In 1908, the Taranakis applied to join the VAHA. However, they were required to adopt a district name. As there was already a Malvern Hockey Club, the Taranakis became the East Malvern Hockey Club.
At the end of the 1910 season Malvern Hockey Club entered into merger negotiations with East Malvern Hockey Club with the result that the two clubs joined together as the East Malvern Hockey Club from 1911.
In 1907 another group of schoolboys began to play hockey at the Malvern Cricket Ground, which they shared in the winter with lacrosse. They called themselves the Etcetera Hockey Club. They were one of eight teams in the first competition organised by the Victorian Amateur Hockey Association.
The other teams were:
Worigolean, Iona Rovers, Auburn, Fairfield, Iona, Waitangi and Haileyburnians
The Etceteras finished 2nd, Iona were premiers but the names of many of those first Etcetera players have been lost.
At the end of the season, the VAHA decided that clubs should adopt a district name. The Etceteras became the Malvern Hockey Club.
The Malvern Hockey Club expanded. By 1909 it fielded two teams in the VAHA competition, one in A grade, the other in B grade.
Etcetera Hockey Club, 1907
In 1905, a group of schoolboys met in a paddock and played hockey with sticks cut from trees. That paddock is now Central Park, Malvern and they formed probably the oldest hockey club in Melbourne.
They called themselves the Taranakis, the name of the home of Mr James Dunlop. Two of his sons were among the members of the Taranakis.
As finances improved, the boys purchased solid wooden sticks at 4/6 each, or later imported English sticks for 7/6.
The first pavilion was a wooden tool shed, while the shower was a hose with demountable hessian walls.
Apart from the Dunlop boys, those plyers included Len Forester and Norman Dickson. The names of the rest of this team have been lost.
