Preston Football Club
The Preston Football Club, nicknamed the Bullants, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston. The club last competed in the Victorian Football League and played its home games at Preston City Oval.
The club was established in 1882. After playing in junior competitions, the club first participated in senior football in the Victorian Football Association between 1903 and 1911, and then again continuously since 1926. The team became known as the Bullants, and wore a plain red guernsey with a white monogram. Preston won four VFA premierships, with its periods of greatest success coming in the 1960s and 1980s.
Since the VFA changed to become the VFL in the 1990s, Preston competed as the Preston Knights from 1996 until 1999 in a partnership with the Northern Knights under-18s team; and then as the Northern Bullants starting in 2000. The club had a reserves affiliation with the Carlton Football Club from the Australian Football League from 2003 until 2019; and from 2012 until 2019, the club adopted Carlton's identity to become the Northern Blues, wearing navy blue and white.
The reserves alignment ended in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the club operated as a stand-alone VFL club again as the Northern Bullants. Despite intending to return as the Preston Football Club the following year, the club had its VFL licence revoked at the end of the 2025 season, and was put into liquidation at the end of year.
History
The club was formed in 1882, but little is known of its first three years before the Shire of Jika Jika changed its name in September 1885 to Preston. Preston and another local club, Gowerville, then merged and competed at lower levels of the Victorian Junior Football Association. After a battle with the council, the club was finally granted permission in 1887 to play on Preston Park, where it has remained with the exception of one year when it played at Coburg to allow the ground to be widened.1890−1902: VJFA
From 1890, the club played in the first-rate division of the VJFA and, despite its remote location compared with other clubs, was the only one of the 28 teams of 1890 to survive the decade, despite finishing last or second last in five consecutive seasons.By the late 1890s, the district was starting to grow, and the struggling club gathered depth and strength. It took out the first of three consecutive first-rate premierships in 1900, defeating Collingwood Juniors before 5,000 people at Brunswick Street Oval. Further premierships followed in 1901 and 1902, with no finals being played as Preston finished the requisite two games clear of its nearest rivals to claim the title. After the 1902 premiership, "Bounce" in The Herald asked: "Will the VFL find room for ?"
1903−1911: VFA entry
With the VFA keen to expand, Preston was a logical choice to join the senior body in 1903. The uniform changed from a blue jumper with yellow sash to a plain maroon jumper with navy blue knicks. Despite a reasonable opening season in which it won six games, the club struggled to find players and finished last in 1904 in the middle of what was to be a 27-game losing streak.Several other bottom-of-the list results came before a brief resurgence in 1909 under former Collingwood champion Charlie Pannam, but with the loss of several key players to VFL clubs, Preston again went on a downward spiral and won just one game through 1910 and 1911.
1912−1925: Back to the juniors
With Northcote joining the Association in 1908, pressure was applied for the two neighbouring clubs to merge and the VFA forced the issue early in 1912. Preston officials encouraged their players to move, but diverted all the club's trophies and assets to the junior Preston Districts Football Club, which had acted as its reserves team. Northcote became known as the Northcote and Preston Football Club for the next few years, but it played its games in Northcote, retained Northcote's colours, and its team in the VFA continued to be known as Northcote. The merged entity is considered a continuation of the Northcote Football Club.Preston was simply promoted before its time: by 1912, the district numbered just 4,800 people spread over 8,800 acres. Of the other suburbs represented in the VFA, the next smallest was Brighton with 11,000. Preston's leading player during the early VFA days was Sid Hall, a centre half-back regarded as the best high mark in the competition. Despite the lack of success, Preston managed to supply some fine players to VFL ranks in Percy Ogden, Hedley Tomkins and Bill Hendrie, Hugh James, Joe Prince, George Doull and Eric Woods. Preston's place was taken by Melbourne City which didn't win a game in the two years before it folded.
The junior club played as Preston Districts from 1912 to 1915, until the name changed to Preston prior to the start of the 1916 season, something that Preston officials may have always intended in 1912. This effectively meant Preston Districts ceased to exist, replaced by Preston.
The nucleus of Preston returned to the first-rate division of the Victorian Junior Football Association. Ogden returned to captain-coach the club in 1916 and 1917 while Essendon was in recess for the First World War; and, by 1919, Preston had re-established itself as one of the top teams in junior football. Young George Gough was recruited by Fitzroy as a rover. Premierships came in 1921 and again in 1923 with Preston, under the coaching of William "Bull" Adams, who had been refused a clearance to Fitzroy by his West Australian club, overrunning Yarraville in the final term despite playing one man short.
1926: Rejoining the VFA
With the loss of North Melbourne, Footscray and Hawthorn to the League in 1925, the Association accepted Preston and Camberwell into its ranks for the 1926 season.The team used the uniform from its junior days, a broad red stripe down the chest and back with white sides and sleeves. This time the club was ready for senior ranks, raising some eyebrows when it won nine of the 18 games in its first season as well as supplying the Recorder Cup winner, William "Bluey" Summers. A finals appearance came the following year. Preston's first ever senior final finished in a draw with Brighton, which won the replay a fortnight later.
