History of the Normanby Hounds

The club was formed in 1947 and was originally based at the Normanby Hotel. Before the recent change of ownership and refurbishment of the hotel, many of the club photos once hung proudly on the walls of the bars. A team was first entered in the Shiftworkers League – a Sunday competition played at Hamilton and which in the early days was reputedly run by bookmakers including John McLeod.

The competition consisted of many pub teams as well as the wharfies from Hamilton and provided popular Sunday entertainment for an otherwise dull day of rest. Crowds of up to 10,000 people attended Grand Finals and players often received more money in this competition than they did for their clubs on Saturdays. Normanby formed an early connection with Western Districts and many Wests players backed up for Normanby in the Shiftworkers League. The club was competitive from the start, winning premierships in this very tough League.

The Shiftworkers League eventually evolved into the Commercial Rugby League, and most games were still played at Hamilton. Commercial League was also known for its toughness and competitiveness. Normanby"s success continued and they added more premierships to their growing Trophy Cabinet.

In 1973 the club moved from Commercial Rugby League to the Metropolitan Rugby League which was based at Gibson Park, Stafford. Normanby was immediately competitive and were Premiers and won the President’s Cup in their first year. The club went on to win many premierships in the Metropolitan League including four in a row in the 1980s.

In the mid 1980s, Normanby moved to the Public Service League at Kalinga and again won the premiership in the first year in their new competition. At this time, however, rugby league in Brisbane was changing with club football now being played on Sundays. The club won another Public Service league Premiership in 1993, however, with much more entertainment becoming available on Sundays and Brisbnane Club Football now firmly establishing Sunday as the main day for fixtures, clubs struggled to find players for the once popular Sunday Leagues and the Public Service League gradually shrank and finally folded.

With the demise of the Public Service League, the club had a final move to Brisbane Second Division which played on Saturday afternoons. Again they were successful, winning their first premiership in Second Division in 1993 and a further premiership in 1999.

In the Hounds 60th year, 2007, the Hounds were inspired by the significance of the year and were passionate and committed in the grand final and came away with a hard fought 34-22 win against Deception Bay Bombers.  The Bombers were undefeated throughout the premiership rounds but the Hounds rallied to beat them in both the major semi-final and the grand final.

Normanby has now won three Second Division Premierships in 1993, 1999 and 2007, and hopefully there will be many more to come.