Greythorn Falcons History

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The Greythorn Football Club existed in many forms for over thirty five years.

A merger of two local teams that played in the Doncaster District JuniorFootball League formed the present club. The Greythorn Balwyn YMCAFootball Club (GBYFC) was formed prior to the 1976 football season after a joint meeting of the Balwyn YMCA Football Club and the Greythorn Football Clubon the 23rd November 1975.

The new team played in Melbourne colours and were known as ‘The Alphabets’.

The original teams were:

• Balwyn YMCA Football Club, which was formed on or before 1968. This club played at Hislop Park and was based at the YMCA which operated out of what is now known as the Balwyn Leisure Centre.

• Greythorn Football Club which was formed in 1969 as the Koonung Football Club and first played at Greythorn Park in 1971.

It appears that neither of the clubs were very successful as the Doncaster League was as strong in those days as it is today.

1980 appeared to be a big year for the GBYFC. Firstly there was a name change as the ‘YMCA’ element was replaced by ‘Youth’ due to the closure of the YMCA.Secondly, the club was in a very strong position and was able to field ten teams made up of every age group from under 10 to under 17 together with additional teams in under 11, 13 and 17. Thirdly, the club won its first premierships – in under 11s and under 17s.

In 1987 the club transferred to the Hawthorn District Junior Football Leagueand had to change its colours to the uniform we know today as Surrey Park also played in Melbourne colours. Having to provide complete sets of jumpers for the entire club proved to be a financial strain and was particularly annoying as Surrey Park Juniors folded in the following year. Nevertheless the club was able to get some return when we were able to sell our Melbourne jumpers to Surrey Park when they reformed in 1995.

In 1993 the Committee tired of the lengthy club title and recommended to the annual meeting that the name be changed to the Greythorn Football Club. This change was accepted by the members and ‘Greythorn’ teams took to the field in 1994.

Greythorn, were one of the founding members of the new Yarra Junior Football League which was formed in 1997 from the merger of the Hawthorn and Doncaster Leagues. The YJFL is the largest football League in Australia.

In 1998 the club adopted the nickname of ‘The Falcons’ after being unofficially known as ‘The Thorns’ for many years.

The club celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2000 but sadly were unable to win any premierships to mark the occasion.

The year 2001 saw the formation of our new Colts team (under 17s) who, played their home matches at Gordon Barnard Reserve. The launch of the Colts team was an immense success, with the Colts being promoted to Section 1 after the first four games.

In 2006, Greythorn finally introduced a 'Tackers' team into the mix and for the first time were able to offer a complete array of teams to local footballers.

On the administration side, the Falcons gained Football Victoria endorsement as a 'Quality Club' - bronze in 2005. This endorsement was upgraded to Silver level in 2006 with hopes to go the final step to Gold in the following years. Very few football clubs in Victoria have been able to gain endorsement and it speaks highly of our performance on the organisational side of our business.

Whilst our club has always fielded competitive teams, we were unable to win any premierships after 1998 until 2006 when we finally broke the drought with the success of our Under 11 team - ably coached by 'Coach of the Year' Neale Peters and our Under 14s under the guidance of Collingwood legend Peter Daicos and John Dinicolantonio .

t seems our club has finally got the knack of winning premierships. The wonderful efforts of our Under 11 and Under 14 teams in 2006 were followed in 2007 by ourmagnificent U10s who went through the entire season without losing a single game and who then continued on their winning way in 2008 to make it back to back premierships. This team under the guidance of coach Bill Thielboasted a number of exceptional players two of whom are currently playing in the AFL - Refer AFL Falcons

Further success followed for out Colts 2 team in 2010 and our magnificent Under 11s under the guidance of Carlton champion Stephen Silvagni (SOS) in 2011.

In 2013 we celebrated our first ever Gold premiership in the YJFL when our magnificent Under 11s Gold team completed a fantastic year by winning the Grand Final after heading their ladder for the entire season.

2015 was another successful premiership year. Although we fielded less teams than in previous seasons we were still able to bag a couple of flags - this time it was the U13s and our GDU Colts combined team .

The success continued in 2016 with the Under 11s winning the Green Division flag in their first year of competitive premiership footy. This team boasted a number of very capable players and although their success places them in a higher division, the club is confident that they will achieve further success.

2017 saw the previous year's U11s premiers do the same thing again - this time as Under 12s, and to really make it a special day, they were joined by theUnder 13s who finally broke through after some disappointments in previous seasons.

The success enjoyed by the Under 12s will see them promoted to Gold divisionin 2018 where we are confident they will aquit themselves really well.

Many thanks to life member Bill Hooker for his research and input for this summary

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Falcons in the AFL

All junior football clubs exist primarily to provide an avenue for the young footballers in their area to have the chance to play football in a properly structured atmosphere.

At the same time, most clubs devote considerable resources to the development of their players and to assisting them to be the very best players that they can be.

Our club is no different and we derive enormous pleasure watching our players grow to become successful footballers.

Very occasionally we are fortunate to have a player or two in our ranks who are exceptionally talented and who go on to play football at the highest possible level - in The Australian Football League or the VFL.

Players from our club who have reached the pinnacle in their development at a senior AFL or VFL club include:

Andrew Schauble - Collingwood & Sydney

Cayden Beetham - St Kilda

Tom Roach - Richmond, North Ballarat, Swan Districts

Tom Hooker - Collingwood (Rookie), Port Melbourne

Sam Cust - Box Hill Hawks

Currently, there are three players in the AFL who played all of their junior footy with our club and another two whose early careers were with us. We have, and will continue to follow their exploits with a great deal of interest.

