Almanac Footy: Manly Warringah Wolves FC – A howler to impress

A Howler To Impress

 

If you are thinking that local football in Sydney would be pretty ordinary then think again

 

Last night (Sunday) I received a phone call from an old football mate Christopher O’Sullivan a member of the famous O’Sullivan clan from Bunyip-Cora Lynn who produced some outstanding sporting performances both on and off the sporting arenas of football and cricket.  Think I have written a story about them in the past.

 

Suffice to say that Chris, 8 games with the Bears and a few Best and Fairest to boot in Queensland and Victoria, wanted to howl about the team he has been involved with since living in Sydney and on the salubrious northern beaches.

 

“I just wanted the football world across Australia to know how good this club is. They (the club) show that the domestic football in and around Sydney is thriving,” O’Sullivan said.  In saying this he was virtually telling me that the game is just going ahead in leaps and bounds in the harbour city

 

His club the Manly Warringah Wolves, founded in 1969, has in total 378 adult registered players, yes  378;  274 men and  124 women. In addition there are 1400 juniors participating in various stages of their development.

 

They have 12 divisional teams, 7 men and 5 women, and 4 junior teams (under 15 and under 17 boys and girls).

 

2025 has been a most successful year with premierships in 4 divisions, runners-up in 2 divisions, League Best & fairest in 3 divisions, leading goalkicker in 2 divisions and to top it all of coach of the year in the Women’s premier division.

 

The president of the club is local female lawyer Jacqueline Wharton who comes from a famous  Aussie rules football family from the ACT. I must do a check over summer just to see how many women are running Australian Football clubs around the country nowadays.

 

At the present moment in the AFL there are two Howler players, Sam Wicks (Sydney) and Jess Doyle (Giants), both are products of the club.  Incidentally Wicks is Chris’s nephew by marriage.

 

O’Sullivan is delighted to back in football at the grass roots level after a spell of nine years and is the Vice-President of the club as well as the men’s football Director.

 

His role as the football director (men’s) is really to make sure that all under his banner are enjoying their time at the club both on and off the field.  “You won’t succeed if you have division in the ranks,” he said.

 

He believes that in the future the strength of Australian Rules Football in Sydney and environs can only get bigger and better.  “With so many juniors coming through the system it must succeed,” he said.

 

Of course much will depend on the continuing success of the AFL clubs  the Swans and the Giants but on present form the two sides will be up amongst it for a long time.

 

Like all community clubs the Wolves rely on the involvement of the local community and local sponsors to keep the club a float.

 

It will be interesting to watch the progress of the Wolves and other clubs in the SydneyAFL  in years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

More stories from Citrus Bob Utber can be read Here.

 

 

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