Willunga Football Club celebrates 150 years

By PETER ARGENT

According to highly respected South Australian Country Football Historian Peter Lines, and his publication “The South Australian Country Football Digest” the Willunga Football Club is the third oldest football club in South Australian country football, having formed in 1874.

And 150 years later, the Demons are still as strong as ever. with only Penola (1865) in the South East and Kapunda (1866) in the (Barossa and) Light district formed earlier.

Willunga is one of the most successful football clubs in rural football history with 40 Premierships, 30 in the first hundred years in the Southern League and 10 since.

“The earliest record of football being played at Willunga is a newspaper report that a two-day match was played between Willunga and Aldinga on May 14 and 21 1872,” Willunga historian and two-decade secretary at the Demons, Gerry Loots explained.

“In the same year a match was played at a property near the bottom of Willunga Hill between bachelors and married men of “Willunga Football Club.”

“However, it was not until May 29, 1874, at a meeting in Willunga, that a football club was officially formed.

“At that meeting it was declared that a club named Willunga Football Club would be formed and that it would play with a blue cap, use the “Adelaide Football Club” rules and join an association if one was formed.

“Over the next few years, the Recreation Park Reserve at Willunga was developed and grassed and was established as the home of the club.”

Loots confirmed that in 1877, the SAFA, forerunner of the SANFL, was established and two representatives from Willunga club were invited to attend a meeting to establish a competition but Willunga did not participate because of the distance from Adelaide.

Willunga, Gawler and Kapunda did send representatives to participate in a Country verses SAFA match in Adelaide in 1878.

In 1886, the Southern Football Association was founded, and Willunga joined as a foundation member along with Aldinga, McLaren Vale and Sellicks Hill, starting an illustrious and successful 100-year association with that league.

Willunga enjoyed sustained success as soon as the premiership system was established, winning four premierships in a row from 1892 then another trio from 1897, and a total of 15 flags before World War I.

The most famous of a raft of strong performers was Taffe Waye, who started with the Demons in 1890 as a 13-year-old and played in the 1919 success at 42, after serving in World War I.  He also was a legendary part of the Sturt Football Club’s first decade in the SANFL, winning the 1903 Magarey Medal and playing a large handful of state games in the SA tri colours.

Between the two Wars, three Willunga champions dominated the association awards.

Maurice “Spog” Corbett  won the League’s President Medal for Fairest and Best an amazing seven times between 1925 and 1936, played 229 games for Willunga from 1923 until 1946, being a three-time Premiership player. In this truly remarkable career, Corbett also won the Junior Medal in 1925.

His teammate Ron Branson won the President’s Medal playing for Willunga in 1928 and 1929 and won a third medal playing for Hillside.

Jimmie Little, who started in 1936, also won two President’s Medals, being captain in 1939 and 1940 and noted as a beautiful ball handler and stab passer. Sadly, he did not make it home from war duties.

This trio took home eleven President’s Medals, while playing for Willunga, in just 16 years.

Following World War II, Willunga went on another Premiership spree.

They won five in a row from 1948 then after missing in 1953, added another trifecta after that.

There were just three more flags in the Southern League (1961, 1964 and 1984) before they moved, after a century, to the Great Southern Football League (GSFL) Competition.

Eight years earlier this was blocked, as they were initially accepted to the GSFL In 1976.

One of the stand-out players of the 1960s was Richard Croser, who won three successive League Best and Fairest Medals in a row from 1966 to 1968.

Willunga won its inaugural title in the Great Southern Football League in 1986, defeating Strathalbyn by 14 points, then again in 1988, but had to wait another decade to 1998 for a third GSFL A grade title.

In 2003, highly experienced football personality Barry Pilmore arrived at the Demons.

After his initial season finishing third, Pilmore led the Demons to premiership glory in 2004, enjoying six consecutive successes.

During this period from 2004 to 2006 Willunga had a winning streak of 41 games.

Along with Pilmore eight players were members of all six triumphs – current senior coach Mitch Portlock, Wes Glass, Todd Steele, goal kicking ace David Hams, Sam McGowan, Ben Baxter, Andy McDonald and Adam Carnevale.

Porlock, a regular state country representative, and Pilmore also delivered success to the Southern Districts Zone at the SA Country Football Championships.

From the Demons, other GSFL medallists include Baxter in 1999 and Carnevale in 2001, while others in this century have included former Power ruckman Daniel Bass, Portlock and Sean Beath.

The club has had many amazing contributors on the field.

They include the father and son combination of Chris (843) and David Hams (858) who hold the record of the leading goal kickers in the Demons’ history, with both sharing the record of 132 goals in a season – Chris in 1984 and David in the also successful 2008 campaign.

Third on the Demons goal kicking list with 514 goals is Eamon Bull, who kicked the most goals in a game with a huge haul of 32 against Port Elliot in 1996, in the game where the club recorded its highest score highest score of 67.22 (424).

Equally off the field, the Demons have wonderful servants, with current President Julie Clifton and Secretary Brenton McDonald continuing a wonderful traditional of dedicated off field service.

Brenton’s father Barry and his three brothers played in the 1964 flag, he was a premiership player in the 1980s himself and his son, Cameron is playing currently.

“Willunga is an amazingly successful club and still retains the country club atmosphere and attitudes,” Loots continued.

“We give thanks to the foresight of the founding fathers and the rigours of the management teams, volunteers and extraordinary players over 150 years.

“Our club will continue its constant quest for success.”

On Saturday, August 24, The Willunga Football Club hold a special function to celebrate this significant milestone.