One them - Tom Cutler , is in his sixth year with the Brisbane Lions whilst the other two - Jack Silvagni and Dan Houston are commencing their fourth years. Our fourth AFL player - Josh Daicos has just completed his second year with the Pies and our most recent draftee - Ben Silvagni is about to start his first year with the Blues.

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Tom Cutler

Brisbane Lions Football Club

Essendon Football Club

Tom is in his sixth season with the Brisbane Lions and has really started to 'come of age' as an AFL footballer.

Unfortunately, Tom has had a less than perfect run with injuries at the start of his time with the Lions but all that seemingly is behind him now and he has enjoyed several years - virtually injury free.

After playing all of his junior footy on the forward line, Tom has became a permanent fixture on Brisbane's backline although his role is generally a running one.

Ever since started with Brisbane, Tom's progress was one of slowly but surely. He is now a mature AFL footballer.

At the end of the 2019 season Tom sought a return to Melbourne and was fortunate enough to be able to join the Essendon Football Club where he will continue his AFL career.

In a lot of ways, Toms style of footy is probably more suited to the way that Essendon play rather than the way that Brisbane do and consequently we are confident that Toms transfer to the Bombers will be a successful one.

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Jack Slilvagni

Carlton Football Club

Jack is about to begin his his fourth year with the Blues and will be joined by brother Ben.

After playing his first senior game against Collingwood on the 2nd July in 2016, Jack has become an automatic selection each week and can be expected to build on what he started three years ago.

Jack has a heritage that can be both a blessing and a curse. The good part of it is that he has clearly inherited the talents of his father and grandfather but the disadvantage is that everyone expects him to be a champion. That sort of expectation can be hard to live up to. Nevertheless, we can be absolutely sure that Jack will give it his best shot.

His youngest brother - Tom plays for our Colts and has become one of his team's principal players.

Well done Jack. The first year is out of the way and it's time to show the world just what you can do. We have seen it many times but now everyone else needs to.

In Round 13 2017, Jack was nominated as the AFL Rising Star for that week. Our club congratulates him on his nomination.

Refer article reproduced from www.afl.com.au

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Dan Houston

Port Adelaide Football Club

Dan's story is a mini 'Triumph over Adversity' one.

After missing selection in the 2016 AFL National Draft, Dan was selected as a 'Rookie' by Port Adelaide. Whilst not quite as good as being selected in the National draft, it nevertheless isn't a bad second.

Determined to advance his career beyond the Rookie stage, Dan began his career full of determination only to be struck down by a fairly serious injury just prior to the start of the 2016 season.

The result was that Dan missed all the footy part of his club's pre-season and was expected to return to football in SANFL fairly quietly.

Dan being Dan, that of course didn't happen and Dan played pretty well - being named amongst his team's best and kicking two goals.

Dan played out the year in Port's SANFL team - mainly on the forward line and whilst he performed pretty well, it wasn't until Port decided to try him on the backline that he 'came of age.'

Dan's performances playing off half back in the AFL pre-season competition in 2017 were ones to make everyone sit up and take notice. The result of which has been a promotion to the senior list.

In 2017 Dan was selected in the senior team for the first game and remained there for the entire season.

Dan is now definitely among his club's best 22 and recently signed a contract extension that will keep him tied to the Power until at least the end of the 2022 season.

Our club extends its best wishes to Dan and trusts that his career with Port will be enjoyable and successful.

In Round 21, Dan was nominated as the AFL Rising Star for that week. Our club congratulates him on his nomination.

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Josh Daicos

Collingwood Football Club

Whilst Josh doesn't have quite the length of service with us as the guys mentioned above, he is nevertheless, a former Falcon.

Josh commenced playing with us in the Tackers and was a prominent member of his group up to and including the Under 12s.

After the Under 12s he left us to play in a more competitive competition.

Everyone would be aware that Josh is the eldest son of former Magpie champion Peter and even in his younger days it was evident that he had inherited some of his dad's 'magic.'

Josh was a 'Father & Son' selection by Collingwood in the 2016 AFL draft.

Upon his selection he was immediately thrust into service - training at the Westpac Centre.

We wish Josh well in his endeavours with the Pies and trust it won't be too long before he is a regular member of the senior team.

Collingwood fans will be delighted to learn that Josh has a younger brother - Nick, who is just as skilful.

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Ben Slilvagni

Carlton Football Club

Like Josh Daicos, Ben doesn't have quite the length of service with us as the first three named above although the circumstances that shortened his Falcons career were definitely beyond his control.

Ben commenced playing with us in the Tackers and was a prominent member of his group up to and including the Under 13s.

Unfortunately, when Ben was ready and able to continue his career in the Under 14s we found ourselves without a team for him to be a member of - such are the vagaries of junior footy.

Ben now joins his brother Jack as a member of the Blues club and like his brother has that same heritage that can be both a blessing and a curse.

Ben has enormous talent and to date has mainly played as a reliable defender although as everyone knows, where a player plays his footy in younger days means absolutely nothing when it comes to the AFL.

His youngest brother - Tom plays for our Colts and has become one of his team's principal players.

The Silvagni name has long been associated with Carlton - since the 1960's in fact, but this will be the first time that two brothers bearing the name will be playing together. (Alex Silvagni is not a family member).

Well done Ben, we are sure it won't be very long before you run on to field alongside Jack.

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