Australian Football

Wantirna South

Between 1952 and 1956 the Devils competed, without notable success, in the Croydon Ferntree Gully Football League’s B Grade competition. The 1957 season brought a transfer to Division Two of the Mountain Districts Football League, and immediately the club’s fortunes took a turn for the better, with the seniors finishing as runners-up in their first season. A year later they did one better, capturing the club’s first premiership by defeating Silvan in the grand final, a success which brought with it promotion to Division One. The Devils struggled at this higher level, however, succumbing to successive wooden spoons in 1960 and 1961.

In 1965 the Devils were on the move again, this time to Division Two of the Eastern Districts Football League. They found the going tough, however, managing just a solitary win in their first couple of seasons. This meant that in 1967 the club lined up in Division Three where it would remain until the end of the 1985 season. In 1986 South Wantirna became a foundation member of the EDFL’s Division Four competition in which it struggled before finally escaping upwards in 1996 thanks to a 25 point triumph over Waverley in the grand final.

Most of the Devils’ time since 1997 has been spent alternating between Divisions Two and Three. To date, the club has won a couple of flags in both Division Two and Division Three together with the aforementioned Division Four triumph. Their most recent success came in 2014 in Division Three when they came from almost 5 goals down at three quarter time of their grand final clash with Templestowe to sneak home by 8 points, 8.10 (58) to 7.8 (50). The Devils have spent the subsequent three seasons competing in Division Two, highlighted by a 2016 campaign which saw them get through to the grand final only to sustain a humiliating 107 point defeat at the hands of Bayswater. `Perhaps predictably, the 2017 season brought a sizeable post-grand final loss hangover as the Devils fell short of finals involvement on percentage. A year later they dropped further down the list to seventh.

Originally known as South Wantirna the club changed its name to Wantirna South in 1998.