This Saturday Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault Football Club are celebrating their 70th anniversary, with a big day set to honour thier history in a clash against South Bunbury.
The Lions have an esteemed history, with nine league premierships in 1960, 1974, 1975, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2007, 2010 and 2019.
They have also been a breeding ground for AFL talent with Anthony Morabito, Brady Hough, Ethan Hughes, Kristin Thornton, Brad Shine, Joe Cormack plus father son duo Derek and Clay Hall coming from HBL.
The club decided to don new commemorative jumpers, featuring the names of every single player to have pulled on the colours at league level from 1956 to 2025 displayed on the guernsey with a total of 837 footballers who have helped build the club.
The club took the idea from South Fremantle in the WAFL but added some special touches to the jumper.
Players on the front of the jersey have had to have either featured in more than 50 league games, won a league, premiership won a fairest and best, played in the AFL or have won the SWFL Hayward Medal.
Club president Anthony Sabourne said it was a special occasion to get everyone to the club rooms to celebrate.
“Some people might get down here once a year, or every couple of years, and it’s just a really good chance for them to come back and catch up and see old mates and old teammates,” he said.
“We’ve invited a lot of former presidents, and just trying to make it a real special occasion too, but it’s great for a small community town like this to still have a football club and to be still going seventy years later is very special.”
Sabourne said the jumper would not be possible without Trevor Hogan, who completed the mighty task of figuring out every player to have pulled on the jumper at league level over 70 years.
“Trevor Hogan has done a lot of work going through records and budgets and to come up with every player that’s played league football for HBL,” he said.
“I don’t know how he’s done it. He’s done a huge job, so now when we present a debut, we can do it a bit like Test cricket and say your player number 838 and present them with their jumper.”
Part of the night will be the colts game played under lights in top-of-the-table clash against the Tigers as the guests enjoy the marquee time slot.
“While all the dignitaries and the invited guests are inside, they can still be watching the young future talent coming through,” he said.
“That was our thinking about that we wanted to showcase our colts program as well, instead of shoving them at 9 o’clock in the morning, we wanted to put them in prime time, and because we’ve got some really good kids coming through and should hold us in good stead for future years to come.”
The club will be auctioning off the commemorative jumpers, with extra special numbers from their premierships along with the year they joined the SWFL and the 70th anniversary jumper included.
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