Mr William Ward founded the South Eastern Junior Rugby League Football Club in 1957.
The name was derived from a combination of Eastern Suburbs and South Sydney Football Clubs as Bill Ward played his football with Easts Juniors but had since moved to the South Sydney Area to reside.
The club’s uniform was also a combination of the colours and design of both district teams. The club’s jersey remains the same to this day – red, white and green in colour and the design based on the Eastern Suburbs jumper.
The first meeting of the South Eastern Football Club took place in Bill’s garage at 33 Eyre St, Matraville in early 1957. There were five men present – Bill, Dennis Murphy, Kevin Linsay and two others. The first President was William Ward and the Secretary /Treasurer was Kevin Linsay.
The club entered two teams in the South Sydney Junior League in their inaugural season – G Grade (under 13’s) and H Grade (under 12’s). The club’s first captains were G Grade – Alex Camelleri and H Grade – Terry Murphy.
From our humble beginnings South Eastern has evolved into the second largest club in the South Sydney Junior League with over twenty teams ranging in age from under 5’s to A Grade. In a time when a lot of junior clubs are declining in size and numbers for many and varied reasons we continue to grow in strength and this can be partly attributed to our catchment area but the major reason is because of the calibre and outstanding character of the people who have and who continue to manage this club.
South Eastern is a unique club in many ways as we are not only responsible for the running of a large junior football club but we also leased our home ground, Pioneers Park, from Randwick City Council until very recently. South Eastern was the only club in our junior league and possibly all of Sydney who was totally and solely responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and management of their football fields. Our volunteers would cut the fields and the surrounds – twenty nine acres in total (by tractor, hand mowers and whipper snippers), line marked the playing areas, erect and dismantle all game day goal posts, barriers and markers, maintain, tidy and clean dressing rooms, canteen and club rooms and surrounding spectator areas as well as perform our football responsibilities of coaching, managing and caring for in excess of 200 players. Pioneers Park is not only used by our football club but also by many other organisations and groups in our community who frequent this park. All the local schools, Special Olympics, netball, touch football, cricket, rugby union, aussie rules, runners, dog walkers all use pioneers park. These arrangements would not be possible if it were not for the dedication and efforts of our magnificent committee, parents, friends and helpers. We also rely heavily on the expertise and financial assistance given to us by Randwick City Council and South Sydney Juniors and our many Club Sponsors
