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Wimmera Football League

Sport	Australian rules football
Founded	1937; 87 years ago (1937)
No. of teams	9
Country	Australia
Most recent champion(s)	Ararat (2024)
Official website	Wimmera FL

The Wimmera Football League is a major Australian rules country league based in Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns in the Wimmera region: the regional centres along the Western Highway from Ararat to Nhill as well as Minyip-Murtoa and Warracknabeal.

History

A Wimmera Football Association was first formed in 1902, with teams from Ararat, Horsham and Stawell as the founding clubs. In 1921 the Wimmera District Football League was formed. The seven original clubs were Ararat, Horsham, Minyip, Murtoa, Rupanyup, Stawell and Warracknabael. Dimboola joined in 1923 and Nhill in 1925; Ararat spent six years in the Ballarat Football League from 1924 to 1929.

In 1932, during the height of the Great Depression, the small town clubs were suffering from financial pressures, and tried to get the league to change the way the gate taking were distributed to the clubs. The larger town clubs, knowing that they would be disadvantaged, blocked the motion. Subsequently, Nhill and Dimboola both went into recess while Minyip and Murtoa replaced their junior sides in the Dunmunkle FL.

The WDFL approached the Ballarat Football League to merge hoping that greater interest and better football would cause larger gate takings, so in 1934 the Wimmera FL and the Ballarat FL merged to form the Ballarat Wimmera FL. After three years, in which the Wimmera clubs faced with greater costs and were constantly losing on the field, feelers were put out to the smaller clubs, now playing in the Mid Wimmera FL. A peace deal was settled in September 1936 and the Wimmera Football League was reformed in 1937 as a nine team competition.

After WWII Rupanyup decided to join and that made it a ten team competition. As a ten team competition the league remain stable until Rupanyip decided the level of football was too hard for them and they opted to drop to the local district competition in 1981. The numbers returned to ten when local district club Imperials-Wonwondah joined in 1983. After fifty fruitless years Jeparit decided to try their luck in the South Mallee FL from 1990. St Michaels from the district competition joined in 1993. Founding clubs Minyip and Murtoa decided to merge in 1995.

2000 saw local Horsham clubs change their names, St Michaels became Horsham Saints and Imperials-Wonwondah became the Horsham Diggers.

Horsham Diggers later merged with Natimuk FNC under the banner Natimuk United at the start of 2014; following an exodus of players in the 2008 pre-season, the Diggers had struggled on and off-field, and had won three matches in the previous four seasons. The merged club plays home games at Natimuk and City Oval.

Southern Mallee transferred from the Hosham District League in 2018 after dominating the competition.

Following the 2023 season Southern Mallee merged with Jeparit Rainbow from the Horsham District Football Netball League to form the Southern Mallee Thunder.

Clubs

Current

Club	Colours	Nickname	Home ground	Former League	Est.	Years in WFNL	WFNL Senior Premierships
							Total	Years
Ararat		Rats	Alexandra Oval, Ararat	BFL	1871	1937–	13	1949, 1951, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1971, 1975, 1986, 1999, 2001, 2023, 2024
Dimboola		Roos	Dimboola Recreation Reserve, Dimboola	MWFL	1880s	1937–	5	1937, 1946, 1959, 1985, 2013
Horsham		Demons	Horsham City Oval, Horsham	BFL	1892	1937–	26	1938, 1960, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1989, 1990, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018
Horsham Saints		Saints	Coughlin Park, Horsham	HDFNL	1945	1993–	2	2015, 2016
Minyip-Murtoa		Burras	Minyip Recreation Reserve, Minyip and Murtoa Recreation Reserve, Murtoa	–	1994	1995–	5	1996, 1997, 1998, 2019, 2022
Nhill		Tigers	Davis Park, Nhill	MWFL	1880s	1937–	4	1964, 1965, 1969, 1981
Southern Mallee		Thunder	Beulah Memorial Park, Beulah; Hopetoun Recreation Reserve, Hopetoun; Sir Robert Menzies Park; Jeparit, Rainbow Recreation Reserve, Rainbow	–	2023	2024–	0	-
Stawell		Warriors (formerly Redlegs)	Central Reserve, Stawell	BFL	1874	1937–	8	1939, 1940, 1948, 1950, 1978, 1987, 1995, 2000
Warrack Eagles		Eagles	Anzac Park, Warracknabeal and Brim Recreation Reserve, Brim	–	2000	2001–	1	2002

