Club History
The Kenilworth Football Club was established in 1907. The earliest record found so far has Kenilworth playing football on June 22nd 1906 (Kenilworth V Purveyors of Soft Goods). This was in the Royal Association. By 1911 Kenilworth was playing in the Uniting Church Football Association, where they were premiers in 1912 & 1913. In 1914 & 1915 Kenilworth Played in the South Australian Amateur Football League. During the 1st WW Kenilworth played in Adelaide Football Association 1916 & 1919, Metropolitan Football Association 1917 where they were Premiers, Patriotic League 1918. In 1920 Kenilworth tryed to re-enter the S.A.A.F.L. but were rejected due to past debts. So they played in Suburban League in 1920, then in 1921 to 1923 played in the Y.M.C.A. Football Association. At the start of 1924 Kenilworth were re-accepted into the S.A.A.F.L. after paying previous debts. For the next 12 years Kenilworth were very successful playing 11 years out of the 12 Years in finals and winning 2 premierships in A1 1927 & 1930. From 1936 to 1985 Kenilworth had been playing football in Amateur Football League going up and down the grades from A1 to A2. From 1986 to 1990 Kenilworth had a short amalgamation with Colonel Light Gardens winning a Premiership in 1989. From 1990 to present Kenilworth have battled through the grades. With the Club Fielding 3 Senior sides and 8 Junior sides in 2009 this will be the strongest Kenilworth has been as a Club for many years.
Kenilworth has been in the SAAFL longer than any other club apart from Adelaide University. The Club was formed by members of the Presbyterian Church in Young Street Parkside. Whilst there is no suburb called Kenilworth in Adelaide, at the turn of the century the Parkside area was subdivided and some of the streets were named after characters in Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth, including Foster, Robsart, and Leicester, not to mention Kenilworth Road.
The Club applied to join the SAAFL in 1913 but was unsuccessful and so consoled itself with a premiership in the United Church Association instead, then was accepted into the SAAFL in 1914 only to have the SAAFL go into recess after 2 years because of war. It reapplied in 1920 but was refused due to outstanding debts, but then rejoined in 1924 and enjoyed considerable success, winning 2 premierships and playing in the finals in 11 years out of 12. Its captain in the '20s was George Murray who also captained the state. After the Second World War it spent some time in A2 before returning to A1, but from the '60s on slid down the grades reaching A4 in 1971 where it stayed for 8 seasons before climbing back to A2. In 1986 the Club combined with Colonel Light Gardens to form Kenilworth Colonel Light but reverted to Kenilworth in 1991. In 1995 it moved to Panther Park and suffered a loss of players, fielding only one team in 1997, although it recovered to field two senior teams and juniors by 2002.