The Hamilton Kangaroos Football Club is an Australian rules football club which compete in the Hampden Football League.^[1]

The club was formed by merging the Hamilton Football Club and the Hamilton Imperials Football Club in October 2012. After almost 50 years as fierce rivals, the Magpies and Imperials opted to merge after the recommendation was made in the Southern Border Review ^[2]

The drama began early in the 1947 season, when the Hamilton FC was languishing near the foot of the Western District league ladder. The club's administrators decided to sack the coach, Ken Block, and replace him with former Melbourne ruckman Jack O'Keefe, who was appointed caretaker coach for the rest of the season.

O'Keefe worked wonders with the team; Hamilton not only made the finals, it won the premiership with a one-point victory in the grand final. Ted Kenna, who had won the Victoria Cross two years earlier for his bravery during a Second World War battle in Papua New Guinea, booted the winning behind.

Not surprisingly, O'Keefe, who had originally declared he would not be returning to Hamilton in 1948, changed his mind. But during the season Hamilton's vice-president, Pat Condon, had approached star Melbourne full-forward Fred Fanning, with a view to him being appointed the Magpies' coach for their 1948 campaign. Fanning had married a girl from Hamilton and was planning to set up a business in the town. He was promised £12 a game, a big increase on the £3 a game he had been receiving at the Demons.

But O'Keefe's success resulted in Condon also having a change of heart. Three days after the grand final, he proposed that O'Keefe be reappointed coach. Condon's push was summarily dismissed. The key reason: Fanning had been promised money to play, yet the rules at the time stated only the coach could be paid. So enraged by the situation was Condon that he decided to start a new club, Hamilton Imperials, which set up its base on the opposite side of Melville Oval to Hamilton's change rooms. O'Keefe was appointed the inaugural coach. It didn't take long for the rivalry between the Imps (nicknamed the Bulldogs and regarded as the Catholic working man's club) and Hamilton (regarded as the club of the Protestant graziers and toffs) to spark up. ^[3]

Formed in 1948 after a split from the Hamilton club. The Imperials