T.E.D.A.S. has had a long history. It started as a development group for the east end of Traralgon. Meetings were held in the building now known as the Hyland street grocery store, with a lamp for light and packing crates and planks for seats. With lots of sub committees to work in different areas to lobby the council. In those days T.E.D.A.S. stood for Traralgon East Development Association and Schools.
In 1962, Mr. Jack Brayshaw joined the group to form a sporting club for the children of the area. They started teams for baseball, basketball, softball, cricket and Australian Rules football. Training was held at Roberts street Reserve until schools had suitable facilities. Over the years all of the teams slowly disappeared and in 1971, it was decided that the resident's battles were fought and won, so the resident group disbanded, leaving only the football team. In true fighting spirit the club stayed together and is still going strong to this day.
The football club started in 1962 with an under 14's team, they played in plain yellow jumpers with the name of the Tigers. Some things have changed while others have stayed the same. We are still known as the Tigers, but now wear the Richmond strip of black with a yellow stripe.
Mr. L O'Donnell was our first coach and Alan Rofe was our first best and fairest winner.
The early 10 years were tough, but with hard work and great kids we got there and in 1969 were able to field an Under 12's team.
The 1970's were great for the club.1971 was a great year for the club, fielding 4 teams, Under 16's, 14's and 2 under 12's teams. We ended this great year with our first premiership in the Under 12's. In 1977 the Under 10's entered the competition and T.E.D.A.S. were able to field a team with a wonderful result, they were the inaugural premiers.
To date one of the most successful years in the club history was in 1978, we won 3 premierships and had 2 league best and fairest and a representative in the L.V. schoolboys.
Over the years, T.E.D.A.S. has been able to field a team in all age groups. Most of the time on their own, with the exception of the under 16's where we have joined with City Juniors on occasions. We have had great success and 3 of our coaches have won 4 premierships with 2 of them doing it in consecutive years.
T.E.D.A.S. have produced some great players that were able to win league Best and Fairest, play L.V. schoolboys, Gippsland Power and VFL/AFL.
T.E.D.A.S. has been able to go from strength to strength. We have good numbers in all age groups. All though the introduction of Traralgon Under 16's puts a strain on Under 16 numbers. It is great to see so many T.E.D.A.S. boys having a go at playing this level of football. We pride ourselves on giving all kids a fair go. One of our players was able to play from under 10's right through to under 16's with a hearing disability. (He was U16 Deputy Vice Captain). We have also had several girls play in the younger age groups.
T.E.D.A.S. has also recognised some of the people of our club. One being founder of the sporting teams, Mr. Jack Brayshaw by naming the Under 14's Best and Fairest "The Jack Brayshaw Memorial Trophy". Another is the "Chris Zotti Medal" awarded to the Best on Ground in the under 16's grand final in memory of Chris who was a wonderful player (and goal kicker) who's life was tragically cut short as a result of an accident.
