Almanac Footy: A History of Australian Rules Football in Woomera 1948 to 1992 – Part 11: 1974 – 1975

July 23, 2025 by Almanac Admin Leave a Comment

David ‘Dick’ Turpin is a Brisbane friend of Almanacker Allan Barden. During the late 60s early 70s David spent a few years working in Woomera when it was quite a thriving community.

David has researched and written a history of footy in Woomera from the years 1948 to 1992.

The Footy Almanac will publish David’s extensive history over a number of weeks.

Dick has also completed a history of Woomera water polo.

1974

Bill Leverington commenced playing football in Woomera in 1951. The first year he played for Koolymilka however the next year he transferred to Works where he played in the 1955, 1956 and 1958 premiership sides. In 1959 he also coached Works.

Upon retirement, Bill had a year off, and then, in 1961, he was elected vice president of the WFL. Here, he was tasked with setting up a junior football league, which, with a few willing helpers, he was able to achieve.

Bill was president of the WFL for 8 years from 1963 to 1970 and retired from the WFL in the same year.

As I stated previously, you cannot however keep a good man down for long and he then became the prime organizer of a mini-league for those boys who were too young or too small to play in the junior league. Bill was ably assisted in coaching the boys by Alan Christie and John Harrison.

Coaching the mini-league must have stirred up some feelings for another shot at coaching in the senior ranks and in 1974 he was appointed coach of Works.

Koolymilka appointed their 1972 premiership coach Theo Saunders, Centrals – Col O’Donoghue and Village – Rod Said.

Centrals won the lightning carnival held a week before the season proper.

In June 1974 the three Gee brothers, Gregory, David and Simon, played together in a match for Koolymilka. This equalled the 1969 record of the three Wagnitz brothers, Wolfgang, Jurgen, and Klaus who played together in a match for Works; and the 1970 record of three Corcoran brothers Frank, John and Keith who played together in a match for Village.

In August 1974 they claimed the record outright when their other brother Mark joined them in a match for Koolymilka.

Coincidently Works player Klaus Wagnitz achieved player life membership having started with Works in 1965.

The Area & Mail medals were won by Greg Whittle of the Koolymilka club. Greg also won the top goalkicker award with 53 goals and the trophy for the best under-21 player. He was the third winner after Butch Leverington and Gary Hele who went to school in Woomera, played junior football then progressed to the seniors.

At the end of the minor round, points were Koolymilka 20, Works 18, Centrals 10, and Village 8.

After a tight major round Works won the premiership, their first since 1968.

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Koolymilka	10		4		1263	1029	55.10	20
Works	9		5		1181	987	54.47	18
Centrals	5		9		970	1171	45.31	10
Village	4		10		985	1212	44.83	8

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1^st Semi	Village	13	12	90	Centrals	12	14	86
2^nd Semi	Works	16	19	115	Koolymilka	13	14	92
Preliminary	Koolymilka	19	14	128	Village	12	17	89
Grand	Works	13	16	94	Koolymilka	8	12	60

Grand Final: Works defeated Koolymilka 13.16 (94) to 8.12 (60).

Premiership Coach: William “Bill” Leverington. Premiership Captain: Robert “Bob” Boyle.

Best in Grand Final: Garry Thomas – Works, Chiesa – Koolymilka.

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: 1^st Greg Whittle – Koolymilka 18, 2^nd Bob Boyle – Works 17, 3^rd John Shepherdson – Works 13.

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Greg Whittle – Koolymilka 53, 2^nd Bob Brandt – Village 31, =3^rd Stan Grillett – Works 28, =3^rdR McEvoy – Centrals.

Player Life Membership: Klaus Wagnitz – Works.

League President: Pat Cullinan. League Secretary: Richard “Dick” Bastian.

1974 WJFL

In 1974, Bob Spooner returned as coach and the Magpies were undefeated minor round premiers for the fourth year in a row.

Lack of numbers, probably due to the unevenness of the competition, resulted in 2 of the finals matches being won on forfeit.

However, nothing can be taken away from Bob and his boys and they easily won the grand final.

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1^st Semi	Demons			Def	Eagles on forfeit
2^nd Semi	Magpies			Def	Roosters by 20 goals	9	12	66
Preliminary	Rooster			Def	Demons on forfeit
1^st Grand	Magpies	18	19	127	Roosters	4	8	32

Grand Final: Magpies defeated Roosters 18.19 9 (127) to 4.8 (32).

Premiership Coach: Bob Spooner. Premiership Captain: John Sargeant.

Best in Grand Final: Robin O’Donnell – Magpies, Greg Ellis – Roosters.

League Best & Fairest: =1^st Steven Watts – Roosters 11, =1^st Simon Gee – Magpies 11, =3rd Greg Reeks – Roosters 11 (lost on countback).

