24 August 2018
The Surfers Paradise Demons junior club was initiated after a meeting between Don Mason (a Tasmanian stonemason), Norm Thomas, Jock and Stella Franks, and Len Dumbrell. The Thomas, Franks, Dumbrell and Emzin families went on to develop a junior club that was the platform for a golden era for the Demons in the late 1960s. Mason was a staunch supporter of the Melbourne Demons and insisted on the new club following the Red and Blue. In 1961 Surfers Paradise played a number of under-fifteen matches against Southport.
Early junior players for the Demons who went on to form the nucleus of a senior team a few years later were: Brian and John Thomas, Barry and Graham Emzin and Dave Burns (soon to star for Southport). Demons’ juniors would attend the famous Surfers Paradise Hotel’s beer garden on a Sunday afternoon to raise funds to supply jumpers and socks for the newly formed team. Home matches for the junior Demons were played on a field just south of the equally famous Cavill Avenue, adjacent to the Nerang River. The Emzin family lived adjacent to the ground and were vital volunteers in the early days. They owned the one and only taxi service operating in Surfers Paradise in the early 1960s.
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