East Sydney Australian Football Club was a NSWFL Australian Football foundation club based out of the Sydney eastern suburbs in New South Wales.
History
The club formed in 1880 as the first Australian Rules club in New South Wales, participating in the NSWAFA in 1881. The Sydney Morning Herald report on 12 August 1880 states, "A meeting was held on Tuesday night at the Cambridge Club hotel, Oxford street, to organise a club under the New South Wales Football Association".
On 9 July 1881 East Sydney played Melbourne in the first football game, of any code, to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Melbourne won the game 2.22 (34) to 0.1 (1). The game was scheduled to start at 2:45 pm but, due to East Sydney missing players, the game did not start until 3:00 pm. The crowd for the game numbered 2500.
By the 1920s, East Sydney had become one of the most successful clubs in Sydney, along with Paddington Australian Football Club. In 1926, East Sydney merged with the Paddington club and became the Eastern Suburbs Australian Football Club.
In 1999 Eastern Suburbs merged with University of New South Wales Australian National Football Club to become the UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs. East Sydney, barring name changes and mergers, is older than all but one other current major football club of any code in Sydney (that being Sydney University Football Club). This club pre-dates all Australian rugby league clubs by over 25 years, the Randwick rugby union team and all known soccer clubs.
Club identity and culture Home Ground The home ground for East Sydney Football Club was Trumper Park Oval in Paddington. The ground had been used to host Sydney Football League grand finals for many years. In the mid-1980s the grand stand at the Oval was reduced in size. The East Sydney club rooms were demolished as part of this, and with it murials that had been created to celebrate East Sydney's centenery in 1980.
Guernseys East Sydney played in the colours of blue with red and white hoops, similar to the Western Bulldogs.
References