WARRNAMBOOL (Warrnambool City)
Current Affiliation: Hampden Football League (HFL) since 1933
Home Ground: Albert Park
Formed: 1861; merged with South Warrnambool 1924; re-established as a standalone club 1928
Colours: Navy blue and white
Emblem: Blues
Senior Premierships: Western District Football Association (WDFA) - 1913-14 (2 total); Warrnambool District and Corangamite Football Association (WDCFA) - 1924 (1 total); Western District Football League (WDFL) - 1927, 1931 (2 total); HFL - 1935, 1937, 1939, 1946-7, 1957, 1959-60, 1962-3, 1966, 1976-7-8, 1984, 1986-7-8-9, 1992, 2001-2 (22 total)
Maskell Medallists: Don Grossman 1951; John O'Neill 1953; Bill McConnell 1962; Tony Hills 1977; Chris Grumley 1993; Paul Jenkinson 2000; Nicholas Hider 2003 (7 total)
| MINI-BIOGRAPHIES: | Bill Cubbins Alec McKenzie John O'Neill |
On 4th June 1861 Warrnambool was the scene of a game of 'English football' in which two goals were scored. Shortly after the second of them the ball burst, bringing a premature end to the proceedings, with no victor declared. However, the sport itself appears to have been a winner, and today's Warrnambool Football Club traces its origins all the way back to that winter of 1861, making it among the oldest football clubs in Australia. Indeed, according to Ron Cole, Ron McCorkell, Harry Keilar and Ian Wright, authors of the recently published history of the Warrnambool Football Club, Birth Of The Blues, only Melbourne and Geelong are older.
As befits a club of such long standing, Warrnambool has been consistently successful. Its first recorded proper premiership came in 1913, in the Western District Football Association, and this was promptly added to the following year before any further premiership aspirations had to be laid aside because of the war. Warrnambool, in common with virtually all Victorian country football clubs, went into recess in 1915, and did not resume until 1920 when it adopted the new name of Warrnambool City. In 1924 Warrnambool City and South Warrnambool merged, with the resultant club - known, somewhat confusingly, as Warrnambool - claiming flags in 1924 and 1927. The merger partners split once more in 1928, with Warrnambool City reverting to its original name of Warrnambool.
In 1933 the Blues transferred from the Western District Football League, in which they had enjoyed premiership success two years earlier, to the Hampden Football League, which was just about to embark on its fourth season. Warrnambool has achieved unrivalled success in this competition, with its tally of twenty-two senior premierships more than double that of its nearest rival. Those premierships have arrived consistently at a rate of at least one per decade. The Blues have also been the only team to claim a hat trick of senior flags, a feat they have accomplished twice. After the second such instance, they went one better.
Recent performances have, by the club's lofty standards, been comparatively undistinguished, although the last three seasons have at least brought modest levels of improvement with finishes of seventh (of eight) in 2005, sixth in 2006 and fifth last year.
Where now?
or