Club

 The district of Port Cygnet was originally known as Tahune'e-linah and was the home of the Melukerdee people. 

     In 1834, following a football-free period of something like 30 or 40 thousand years or so, a white man by the name of William Nichols turned up. In his wake came a procession of Europeans, mostly Irishmen, who settled and farmed the land. Who was to blame for first planting his boot into a football is unknown, but it wasn't long before a thriving  competition was in swing, and, on winter weekends, teams of men from various local valleys and townships were fiercely fighting it out over a leather ball, in forest clearings and on river flat paddocks. Teams from Nicholls Rivulet, Gardners Bay and Garden Island Creek joined together as Lovett.

   In 1906  Lovett  joined the Huon Football Association and so began the legendary battles with our Huon neighbours which cemented Australian Rules into the developing European and Aboriginal cultures.

     Lovett football club was renamed Cygnet in 1914 and the traditional Huon rivalries continued until 1998. The Huon competition was highly regarded, and many of it's sons distinguished themselves in the Tasmanian Football League and further afield in the VFL and then the AFL. Cygnet Football Club prospered as a club known for its fierce competitive spirit, loyal followers and an endless stream of Premiership flags.

     Cygnet's entry into the SFL in 1998 followed the breakdown of the Huon Association and led to the loss of our beloved Magpie jumper. We became Port Cygnet Football Club with the colours black,white and teal. Some old-timers shed tears over these changes, but as Cygnet continued to pile up successes and a bunch of Premierships, all was forgiven.

   The SFL has continued to undergo change, with radical restructuring and the coming and going of various teams. Recent changes have thrown up a new set of challenges. The Regional League is now an unbalanced competition, inflated with an overload of teams, some of whom, both at the top of the pile and at the bottom, likely to have a frustrating time coming to grips with AFL-driven changes which clearly do not suit rural clubs. Our old rivals Channel has left for the Amateur competition and Kermandie has found the going too much and has folded. 

    Cygnet Football Club should theoretically be reasonably placed to be a survivor in the new mix, but times are a changing.

  Rural communities are changing, with an exodus of young adults chasing employment and recreation options are ever expanding. Football is no longer the single driving interest in young people's lives.

   Couch potatoes are winning over bums on seats ... crowds are dwindling. The loss of local rivals have dramatically cut club earnings as home games are often against clubs who bring paltry number of supporters and do not inspire the interest of local fans.

  The AFL hierarchy appears interested only in the development of a streamlined competition .. with one purpose...  a pathway for  elite young footballers heading towards the AFL proper. The AFL clearly is not interested in a 27 year old local hero who loves his footy and just wants to hit the ground with his mates.

 The AFL would love to see a single club represent the Huon and sheds no tears for the death of our local teams.

   Community generated teams will gradually lose out to sponsor supported clubs. This is a fatally flawed situation. When a community-based football club folds so does its youth development. Cut out the foundations and eventually the structure as a whole topples.

  The AFl Tasmania is not a community organisation and does not have the best interest of traditional Tasmanian rural football culture at heart. 

   Apart from our love of winning Premierships, Cygnet Football Club's major focus is in our youth development. From the littlies at Aus-Kick, through the Mini-League to the Colts, the cream of our coaches and the loyalest of our supporters devote themselves to one purpose: namely to give every young kid the opportunity to play the game we love.

    Our football club is integral to our community. For that reason we are not interested in notions of amalgamation or super-Huon teams. We enjoy what we are.

   Although we are a self-generating, family based club, we welcome the occasional recruit and Cygnet's spirit of mateship is an uplifting experience for newcomers.

Location of Cygnet Football Ground