Prior to their merger in 1963 Forest had won a total of a dozen senior grade premierships, but none since 1951, while Stanley had been premiers on eight occasions, including most recently in 1961. Both clubs had competed for many years in the Circular head Football Association, in which the newly merged club, Forest Stanley, would continue. Right from the outset the Demons proved extremely competi
tive, reaching the grand final in their debut season, and claiming the first of an eventual dozen senior grade premierships in 1965. In what has to go down as one of the most extraordinary grand finals ever to be played anywhere in Australia the Demons had seventeen scoring shorts compared to their opponents’ twenty-five but won comfortably by 32 points. The Demons’ peak years were the 1970s through to the mid 1980s. Between 1971 and 1986 they contested thirteen senior grade grand finals, winning eight of them. Forest Stanley has gone on to win 6 more grand finals including 1991, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2010 premier flags. UP THE DEE'S
