President Lindsay Thomas (1993 – 97)
Senior Coach Leo Browne (1993 – 94)
Captain Stephen Barratt (1989 – 93)
Vice Captain Trevor Clisby
Teams (3) SFL – First Grade, SFL – Reserve Grade, SFL Under 19 Grade
Premiers Under 19 Grade – First premiership in the Sydney Football League
Preamble
Pennant Hills joined the Sydney First Division competition in 1977, fielding three teams, First Grade, Reserve Grade and Under 19s. Prior to this the Club had won three lower grade premierships, one in 1976 in the SFA 2nd Division A Grade and two in 1975 in the SFA 2nd Division A Grade and B Grade, respectively.
Since joining the top Sydney competition in 1977, the Club did not win a premiership in any grade between 1977 and 1992 (first 15 seasons). During this period the club had competed in four grand finals without success. The Demons were runners-up in the 1982 Senior Grade GF losing to East Sydney by 18 pts and the Under 19 team was runner-up on three occasions in 1984, 1986 and 1992. 1993 became a breakthrough season for the Club as the Under 19s won the first premiership in any grade.
In season 1993, Pennant Hills fielded three teams.
First Grade
After the H&A rounds, the First Grade side finished in 3rd place (11 wins/5 losses) and Western Suburbs were Minor Premiers (13 wins/3 losses) and second-placed St George (12 wins/4 losses) were Premiers. In the 1st Semi-final, Pennant Hills were beaten by North Shore by 58 pts and bowed out of the finals race. In the Grand Final St George defeated North Shore by 35 pts to win the Bill Hart Cup. In an extraordinary display of poor kicking North Shore kicked 9.26-80 (35 scoring shots) while St George’s greater accuracy of 17.13-115 (30 scoring shots) won them the match.
Paul Gooley was First Grade Best & Fairest.
Michael Carey was the Best First Year Local Player winning the “Ken Macrae Shield”.
Stefan Carey was the 1993 Pennant Hills Footballer of the Year. Only 17 years of age, Stefan had the responsibility of holding down the most difficult position in football, Centre Half Forward. He was selected in the Sydney Representative team and also represented NSW in the Teal Cup and was one of two NSW players to be selected in the 1993 All Australian team.
Stefan was subsequently drafted to the Sydney Swans where he played 45 games (22 goals) from 1996 – 99) and also played 3 games (1 goal) for the Brisbane Lions in year 2000. He was AFL Rising Star runner-up in 1997, 5 years after Nathan Buckley became the first player to win this honour in 1993 (playing for Brisbane Lions).
Randal Green was the Club’s Leading Senior Goalkicker with 55 goals in 1993. Randal was the leading senior goalkicker for four consecutive seasons (1993 – 96) kicking 55, 58, 82 and 68 goals respectively. He was twice the League’s First Grade Leading Goalkicker in 1995 (82 goals) and 1996 (68 goals), respectively.
Steve Bird’s 96 goals in the 1984 First Grade competition is the highest goal tally kicked by a Pennant Hills player and he was also the League’s Leading goalkicker that season.
Reserve Grade
Coach: Michael Langford
Manager: Peter Clarke
Captain: Stephen Monahan
Vice Captain: Michael Barr
After the H&A rounds, the Reserve Grade side finished in 7th place (5 wins/11 losses) in a field of 9 teams. North Shore were Minor Premiers (15 wins/1 loss) and Premiers. In the Grand Final North Shore narrowly beat 3rd placed Western Suburbs by 4 pts.
Glen ‘Wombles’ McKernan was Reserve Grade Best & Fairest.
Mark Collings was the leading goalkicker with 23 goals, including a big bag of 15 goals against Campbelltown in Round 16. Penno scored 34.21-225 to Campbelltown 3.1-19, 206 pts margin!
Stephen Monahan won the Sanders Medal (18 votes).
Under 19s
Coach: Steve Barratt
Manager: Tony Burnett
Captain: Tim Hall
Deputy Captain: Jason Clarke
After the H&A rounds, the Under 19s side finished minor premiers (15 wins/1 loss). North Shore finished 2nd (13 wins), St George 3rd (11 wins) and Holroyd-Parramatta finished 4th (11 wins). In the 2nd Semi-Final, Pennant Hills beat North Shore by 35 pts. In the Grand Final against St George, Pennant Hills were rampant winning by 62 pts.
2nd Semi Final: Pennant Hills 11.7-73 defeated North Shore 5.8-38
Grand Final: Pennant Hills 11.9-75 defeated St George 1.7-13.
Blair Hatherley was Best on Ground in the Grand Final.
Jason Clarke was Under 19 Best & Fairest
Stefan Carey was the leading goalkicker with 32 goals and was 2nd in League’s Under 19 competition.
Lindsay Thomas, Club President
‘’The 1993 season has been one of the most successful for the Club in many years.
Our U-19’s were magnificent. They lost only one game and that by only 2 points, finished on top of the ladder and won the premiership. They brought the Club its first Premiership Flag ever Sydney Football League, Division One.
There were many individual highlights, but none more rewarding than Stephen Monahan winning the Sanders Medal, Stefan Carey being selected “All Australian” in Teal Cup and Mick Coen, Steve Barratt and Grant Croese all reaching 100 games for the Club.”
