History of Australian Rules

It is an interesting fact that Australian rules was played in Lane Cove from as early as 1880 at St Igantius College Riverview. The founder and first rector at the college, Fr Joseph Dalton was from Victoria and found Rugby "too rough", so introduced Australian rules as the official exclusive sport. The college played in the local Sydney seniors compeition due to the fact they were one of the only schools playing the game. Ultimately due to the fact they could only play at home, which meant other Sydney teams had to travel across the river (a long trip) and the mismatch between the teams, Rugby became the official sport in 1891. Thanks to Cathy Hobbs, Riverview College for all of the provided information.

The next reference we have to Australian Rules in Lane Cove is the St Michael’s Blues, a school based Auskick program based in Lane Cove. In 2007 an ex Victorian had a vision; to bring AFL the Lane Cove region. Steve Chisholm was a long time Lane Cove resident and he felt that kids in the region needed a club of their own so they could play Australia’s indigenous game. He knocked on the doors of all the local schools and lobbied the NSW AFL. Eventually he started an Auskick programme at St Michaels Primary School, which was amazing considering his son was too old for Auskick!

Steve was ably assisted by Roger Caine. Each year they managed to persuade more and more members to join up. This eventually led to the formation of an Under 9’s and 10’s team.

In 2011 Steve Chisholm met another ex Victorian who had a similar vision of AFL in Lane Cove, but on a bigger stage. Enter Nick Brumley who turned the St Michaels Blues into the the club we know today, the Lane Cove Cats. 

The club as gone from strength to strength ever since. In 2013, it was recognised for its great Auskick program, with Paul Schofield being awarded the GSJAFL North Shore AUSKICK Coordinator of the Year award. He also picked up a national award; the NAB AFL Auskick Volunteer of the Year. That was followed up by Nick Brumley picking up the GSJAFL North Shore AUSKICK Coordinator of the Year in 2015.

All of the success in Auskick translated to stronger Juniors participation. Girls participation in particular grew from 1 or 2 players to over 100 players today. Initially based at Burns bay Reserve, the Cats eventually moved to their current destination., Blackman Park. In 2012, the Lane Cove Council decided to upgrade the facilities by installing all weather synthetic field at the park. This also came with new storage facilities, which was becoming an issues for the growing club. By the 2015 season, the kids of Lane Cove had one of the best sporting facilities in the Lower North Shore.

However, with the club growing strongly, the need for a full sized field was increasing by the year. The club only had limited access to the AFL field on the synthetic field, thus restricting the ability to field U11 and above teams at the ground.

However in late 2018, the council came to the rescue by upgrading the lower turf field to full sized AFL field. At 160m, it is the same size as the MCG, and even larger than the SCG, thus allowing us to play youth football.

Today the Club has almost 2,000 members and participates acrosss all age groups both Boys and Girls.