The Mortlock Shield Championship, known for commercial reasons as the Port Lincoln Bendigo Bank Mortlock Shield Championship and commonly known as just the Mortlock Shield is an annual Australian rules football competition based in Port Lincoln, South Australia. The competition tis held annually at Centenary Oval and it consists of a round robin lightning football tournament with representative teams of leagues from the Eyre Peninsula and beyond. It is an affiliated competition of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). The current champions are Western Eyre who won the 2025 edition of the carnival.

Brief history

Named after William Tennant Mortlock, the Mortlock Shield began in 1936 when the football associations of Central Eyre, Cleve, Eastern Eyre, Great Flinders and Port Lincoln decided to hold a football tournament to celebrate the centenary of South Australia. Since 1994 The best players from the carnival are selected represent the Eyre Peninsula team in the SA Country Football Championship.

Format

The current format of the Mortlock Shield consists of a single round robin structure composed of 5 representative sides of football leagues from around the Eyre Peninsula. The carnival is held over two days on the Kings Birthday long weekend (Saturday and Monday). The games are played under lightning football conditions with two twenty minute halves. The team on top of the ladder after four games played is declared champion and awarded the perpetual Mortlock Shield to commemorate their win.

Until 2021 teams formally played two full games (one on Saturday and one on Monday) against two select opponents and the team who finished top of the ladder was declared champion

List of Champions

List of Mortlock Shield Champions.^[1]

Current Teams

Team	Colours	Representative	Years in comp	Shields	Championship years
Eastern Eyre		Eastern Eyre Football League	1989-	4	1989, 1991, 1995, 2016
Great Flinders		Great Flinders Football League	1936-	27	1936, 1951, 1955. 1956, 1957, 1959, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2021, 2022
Lincoln City		Port Lincoln Football League (Lincoln South, Tasman and Wayback players)	1964–2006, 2012-	8	1964, 1965, 1967, 1970, 2004, 2012, 2017, 2024
Lincoln Districts		Port Lincoln Football League (Boston, Mallee Park and Marble Range players)	1964–2006, 2012-	9	1968, 1971, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1994, 1999
Western Eyre (Formerly Far West)		Western Eyre Football League	1957-	8	1960, 1969, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 2023, 2025

2017 Ladder

2018 Ladder

2019 Ladder

2021 Ladder

2022 ladder

2023 Ladder

Norwood Cup

The Norwood Cup, formally North Adelaide Shield and Port Adelaide Cup is an Under-15's mixed Competition ran on the Saturday between the Mortlock Shield. The cup is sponsored by the Norwood Football Club who compete in the SANFL as the Eyre Peninsula falls under their country zone which is in place to develop youth football to professional level in South Australia.

References