1993: Grant Campain (team captain 1993-1997) formed the Doncaster Handball Club in 1993. The team was originally composed of a group of accomplished sporting friends whose many achievements included multiple awards in the fields of Indoor Cricket, Basketball and Football. Doncaster formed a men’s team in 1993 and registered with the Handball Federation of Victoria for the first time. First accolade was to win the 1993 men's B division in their first year of competition. 1994: Doncaster entered the men's A division and in the same year three members of the club represented Victoria in the interstate championship tournament in Adelaide. Ever since, Doncaster players have continued to represent Victoria year after year. 1995: Doncaster achieved second place in the 1996 summer cup championship finals further enhancing their reputation as one of the top teams in the Victorian arena. 1997: The first DreamTeam competition in Victoria was held in late 1997, and consisted of two men’s teams selected from the best players in the Victorian league. The game was played at the then newly opened Albert Park Aquatic Centre on the Show Court. Once again, Doncaster had 4 players selected in the DreamTeams Late in 1997 Dado Dedic, one of the leading and most qualified Handball coaches in Australia joined the club. Professor Dado Dedic managed to coach the men's A division team to the Grand Final for the second year in a row. Dado left our club in 1998 to pursue other Handball related projects such as junior development and an administrator role with the Victorian Handball Federation. 1998: The plans for 1998 included the formation of a women’s team to compete at a national level. The national competition never got off the ground, however Doncaster did form a most successful women's team, recruiting some of the top women players in the country. Among them were a handful of National Team members. Doncaster entered both the State Championships and the State Cup competitions with a men's and the newly formed women's team. While the women were outstanding in their first year under the Doncaster banner, the guys were also having a pretty good year. The women won both the State Championships and the Cup, a huge achievement commonly known as "The Double". The men worked hard, but came second in the State Championships. They also made the Cup Grand Final, for the third year in a row, but were once again beaten by City of Melbourne. In any case, 1998 was probably the most successful year in the club's history so far, and saw Doncaster entrenching itself as one of the best teams in the local competition. 1999: This year saw the introduction of a pre-season lightning competition for the first time in Victoria. Doncaster got off to a good start to the year. The women's team won their pre-season clearly, whereas the men's team once again had to be content with second place behind Bundoora. Another reason for celebration was the selection of our 1998 top scorer, Travis Hardman, into the Australian National Team. Travis' skills are exceptional, and we are confident that he will have a bright future in Handball in Australia.
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