Words and photos by Jeff Lawton
The Thornton Eildon District FC unfortunately folded after the 2010 season. The club won a Yarra Valley Mountain District second division premiership as recently as 2007, but struggled to attract enough players to survive.
Thornton’s 1992 premiership flag is displayed on the ceiling of the pavilion and may be seen through the glass doors.
The club was known as the ‘Boners, a contraction of Shinboners. They traditionally wore vertical royal blue and white stripes. At one stage the ‘Boners temporarily adopted royal blue with a white yoke due to a jumper clash in the Central Goulburn League, before reverting to the North Melbourne design from 2008.
The township of Thornton is halfway between Alexandra and Eildon, on the Goulburn Valley Highway.
Scoreboard pressure 
[…] year Jeff Lawton’s Scoreboard Pressure post on the Thornton ground noted that Thornton Eildon District Football Club folded at the end of […]
After three years in the wilderness, the Thornton/Eildon District Football Netball Club (The Shinboners) are back playing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League Division Two this year.
There is an article in yesterday’s Age about this turn of events, and the people that have made it happen. They only have Seniors, Reserves & two Netball teams right now, but the main point is that the club is back from the dead, and they’re playing local rivals Alexandra very soon, LONG LIVE THE SHINBONERS!
Thanks Wayde. Our YVFL correspondent, Jeff Lawton, may well take his trusty camera to a home game.