Australian Football

Wandin

Formed in 1909, Wandin had to wait almost seven decades before claiming their first ever senior grade premiership. Prior to breaking the ice in 1978 the closest the Bulldogs came to winning a premiership were a couple of unsuccessful grand final appearances in 1961 and 1966, in both of which the deficit was a solitary point. The long awaited change in fortunes came after the club commenced in Division Two of  the Yarra Valley Mountain Districts Football League in 1972. The following season saw them play off in the grand final against Marysville, only to lose. Their next grand final appearance came five years later, and this time the Bulldogs held sway at the expense of Emerald. It was a fine year all round as the reserves also won the flag. A year later Wandin went back to back in the best possible fashion when they won every match for the season. Their grand final triumph earned them promotion to Division One, which is the level at which they have subsequently acquired another four senior grade premierships, in 1992, 2001, 2002 and 2015. Recent seasons have seen the Bulldogs performing consistently strongly in Division One. They reached a grand final in 2014, but lost to Woori Yallock. A year later, as already alluded to, they made amends in quite spectacular fashion by winning all 20 matches for the season culminating in a 16.16 (112) to 6.12 (48) grand final defeat of Healesville. After that, the 2016 season was something of a disappointment with Healesville ending the Bulldogs' bid for consecutive premierships at the preliminary final stage. Then, in 2017, Wandin exited the flag race after a the first semi final in which they again found Healesville too hot to handle and slumped to defeat by 14 goals. A year later they made impressive amends when they captured their fifth senior grade Division One flag thanks to a 16.11 (107) to 9.16 (70) grand final defeat of Woori Yallock.