Our History

The Meningie Football Club is the oldest club in the River Murray Football League. The first recorded information on the Meningie Football Club was in 1898, however it is assured that the club was formed well before that date.

In 1955 the Meningie Lakesiders joined the RMFL and changed their colours to maroon and gold.Meningie fielded A and B grade sides only until 1962 when a senior colts team was added. In 1963 a junior colts team was entered in the competition.

In 1996 The Lakesiders changed their identity to become the Meningie Bears and the team colours were changed to maroon, gold and white which are still current today. Despite its long history there has only been 3 League Premiership victories. The first being in 1954 prior to the RMFL and then in 2001 and again in 2014.

In 2023 they come together with the Coonalpyn and Tintinara communities to become the Coorong Cats.

In 1954 the Coonalpyn Football Club was in the The Lakes & District Association. This consisted of teams from Tintinara, Meningie, Coomandook/Yumali and Coonalpyn.

When Tintinara decided to leave the Association, the Coonalpyn Football Club received an invitation from the River Murray Football League to join their Association. A meeting was held at the Kiki hall to discuss the invitation with members of the league and team delegates. This was passed and the Coomandook/Yumali Rovers combined to form the Border Downs Football Club in 1955, wearing black jumpers with a white V and known as the ‘Magpies’. The jumper was later changed to vertical black and white stripes.

The reason for the acceptance to join the River Murray Football League was the fact that there were only three teams left in the Lakes and Districts League after Tintinara left. The coach of the 1955 side was Roy Jones and Eric Walter won the Mail Medal for that season. Border Downs first game was against Meningie which they won by 3 goals. Although entrenched in the finals most of the year the club dropped to fifth after losing to Mannum in the last round and missed the finals series based on a lower percentage. In 1956 and 1957 Laurie Reddaway won the Mail Medal but it wasn’t until 1958 that the club first participated in an A grade finals series.

For the first few years the Border Downs Football Club alternated their matches between the Yumali Oval and the Coonalpyn Oval. In it’s 50 year history Border Downs has won five premierships, a Reserves premiership in 1960, an Under 15 flag in 1981, an under 13 flag in 1983, two under 17 flags in 1986 & 1987.

The first Tintinara football team was formed in 1912 and the club colours were blue and white. Early transport was by train and later when roads improved by truck to and from matches.

In the 1931/32 season Tintinara and Keith footballers combined and played against Wolseley and Bordertown. Many games were also played socially with neighbouring towns.

The first football team to be recorded officially was in 1933 when H. Prosser was elected the first captain and W.Healy as vice captain. Eventually a club was formed in 1936 and Tintinara joined with Keith, Coonalpyn and Yumali to form the Cardwell Association which was active until 1940 and then went into recess until after World War 2. During the war years many arranged matches were played to raise funds for charity and this kept football alive.

The club reformed in 1944 and continued to play against the same three teams until Keith dropped out. Tintinara then joined the Lakes District Association in 1949. The Association consisted of Tintinara, Coonalpyn, Yumali, Coomandook, Cooke Plains, Meningie, Ashville and Narrung. The last three years of playing in this Association, Tintinara were premiers and had a reasonably strong team which influenced them to join the Tatiara League where a better standard of football was being played. This was in 1954.

In 1971 the club colours were changed to navy blue with white monogram, navy blue shorts and socks. The Tintinara Club played in the Tatiara League until 1993, where the club won only one premiership, that being the A grade in 1977 with George Burns being the coach. A Reserves team was entered into the competition in 1961, a colts side in 1967 and a mini league team in 1974.

The Border Downs and Tintinara Football Clubs amalgamated in 1993 and were the first club in country South Australia to adopt the colours of the Adelaide Crows. They followed the River Murray Football League (RMFL) which included three teams from Murray Bridge, Meningie, Jervois, Tailem Bend, Mannum, Mypolonga and Nairne Bremer.

Home games were shared between Coonalpyn and Tintinara. Barry Moore was appointed President of the Border Downs Tintinara Football Club for the inaugural season, whilst Lindsay Warner, a past coach and player of the Border Downs club was appointed senior coach.

The club won its first game against Meningie by 27 points and competed in the finals series that season, losing the elimination final to Tailem Bend. New recruit Greg Stephenson went on to win the RMFL Mail Medal. The Reserves created history that year by winning the Grand Final in the first year as an amalgamated club.

The club remained in the RMFL until 2001 before entering the Mallee competition in 2002. This was partly due to difficulty filling all grades and the financial strain to remain competitive in the senior grades. BDT made the A grade grand final in the first year of entering the Mallee competition to be beaten by Lameroo. They went on to win the club’s first ever A grade football premiership in 2004 which sparked the most successful period the club has had, playing in 16 grand finals and winning 12 of them.

The A grade netball were always competitive in the Mallee and they won their first premiership in 2008. They have gone on to win another three since then. Over thirty years the club has won a total of 50 premierships across both junior and senior football and netball.