The club remained in the middle ranking of the Association up until the cessation of play during World War I, the highlight being a remarkable 1931 season under the legendary Roy Cazaly who sacked half the side mid-season and promoted youngsters. Needing to win 12 games straight to ensure a finals spot, Preston managed to sneak in with 11 wins and a draw, but was bundled out in the preliminary final due to several injuries.
Despite its modest finals record, the club provided the 1934 and 1936 Recorder Cup winners in Danny Warr and Bert Hyde respectively. Leading players up to World War 2 included Summers, Warr, "Bert" Smith, Francis "Dickie" Dowling and Bill "Socks" Maslen, the latter pair being the club's record-holders for number of senior games played. Although he was never a star with Preston, 17-year-old Bert Deacon played his first match in 1940, later becoming Carlton's first Brownlow Medallist in 1947. With the abolition of clearance agreements between the League and Association in 1938, Preston snared Footscray champion Alby Morrison as captain-coach for 1939–40, and in 1941 a young Geelong ruckman, Jack Lynch, who was switched to full-forward early in the season and finished with 133 goals. Lynch is the only known player to have been killed during the War.
The "Bullants" nickname was first mentioned in the Herald newspaper in 1938, with an article on Association clubs adopting new nicknames, noting that "Preston will be known as the 'Bullants', because they can sting". 1930s radio commentator Wallace "Jumbo" Sharland referred to the small Preston team in its bright uniforms as "like a swarm of busy bullants".
Post-war, the uniform was changed to plain red with a "PFC" monogram, but finals appearances remained few and usually with little success. The club again was to the fore in the new Liston Trophy, providing the 1949 and 1953 winners in Jack Blackman and Ted Henrys. Henrys, a moderate utility player with Brunswick in previous years, switched to Preston at age 26 and moved to full-back in just his second match where he made the position his own, adding three consecutive club best-and-fairest awards to his Liston and becoming one of the first two Association players to be named in the All-Australian team.
Deacon returned as captain-coach in 1952 and other leading players through the 1950s including centre half-forward Pat Foley, Kevin Pritchard, rover George Bradford, back pocket Bob "Moggie" McLachlan, and the Chard brothers, Kevin and Fred, the latter leading the goal kicking on three occasions. Despite building a solid combination, the loss of several experienced players saw the club plummet to fifteenth in 1960 and forced into Second Division when the VFA opted for two levels. The club played second division finals in 1961 and 1962, but were beaten both times.
By 1963, Preston's all-time VFA finals record stood at just one win and one draw from 18 attempts, with 13 losses in succession. Again their premiership hopes looked doomed when the Bullants went down to Waverley in the second semi-final, but fate finally smiled when Preston beat Prahran comfortably in the Preliminary Final and then downed Waverley to take out a long-awaited premiership, and earn promotion to Division 1.
Preston was relegated back to Division 2 at the end of 1964, and ironically it was 1963 runners-up Waverley – who had been promoted to Division 1 only to replace Moorabbin after it was disqualified from the Association for being complicit in 's takeover of Moorabbin Oval – who defeated Preston in the final round to ensure their relegation. The return to Division 2 lasted only one year, with a minor premiership and Grand Final victory against Mordialloc seeing them promoted again. With substantially more depth and keen recruiting, Preston finishing third in Division 1 in 1966.
Bert Hyde, Preston's 1936 Recorder Cup winner, had lived in the area since his playing days and was an active official at Hawthorn, which was then rapidly emerging from years in the wilderness to become the power side of the 1960s. It was probably Hyde's influence that saw two Hawthorn players that were to become the cornerstone of Preston's success move to Association ranks – John McArthur, captain-coach of the 1965 premiership side was transferred to Western Australia on business and replaced by Alan Joyce, later to coach two AFL premiership sides. Joyce led Preston to back-to-back premierships in 1968 and 1969. Preston players won four out of six Liston Trophies between 1968 and 1971, with the award collected in 1968 by Dick Telford, in 1969 and 1971 by Laurie Hill, and in 1973 by Ray Shaw, who was then the youngest winner of the award.
Preston was beaten by Dandenong in the 1971 VFA Grand Final, which remains one of the most controversial in football history. Field umpire Jim McMaster awarded Dandenong full-forward Jim 'Frosty' Miller a free kick before the opening bounce, resulting in a goal; Dandenong ultimately won by six points. Preston protested, and despite several opinions from leading lawmakers that McMaster had no right to award the free kick because he had not officially started the game, Preston's protest proved to be of no avail.
Preston's fortunes slumped in the early 1970s, and the club narrowly avoided relegation at Coburg's expense in 1973, after defeating the Lions 171–154 in a famous high-scoring final round match. It wasn't until 1976 that Preston again played a major role in the finals, finishing second on the ladder, then crashing out after losses in the second semi and preliminary finals.
The club enjoyed a resurgence under Harold Martin in 1978, reaching the Grand Final where a crowd of nearly 30,000 packed the Junction Oval for what is still rated by many as one of the greatest-ever Grand Finals. After a tense opening, the crowd erupted late in the second term when Martin and another of football's legendary hard men, Sam Kekovich, went head-to-head in a wild brawl. Unfortunately for the Bullants, Prahran settled down much better in the second half and ran out comfortable winners.