Burnie Dockers Football Club

Burnie Dockers Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Burnie Tasmania, Australia. The club currently competes in the North West Football League (NWFL). Club history The Burnie Dockers were formed as a result of a merger between former TFL Statewide League club Burnie Hawks (formerly known as Cooee) and NTFL club the Burnie Tigers. After several years of bitter hatred in the city between the two rival clubs, both clubs were struggling both on-field and financially by the early 1990s. In late 1993 the Burnie Hawks absorbed the Burnie Tigers and merged, however the club still played as the Burnie Hawks until, with the arrival of former North Melbourne champion Peter German, the club adopted a new emblem, colours and jumper designed to appease both sides of the divide. From 1995 the Burnie Dockers were successful, making the 1996 and 1997 Grand Finals, but ultimately losing both to Southern powerhouse, Clarence. Shortly after, the Dockers found themselves (like many TFL clubs during the 1990s) in serious financial trouble and facing extinction until a late bailout by the Burnie City Council saved them. The Dockers participated in the Tasmanian Football League until 2000 when it announced it would be pulling out of the fledgling competition, the League therefore folding and the Dockers joined the Northern Tasmanian Football League in 2001.