Australian Football

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KEY FACTS

Official name
Warragul Football Club

Known as
Warragul

Nickname
Gulls

Formed
1879

Colours
Black, white, red and teal blue

Affiliation (Current)
Gippsland League (GL) 1954–2024

Affiliation (Historical)
Central Gippsland Football League (CGFL) 1902–1953

Senior Premierships
Gippsland Latrobe Valley Football League (GLVFL) - 1974, 1976, 1984 (3 total); West Gippsland Latrobe Football League (WGLFL) Western Division - 2003 (1 total)

Warragul



Warragul has a long history but much of it is poorly documented. The club was formed in 1879 and initially engaged only in informal scratch matches against teams from nearby towns such as Berwick, Buln Buln, Drouin, Morwell and Traralgon. Much of the club’s time during the inter-war years was spent competing in the Central Gippsland Football League, with the 1920s in particular proving quite productive in terms of on-field success. After world war two the club continued in the CGFL for a time before commencing a prolonged involvement in the Gippsland Latrobe Valley Football League in 1954. Over the course of their forty-one season stint in this competition the Gulls’ seniors contested half a dozen grand finals, winning in 1974 against Moe, and both 1976 and 1984 at the expense of Traralgon. The club’s reserves also claimed three premierships.

Between 1995 and 1999 Warragul was a member of the Gippsland Latrobe Football League before commencing in the West Gippsland Latrobe Football League’s western division in 2000. This section of the WGLFL ran from 2000 to 2004, with Warragul achieving a single senior grade premiership success in 2003. The reserves meanwhile triumphed in 2004.

The 2005 season saw the WGLFL consolidating as a single division competition which included three former western division clubs, of which the Gulls were one. Other former western division clubs moved elsewhere. In 2010 the WGLFL was renamed the Gippsland Football League. After leaving the western division Warragul gradually grew in strength and in 2008 the seniors made it as far as the preliminary final before losing to Morwell. After that, however, there was a fairly swift decline, with the side missing the finals in 2009 before succumbing to back to back wooden spoons in the following two seasons. The Gulls continued to struggle from 2013 to 2015 but in 2016 they qualified for the finals although their involvement was fleeting as elimination final opponents Drouin accounted for them by a couple of goals. The 2017 season brought a slight decline in fortunes as the Gulls dropped to seventh place on the ten team premiership ladder before improving by one place in 2018.

Source

John Devaney - Full Points Publications


 

Footnotes

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