Dewar Shield

Dewar Shield
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	1909; 116 years ago
No. of teams	9; See teams
Country	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Most recent; champion	Power House (2025)
Most titles	Unicorns (20)

The Dewar Shield is a rugby union competition in Melbourne. It is the premier amateur rugby competition in Victoria. A total of eight teams from the Victorian Rugby Union compete for the trophy. Clubs must field teams in 3 grades, Dewar Shield Reserves (Penwill Cup) and Dewar Shield 3rd Grade (Mawhinney Cup), to be eligible to compete.

A "Game of the week" is streamed on the Rugby Victoria Facebook Page.

History

The Victorian Rugby Union senior competition was established in 1909 with five teams, namely East Melbourne, Melbourne, South Melbourne, St Kilda and University. The Melbourne Rugby Club of that time won the first year of the five-team competition for the new trophy the Dewar Shield (donated by the Scotch Whisky Distillery John Dewar and Sons). One hundred years later in 2009 the current Melbourne Rugby Club once again won the premiership defeating Box Hill in the Grand Final for the same Dewar Shield. The Current (2025) Premiers are Power House who defeated Harlequins 45-29 in the Grand Final held at Box Hill

The Premier competition is contested by eight clubs with each club fielding three teams (1st Grade, Reserve Grade, and 3rd Grade). Other senior competitions offered are Metro 2nd Division with an A, B & C Grade, Colts (U20), Country, Women and Masters (over 35s).

During this time, a number of clubs have dominated the 1st Grade results. Melbourne Rugby Club has the most number of Premierships with 20. Moorabbin holds the record for consecutive Premierships, winning six in a row from 1981 to 1986. Other prominent clubs during this 100-year period include Melbourne University, Power House and Navy.^[1]

Footscray and Endeavour Hills were promoted to the Premier division for the 2011 season.

Dewar Shield Clubs

Teams that compete for the Dewar Shield
Est.	Club	Location	Home Ground	Nickname	Admitted to Premier Grade	Premierships (most recent)
1958	Box Hill	Box Hill	RHL Sparks Reserve	Broncos	1966	3 (2001)
1979	Endeavour Hills	Endeavour Hills	Frog Hollow Reserve	Eagles	2007
1928	Footscray	Footscray	Henry Turner Memorial Reserve	Bulldogs	1928	3 (1937)
1928	Melbourne Harlequins	Ashwood	Ashwood Reserve	Quins	1930	12 (2023)
1909	Melbourne	Armadale	Romanis Reserve, Orrong Park	Unicorns	1929	20 (2019)
1909	Melbourne University	Parkville	Royal Park	Students	1910	6 (1967)
1965	Moorabbin	Moorabbin	Keys Rd Reserve	Rams	1965	15 (2012)
1933	Power House	Albert Park	Noel Clarke Field	House, The Society	1936	13 (2025)
1923	Kiwi Hawthorn	Hawthorn	Lewin Reserve	Kiwis	1987, (1923 as The Kiwi Club)	13 (1996)

Winners

Victorian Rugby Union Premiership winners^[1]

1909 Unicorns
1910 Melbourne University
1911 East Melbourne
1912 Unicorns
1913 Unicorns
1914 South Melbourne
1915–25 No competition
1926 Navy
1927 Kiwis
1928 Kiwis
1929 Kiwis
1930 Unicorns
1931 Kiwis
1932 Footscray
1933 Navy
1934 Melbourne University
1935 Unicorns
1936 Footscray
1937 Footscray
1938 Power House
1939 Kiwis
1940 R.A.A.F.
1941–45 No competition
1946 Navy
1947 Navy
1948 Unicorns
1949 Unicorns
1950 Unicorns
1951 Navy
1952 Navy
1953 Navy
1954 Unicorns
1955 Harlequin
1956 Power House
1957 Navy
1958 Power House
1959 Melbourne University
1960 Melbourne University
1961 Melbourne University
1962 Harlequin
1963 Melbourne University
1964 Melbourne University
1965 Unicorns
1966 Unicorns
1967 Melbourne University
1968 Power House
1969 Unicorns
1970 Kiwis
1971 Kiwis
1972 Kiwis
1973 Power House
1974 Power House
1975 Harlequin
1976 Kiwis
1977 Kiwis
1978 Moorabbin
1979 Kiwis
1980 Kiwis
1981 Moorabbin
1982 Moorabbin
1983 Moorabbin
1984 Moorabbin
1985 Moorabbin
1986 Moorabbin
1987 Power House
1988 Moorabbin
1989 Harlequin
1990 Moorabbin
1991 Moorabbin
1992 Harlequin
1993 Kiwi-Hawthorn
1994 Moorabbin
1995 Moorabbin
1996 Kiwi-Hawthorn
1997 Power House
1998 Unicorns
1999 Box Hill
2000 Box Hill
2001 Box Hill
2002 Moorabbin
2003 Unicorns
2004 Harlequin
2005 Moorabbin
2006 Power House
2007 Power House
2008 Power House
2009 Unicorns
2010 Unicorns
2011 Unicorns
2012 Moorabbin
2013 Harlequin
2014 Harlequin
2015 Harlequin
2016 Unicorns
2017 Harlequin
2018 Unicorns
2019 Unicorns
2020 COVID-19 - No winner
2021 COVID-19 - No winner
2022 Harlequin
2023 Harlequin
2024 Power House
2025 Power House

Former clubs

(list may not be complete)

East Melbourne
South Melbourne
St Kilda
Hawthorn
Kiwi
Navy
R.A.A.F
Boroondara/Kiwi-Hawthorn^a
South Melbourne
Southern Districts^b
Geelong
Northcote/Northern

^a Kiwi-Hawthorn now play in the Premiership competition.

^b Southern Districts now play in the Premiership competition.

References

^ ^a ^b "Dewar Shield". Melbourne Rebels. 2014. Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.

External links

Dewar Shield - Rugby Victoria

Club websites

[rebs-dewar-2014-1] "Dewar Shield". Melbourne Rebels. 2014. Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.

[1]

v t e Rugby Victoria
Member of Rugby Australia
Super Rugby team	Melbourne Rebels
Super W team	Melbourne Rebels Women
NRC teams	Melbourne Rising Victoria Country Barbarians
Dewar Shield	Box Hill Endeavour Hills Footscray Harlequin Melbourne Melbourne University Moorabbin Power House
Venues	AAMI Park