Eastern Suburban Football League
The Eastern Suburban Football League was an Australian rules football competition based in Melbourne's eastern suburbs that ran for 30 years between 1932 and 1962.
History
The Eastern Suburban Football League was first proposed in January 1932 when representatives from Balwyn, Box Hill City, Canterbury, Deepdene and Hartwell met at the Hawthorn Football Club with the intention of forming a local football league. It was officially founded in March when representatives from Balwyn, Box Hill City, Canterbury, Glen Iris, South Camberwell and Tooronga met and drew up a constitution for the new league. Many of these clubs had previously competed in the VFL Sub-Districts competition, which they felt favoured clubs based in northern Melbourne over eastern clubs and also contained some clubs with unsavoury supporters. It was felt that forming a local eastern league would be a favourable solution to this problem. The first games of the new competition occurred on April 30, 1932, with Caulfield City also entering the ESFL. South Camberwell won the first premiership, defeating Canterbury in a challenge final.The ESFL expanded quickly, adding 5 new clubs in 1933 and another 4 in 1934. After Auburn joined for the 1935 season, South Camberwell and Glen Waverley departed and Box Hill East merged with Box Hill City, the league was left with 17 clubs - an unwieldy number which saw it divide into two grades for the first time.
The ESFL became the first league to cancel its affiliation with the Victorian Football Union midway through the 1939 season, as they felt the VFU did not do enough to prevent star ESFL players from being poached by other leagues. The league did not officially resign from the VFU, however, which allowed it to keep using VFU umpires and ignore any player clearances submitted. This was not discovered until midway through the 1940 season, whereupon the VFU banned the ESFL, preventing any VFU players from transferring to the ESFL. This ban was mostly ignored by the ESFL, which went into recess after the 1941 season due to World War II.
Upon reforming in 1945 the ESFL split into an East and West section, as petrol rationing meant that it was difficult for clubs to travel over the large area the league had come to cover. By 1950 the league had returned to a more traditional A-B-C grade system.
The 1950s proved to be trying times for the ESFL. The growing Croydon Ferntree Gully Football League began picking off clubs - first Ringwood in 1954, then Surrey Hills and Mitcham in 1955, Vermont in 1958, Blackburn and East Burwood in 1960 and Doncaster and Nunawading in 1961. With only 12 clubs left in 1962 the ESFL was left with no choice but to look for a merger, and after the season joined with the Caulfield-Oakleigh District Football League to form the South East Suburban Football League for 1963.