On the 26th of July 2005 a meeting was called at the Caledonian Hotel in North Adelaide to form the Blackfriars Old Scholars Football Club. From there, plans were set in place to affiliate with the SAAFL. This was completed on November 7, 2005 and the clubs first game was played on April 1, 2006 in Division 7. The clubs base was Park 2, referred to historically as ‘St Doms’, and the club guernsey was all black with two blue vertical stripes on the left hand side front and rear. The school crest was incorporated as well as the BOSA insignia below the collar on the back.

The clubs formation was financed by generous contributions from our Foundation Members and these people will always be an integral part of the clubs history.

Foundation Members of BOSFC

Joe Bayer, John Belton, Nik Byrne, Chris Caporaso, Caporaso Family, Roger Cengarle, Martin Cini, Dellamalva Family, Tim Delvins, Darren Ellul, Grant and Marianne Foristal, Foti Family, Jake Georgonicas, Des Griffiths, Tim Griffiths, Jon Harmer, Andrew Harris, Michael Hinde, Paul Hine, Pat Hodby, Bernadette Hogan, Don and Carmel Hogan, Michael and Michelle Hogan, Kurzel Family, Terry Lewis, Charles Mayger, Derek Mayger, Garth Mayger, Chris Packer, Paul Page, Peter and Andrea Parrish, Alex Quinn, Geoff Richmond, Peter Sage, Michael Schinella, Andrew Simpson

Season 2006 – Division 7

The 2006 season could only be described as a resounding success. John Belton was appointed as the first coach of the club in November 2005 and pre season commenced in mid December. Lee Swiderski became the first coach of the clubs B grade after some persistent coercion from Belts during the pre season.

The first game for premiership points was played at Park 23 on West Terrace against Western Warriors. Stuart Frost kicked the first ever goal for the club in the B Grade game and Alex Quinn followed suit in the A Grade. Both games were won convincingly, the B Grade by 41 points and the A Grade by 115 points.

The A grade completed the season as minor premiers winning 15 o 18 games and then went on to defeat Wingfield Royals by 15 goals in the Second Semi Final at Salisbury Oval and Houghton Districts by 40 points in the Grand Final at Walkerville Oval in front of a massive amateur league crowd. The B Grade missed the finals in 2006 by 1 game.

Highlights of the year were the debut of Tim Griffiths and Kurt Donsberg on the same day at Tea Tree Gully in round 8. Both of these characters would become larger than life around the club and and feature prominently at our inaugural Best and Fairest presentation. 2006 also saw the debut of ‘Ghost Writer’. It was to be a short lived blog on happenings in the football club. Round 9 saw BOSFC take on an old school adversary in St Pauls at St Pauls. In what turned out to be a fantastic day for the club we won both grades and took the premiership points home with us. The absolute highlight of the year was grand final day at Walkerville and the celebrations that continued for another two days after that. Mitch Sonogan was best on ground in the GF.

Michael Spry won the A Grade Best and Fairest and Alex Rogers took out the B Grade Best and Fairest. Hugh Millikan was the club leading goal kicker on 107.

Season 2007 – Division 6

After the outstanding first season, both John Belton and Lee Swiderski agreed to continue as A and B Grade coaches respectively. Pre season again commenced in mid December to prepare for the climb to Division 6 in 2007.

The first game of 2007 saw us visit Harpers Field the home of the Golden Grove football club to playa  a game under lights on the Friday night of round 1. This had become a much anticipated round 1 fixture and attracted a significant crowd. Unfortunately the B Grade were well beaten but the A Grade prevailed in the main game by 57 points. This would turn out to the be the first of 4 meetings between the clubs in 2007, creating an interesting rivalry.

Highlights of 2007 included travelling to Hope Valley and returning with the premiership points in the A Grade, winning the BOSFC / WOSFC Cup and defending the cup later in the season in our games against Westminster Old Scholars

The A Grade finished runner up minor premiers by percentage and the b Grade were third at the end of the minor round. Qualifying final day saw the B Grade play Hope Valley at Hope Valley and take out the game in staggering style by XX points. Later that afternoon the A Grade played Hectorville at Hectorville  in what would become a watershed game for the club. With not more than one goal separating the sides all day, Matt Brincat would smother the unsmotherable ball on the line to hold off Hectorville in the dying moments by 3 points.

These results saw the club travel to Golden Grove for the second semi finals. The B grade went down in a tight tussle by 4 gaols and would rematch with Hope Valley the following week. The A grade gave Golden Grove a 27 point lead late in the first quarter but proved to be too good in the end prevailing by 12 points.