Mark Wilcox – 1993 Under 19 Premiership Player
It was a great team. We had awesome spirit. One of the best years of my life.
1993, I remember we had 16 players backing up from the losing 1992 team but we lost a few to first grade. We were a really tight team. [Penno U19s lost to St George by 20 pts in the 1992 Grand Final.] We all went out as a group, had house parties etc. Most of us would sit on the hill [at the Ern] with our own case of beer watching reserves and firsts and being the big cheer squad. There were some memorable parties, Clarke’s and Hemmingway’s in particular. Apart from Patrick’s [aka Pennant Hills Pub], some memorable nights at the Wild Turkey bar.
We only lost one game but the coach, Steve Barratt was more pissed off by a game we won by 100 points. That was against East Sydney and we were expected to win by 200 but we had all had a monster night at the Swans, which was exacerbated by some guys actually sleeping on the oval that night before the game at Trumper Park. From memory Hooter broke his fist sometime that night. Barro was not happy. It was probably the best thing for us as it pulled our heads in.
Our one loss was Parra. They caused us trouble in the earlier rounds as they used to make up for lack of skill, compared to us (but they had skill) by trying to ‘bash’ us out of the game. In the earlier rounds that’s fine but we were confident better umpires in finals would fix this. We just lost this game but we were horrendously unprepared. We were still getting our team photo done on the Western side of ‘The Ern’ when the umpires threw the ball up as we were so late and bolted on. We got jumped a bit early and never really recovered.
Going into the final series, as minor premiers, our biggest threat, we thought, was North Shore. We had had two loose games and their percentage was huge (337% vs PH 256%). The finals were also at their home ground. Why were we worried, we dominated them and into the granny!
The surprise in the granny was we were playing Saints instead of Shore. Saints had won fairly easily against Parra and Norths. We were quite surprised as I really think, from memory, we didn’t overly rate them. We had had a one point win against them last time, but it was mid-season and we were not playing well then.
There was excitement in the club the week of the GF and some hard decisions re the team selection made by Barro. Anyone who missed out was very unlucky, we had a very strong team.
Game day we dominated. Our backline was sensational. They couldn’t get the ball past us and we smashed goal after goal. They got a bit embarrassed and one St George player famously said to Patty Matthews (who had won the Kealy medal the year before) ‘at least I won the Kealy’ Patty just laughed and said ‘I won it last year’! The feeling was amazing in the last quarter when we knew we had them. Barro put the bench on, I remember him kind of apologising for taking me off and I said ‘it’s fine, as long as I’m on at the end’. He put me back on with 5 to go.
We had great support from the Penno faithful and there was elation when we won. People all got around the huddle and we were jubilant! We then got the trophy (strangely, the league didn’t give medals then, only a trophy, Penno made up medals for us) and I will never forget my elation when, as it was my turn with the cup, I thought about it and worked out the top came off. You should have seen the look on Patty Matthews face when he saw me take it off. He immediately filled it with beer and I had the first swig, it then went around the whole team and half the supporters, multiple times. Wouldn’t be Covid friendly today, haha! I remember the chants for the skulls constantly the whole night.
We then went back to Penno pub. I remember the elation of the longtime supporters that we had finally won an SFL premiership! The best thing was we didn’t have to put our hand in our pockets the whole night. Shout after shout was bought for us. We were obviously exhausted at closing, which was a Sunday from memory, so go home? God no. Off to Clarkey’s house for an all-night house party. Absolutely massive!!
The next thing I remember from that year is going off to the Good Coast for the footy trip. Once again us under 19s were kings. At one stage we were watching an AFL final on the big screen at Southport AFL club. Ex players who live in Queensland came down and one bloke, can’t remember who, put on $500 for the 19s. How good was that? Huge amount of cash back then and most of us were students.
I managed to break teammate Andrew Davies wrist at the halftime kick on the ground when we both slipped over going for a ball and I landed on his wrist, but he just strapped it up and he used it to get sympathy from the girls the rest of the trip(he never let me forget it but). Was an unbelievable trip.
End of memories. One thing I would say is that had we had Peter Dixon, Anthony Brawn, Michael Carey and Stefan Carey all available, and not playing Firsts (and Dicko and the two Carey’s also Swans with Stefan playing AFL) we would have won every game by 100 points.
Me personally, I was just proud that I played every game for the year. I was never overly skilled, I just tried hard and tried to contribute.
Pennant Hills Flag History
1993 was a significant milestone for the Club, realising its first Premiership since joining the SFL League in 1977. In 1994, the Under 19s won the premiership again and the Reserves won its first flag. It wasn’t until 2000 that the Senior side won its first premiership and until 2022 for Pennant Hills women to win their first flag.
The Club’s 3rd grade teams have won 6 premierships including the Division Four flag in 2013.
The U18/U19s have won 6 premierships including the most recent U18 flag in 2013.
Season 2023 is the 10th anniversary of the 2013 Division Four and Under 18 flags and the 30th anniversary of the U19 flag won in 1993 that was also the first premiership won by the Club.
Compiled & written by John Acheson – 29 July 2023