BHA Past Winning Teams & Clubs

These pages list the names of the winning teams for the various awards for past years. We are progressively restoring the lists from a previous Website. The lists are based on the few records that remain available to us.

Seniors

While the Premiers list has the winners back to 1932, the other awards such as Minor Premiers and Runners Up were either not recorded (or not awarded) that far back. In the case of the Memorial Cup and President's Trophy, these were first awarded according to the starting date of each corresponding Past Winners table. Use this dropdown menu to view the Seniors' lists .

  • Premiers - The name of the team that has won the Grand Final match in each Competition and Division.
  • Minor Premiers - The name of the team that finished with the highest number of Premiership Points at the conclusion of the regular fixture rounds in each Competition and Division.
  • Runners Up - The name of the team that loses the Grand Final match in each Competition and Division.
  • Memorial Cup - It was first awarded in 1950 to the winner of a pre-season knock-out competition in Division 1 only. It was later expanded to all Senior Divisions. When the knock-out competition was dropped, the Memorial Cup was then contested by the top two teams at the conclusion of the first series of fixtures by way of a match that was played in addition to the normal fixture matches, usually on a Sunday. In recent times it was awarded to the team that is leading at the conclusion of the first series of fixtures, i.e. the separate match was no longer played. Beginning in 2017 a separate match is again being played whenever practical in order to contest the Cup in each Competition and Division. The original Memorial Cup (Division 1) was donated by the Josiffe family in 1950.
  • President's Trophy - Commencing in 1978 this award was contested by the top two teams at the conclusion of the second series of fixtures in a match that was played in addition to normal fixture matches, usually on a Sunday. More recently, similar to the Memorial Cup, it has been awarded to the team that is leading at the conclusion of the second series of fixtures, i.e. a separate match is no longer played. In the case where a division only plays two series then the President's Trophy is awarded to the Minor Premiers. 2018 has seen the President's Trophy no longer being awarded.
  • BHA Best & Fairest Medal - First awarded in 1980, this award has been associated with various sponsor's names, but more recently has simply been known as the BHA Best and Fairest Medal. In the beginning an award ceremony was held each Season after the conclusion of the round matches and prior to the Grand Final. This was usually quite a formal occasion and held a various venues across the City. These events were well attended and continued until they we discontinued in 2017 when falling attendances made it difficult to sustain. It is interesting to note that while the voting has been of the "3 - 2 - 1" style, many voting procedures have been tried over the years including: opposing Captains; opposing Coaches; BHA Senior Selectors; an appointed Panel; Match Umpires; to name most of them. Each has proven to have good as well as bad aspects to them. For example, when it involved opposing players or officials, it was sometimes quite difficult to obtain votes from those of the losing team. In recent years the Association has been asking the match Umpires to vote.
  • Merv Harris Memorial Shield - This shield is awarded to the best performing Club across the Senior Competitions/Divisions and has been awarded each year since 1978. To be eligible, Clubs must field at least five (5) senior teams. In a nutshell the winning Club is determined by calculating the total number of points the teams of each Club have earned and expressing that as a percentage of the maximum number of points that the teams of each Club could have scored if all of their teams had won every match. These percentage values are then compared and the Club with the highest percentage is declared as the best performing Club and winner of the Shield.
  • Sports Depot Cup / Robinson's Sports Store Trophy - Originally awarded in 1932, it is awarded to the best performing Team across the Senior Competitions and Divisions. After the original Sports Depot Cup was lost a new trophy was donated to the Association by Robinson's Sports Store in 1977. The winner of the Robinson's Sports Store Trophy as it was now known was calculated and awarded each year up until 1995. By way of a project in 2019, the winners from 1996 onward have been calculated and are set to be published along with those of the historical list. A few that were missing from pre-1996 have also been calculated and added in to the list. In a similar way to the method used to determine the best performing Club, the best performing Team is determined by calculating as a percentage the number of points eaned by a team against the maximum points that were available to it.  It is only necessary to do this for the top team on the Points Table of each across the Senior Competitions and Divisions. Deadlocks are resolved by the use of goal averages and count-backs.

Juniors

Several tables for the Junior Divisions have now been added. Use this dropdown menu to view the Juniors' lists .

Similar to the Senior Divisions the following information and definitions apply.

  • Premiers - The name of the team that has won the Grand Final match in each Division.
  • Minor Premiers - The name of the team that finished with the highest number of Premiership Points at the conclusion of the regular fixture rounds in each Division.
  • Runners Up - The name of the team that was defeated in the Grand Final match in each Division.
  • Stan Griffin Club Championship Shield - This shield is awarded to the best performing Club across the Junior Divisions and has beeen awarded each year since 1970. To be eligible, Clubs must field at least four (4) junior teams. The winning Club is determined by calculating the total number of points the teams of each Club have earned and expressing that as a percentage of the maximum number of points that the teams of each Club could have scored if all of their teams had won every match. These percentage values are then compared and the Club with the highest percentage is declared as the best performing Club and winner of the Shield.
  • Col & Hec Cormie Shield - Originally awarded in 1964, it is awarded to the best performing Team across the Junior Divisions. Similar to the method used to determine the best performing Club, the best performing Team is determined by calculating as a percentage the number of points eaned by a team against the maximum points that were available to it.  It is only necessary to do this for the top team on the Points Table of each across the Junior Divisions. Deadlocks are resolved by the use of goal averages and count-backs. The past winners of this shield had never been listed until a list was compiled in 2018 and included in the Annual Report of that year. This involved reseaching each Annual Report back to 1964, sometimes the winning team was mentioned, sometimes they had to be determined from the Points Tables. 

As soon as is practical we hope to have all of the above lists added to this Website. Further lists and tables may also be assembled from other data as time permits.

Kim Rendell
BHA General Secretary

Historical Publications Welcome

We always welcome the donation of old and historical documents and publications, especially those that are in sound condition. In addition we are happy to photocopy/scan those documents and publications that a person might want to hang on to - we understand! While we do have quite a number documents and publications we still have to go through, we cannot afford others to be discarded in the meantime.

We are also interested in old photos, particularly those that have identifying information including lists of those that are in them.

Please, if you have anything like this, contact the BHA General Secretary via your Club Secretary.

Kim