley Bridge, Greenock, Truro and Eden Valley would also later field sides intermittently at various times over the years in the first and second competitions. During the 1950s Eudunda returned, and by the 1980s the BLFA at its greatest extent also had annexed Robertstown and Riverton-Saddleworth Marrabel United.Merger
In 1987 the Barossa And Light Football Association merged with the Gawler & District Football League, to form a new "super-league", the Barossa Light And Gawler Football Association - the formation clubs being Angaston, Eudunda, Freeling, Gawler Central, Kapunda, Nuriootpa, RSMU, South Gawler, Tanunda and Willaston. After participating in the Hills Football League as an interim since the demise of the GDFL, Barossa District finally entered the BLGFA in 1991, while in 1992 Eudunda, and later RSMU in 1998, left to the North Eastern Football League.The current BLGFA comprises nine clubs from the Gawler Town, Light Plains and Barossa Valley region considered to be the heartland of the SANFL Central District Bulldogs.
Premierships
Year by year
- 1987 – Tanunda
- 1988 – Willaston
- 1989 – Tanunda
- 1990 – South Gawler
- 1991 – Gawler Central
- 1992 – South Gawler
- 1993 – South Gawler
- 1994 – Freeling
- 1995 – Nuriootpa
- 1996 – Nuriootpa
- 1997 – Nuriootpa
- 1998 – Nuriootpa
- 1999 – Willaston
- 2000 – Nuriootpa
- 2001 – Gawler Central
- 2002 – Tanunda
- 2003 – Angaston
- 2004 – Kapunda
- 2005 – Kapunda
- 2006 – Barossa District
- 2007 – Barossa District
- 2008 – Tanunda
- 2009 – Tanunda
- 2010 – Tanunda
- 2011 – Tanunda
- 2012 – Barossa District
- 2013 – Barossa District
- 2014 – Gawler Central
- 2015 – Nuriootpa
- 2016 – Barossa District
- 2017 – Barossa District
- 2018 – Nuriootpa
- 2019 – Tanunda
- 2020 – Gawler Central
- 2021 – South Gawler
- 2022 – Nuriootpa
- 2023 – South Gawler
- 2024 – Willaston
- 2025 - Nuriootpa