Peel

PEEL THUNDER

Affiliated: WAFL 1997-present

Club Address: P.O. Box 500, Mandurah 6210

Home Ground: Rushton Park

Formed: 1997

Colours: Black, blue, green and white

Emblem: Thunder

Premierships: SENIORS Nil RESERVES Nil COLTS 2004-5 (2 total)

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

Highest Score: 23.11 (149) versus Swan Districts 11.12 (78) on 9 June 2001 at Rushton Park

Overall Success Rate 1997-2008: 20.5%

Welcome to the big time! Inaugural Peel coach Geoff Miles (right) and player Trevor Green roll out the Westar Rules banner in 1997.

Just below AFL level there exists a 'second tier' in Australian football which comprises competitions like the WAFL, the VFL, the SANFL, and so forth. It is arguable that, despite the inevitable diminution in their profile which has followed the astonishing growth of the AFL over the past decade, the importance of these competitions to the overall health of football has never been greater. However, whereas in the past the importance of many of these competitions has been measurable chiefly in social and economic terms, today their significance tends to be seen as deriving from their effectiveness in providing the sport of Australian football with a solid and reliable underpinning structure, which like a human skeleton tends to be invisible.

This is not to suggest that the clubs which comprise this so called 'second tier' are solely or even primarily focused on developing potential AFL superstars. Football's current structure is not something that Swan Districts, West Adelaide or Box Hill would necessarily have wished to see emerge, but it is nevertheless a reality with which they must contend, and within and around which the core business that has motivated every football club since days of yore - that of the pursuit of premierships - must be carried out.

To put it another way, the enormous contributions made to the AFL (and before that, the VFL) by clubs in competitions like the WAFL have been in the nature of by-products rather than the direct consequences of deliberate planning. If Paul Haselby wins the Brownlow Medal, East Fremantle feels a sense of pride; if the Sharks go premier, East Fremantle is euphoric.

The emergence of Peel Thunder in 1997 has, in one sense, afforded greater exposure for the WAFL. However, as the far as the individual clubs which comprise that league are concerned, its emergence is problematic, for reasons which tie in closely to those motivations and aspirations discussed above (see footnote 1).

Based in Mandurah, which was one of the first parts of Western Australia to be settled by Europeans, Peel have had to endure not only ongoing controversy over their continued involvement in the WAFL, but consistently meagre results on the playing field as well. In the club's first eleven seasons it managed a success rate of just 18.7%, while in all bar one of those seasons it finished either last or second last, with 6th position in 2001 with a 7-11 record its best result.

Despite the overall lack of success, however, there have been highlights, such as the club's first ever league win (by 3 points over Claremont on 17 May 1997), and, more recently, its achievement in providing Sandover Medallists in the shape of Allistair Pickett in 2002 and Hayden Ballantyne in 2008.

Peel's "pint-sized rover Chad Stronach, with a heart the size of his tiny frame" (see footnote 2). (Click to enlarge).

It would be unfair to suggest that the future of the club is secure, however, and not even significant on field improvement would necessarily be enough to convince the rest of the Western Australian football community that the continued involvement in the WAFL of a ninth team, particularly one from outside the metropolitan area, is justified. However, perhaps the fact that the club's existence effectively provides the AFL with an organised incursion into a potentially lucrative player recruitment zone will prove sufficient to ensure its survival.

Where Now

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Footnotes

1. Such reasons include concern at the inevitable dilution in playing standards as well as the likelihood of increased hardship for clubs faced with proportionately smaller slices of the ever-shrinking economic pie. Return to Main Text

2. 'Football WA 2000', grand final issue, 9/9/00, pages 52-3. Return to Main Text