Australian Football

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Berwick

According to web sources a Berwick Football Club existed as long ago as the 1890s. During the years immediately prior to world war one it competed in the Berwick District Football Association, claiming a premiership in 1910, and finishing second to Dandenong in 1913. The club resumed in the BDFA after the war and secured a second flag in 1925.

Following the second world war Berwick spent some time in the Dandenong District Football Association before commencing in the South West Gippsland Football League in 1954. The club would go on to enjoy premiership success on three occasions in this competition, which at the end of the 1994 season was absorbed into the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League. Berwick remained a member of the SWGFL throughout this time with the exception of the period between 1983 and 1987 when the club competed in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Berwick’s performances during its five season stint in the VFA’s second division were unremarkable, but the side did at least manage to avoid the wooden spoon each year. 

When the SWGFL became part of the MPNFL Berwick continued in the new competition. The club’s sole senior grade MPNFL flag triumph to date occurred in 1999 in the Nepean Division by means of a 15.9 (99) to 13.10 (88) grand final defeat of Crib Point.

Subsequent seasons saw the Wickers competing in the Casey Cardinia section of the MPNFL. In 2015 the nine clubs which comprised this section broke away en masse to establish a new competition, the South East Football League. Berwick claimed a premiership in this competition in 2015 when they accounted for Cranbourne in the grand final by 30 points. The 2016 season brought another grand final clash with Cranbourne but on this occasion the Eagles turned the tables. In 2017 the Wickers once again made it through to the ultimate match of the season and scored an emphatic win over Narre Warren with scores of 15.9 (99) to 5.12 (42). A year later they went back to back by again putting Narre Warren to the sword on grand final day, this time with scores of 8.25 (73) to 2.10 (22).

In 2019 the SEFL merged with the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League, forming the 25 club, three division Outer East AFL. Placed in the top tier Premier Division, Berwick once again made it through to the ultimate match of the season, only to slump to a nine point defeat at the hands of perennial arch rivals Narre Warren.

Source

John Devaney - Full Points Publications

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.