Our History

Eastern Suburbs Association Football Club Inc. was formed in 1934 through the amalgamation of Tamaki United AFC (formed 1924) and Glen Innes (formed 1930) and has proved a great nursery for Auckland Football talent. During our 85 years of existence, Eastern Suburbs have won every honour available to a club in Auckland Football.

The club’s catchment area extends from central suburbs, Parnell, Newmarket and Remuera, through to Meadowbank, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, St Heliers, Glendowie, Glen Innes, St. Johns, Stonefields, and into Panmure. As the club continues to grow, we now see players travelling from across Auckland to be a part of our top-level teams.

The Story of Madills Farm

In pre-European times the Madills Farm area was a lagoon and raupo swamp. The general area was known by Maori as Waipara ra – meaning duck water, after the pārera or native grey duck that thrived in these local wetlands areas.

Up until the late 1920’s – punts were used as transport across the lagoon.

In 1842 the Crown sold a 200-acre block between the beach and Kohimarama Rd to a Captain Porter.

In 1860 the land was then on-sold to Bishop Patterson of the Melanesian Mission (for £3,500).

It was in 1919 that Mr William Madill – a local farmer took over the lease of a 119 acres block – that included the Madills Farm Reserve area.

Pārera

More Recent History:

In 1943 the Melanesian Trust Board sub-divided the land from Speights Rd to Kohimarmara Rd. The development was to include 550 new houses, a group of shops now known at the Melanesia shops, and a 30-acre space to be set aside as reserve land to be developed by the Council for recreational purposes.

Council did not finalise the purchase of this land until 1959, and in the meantime, the land had been used for land-fill and was known by the locals as the “dust bowl”, it was a wilderness of wattle, blackberry bushes and weeds.

In 1964, 3ha at the southern end of the Reserve was levelled and a child’s playground built. The remaining 27ha was not developed until the late 1970s when tons of soil were brought in and the area was levelled and grassed.

 

In 1980, Council built the current facility on Madills Farms, which provided for the tractor and implement sheds, the committee room for the local community board, and changing rooms and toilets.

In the late 1980s, the Eastern Suburbs Associated Football Club was granted the lease for the building and the winter use of the sports fields. The tractor sheds and committee room were converted into our current clubrooms.

Our Achievements

Over the years, Eastern Suburbs AFC have proudly achieved the following titles:

Chatham Cup: 1951, 1953, 1965, 1968, 1969, & 2015

Kate Sheppard Cup: 2019

Rothmans National League (now ISPS Handa): 1971, 2018/19

Northern League Champions: 1965, 1966, & 2015

Northern League Div 1 Champions: 2011

Northern League Div 2 Champions: 2003

Northern League Div 3 Champions: 1997

Auckland FA Champions: 1948, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, & 1962

Women’s Premier Champions: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2013, 2019, 2021

Player Representatives

Whilst the above victories have brought great prestige and publicity to the club, we view our greatest success as having provided a recreational and sporting environment for thousands of youngsters and their families in and around our community. Eastern Suburbs have been able to do this through the support of successive club committees and their commitment to fostering the development of Junior and Youth Football. Some of the products of our development programmes across the ages can be seen in both Men’s and Women’s national teams across the decades;
Men's Representatives Women's Representatives
R. Stone 1933 S. Twiname 1975
K. Fleet 1951, 55 B. Cox 1976
M. Cooper 1951, 54, 55 E. Lee 1978
D. Kendrick 1952 J. Porter 1979
R. King 1954, 55 M. Loos 1980, 81
T. Van Den Broek 1958 M. Oostdam 2005, 07
J. Wrathall 1959, 61 R. Tegg 2007
C. J. Middleton 1961 E. Naylor 2011, 13
J. Legg 1967, 68, 69, 73, 75 S. Gregorious 2011, 14
T. McNabb 1967, 68, 69 K. Hill 2012
R. Mears 1967, 68, 69 K. Hoyle 2013
P. Rennell 1967, 68 A. Green 2013
W. de Graaf 1968, 69, 70, 71 G. Jale 2016, 17, 18
J. Staines 1968, 71, 73 D. Cleverley 2016
M. Bland 1971, 73 A. Phillips 2017
P. Eliadis 1971
P. Jeram 1971, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
W. Fleet 1972, 75, 76, 77
C. Latimour 1973
R. Armstrong 1978
A. Stamp 1978, 79
W. E. Thomas 1978
C. Gosling 1978
G. Jenkins 1979
S. Malcolmson 1979
N. Hickey 2005
M. Dyer 2016, 18
T. Payne 2017, 18, 19
A. De Jong 2017, 18, 19
Men's Youth Representatives Women's Youth Representatives
T. Myers U17s 2007, 08 R. E. Brown U17s 2007, 08
E. Wong U17s 2008 Y. Nguyen U17s 2010
M. Patterson U17s 2013 L. Kemp U20s 2010
M. Palmer U17s/U20s 2017, 18 E. Naylor U20s 2010, 12
K. Sinclair U20s 2018 E. Millyn U17s/U20s 2010, 12, 14
C. Spragg U20s 2018 B. Dudley-Smith U17s 2010
L. van den Hoven U20s 2018 J. Muir U17s 2011, 12
C. Strong U17s 2018 E. Stotter U17s 2013
N. Milner U17s 2018 M. Robertson U20 2014
J. Parris U20s 2016
D. Cleverley U20s 2016
G. Jale U17/U20 2016, 17, 18
J. Hand U17/U20 2016, 17, 18
N. Mettam U20s 2016, 17, 18
H. Blake U20s 2017
A. Waters U17s 2017
A. Collins U20s 2019

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