| Names | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Williamstown Football Club |
| Nickname(s) | The Seagulls |
| Club details | |
| Founded | 1864 |
| Colours | Blue and Gold |
| Competition | Victorian Football League |
| Coach | Peter German |
| Captain(s) | Brett Johnson |
| Ground(s) | Burbank Oval (capacity: 15,000) |
| Other information | |
| Official website | WilliamstownFC.com.au |
| Guernsey: |
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The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed The Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne and are currently playing in the Victorian Football League. The club was formed in 1864 and is one of the oldest in Australia.
Other clubs at the time were Melbourne, Geelong, South Yarra, Carlton, Albert Park, Royal Park, Brunswick, University, Warehouseman's, Kyneton, Ballarat, Hotham and Belfast (Port Fairy). Games were organised on a fairly ad hoc arrangement and the Victorian Football Association was formed on May 7, 1877.
Williamstown was granted "senior status" in 1884 and joined the VFA. South Williamstown was also in the VFA at that time but the two local teams never met. They merged in 1888 and Williamstown's original colours of black and yellow were changed to blue and gold.
Williamstown (the town) was named after King William IV in 1837 and was often referred to as the "village" in 19th century Melbourne. The nickname "The Villagers" stuck with the footy club until the late 1930s when Larry Floyd and Bill Dooley (great grand father of Leigh and Paul) decided a more appropriate synonym was needed and adopted the "Seagulls".
Williamstown Football Club has won a premiership in each decade of the 1900s except the second - 1907, 1921, 1939, 1945, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1969 (Second Division), 1976 (Second Division), 1986, 1990. Each of these Premierships hold special memories for our club - the 1939 flag followed one of the worst years in the club's history - 1938 Williamstown finished last in the competition and was on the brink of disaster. It had also finished last in 1934 and 35 and near last in 1933, 36 and 37. However two men, Dooley and Floyd, decided on a bold and daring recruiting raid of the VFL and hired Ron Todd - probably one of the greatest players ever in the competition - and Des Fothergill to turn disaster into great success.
The teams of the 50s were skilful and well coached by Wally Carter and Gerry Callahan. The string of premierships that followed was fair reward for an era of good management and hard work.
Then Williamstown slumped and by the middle of the 60s was headed for Second Division at the end of 1967. Max Papley - Best and Fairest at South Melbourne - was appointed Captain and Coach and after losing the Grand Final in 1968 went on to win promotion to First Division - no mean feat. Papley was a fine player and an excellent coach who left his mark on Williamstown and the VFA.
Max was followed by Barry Gill - ex-Carlton and then the club appointed Ted Whitten as Coach in 1975. Williamstown finished last - back to Second Division and farewell to EJ! Mal Allen from the enemy - Port Melbourne - won a Second Division Premiership and Willy returned to the First Division for one year. Merv Hobbs - Footscray, and Rod Oborne - Collingwood and Richmond had little success.
Then the Board of Management had the foresight to appoint Terry Wheeler in 1984 and by 1986 Terry had gathered a group of players together including Barry Round and Tony Pastore good enough to win the Premiership. This Grand Final had all the hallmarks of high drama - Phil Cleary was the Captain Coach of Coburg and was sent of the ground by the field umpire. In the time he was off the game was as good as over - Willy to win its first senior division pennant since 1959.
More excitement was to follow. After two defeats by Coburg, Williamstown overcame great odds to win the 1990 Premiership against Springvale. Great memories captured in full living colour for everyone to see and re-live.
The 1990 Premiership was the most satisfying of them all - won in the face of tremendous odds. Appearing to finish runners-up for the third consecutive year, the events in the last quarter almost defied belief.
Football clubs have their good and poor times. It is the measure of good footballs that strength is gained from the poor times. During the middle 1990s Williamstown slipped - after finishing second to Sandringham in 1992 success began to desert the club and in 1995 the club failed to win a game in either the firsts or seconds. The administration also lost its way and the club was on the brink of folding and joining many other ex-VFA teams on the scrap heap.
The spirit of players who stayed and played in that period had to be seen to be believed. It does one good to reflect on the efforts of players like Pas and Saade, Adam Bugeja, Richie Hore, Adam Hough, Tommy McGowan and Troy West among many others who stayed when others left for much greener pastures.
