Almanac Footy: A History of Australian Rules Football in Woomera 1948 to 1992 – Part 15: 1984- 1986

 

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. 

 

 

1984

 

In February 1984 Woomera North had its annual general meeting. Everything was running smoothly with a new committee elected when, following discussions, a motion was put that the Woomera North Football Club and the Woomera Village Sports Club formally amalgamate and a new club known as the Village Football Club be formed. The motion was carried by 4 votes and thus a club which had done a lot to save the league; had won 3 premierships in 7 years; produced 3 Area & Mail medal winners, and produced 3 top goalkickers; voted itself out of existence.

 

At a farewell party organised for April of that year, 94 invitations were sent to all former players, 76 attended the function and there were 16 apologies.

 

The competition would then consist of 4 teams: Centrals, Koolymilka, Mt Gunson and Village when CSR Limited announced out of the blue in March 1984 that they were closing their Mt Gunson copper mine.

 

Mt Gunson would therefore not be registering a football team and thus the competition was reduced to 3 teams, the lowest number ever.

 

Despite these drawbacks, Laurie Braid and his league committee continued to foster AFL with a mini-league, a colt’s team and inter-league matches at all levels. During the year the Woomera teams played matches against Bungala, a settlement outside Port Augusta.

 

In an interleague match, Woomera drew with Bungala 8.13 (61) to 8.13 (61).

 

At the Area & Mail medals count 2 players, Steve Snow and Dave Davis both of the Centrals club tied for first place. The medals were awarded to Steve Snow on a countback but as happened in 1999, the countback system was abolished and after 15 years Dave Davis was retrospectively awarded the Mail medal.

 

The leading goalkicker for the season was Mick Zuna of the Village Club with 76 goals.

 

The minor round was restricted to only 8 games per team with Koolymilka and Centrals on 12 points each, Koolymilka winning the minor premiership on percentage. New registration Village failed to win a game for the season.

 

In the grand final Centrals easily won their fourth premiership. The best player for Centrals in the grand final was John Shepherdson who earlier in the year would have thought he would be playing for Woomera North, not Centrals.

 

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Koolymilka	6	4	2		1193	867	57.91	12
Centrals	6	4	2		995	747	57.12	12
Village	0	4	8		670	1020	39.65	0

 

 

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
Qualifying	Centrals	13	20	98	Village	11	15	81
Grand	Centrals	23	6	144	Koolymilka	17	9	111

 

 

Grand Final: Centrals defeated Koolymilka 23.6 (144) to 17.9 (111).

Premiership Coach: Brendon Would. Premiership Captain: David Davis.

Best in Grand Final: John Shepherdson – Centrals, Peter Koenig – Koolymilka.

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: =1^st Steve Snow – Centrals 23, =1^st David Davis – Centrals 23, 3^rdMalcolm McPhail – Koolymilka 15.

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Mick Zuna – Village 76.

League President: Laurie Braid. League Secretary: J G Fountain.

 

 

1985

 

Following the 1984 season there were doubts about the sustainability of a 3-team competition and at an informal meeting in February 1985 explored the possibility of Woomera having just 1 team and joining the Northern Districts Football Association. Current teams in this association were Leigh Creek, Hawker, Stirling North and Bungala.

 

Geoff Whitby, an attendee at the meeting, advised that he was forming a new team consisting mainly of on US servicemen based at the Joint Defence Space Communications Station at Nurrungar 15 kilometres south of Woomera. The team would mainly be Americans with some Australians.

 

With this proposal in mind, the AGM of the league went ahead as usual and 4 teams were registered for the competition Centrals, JDSCS Warriors, Koolymilka and Village.

 

Although there were Australian Rules football matches played between servicemen of both the USA and Australia during WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, actually having an American team in an Australian competition is probably unique to the WFL.

 

Coaches were Centrals – Dave Davis, JDSCS Warriors – Geoff Whitby, Koolymilka – Christopher Griffiths, and Village – Roy Menner.

 

During the year the Warriors won a game against Village by sixty points, the scores being 21.16 (142) to 12.10 (82). They did, however, have some bad losses and in 1 game against Koolymilka the score was Koolymilka 43.20 (278) to Warriors 0.1 (1). Major goalkickers for Koolymilka were Chris ‘Biff’ Griffiths 14, Wally Broome 11, and Tom Blackie 9. Unfortunately, such scores tend to skew statistics

 

The secretary of the league Andy Scanlan said in an interview “kicking and handball are their greatest problems. When kicking they are used to leaning back and kicking the ball high. We are trying to teach them to kick drop punts by leaning forward and kicking into the ball.”

 

To enable night sports at Newman Oval the installation of floodlights was completed in August 1984. The first sport to be played under lights was a soccer match in 1984. In 1985 the WFL played 3 matches on a Friday night under lights.

 

The Area & Mail medals were won by Bob Hearnes of Centrals with 36 votes; second was Chris Griffiths, the Koolymilka coach, with 23 votes; and third was Roy Menner, the Village coach, with 26 votes. Geoff Whitby, the JDSCS coach scored 17 votes.

