Junior football started in the Leichhardt Police and Citizens Youth Club in the mid 60′s and was run by Reg Dowton, who was the police sergeant at the time. The club was situated in Norton Street, Leichhardt. The early teams were made up from the Western Suburbs Soccer Club and the LPCYC. The name Saints came from an amalgamation of junior clubs from St Fiacres, Leichhardt, who joined forces under the LPCYC banner.
In 1970 Jim Sherratt and Ivan Petrie coached junior sides and from there started the first all age team, mainly from 17 year olds, and they played a team in the Sydney Amateur League.
During this time the LPCYC junior sides dwindled in number but a number of parents and players revived the junior section and in the early 1990′s started using King George Oval which had been allocated to the all age team with the help of the LPCYC.
In early 1994, it was decided to break away from the LPCYC, because as a club we were growing steadily, and the policy of the LPCYC was that all finances had to go through them, which meant that we had no control over the money we raised, and there was no guarantee that the money would be there for the teams for the next season.
The separation was not an amicable one because of the finances and just who had control of King George Oval. The problem arose when we left to form a new club, and then one person, an all age player, took two teams back to the LPCYC, and he, claiming he was the original club, should have control of King George Oval and the canteen. It took the entire off season of meetings and inquiries with a number of football bodies before the Sydney branch, the NSW Football Association and the Canterbury District Association accepted that we were the original club. This was the start of the club known as the Leichhardt Soccer Football Club.
This was a very turbulent time indeed, and without the numbers of parents and players who gave freely of their time and expertise, the club would not have been formed. One person I should mention especially is Michael Hanna, a club father, and solicitor from Balmain, whose service to the club during this time was invaluable!
The club grew steadily for the next 7 years until 2002, when two senior players (and previous coaches in the juniors) again tried to take over the club. Once again, if not for the hard work of parents in this club, the Saints would not have been run by the parents of the players as it should be.
The club has grown from 150 players in 1993, to almost 650 in 2008. At the end of the 2006 season the club decided to change our name to both reflect the new profile of Football in Australia and formally adopt the “Saints” name.
We are now officially the Leichhardt Saints Football Club,
also known as Leichhardt Saints FC.