1975

At the annual general meeting (AGM) of the League the big item on the agenda was an application by the Mount Gunson Football Club to join it. Mt Gunson was a recently established mining operation 70 km south of Woomera. The Mt Gunson representative advised that the team had nearly 60 players lined up. This is necessary as many employees worked shift work on weekends.

The club had adopted the red and blue colours of Norwood in the SANFL and would be known as the Redlegs.

The application was accepted and for the first time since RAAF left the League in 1966, there would be 5 teams competing.

At the AGM the president advised that the successful Works coach of 1974, Bill Leverington, had not sought remuneration for his services. There might be a lesson there somewhere.

One delegate suggested that games should be played on Saturdays, not Sundays to enable the players to have more free time and a chance to get over any injuries or celebrations in time for work on a Monday. Nothing came of this suggestion.

Another delegate suggested that games be transferred to the Arboretum Oval instead of the Newman Oval as the former was closer to the Village. This also did not get very far as the president pointed out that the Arboretum Oval was not fenced and the league would lose a lot of gate revenue.

Coaches for the 1975 season were Centrals – Paddy O’Neill, Koolymilka – John Cates, Mt Gunson – Kevin Pelham, Village – Len “Ruffy” Jayne, and Works – Bob Boyle.

During the year Tom Lloyd replaced Len Jayne as the Village coach.

One of Mt Gunson’s players was Terry Green who had played for Centrals for most of the sixties and early seventies. Terry was the brother of Mike Green who kicked the winning goal when Centrals won their first premiership in 1960.

Koolymilka had a new player, Gerry Samies, from the USA. He acquitted himself well in his first game kicking 2 goals. He later stated that he would refuse to go home to the USA until he had also made the Woomera cricket team.

The winner of the Area & Mail medals was Alan Trott of Koolymilka; equal second were Angelo Mele of Centrals and Kelly Hill of Mt Gunson.

Kelly Hill also won the award for the best under-21 player.

Player life membership was awarded to Bill Harvey who played an equal number of seasons at both Centrals and Koolymilka.

At the end of the minor round, Mt Gunson had acquitted themselves well in their first season, finishing fourth on percentage and making the preliminary final.

Points at the end of the minor round were Koolymilka 20, Centrals 16 Works 10, Mt. Gunson 4, and Village 4.

Koolymilka went on to win the premiership for the third time in 4 years.

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Koolymilka	10	3	1		1293	644	66.76	20
Centrals	8	3	3		1051	677	60.83	16
Works	5	3	6		949	1240	43.36	10
Mt Gunson	2	2	10		879	1333	39.74	4
Village	2	3	9		775	1449	34.85	4

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1^st Semi	Mt Gunson	12	22	94	Works	12	10	82
2^nd Semi	Centrals	15	9	99	Koolymilka	11	19	85
Preliminary	Koolymilka	25	15	165	Mt Gunson	11	20	86
Grand	Koolymilka	10	22	82	Centrals	10	7	67

Grand Final: Koolymilka defeated Centrals 10.22 (82) to 10.7 (67).

Premiership Coach: John Cates. Premiership Captain: John Cates.

Best in Grand Final: Rick Daly – Koolymilka, Peter Tattersall – Centrals.

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: 1^st Alan Trott – Koolymilka 24, =2^nd Angelo Mele – Centrals 14, =2^nd Kelly Hill – Mt Gunson 14.

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Greg Whittle – Koolymilka 61, 2^nd Simon Gee – Koolymilka 32, 3^rd Kelly Hill – Mt Gunson 28.

Player Life Membership: Bill Harvey – Centrals and Koolymilka.

League President: Pat Cullinan. League Secretary: Mike Blunden.

At the end of the season, Centrals staged a game between past and present players. The past players which included, Konrad Wraczynski, Terry Lavender, John Payne, and Leon Mueller won easily.

1975 WJFL

In the juniors, there was a changing of the guard with the Magpies falling down the ladder and the Roosters winning their second premiership, their first being in 1962.

Life membership was awarded to Buzz Ellis for his services to junior football

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1^st Semi	Demons			Def	Magpies
2^nd Semi	Roosters			Def	Eagles on forfeit
Preliminary	Eagles	18	17	125	Demons	5	2	32
Grand	Roosters	7	11	53	Eagles	5	10	40

Grand Final: Roosters defeated Eagles 7.11 (53) to 5.10 (40).

Premiership Coach: Russell Campbell. Premiership Captain: Unknown.

Best in Grand Final: Tim O’Loughlin – Roosters.

League Best & Fairest: 1^st Danny Pell – Magpies 21, 2^nd Tim O’Loughlin – Roosters 17.

Leading Goalkicker: G Porter – Eagles.

Life Membership: Buzz Ellis.

Previous Episodes can be read Here.

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au home page click HERE

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE