Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

KEY FACTS

Official name
Woorndoo Mortlake Football Netball Club Inc.

Known as
Woorndoo Mortlake

Former name
Woorndoo

Former name date
2001-01-01

Formed
c. 1880s

Colours
Black and yellow

Emblem
Tigers

Associated clubs
Mortlake; Western Lions

Affiliation (Current)
Mininera and District Football League (MDFL) 1950–1955, 1987–2024

Affiliations (Historical)
Caramut Football Association (CFA) 1934–1939; Hopkins District Football Association (HDFA) 1940–1949; Mount Noorat Football League (MNFL) 1956–1986

Woorndoo Mortlake

A Woorndoo team participated in scratch matches as early as 1882 against nearby Hexham. Woorndoo won a premiership in the 1908 Sheldrick Brewing Company Trophy. The club joined the Caramut FA in the mid-1930s, played in the Hopkins District FA in the 1940s, and then spent a brief six-season period in the Mininera District FA, all without much success.

After joining the Mount Noorat FL in 1956, the club took a little more than a decade to find its feet, reaching its zenith in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Woorndoo won its first MNFL premiership in 1969, defeating Kolora by a single point, and then followed up three seasons later in 1972 with a 17-point defeat of Glenormiston. In both 1973 and 1974, Kolora exacted revenge on Woorndoo with the Tigers suffering consecutive grand final losses.

Woorndoo rejoined the Mininera District FL in 1987 and has remained there ever since, and is one of only two current MDFL teams not to have won a premiership while in the league. The Tigers' closest shot in success was in 2002, when they reached the grand final only to lose to Wickliffe-Lake Bolac by 30 points.

This near miss came in the second season of Woorndoo taking on Mortlake in its name to become the Woorndoo-Mortlake Football Netball Club. The Mortlake Football Club itself had previously merged with Derrinallum in 1998 to form the short-lived Western Lions, but disagreements on the club's future prompted opposing pathways for Mortlake players. After the Western Lions folded in early 2000, Woorndoo extended an olive branch to nearby Mortlake players. Woorndoo then formalised this welcome by voting to rename its club to Woorndoo-Mortlake in 2001, although the club's jumper, nickname and song remained the same.

Woorndoo-Mortlake continue to play one game a year at Farran Oval, the old home of the Mortlake Football Club.


 

Footnotes

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