The cycle continued in 1996 with the appointment of Merv Keane and the re-organisation of the administration. As in 1939 and 1968 before, a football team is lead by its administration - the revamped Board and staff of the club have begun the long and difficult task of establishing a long-term future for this proud club.
The mid 1990's saw many changes to the competition. Firstly VFA clubs were granted a licence which linked each club with an affiliated TAC Cup Under 18 club - in Williamstown's case the Western Jets. With the competition and its member clubs struggling to survive financially, a dwindling supporter base and our relevance in the football landscape diminishing; a revamp of the competition was necessary.
While Williamstown is well known for the players who have played here and gone onto greatness elsewhere - Ian Fairley, Ron James, Danny Delre, among them - this club has also been to the forefront with providing plethora of administrators to the VFA and VFL.
Three Williamstown men have been President of the Victorian Football Association - J.J. Liston (he of the Liston Medal and Liston Stakes), John Grieve and Tony Hannebery (former player, President of the WFC and former All-Australian Amateur footballer).
Williamstown has proved a great training ground for coaches as well. Wally Carter and Terry Wheeler both coached VFL/AFL teams after success at Williamstown. Many former players have gone on from Williamstown to coach successfully in local competitions - Mark Fotheringham at Keilor, Ken Barnes at Spotswood, Ian Rickman with Lara among many, many more.
At the end of the 2007 season, Collingwood chose to field their own stand alone side in the VFL and Williamstown formed a new alignment with Western suburbs neighbours the Western Bulldogs. This partnership is now in its 4th season and over the last 3 years a number of players have graduated from the Seagulls to the Bulldogs.
The Williamstown Football Club in 2011 did not play or train at Point Gellibrand Oval (Burbank Oval) due to a $8.3 million redevelopment. This sees the Club playing the majority of its home games at Werribee with one off home games at Torquay, Keilor and Wangaratta.
Three Williamstown men have been President of the Victorian Football Association - J.J. Liston (he of the Liston Medal and Liston Stakes), John Grieve and Tony Hannebery (former player, President of the WFC and former All-Australian Amateur footballer).
Williamstown has proved a great training ground for coaches as well. Wally Carter and Terry Wheeler both coached VFL/AFL teams after success at Williamstown.
In 2011 Williamstown were one of the 16 teams from around Australia who took part in the inaugural Foxtel Cup. They defeated WAFL team Swan Districts at Patersons Stadium in Perth before easily accounting for SANFL team West Adelaide in their Quarter Finals match at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide. Their first game at 'home' was in the Semi Finals against East Perth at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne where they advanced to the Grand Final with an easy 71 point win.
The Grand Final of the Foxtel Cup was played at Patersons Stadium between Williamstown and Claremont of the WAFL. After a hard fought match, The Seagulls won the Foxtel Cup running out winners by 21 points, 9 5 (59) to 5 8 (38).
Contents |
The Seagulls were aligned to the Collingwood Football Club from 2000 until 2007, enjoying success in the 2003 season when they won their most recent VFL premiership. The alliance was broken at the conclusion of the 2007 season, when both sides came to a mutual agreement to cancel the final year of the contract so that Collingwood could establish their own stand alone VFL side. [1]
Shortly after Collingwood had broken ties with the club, Williamstown announced that they had signed a 3 year deal with the Western Bulldogs Football Club, with the alliance starting before the 2008 VFL season. The Bulldogs had originally been aligned with the Seagulls in 2000 (a partial-alignment shared with Werribee. [2]
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Year
|
Captains
|
Coaches |
Gerry Callahan Medalists
|
| Back | Eric Beitzel | Max Munday | John Ramsay |
| Half Back | Brett McTaggart | Gerry Callahan | Colin Wilcox |
| Centre | Jim Caldwell | Max Papley | John Martin |
| Half Forward | Ray Smith | Ron Todd | Ian Rickman |
| Forward | Harry Simpson | Mark Fotheringham | Saade Ghazi |
| Ruck | Barry Round | Eric Glass | Alby Linton |
| Interchange | Reg Harley | Bob Jones | Len Kent |
| Kim Kershaw | Tony Pastore | Tom Russell | |
| Captain | Gerry Callahan | ||
| Coach | Wally Carter |
The Williamstown Football Club's guernsey consists of a blue background with a diagonal yellow sash.
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