Football History

The Colac & District Football League was formed in 1937, as a result of a merger of the Colac and District FA (known pre-1936 as the Colac Churches FA) and the Corangamite Farmers FA. It had A Grade and B Grade competitions.

In 1950 there was a mass exodus of clubs from the CDFL, the cause was that the Colac (Hampden league) team wanted to have the right to pick any player from the Colac DFL without needing a clearance. The result was Colac Imperials and Coragulac opted to leave and join the Polwarth FL and be away from Colac’s reach. Beeac went to the Western Plains FL for two years before also joining the Polwarth FL, and Colac Rovers folded. With only Alvie and Warrion remaining in A Grade the surviving B Grade clubs combined into a single local competition along with Carlisle River from the Otway FA.

Over the years, a number of clubs moved between the CDFL and other local leagues, including the Otway Football Association, Polwarth Football League, and the Heytesbury Mt Noorat Football League, all of which are now defunct.

The Polwarth Football League folded after the 1970 season, with Lorne and Apollo Bay joining the CDFL and the other clubs moving to the Bellarine FL.

Otway Districts and Simpson joined the CDFL in 2003, after the Heytesbury Mt Noorat FL folded.

In early 2016 it was announced that Forrest would fold due to lack of players.