From 2001 until 2013, Coburg had an alignment in place with the AFL’s Richmond Football Club, which saw Richmond’s players eligible to play senior football for Coburg when not selected in the AFL. During this time, the club changed its nickname from the Lions to the Tigers, and its best performance during that time was during 2007, when the seniors finished as runners-up and the reserves side won the premiership.
During the alignment the club would play some home games at Highgate Reserve, Craigieburn each year between 2009-2012. This arrangement ceased in 2012.
In 2012 the VFL Reserves competition was renamed the AFL Victoria Development League. Coburg won the AFL Victoria Development League Premiership in 2012.
RETURN OF THE LIONS
The affiliation with Richmond ended after the 2013 season; Coburg returned to operations as a stand-alone senior club in the VFL from 2014, and returned to the nickname ‘Lions’. The club was coached by former North Melbourne player and former AFL assistant coach Peter German between 2014 and 2017. In 2016, the club created a Junior football club which participates in the Essendon District Football League. In 2018 and 2019 the club was coached by another former North Melbourne player in Leigh Adams.
At the completion of the 2017 VFL season, the VFL removed the AFL Victoria Development League (Reserves) competition. This meant that from season 2018 onwards, any Coburg listed player that was not to get a VFL game would go back to a local football team for the weekend’s game.
In 2019 the club created a record for club membership by breaking 1000 members for the first time and achieving a total of 1268 members which saw it place 2nd of all VFL standalone sides for that year.
2019 also saw the club announce that it had secured $7million towards the total redevelopment of Coburg City Oval’s changeroom, offices and social clubroom facilities.
Since the club has gone standalone again, the club has had Adam Saad (Gold Coast/Essendon), Michael Hartley (Essendon/Hawthorn), Luke Ryan (Fremantle) and Robbie Fox (Sydney) drafted to the AFL.
In August 2019, the club announced that it will be coached by former player Andrew Sturgess for the 2020 season which was to see the club play it’s home games away from Coburg due to the redevelopment.
However in March 2020, after a promising off season campaign which saw the addition of several key recruits and a financial result of a profit posted for the first time in five years, the 2020 VFL season was suspended due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. As a result, the AFL announced that upon the possible resumption of the 2020 season, no AFL players were permitted to play in any second-tier competition due to the health and safety concerns surrounding the pandemic. This put the chances of the season resuming in jeopardy, as all AFL Stand Alone clubs withdrew from the competition. However the remaining stand alone clubs and three aligned clubs (Box Hill, Casey and Sandringham) were all keen to participate in an eight-team competition. It was announced on the 16th of June that a shortened season would occur beginning on the 1st of August. However on the 7th of July, after stage three lockdown restrictions were imposed by the Victorian Government, the season was officially cancelled the next day.
In August 2020, after years of planning for an inaugural women’s team, announced its first coach in Liam Cavanagh.
GAMES RECORD
Dave Starbuck holds the club record for games, with 219, played mostly in the 1950s. He is closely followed by cult figure, Vin “The Tank” Taranto, who played during the 1980s and 1990s. Third on the games list, on 205 games, is Phil Cleary.