Story and photos by Matt Cramond
The image above is from 1990 when New Norfolk drew with the old Burnie Hawks in a TFL match.
Boyer Oval was built by Australian Newsprint Mills (ANM Limited) as a sports stadium for the people of New Norfolk and the Derwent Valley in 1945.
It operated as a TFL venue from 1947-1999 when New Norfolk were dumped from the TFL and joined the SFL.
The scoreboard itself dates from around 1976 and still looks the same today, albeit quite rundown and covered with a security screen to stop vandalism.
If you zoom in on the photo below you’ll catch a glimpse of the scoreboard attendants, about to pack up after the end of a game against Hobart.
Scoreboard pressure 
Burnie Hawks made an amazing comeback against NN in 1985 in the last roster game. About 50 pts down at 3QT they got up to win and pinch New Norfolk’s spot in the finals.
Cooee from the old NWFU played from 1894-1986 and were told that if they were going to join the TFL in their own right then they had to adopt a different uniform and colours and a more city-based geographical name (ie: because Cooee was virtually a suburb of Burnie) so, as they had a large debt, they wound down the Cooee FC and started the Burnie Hawks in 1987 in the TFL.
That rankled Burnie Tigers that were their co-tenants at West Park that also played in the NWFU and later the NTFL and the two teams never got along well. The two clubs merged in 1994 and later became Burnie Dockers.