Maffra played it’s first recorded game of football against Sale in 1877. Football then was purely social in nature, and the fixtures irregular. The formation of clubs came later. Whilst there is uncertainly about the exact date of formation, the Maffra Football Club was in place by 1883.  Competitive structures in the form of leagues or associations were the logical next step in the development of the game. 

The Gippsland Football Association was an ill-fated attempt to establish senior competition in Gippsland. Formed in 1889, it struggled to survive after the onset of economic depression in 1891. Sale and Bairnsdale were its only regular teams. Maffra it appears were out of their depth, competing only in 1891/92 and 1894/5.  By 1898 Maffra had joined the Sale District Association, winning the inaugural flag. 

Out of the ashes of the GFA the forerunner of the Gippsland Football League was born. At a meeting at Bairnsdale in June 1901 delegates from Sale Maffra and Bairnsdale formed the ‘Gippsland Senior Competition’. It was the region’s first senior (major) league. Maffra’s Percy Ryan was foundation secretary. 

The Maffra team made an immediate impression in the senior competition, being runner up to Sale in 1901, then securing their first senior flag in 1904. This was followed by a Premiership treble in 1906/07/08 and then again in 1910 & 1914. At the outbreak of the Great War they led the league table with 6 premierships from Bairnsdale (5) and Sale (3). More success followed in the post war period as the Gippsland League morphed out of the Senior Competition (1921) and final series were introduced. The GFL had expanded to 6 teams by 1923. Football in the 20s had become a big spectator sport in Gippsland. 3000 witnessed a spectacular Maffra win over Traralgon in the 1926 grand final at Sale. 

The GFL further expanded in the 30s with the entry of Yallourn and Yarram. The Maffra club made 6 grand finals in the decade for 2 premierships. Two defeats were by less than a gaol - to Yallourn (3 pts) and Yarram (1 pt). By the end of the decade the GFL had been reduced to 4 teams as the Great Depression impacted. 

Maffra led off in the post war resumption of football with a premiership win in 1946 against Sale. Another flag followed in 1948, but ominously the GFL team numbers had reduced to three; its future in grave doubt. 

In 1960 after 7 years of often bitter debate, Maffra joined the Latrobe Valley League (formed 1954). It was a brave decision, but a necessary one if Maffra was to continue major league affiliation. That 1948 win was to be Maffra’s last for 54 years.  It was soul searching time when the option of relegation to a district league would have often occupied the minds of club administrators. The club only competed in 12 senior final series in the 41 years to 2000. A heart breaking 2 point loss to Leongatha in the 1989 grand final was the only relief from the tedium of regular poor years. 

This began a spectacular renaissance early in the new millennium. The club and Maffra community combined to reconstruct the facilities at the Recreation Reserve to create a state of the art sports venue, one of the best in country Victoria. That combined with outstanding on and off field leadership, including a unique junior development program has created a plethora of success. As of 2019 the Eagles have won 9 premierships since 2002, including a remarkable 45 game winning streak (2003/05) to achieve national notoriety as a showcase club based on home grown talent. 

Fittingly the Eagles, a powerhouse of the old GFL symbolically cemented that reconnect with the past by winning the first premiership of the reformed league in 2010. Maffra now lies (2019) second in the all time Gippsland table of the senior (major league) premierships with 22 wins, behind ladder leader, Traralgon which sits on 25.

Since 2000 the club has never missed the final series. During that run its lowest placed finish has been 4th. 

In 2010, the Maffra Football Club celebrated 100 seasons of major league affiliation, a rare honour shared with our arch rivals, Sale, but no other Gippsland club, and very few others in country Victoria. With the rebadging of the Latrobe Valley League and its successors as the ‘Gippsland League’ in that year, the new league structure has reinforced the Eagle’s ties with the old GFL.

The 2019 season saw the senior football side contest finals for the 20th time in a row! Remarkably Maffra has played Leongatha in the Grand Final for the last 4 seasons - 2016 -19. The score is 2 all, with the past 3 grand finals decided by under 10 points.

GFL (affiliated 1901/59) 1904, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1914, 1920, 1921, 1926, 1935, 1938, 1946, 1948

 LVFL(affiliated  1960/94)  no premierships

 GLFL(affiliated  1995/2001)  no premierships

 WGLFL(affiliated  2002/2009)  2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009

 GL (affiliated  2010 - ) 2010, 2016, 2019