Western Lions
The Western Lions were a short-lived merger of the Derrinallum and Mortlake football clubs, who were both struggling for numbers by the end of the 1998 season. Derrinallum had entered recess, and merging with Mortlake was seen to be its only hope at survival. The two clubs agreed to an amalgamation, and the Western Lions Football Netball Club was formed in 1999 ahead of the upcoming HFL season. Home games were split between Derrinallum and Mortlake, approximately 25 minutes apart. Success was hard to find, and in their first season the Lions won just two games and endured sixteen tough losses. Following a round one 252-point thumping at the hands of Koroit the following year, the Lions immediately withdrew from the competition and went into recess.
A number of Derrinallum-based Lions players shifted to nearby Lismore-Derrinallum, a fellow merged entity that had formed out of a rebel Derrinallum members group who opposed the Western Lions venture and started up its own new club in 1999. Others gave up the game completely. Of the Mortlake-based Lions players, most transferred to Woorndoo, a club also searching for a saviour at the time. Some shifted to Panmure, who were temporarily using the Mortlake ground, while others looked to the Deakin University Sharks, who had established a junior base in Mortlake. Such was the proportion of the ex-Lions Mortlake community that eventually stayed at Woorndoo, the Mininera league club changed its name to Woorndoo-Mortlake ahead of the 2001 season, and offered to play one home game each year at Mortlake's former home ground of Farran Oval.
The Western Lions entity eventually merged with Terang in August 2001, allowing Mortlake to continue its involvement in the major Hampden league, and the new club competed as Terang-Mortlake from 2002 onwards.