Australian Football

The Wickers were founder members in 1979 of the Central Highlands Football League, in which their sole senior grade premiership to date was won in 1987. Recent performances have been disappointing, but the club has a proud history that has seen it participate successfully in a number of different competitions over the past nine decades. 

After claiming its first flag in 1919 the club was an almost perennial grand finalist throughout the 1920s, adding further premierships in 1923, 1925 and 1926. All of these premierships were won in the Creswick District Football Association. On crossing to the Clunes Football Association in 1932 the side almost made the perfect start, but lost a low scoring grand final to Newlyn by 5 points. After a second losing grand final, this time against Sebastapol, in 1939 the Saints broke through to claim their first CFA flag the next year after narrowly edging out Smeaton.

Creswick spent the period from 1946 to 1949 in the Ballarat Football League’s B Grade competition. During that time it came closest to winning a premiership in 1947 when it fought out a thrilling grand final draw with Wendouree, only to go down in the replay by 3 points. The Saints made a triumphant return to the CFA in 1950 when greater accuracy in front of goal helped enable them to see off the grand final challenge of Clunes by 29 points. Final scores were Creswick 10.3 (63) to Clunes 4.10 (34).

The Saints had a strong team in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, but a sequence of four straight grand finals produced just one win, thanks to a 9.11 (65) to 5.7 (37) defeat of Newlyn in 1961. A fourth and last CFL premiership followed in 1974.