Almanac (Country) Footy and World Records: Yeppoon Swans’ one hundred winning A Grade games in a row

 

 

 

 

by Peter Watkins

 

 

The Yeppoon Australian Football Club in Central Queensland is on the verge of winning their 100^th A Grade game in row, after rewriting the record books for the most consecutive wins in the game’s history in the Grand Final of 2020, when the Yeppoon Swans won their 89^th game and 6^th consecutive premiership. They will play Gladstone at their home ground Swan Park on Saturday 10^th July.

 

The Yeppoon Swans chased a history-making 89th straight victory when they hosted the Boyne Island Tannum Sands (BITS) Saints in the AFL Capricornia Grand Final at Swan Park at the end of 2020. The season was cut short due to coronavirus and only consisted of a 10 minor round season plus finals.

 

The Swans had earlier taken the Queensland record of 65 wins in a row in 2019, ironically that record was in fact held by BITS.

The previous national and world record had stood for 44 years, with former Adelaide Hills team Heathfield-Aldgate United winning 88 consecutive games between 1971 and 1976.

 

The Swans haven’t lost an A-grade game since mid-2015 and clinched their sixth-straight premiership in the club’s 40th year in the very first Grand Final played at their Swan Park home in Yeppoon before a crowd of in excess of 3,000 people.

 

 

 

 

 

Coach Christian Burgess is in his first year in a playing coach role, after making his mark in his first season playing for the club in 2020. Whilst taking over a team with a national and world record maybe difficult for some, Christian has taken the role enthusiastically and put his own personal stamp on the role, providing a new and varied environment for the players reinvigorating their enthusiasm.

 

 

 

 

 

Previously, Mark Wallin coached the club for a club record seven seasons including the national and all time record of 89 wins in a row and six premierships, an outstanding feat, while his son Matt has been the A-Grade captain for the entire duration.

 

 

 

 

Matt Wallin, Leigh Cossens, Nathan Milburn, Michael Gallagher, and Shaun Connor have all played in the six Premierships plus of course Mark Wallin as Coach.

 

 

 

 

In what many would term an unusual move, record holding coach Mark Wallin has since taken on the role of women’s coach in 2021, and his experience and know-how has been welcomed by the girls with very much improved results.

 

Yeppoon is a coastal town and region with a population of approximately 20,000 people, located about 650km north of Brisbane.

 

AFL Capricornia is a six-club competition comprising Yeppoon, three teams from the Rockhampton area and one each from Gladstone and the Boyne Island-Tannum Sands.

 

Many will be surprised to know that each club in AFL Capricornia puts nine sides on the field each week. They include the U7’s, U9’s, U11’s, U13’s, U15’s, U17’s, Reserves, Women’s, and A Grade as well as a summer season of youth girls.

 

All this in what many term the heartland of Rugby League!

 

The Swans have prided themselves on providing a clear pathway for their juniors which has been the foundations of the success in their A Grade as well as many of their junior and Reserve grades over the years. The majority of their senior players played at the club as juniors and there is a good crop of juniors coming through the ranks each year including in 2021.

 

Long term President Peter Watkins firmly believes in the analogy, that if they can get Friday nights right (U7’s, U9’s and U11’s), then they have a very good chance of getting Saturday mornings right, (U13’s, U15’s and U17’s). If that occurs, then there is a very good chance that Saturday afternoons will be right and look after itself. (Reserves and A Grade, women’s)

 

In fact, in 2020, the Reserves won their second premiership in a row and the club also won two junior flags.

 

The club plays an important role in the community having raised over $130,000 in two years with their own version of The Big Freeze raising the funds for Motor Neurone Disease in recognition of Life Member and past Executive member Gabe Watkin as well as previously raising serious funds for the RSL Club, and mental health awareness group, Livin.

 

Like all clubs, the Swans rely heavily on the support and enthusiasm of volunteers, and their core group of volunteers are outstanding and ensure that the club is able to perform on a regular basis.

 

The club does not get any assistance in the maintenance of the ground and infrastructure, usually even required to pay for the effluent water for the field, and yet has equal to or amongst the best facilities in the league.

 

Local businesses are very generous in their support of the Swans providing the capacity for the club to continually work on maintaining and upgrading facilities.

 

For more information or to arrange an interview

 

Christian Burgess 0448 006 620   A Grade Coach

Peter Watkins 0429 383 041         President

 

 

 

 

 

The Tigers (Covid) Almanac 2020 will be published in 2021. It will have all the usual features – a game by game account of the Tigers season – and will also include some of the best Almanac writing from the Covid winter.  Pre-order HERE

 

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