RANAFA HISTORY

Navy had been participating in Australian Rules Football at the National Services level in the current format since 1986 however this was achieved through the hard work of a dedicated few with no recognised organisation present to manage Navy Football. 

On October 11 2000, a meeting was convened by personnel interested in forming a club to provide the off field support and leadership to manage Navy Football.  The meeting was held at Ennoggera Army Barracks and was attended by:

Jamie McGinley
Chris Ploughman
Robert Taylor
Michael Millar
Darren Gration
Michael Oleksyn
Jamie Robinson
Patty O’Dwyer
Tony Taylor

At this meeting it was unanimously decided to form the Royal Australian Navy Football Club however the name was changed to an Association early in 2001 and thus RANAFA was born.  The inaugural AGM of the RANAFA was held at HMAS HARMAN on Jan 24 2001 and the following positions were confirmed:

Patron:                  RADM Russ Shalders
President:              CAPT Geoff Ledger
Secretary:              POPT Chris Ploughman
Treasurer:              LEUT Pete Steele
PRO:                    CPOCIS Mark Pepper
Sponsorship:         POCIS Jamie McGinley
Committee:            POAT Darren Murray
CPOET Jamie Robinson
POCK Michael Oleksyn
POAT Darren Gration

Key issues that were discussed at this meeting included the formation of a RANAFA website and RANAFA sponsorship, marketing, constitution, and strategic plans which have subsequently been formulated over a period of time. A logo that epitomized RANAFA was also discussed and it was decided to use the Tassie Mariners logo as a template and thus the RANAFA logo was formed.

Tassie Mariners logo   RANAFA logo

The 2001 ASAFA National Carnival was to be held in October at Randwick Barracks.  However from an initial squad of 59 selected players only 8 were able to commit and unfortunately RANAFA withdrew from the carnival which was subsequently cancelled.  

 

Whilst 2001 was disappointing, it did provide RANAFA with extended time to prepare off-season.  The 2002 ASAFA National Carnival was held from June 3-7 at Univeristy of NSW Oval with the following positions being held: