Holroyd-Parramatta Blacktown AFC Goannas


The Holroyd-Parramatta-Blacktown Australian Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The club colours are blue and yellow and they are nicknamed the Goannas. They currently have four teams: First Division, Third Division, Fifth Division and an Under 19's side who all play in the Sydney AFL league.
The Goannas home ground is Gipps Road Oval located in the western Sydney suburb of Greystanes, part of the local city of Holroyd.

History

The club formed in 1979 as Parramatta with a senior team instigated in 1980. The club changed its name to Holroyd-Parramatta in 1983 before a merger with Blacktown in 1995.
In 1985, six years after their formation, the Goannas were admitted to Sydney football's primary competition, the SFL, where, after a lack lustre couple of seasons, they began to emerge as a genuine force towards the end of the decade. With former Richmond player Ron Thomas at the helm the side qualified for the 1990 finals in second spot behind North Shore before winning the second semi final by 31 points. In the grand final a fortnight later it again met North Shore and, in a spiteful, tempestuous match at the Erskineville Oval, won its first and only SFL pennant by 7 points. Final scores were Holroyd-Parramatta 9.15 defeated North Shore 9.8, with Brian ‘Alf' Hawke courageously seeing out the entire game for the victors despite sustaining a broken jaw early on. The Goannas retained the nucleus of their premiership side in 1991, but on this occasion fell at the final hurdle. The premiership team included future Sydney Swan player Neil Brunton. The premiership decider featured the same teams as in 1990 and was, if anything, an even more bruising and unpleasant encounter, with the Goannas, despite having only fifteen fit men, doing well to get within a goal during the last term before ultimately going down by 22 points.
In 1995, the club decided that it was being over-stretched in the SFL, and took the opportunity of merging with struggling SFA club, Blacktown. In 1995, the club decided that it was being over-stretched in the SFL, and took the opportunity of merging with struggling SFA club, Blacktown. The newly merged club would compete in the SFA, the highlight of this period being a 14.10 to 11.11 grand final defeat of Wollongong in 2001.
Arguably the Goannas' most famous player was Mark Taylor, who won the club's best and fairest award in 1983, and later went on to captain the Australian Test cricket team. Taylor is the current club patron of the Goannas.

Hall of fame

2013 saw the inaugural presentation of the Gray Medal for the Goannas Best & Fairest winner. The Gray medal is named in honour of the Gray Family who have sponsored the Holroyd Parramatta Blacktown Football Club since its inception in 1979.
- Reece Morris & Mitchell Sapiatizer