Peel Thunder Football Club

Peel Thunder
Names
Full name Peel Thunder Football Club
Nickname(s) Thunder
2014 season
Premiership 8th
Leading goalkicker Matt Taberner (18 goals)
Best and fairest Brendon Jones
Club details
Founded 1997
Colours      Blue
     Teal
     White
Competition West Australian Football League
Coach Cam Shepherd
Captain(s) James Flaherty
Premierships Nil
Ground(s) Rushton Park (capacity: 10,000)
Other information
Official website http://www.peelthunder.com.au/

The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The club joined the WAFL as an expansion team in 1997.

Since the 2014 season, Peel has served as the host club for the Fremantle Dockers of the Australian Football League, an arrangement which will see Fremantle’s reserves players playing WAFL football for Peel.[1]

History

Peel Thunder was formed in 1996 after the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC) granted a ninth licence in the WAFL to the Mandurah-Peel region. The licence was issued on the condition that the club be ready to compete in the 1997 Westar Rules competition. Geoff Miles was appointed as the club’s inaugural coach and Phil Gilbert appointed captain. The Thunder in 1997 won only one game against Claremont in the satellite town of Rockingham and finished last, with Scott Simister winning the inaugural best and fairest, and won only one further game in their next two seasons against East Perth at Perth Oval.

The Thunder did finally move off the bottom in 2000, but their improvement over subsequent seasons has been minimal. To the end of the 2014 season Peel Thunder has won only 73 matches out of 354 played, or a 20.62% winning percentage,[2] which for comparison is even lower than the 21.27% success rate of Hawthorn between 1925 and 1953, and only marginally better than the 18.49% of South Adelaide in the SANFL between 1945 and 1963. The club has never won as many games as it lost in a season, and sixth place with seven wins in 2001 and eight wins in 2008 remains its best finish.

In 2011, Peel Thunder were fined A$10,000 for breaching the league’s salary cap rules.[3]

Honour board

Season PositionWin/Loss Coach Captain Dudley Tuckey Medal Leading goalkicker
1997
9
1–19
Geoff Miles Phil Gilbert Scott Simister Scott Simister (27)
1998
9
1–19
Geoff Miles
Troy Wilson
Phil Gilbert Darren Bolton Scott Simister (31)
1999
9
0–20
Troy Wilson Scott Simister Scott Simister Scott Simister (54)
2000
8
4–14
Shane Cable Bill Monaghan Vance Davison Dean Buszan (32)
2001
6
7–11
Shane Cable Vance Davison Derek Hall David McPharlin (25)
2002
8
7–11
Peter German Derek Hall Darren Bolton Scott Simister (46)
2003
9
1–19
John Ditchburn Derek Hall Derek Hall Derek Hall (22)
2004
8
5–15
Garry Hocking Brandon Hill Daniel Haines Cameron Gauci (40)
2005
9
3–17
Garry Hocking Grant Welsh Pat Travers Justin Wood (29)
2006
8
6–14
Chris Waterman Grant Welsh Rory O'Brien Dean Buszan (44)
2007
8
5–15
Chris Waterman Grant Welsh Daniel Haines Dean Buszan (30)
2008
6
8–12
Chris Waterman Grant Welsh Hayden Ballantyne Hayden Ballantyne (75)
2009
9
5–15
Chris Waterman Daniel Haines Ben Howlett Kain Robins (33)
2010
8
3–17
Trevor Williams Daniel Haines
Brendon Jones
Rory O'Brien Matthew Battye (27)
2011
9
5–15
Trevor Williams Brendon Jones Kristin Thornton Bradley Holmes (36)
2012
9
5–15
Trevor Williams
Mark Moody
Brendon Jones Brendon Jones Bradley Holmes (52)
2013
9
3–17
Cam Shepherd Brendon Jones Viv Michie[4] Bradley Holmes (33)
2014
8
4–16
Cam Shepherd James Flaherty Brendon Jones[5] Matt Taberner (18)

Honours

Club honours

Colts Premierships: (2) 2004, 2005

Individual honours

Sandover Medallists: (2) 2002: Allistair Pickett, 2008: Hayden Ballantyne

Records

AFL draftees

The following is a list of Peel Thunder players who have been drafted to clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). Players currently on an AFL list are listed in bold:

Draft Pick Player Club Games Goals
1998N 10 Hill, BrandonBrandon Hill West Coast 0 0
1999R 2 Bolton, DarrenDarren Bolton Fremantle 2 0
2000R 49 Walkingshaw, DaleDale Walkingshaw Fremantle 0 0
2001R 4 Buszan, DeanDean Buszan West Coast 0 0
36 Haines, DanielDaniel Haines Fremantle 16 4
2002N 2 Wells, DanielDaniel Wells Kangaroos 164 96
2003N 4 Ray, FarrenFarren Ray Western Bulldogs 137 46
2005R 5 Nye, RyanRyan Nye Adelaide 0 0
40 Thornton, AshleyAshley Thornton West Coast 0 0
2005N 20 Bower, PaulPaul Bower Carlton 60 3
28 Riggio, MattMatt Riggio Kangaroos 10 0
54 Thornton, KristinKristin Thornton Sydney 6 3
2006N 2 Gumbleton, ScottScott Gumbleton Essendon 22 22
38 Hawksley, JamesJames Hawksley Brisbane Lions 23 0
47 Reimers, KyleKyle Reimers Essendon 47 50
52 O'Brien, BrockBrock O'Brien Fremantle 3 1
2007R 18 Chartres, DannyDanny Chartres Essendon 0 0
2008N 21 Ballantyne, HaydenHayden Ballantyne Fremantle 75 111
2009N 4 Morabito, AnthonyAnthony Morabito Fremantle 23 13
25 Black, AaronAaron Black North Melbourne 1 1
2010R 20 Howlett, BenBen Howlett Essendon 26 11
2010N 2 Bennell, HarleyHarley Bennell Gold Coast 5 3
2011P 2 Wilson, BlayneBlayne Wilson West Coast 1 0
2011R 48 Lawrence, KelvinKelvin Lawrence Melbourne 0 0

External links

Notes

a Peel actually kicked 10.10 (70), but had their score wiped through playing Peter Bird with an invalid permit. Their lowest total kicked during a match is 1.10 (16) against Subiaco in Round 14 of 2002.

References

  1. Quartermaine, Braden (31 October 2012). "West Coast and Fremantle will enter WAFL alignments from 2013". Perthnow. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  2. Peel Thunder - WAFLOnline. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  3. Peel fined for salary breach - FootyGoss. Written by Mr Dandalooa. Published 24 March 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  4. ‘Michie Voted Thunder’s Best and Fairest’
  5. ‘Fairytale Comeback Capped Off for Brendon Jones’