About
The AJAX (Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs) Amateur Football Club is notable as Australia’s first and only fully Jewish footy club. It was established by the Melbourne Jewish community in 1957. The junior club was founded in 1974.
The club emerged from the semi formal annual matches begun in the 1930s between teams representing the Jewish communities north and south of the river Yarra. A proposal to form a club representative of the entire Melbourne Jewish community had been made as early as 1955 by an avid football enthusiast called Daryl Cohen, but it was 1956 before the necessary concerted action began to be made.
Eventually, with the promise of financial backing from the Ajax Roof Organisation, a healthy-looking balance sheet thanks to a series of successful fund-raising nights, and a home ground at Peanut Farm Oval, Blessington Street, courtesy of the intervention of local parliamentarian Baron Snider, most of the major ingredients necessary to produce a viable amateur football club had been procured.
The club therefore applied for admission to the VAFA’s E Section for 1957, which was duly granted, and within 4 months of the inaugural AGM the team was running out onto Peanut Farm Oval for its first match.
Website
AJAX
Home Ground
Gary Smorgon Oval, Aughtie Drive, Albert Park
Location
Albert Park is a suburb of Melbourne, located 3 km south of Melbourne’s CBD. It was settled residentially as an extension of Emerald Hill (South Melbourne). The main park after which the suburb was named was declared a public park and named in 1864 to honour Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert. Since 1996 Albert Park has been home to the Australian Grand Prix.
Premierships
B Section: 1979
Premier C Section: 2011
D Section: 1999
E Section: 1966, 1975
