Football is Back

The weekend just past saw the opening of the 2023 AFL season and the beginning of 6-plus months of either loving or hating the game.

However sport has played an important role in our community for over 100 years.

For more than a century there have been winter football matches played in the Hills area with men of various towns doing battle against their rivals on the local ovals. Chidlow, Mundaring, Parkerville and Sawyers Valley all fielded teams over many decades, probably only pausing the competition during the war years. MHHS has photos of teams dating back to c.1913 – 110 years ago.

Parkerville Nippers 1965

Parkerville 1948

A competition for junior grades began in 1964 when a new Constable joined the Mundaring Police Station and formed the Nippers Competition. Constable Harry Riseborough had played for South Fremantle and when some local boys learned of his past they approached him to see if he could help start a junior football team in Mundaring.

By the following year there were 6 teams and more than 500 boys registered to play in the under 14s Nippers Association. In 1969 Harry Riseborough was promoted to be OIC at Ravensthorpe and some years later the oval on the eastern side of Mundaring town was named after him to remember his contribution to sport in the Hills.