 

The best Under-21 player was Grant Roesler of Village.

 

Leading goalkickers were Wally Broome – Koolymilka 89, Rob Hearnes – Centrals 63, Glenn David – Centrals 34.

 

Koolymilka lost only 1 game during the minor round and finished top of the table on 22 points, second was Centrals on 16 points, third was Village on 8 points, and fourth was JDSCS on 2 points.

 

Village caused an upset by beating Centrals in the qualifying final however they could not get past Koolymilka in the grand final, losing by 2 points.

 

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Koolymilka	11		1					22
Centrals	8		4					16
Village	4		8					8
JDSCS Warriors	1		11					2

 

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
Qualifying	Village	13	8	86	Centrals	13	12	90
Grand	Koolymilka	13	14	92	Village	13	12	90

 

 

Grand Final: Koolymilka defeated Village 13.14 (92) to 13.12 (90).

Premiership Coach: Christopher ‘Biff’ Griffiths. Premiership Captain: Scott Durman.

Best in Grand Final: Unknown – Koolymilka, Unknown -Village.

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: =1^st Robert Hearnes – Centrals 36, 2^nd Christopher “Biff” Griffiths – Koolymilka 23, 3^rd Roy Menner – Village 20.

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Wally Broome – Koolymilka 89, 2^nd Robert Hearnes – Centrals 63, 3^rd Glenn Davis – Centrals 34.

League President: John Shepherdson. League Secretary: Andrew Scanlan.

 

 

 

JDSCS Warriors – Guernsey worn by Dayn Meisner

 

Stuart Junior Football Club

 

After he retired as president of the WFL Laurie Braid did not let his organizational skills go to waste and formed a club to be known the Stuart Club. It would consist of junior footballers from far-flung outback towns including Andamooka, Cooper Pedy, Leigh Creek, Tarcoola, Woomera, Hawker, and Marree.

 

The idea was to provide coaching and give playing opportunities to up to 100 players from these towns. Laurie also obtained a coaching commitment from Bob Clayton the junior coaching director from Port Adelaide. Local coaches would include Russell Campbell, John Shepherdson, and Bob Spooner.

 

In August 1985 over 100 children of both sexes attended a coaching day in Woomera. The Port Adelaide coaching squad included Bob Clayton, Chris Nat, Craig Bradley, Ben Harris, and Tim Ginever.

 

Under-14 and Under-16 matches were played in the afternoon and evening with the next match to be against Central Augusta in Leigh Creek.

 

 

1986

 

This year was the beginning of great changes for the league. First, Village did not register a team and second Roxby Districts a team from the newly established mining town of Roxby Downs applied for and was granted registration.

 

Some of the coaches for the year were Centrals – Roy Menner, Koolymilka – Tom Blackie, and Roxby Districts – Tim McLeod.

 

The winner of the Area & Mail medals was Stephen “Bunny” Dryburgh of Roxby Districts with 20 votes; second was his teammate and coach Tim McLeod with 16 votes; and third was Don Henderson of Centrals with 13 votes.

 

Steve Dryburgh also won the award for Best Under-21 player and Tim McLeod was leading goalkicker.

 

Throughout the season the JDSCS Warriors persevered even though they only won 1 game. Their best and fairest players for the year were: 1^st Pitts Lesesne, 2^nd Damien Brown, and 3^rd George Taggett.

 

At the end of the minor round Roxby Districts were undefeated and they went on to win the grand final. The points at the end of the minor round were Roxby Districts 30, Centrals 20, Koolymilka 8, and JDSCS 2.

 

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Roxby Districts	15		0					30
Centrals	10		5					20
Koolymilka	4		11					8
JDSCS Warriors	1		14					2

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
Qualifying	Centrals			Def	Koolymilka
Grand	Roxby Districts	19	13	127	Centrals	11	14	80

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Final: Roxby Districts defeated Centrals 19.13 (127) to 11.14 (80).

Premiership Coach: Tim McLeod. Premiership Captain: Tim McLeod.

Best in Grand Final: Stephen Dryburgh – Roxby Districts, Roy Menner – Centrals.

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: 1^st Steve Dryburgh – Roxby Districts 20, 2^nd Tim McLeod – Roxby Districts 16, 3^rd Don Henderson – Centrals 13.

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Tim McLeod – Roxby Districts.

League President: R Grieves/Geoff Steer. League Secretary: A Rusconi/Wally Lewis.

 

At the Annual General Meeting of the league on 20^th October 1986 the Woomera Football League (WFL) changed its name to the Woomera and Districts Football League (W&DFL) to reflect the participation of teams from the Western Mining complex at Olympic Dam.

 

 

Stuart Junior Football

 

Laurie Braid continued his association with the Stuart Football Club and in an early match they won against a Port Augusta team 7.11 (53) to 5.10 (40).

 

Woomera Juniors

A series of Colts’ matches were arranged during the season between Woomera and Roxby Districts. The results of games were very even.

 

 

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