Former clubs

Club	Colours	Nickname	Home ground	Former League	Est.	Years in WFNL	WFNL Senior Premierships		Fate
							Total	Years
Horsham United		Diggers	Horsham City Oval, Horsham	HDFNL	1976	1983–2013	1	1988	Merged with Natimuk to form Natimuk United in Horsham & District FL in 2014
Jeparit		Redbacks	Sir Robert Menzies Park, Jeparit	MWFL	1900s	1937–1989	0	-	Moved to Southern Mallee FL in 1990
Minyip		Blues	Minyip Recreation Reserve, Minyip	MWFL	1880s	1937-1994	6	1952, 1954, 1984, 1991, 1992, 1993	Merged with Murtoa to form Minyip-Murtoa in 1995
Murtoa		Magpies	Murtoa Recreation Reserve, Murtoa	MWFL	1880s	1937-1994	1	1980	Merged with Minyip to form Minyip-Murtoa in 1995
Rupanyup		Panthers	Rupanyup Recreation Reserve, Rupanyup	CWFL	1880s	1945–1980	3	1961, 1963, 1973	Moved to Horsham & District FL in 1981
Southern Mallee Giants		Giants	Beulah Memorial Park, Beulah and Hopetoun Recreation Reserve, Hopetoun	HDFNL	2015	2018-2023	0	-	Merged with Jeparit-Rainbow from the Horsham & District FL at the end of 2023
Warracknabeal		Lions	Anzac Park, Warracknabeal	BFL	1870s	1937-2000	5	1947, 1953, 1966, 1977, 1994	Merged with Brim to form Warrack Eagles following 2000 season

List of premiers

Wimmera District FL

VFL/AFL players

Ararat

• Scott Turner – Richmond
• Lauchlan Dalgleish – Essendon
• Tom Williamson – Carlton

Dimboola

• Larry Watson – Essendon, Fitzroy
• Ernest Mucklow – Port Adelaide
• Jack Baggott – Richmond
• Tim Watson – Essendon
• Merv Neagle – Essendon, Sydney
• Brett Goodes – Western Bulldogs

Horsham

• Doug Wade – Geelong, North Melbourne
• Shane Heard – Essendon
• Craig Sholl – North Melbourne
• Adrian Hickmott – Geelong, Carlton
• Brad Sholl – North Melbourne, Geelong
• Adam Goodes – Sydney
• Luke Brennan – Hawthorn, Sydney
• Seb Ross – St Kilda
• Jake Lloyd – Sydney
• Ben Hobbs – Essendon

Horsham Saints

• Darcy Tucker – Fremantle, North Melbourne
• Jarrod Berry – Brisbane
• Tom Berry – Brisbane, Gold Coast

Horsham United

• Brad Cassidy – Fremantle, Fitzroy, Collingwood

Minyip

• Roy Cazaly – South Melbourne, North Melbourne
• Ross Funcke – Richmond, Melbourne
• Stuart Cameron – Fitzroy, Melbourne

Murtoa

• Rowley Fischer – Melbourne
• Alan Killigrew – St Kilda
• Ron McDonald – Richmond
• Hugh Delahunty– Essendon
• Mike Delahunty – Collingwood

Minyip-Murtoa

• Clinton Young – Hawthorn

Nhill

• Peter Patterson – Collingwood
• David Flood – Essendon
• Dean Wallis – Essendon
• Jason McCartney – Collingwood, Adelaide, North Melbourne

Rupanyap

• John Sudholz – South Melbourne
• Trevor Tyler – Essendon
• Greg Bell – Essendon

Stawell

• Michael Pickering – North Melbourne
• Allan Hird Jr. – Essendon
• Liam Pickering – North Melbourne, Geelong
• Craig Ellis – North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Melbourne
• Brent Tuckey– Collingwood, West Coast
• Matt Austin – Brisbane

Warracknabeal/Warrack Eagles

• Russell Crow – Fitzroy
• Andy Wilson – Essendon
• Graeme Schultz – Essendon

• Jeremy Clayton – North Melbourne
• Matt Rosa – West Coast, Gold Coast

• Kyle Cheney – Melbourne, Hawthorn, Adelaide

2005 Ladder

2006 Ladder

2007 Ladder

2008 Ladder

2009 Ladder

2010 Ladder

2011 Ladder

2012 Ladder

2013 Ladder

2014 Ladder

2015 Ladder

2016 Ladder

2017 Ladder

2023 Ladder

Publication

Wheatbelt Warriors. A Tribute To Wimmera Football League.

References

1. Full Points Footy

External links

• League website
• History of Ararat FC

• Wimmera Football League
• Australian rules football competitions in Victoria (state)