Australian Football

Chelsea

Between the wars Chelsea participated in the Federal Football Association, achieving premierships in successive years in 1936 and 1937. After the war the club continued in the FFA until 1958, adding one further flag in 1955.

The 1959 season saw Chelsea crossing to the Mornington Peninsula Football League in which it soon emerged as a power, claiming its first premiership in 1962 on the strength of a 14.11 (95) to 7.6 (48) grand final defeat of Hastings. The following year brought back to back success as Frankston was bested by a single point. The Seagulls’ dominance of the competition during the 1960s was further emphasised with a hat trick of grand final triumphs between 1966 and 1968, achieved respectively at the expense of Sorrento, Carrum and Seaford.

Chelsea’s first losing grand final appearance in the MPFL came in 1970 against Seaford. Eleven years later the Seagulls again finished runners-up to Seaford, on this occasion by the embarrassing margin of 105 points. Seaford once more had Chelsea’s measure in the 1985 grand final, winning 23.11 (149) to 16.15 (111), but in 1986 the tables were turned as Chelsea scored a resounding 47 point triumph over the Tigers.

In 1987 the MPFL amalgamated with the Nepean Football League to form the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League but it was a case of business as usual for the Seagulls who procured a second successive flag thanks to a 26.13 (169) to 13.12 (90) grand final trouncing of former NFL side Pines.

The period between 1989 and 1993 saw Chelsea contesting four senior grade grand finals but only that of 1990, against Edithvale Aspendale, was won. The Seagulls next emerged as a force during the early years of the new century, beating Seaford in the 2000 grand final, finishing runners-up to Mornington in 2004, and overcoming Mount Eliza by 22 points in the decisive match of the 2006 season. In 2007 Chelsea failed to qualify for the finals, finishing sixth with an 8-10 record, a result that was duplicated a year later, albeit with half a win fewer.

Over the past decade or so the Seagulls have tended to struggle and in 2013 and 2016 they ended up with the wooden spoon. There was a modicum of improvement during a 2017 season which spawned five wins from 18 matches, good enough for eighth place on the ten team premiership ladder, while 2018 turned into the Seagulls' best season for more than a decade as they qualified for the finals and finished fifth, a result that was duplicated in 2019.