The Story of Camberwell's 1990 Men's State League 1 Premiership

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The year was 1990, the last decade of the millennium in a fast changing world with many major events shaping the global and local landscape, to refresh your memories

  1. Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa

  2. Wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate with the reunification of East and West Germany. West German flag is raised above the Brandenburg Gate.

  3. US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia beginning Operation Desert Shield, with UN security council authorising military action against Iraq

  4. The US and the USSR agree to end production of chemical weapons and to destroy most of their stockpiles of chemical weapons

  5. Prime Minister Bob Hawke admits that Australia is in the first stages of recession with Paul Keating spruiking it as the recession we “HAD TO HAVE”, not sure if everyone agreed

  6. Bob Hawke's Labor Government is re-elected with a reduced majority for a 4th Term

  7. The State Bank of Victoria is sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for AU$1.6b, after collapse of Pyramid and a number of other failed ventures

  8. The National Australia Bank buys out Britain's Yorkshire Bank. Wasn’t that the reason why Argie was away on some of his business trip?

  9. Kerry Packer purchases back control of the Nine Network for A$250 million from Alan Bond, who purchased it from him for $1 billion in 1987. Tell me where I can find a deal like that

  10. Channel 10 goes in receivership with debts totalling more than $450 million, they have the same problem today

  11. John McEnroe becomes 1st ever player to be expelled from the Australian Open

  12. The VFL is renamed as the AFL

  13. Auckland Commonwealth Games, Australia wins 52 gold medals, 162 in all, to finish on top in the Commonwealth Games

  14. Grand Final in OCTOBER, Collingwood (13.11.89) defeats Essendon (5.11.41) to win the 94th VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first premiership won under the AFL banner and Collingwood's first premiership since 1958, thereby symbolising the end of the "Colliwobbles"

  15. Kingston Rule wins 1990 Melbourne Cup. Kingston Rule registered the fastest winning time for the Melbourne Cup, winning an eighth Cup for Bart Cummings

  16. Better Loosen Up won the Cox Plate and would go on to win the Japan Cup

  17. World Population was 5,263,593,000 NOW 7,800,000,000

However, the biggest event of that year was the Camberwell Men’s SL1 (PL) team played out an epic grand final against arch rivals Waverley to win the premiership 6-5 in extra time making it 4 premierships in 7 years ( after winning 1984,86,88 & 90) 

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The team caught up for a COVID style re-union on Saturday night to look back on an amazing era dominated by Camberwell and Waverley

Recollection of the game:

Waverley opened the scoring early to take a 0-1 lead, with David Wansbrough and Andrew Minter both sidelined for serious infringements, Camberwell with just nine men on the field scored the season’s first ever 100th goal season through Anthony (Pottsy) Potter and shortly after via Jay Stacey providing the Wellers with a half time lead 2-1

After half time, Camberwell extended their advantage to 3-1 through a goal from Steve (Wally) Dalton and it appeared the Wellers had the premiership locked away going into the final minute of play.

However two goals in the last 40 seconds had the large crowd going wild knowing they were about to experience another 30 minute of physical and relentless attacking hockey by the two powerhouses of Victorian Hockey.

Camberwell kept their noses in front throughout extra time, going ahead courtesy of a penalty stroke converted by Greg (Pointer) Read, only for Waverley to equalise shortly after. With the scores locked at 4-4, the Wellers took the advantage again through a perfectly executed PC conversion from Stacey followed not long after by a clever rebound goal from the skipper Stuart ( Kiwi) Grimshaw, providing the Wellers with a 6-4 lead entering the final minutes. Waverley continued to throw caution to the wind and converted a PC with only a minutes to play taking the score to 6-5 and followed that up with a PC opportunity that found the back of the net, only for the umpire to rule a free hit to the Wellers. 

At the final whistle, the Wellers held on for 6-5 victory to clinch the premiership in an epic final.

 Team of 1990

1  Rob Dowling GK
2  Clay Faulds 
3  Stuart Grimshaw (Capt.)
4  Andrew Minter
5  David Wansbrough
6  Andrew Henderson
7  Greg Read
8  Jay Stacy
9  Anthony Potter
10    Martin Cashmere
11    Phil Prior
12    Steve Dalton
13    John Darcy Evans
14    Grant Broadbent 
15    Tony Thornton

Coach: Don Argus
Manager: Bill Horman

To demonstrate the dominance of Camberwell and Waverley during the 1990 season, the Wellers finished with 105 goals and Waverley 103

Andrew Henderson