The B Grade preliminary final was a close result. Hope Valley won by 11 points but not after a determined effort by BOSFC after giving the Valleys a 7 gaols head start at the half way mark fo the 2^nd quarter.

Grand Final day saw the best two teams in Division 6 face off at Salisbury Oval. Fortunately we did not give Golden Grove the 4 gaol head start of the 2^nd Semi but instead charged to an early three goal lead. At half time it was a 4 goal margin in favour of BOSFC and three quarter time saw the lead back to 19 points. Finals experience shone through in the last quarter and BOSFC ran out comfortable winners with a margin of 42 points. Hugh Millikan was best on ground with an 8 goal effort at Full Forward.

At the Best and Fairest Presentation it was announced that the medals would be named after the first two coaches of the club – John Belton and Lee Swiderski.

Michael Spry took his second best and fairest award sharing the honours with Stef Parente.

The B Grade best and fairest was won by Ben Spalding.

Hugh Millikan was the clubs  leading goal kicker again finishing on 88.

Season 2008 – Division 5

Terry Howe joined us as the A Grade coach for 2008 and after a lot of arm twisting Jed Delaine finally agreed to lead the B’s.

The 2008 season saw a number of premiership players either move on or enter retirement / semi retirement including Travis Hillman (to Goodwood Saints), Dylan Lee (moved to Perth), Hugh Millikan and Mitch Sonogan (travelling interstate and overseas), Paul Rugari and Lee Swiderski entering retirement although that would change during the season and Stef Parente taking a year away from footy.

However there were many capable players who joined the club including Rob Parish, Kris Howe, Matt Stuart, Attilio Marando, Andrew Sneath, Scott Hoskins, Scott Watson, Jake Blunt, Luke Bortolotti, Mark Ellwood, Dave Kirkwood, Sam Murphy, Joe Ridnell, and Nick Wood.

Division 5 would prove to be a very even competition. Away wins were critical and every club had to win their home games.

In what would prove to be a challenging year for the whole club we drew against Greenacres, suffered our worst loss as a club to Greenacres also on Anzac day,  defeated Elizabeth at Elizabeth after being undermanned since quarter time and down by 3 goals with 15 minutes to go, lost our ascendancy over Golden Grove the eventual premiers and lost to Smithfield in the A Grade elimination final by 1 point in extra time after being lead all day and seemingly out of the game by 4 goals at three quarter time. and ANZAC Day thrashing. On the same day the B Grade lost the Elimination Final to Elizabeth, their third lost to that team by less than three goals in the same season. The Elimination Final results summed up our year.

Rob Parish won the A Grade Best and Fairest.

Jake Blunt won the B Grade Best and Fairest.

Rob Parish was the clubs  leading goal kicker on 56.

John Belton at 40 years of age was the runner up in the B Grade association medal. The highest finish of anyone from BOSFC in our three years of existence.

Season 2009 – Division 5

John Belton returned as A Grade coach in 2009 and was joined by John ‘Lamy’ Demasi who coached the B Grade.

Player numbers were again up at BOSFC and a number of players who commenced with the club in 2008 took some big steps cementing spots in the A Grade including Jake Blunt, Luke Bortolotti, Sam Murphy, Joe Ridnell and Brad Hillman returning after 18 months from a knee reconstruction. In addition there were a number of capable  players who joined the club including Craig Anderson, Adam Bootes, Pat Cearns, Andrew Constantinou, Andrew Conti, Jim Grant, Josh Kinsman, Jon Martino, Jarred Halliday, Pat Harford, Matt Haskett, Hugh Haskett, Tim Haskett, Tom Sabey and Andrew Slattery.,

Another tight and tense year was experienced in 2009 including a draw against Plympton, tight tussles against rival old scholar clubs who would eventually become the grand finalists in Pulteney and Westminster, a strong win against Rosewater at Rosewater, a demoralising loss to Westminster at Westminster and a heart breaking loss to Rosewater in the Elimination Final by 3 points. A real highlight of the season and a demonstration of the resolve and preparation of the club was the must win performance at Hope Valley in round 18 to make the Elimination Final the following week.

The B Grade had a tough season and missed the finals by two games. The rotation of players policy that our club has to reward all the lads who want to play with us while being a positive for the long term future of the club can cause disruption to team balance during the season.

The A Grade lost 6 games by under three goals and drew 1 game to finish 5^th at the end of the minor round. This shows how close the competition was in 2009.

Rob Parish took out his second best and Fairest award in two years.

Matt Haskett won the B Grade Best and Fairest.

Rob Parish was the club leading goal kicker on 56, the same number of goals he kicked in 2008 to win the award.