Eastlakes Football club was formed in 1978 as an extra club for the Wagga Tigers, as they had too many players for their junior sides at the time, and continued as an extension to the Tigers until 1980 when Wagga Tigers withdrew their support. At that time the club had 77 boys playing in Under 10, 12, 14 & 16’s and wore the red and white strip of South Melbourne. At this time Michael Woods was coach of all 4 Teams. A meeting was held and a new committee was elected with Keith Manuel as President, Maureen Brown as Secretary and Chris Hundy as Treasurer and the Eastlakes football club stood as a stand-alone club. In 1983 the club formed an alliance with the Mangoplah Cookardinia United senior football club as Mick Daniher, who was heavily involved with the senior club at the time saw the need for MCU to have a junior club to ensure the long term survival of the senior club. This alliance grew stronger over the years resulting in both clubs coming together in 1998 under the banner of Eastlakes MCU JAFC and MCUE FNC which continues today stronger than ever, as both clubs stand proud in the blue and gold of the mighty Goannas!

Eastlakes MCU have been instrumental in providing the senior club with a large amount of quality players and the number of current senior players who started their careers with Eastlakes is the envy of other AFL Clubs in the region.

The recent introduction of junior netball has further strengthened the junior football club with the netballers having considerable success since their inception.

The club has produced a number of AFL players including:

• Nathon Irvin – Sydney Swans
• Mark Conway – Port Adelaide
• Harry Himmelberg – Greater Western Sydney
• Last year Harry’s younger brother Elliott was drafted by the Adelaide Crows where he is hoping to emulate his brother’s efforts of making his AFL debut in his first season.