2006 B Grade Premiership: The Story
27 July, 2026
This Saturday the club celebrates the 2006 B Grade Premiership. To many on the outside this would appear just like another Collegians flag along the way. But when you dig into it in more detail, it’s as much the years leading up to this Premiership, as well as the flag year itself, that make this a unique and interesting story in the club’s history.
After a tough period through the 1970’s the club enjoyed one of its most successful periods ever from the mid 1980’s to the mid to late 1990’s playing in seven A Grade Grand Finals and winning three premierships. Midway through the 1997 season the club was still at the top of the A Grade Ladder but would falter later that year and finish 4th. What happened over the next few years would shock even the most hardiest of Lions fans. Due to a number of different reasons, over the next 3 years the club would inexplicably end up being relegated in 1998 and then again in 2000 and would find itself in C Grade for the first time in the club’s long history.
Having to dust ourselves off from the shock of the double relegation some key changes at club level would be made as we began the long road back. The first of those changes was Wayne Dyer being appointed as President which had already happened by this stage. At playing level, a 21 year old Campbell Unsworth was appointed as Club Captain and then at the end of the 2001 season the club would make the brave decision to appoint a young coach from Old Xaverians in Pat Hawkins who was only in his late 20’s at that stage having coached back to back Old Xavs Under 19 premierships back in 1998 and 1999.
After finishing 4th in C Grade in 2001, 2002 would be a year to reset standards across the club and basically just bring a level of enjoyment back amongst the playing group. In saying that we slumped to 6th in C Grade at the end of 2002 after a humiliating 20 goal loss in the last round to Glen Eira when we were still in the hunt for a finals position. As bad as it looked on paper though there were some green shoots starting to appear and we were already unearthing some fine young senior players in captain Cam Unswoth, Nick Harrison, Richard Hosking, Clint Harris, Jono Dixon and James Fry amongst others.
2003 would prove the ultimate fork in the road but even then after Round 8 we were only 4-4 and sitting in the middle of the pack still. Things then finally clicked into gear and we would win 9 of our last 10 games that season and end up finishing on top of the ladder. The win in the 2nd Semi Final that season against St Leos Emmaus out at Brunswick will be remembered fondly by all who were there as we finally had dug ourselves out of C Grade. Sadly we would lose that Grand Final against Beaumaris but with a talented young group we were back on the way up and looking forward to 2004 in B Grade. Probably one of the biggest things to come out of the 2003 season that would have a profound impact on the club’s fortunes for the next decade was the debut of four senior players in Shura Taft, Charlie Holst, Chris Blumfield and James Jorgenson. All four would end up playing in multiple premierships and Grand Finals and became staples of the senior side for many years.
In B Grade in 2004 we roared through the first part of the season and turned for home on top of the ladder. We ended up finishing 2nd and all of sudden found ourselves in a Preliminary Final against Old Ivanhoe incredibly with a chance to be back in A Grade only 18 months after we sat in the middle of the C Grade ladder. Another famous match would unfold and after 120 minutes in driving rain scores were all tied up. A James Fry goal in extra time would get us over the line and remarkably after all that we were back in A Grade and off to another Grand Final against St Kevins the following week. Unfortunately we again lost the Grand Final in 2004 but the club was finally back with the big boys in the top flight of Amateur Footy.
Our first stint back in A Grade in 2005 would prove to be tough though and we turned 2 wins and 7 losses and copped some absolute hidings in the first half of the season. We dug in though in the back half of the season, posted 3 wins and pushed all of the top sides. Ultimately the relegation battle came down to the final game of the season out at Old Haileybury who sat on the top of the A Grade ladder. We led by 3 goals at ¾ time but were steam rolled in the last quarter and would get relegated by a single game, similarly to last years senior side in 2025. It was a bitter pill to swallow after all the hard work to pick ourselves up off the canvas over the prior two seasons.
And that leads us to the 2006 season. After losing Grand Finals in 2003 and 2004 and being relegated in 2005 the whole theme of the 2006 pre-season was this side needed to go back to B Grade and win some silverware to cap off all the hard work the team, coaches and club had put in since the start of the 2000’s. This journey would be greatly assisted when we added some significant talent, leadership and great characters to the group in Simon Arnott, Nick Stone, Benny Robbins, Justin Casserly and Ryan Harkness. Richard Hosking had also returned from his stint up in the country.
Similarly to what we are seeing with our senior group in 2026 we basically blew the competition away at the start of the season and after Round 12 we hadn’t lost a game and had a percentage of 230. There were a few slip ups on the way in but after thrashing 2nd placed Old Brighton by 90 points in Round 18 we went into the finals series full of confidence that we could finally bring home a premiership cup. The 2nd Semi Final was a tough hard affair and after trailing by a few points at ¾ time we charged home with the wind at Elsternwick Park in the last quarter for a five goal win against Old Brighton. Two weeks later we would face them for the third time in a row and after a strong start scores were level at ¾ time and it was all to play for. Four last quarter goals to one would eventually see us home by 21 points and we had finally brought home that premiership cup that the whole club had worked so hard for over the previous 5 years. With the ghosts of C Grade now well and truly behind us this would lead the club into its next era in A Grade and plenty of success as we now know would follow. But no one who was there during this period will ever forget the roller coaster that was the club’s era from 1999 to 2006.
