Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Goals were raining down for Whitford Amateur Football Club in Saturday’s league grand final, bringing an emotional end to the club’s 23-year premiership drought.
The Whitford Warriors are one of just six PFL teams in the past 30 years to stay in A-grade and B-grade, but have been chasing the elusive league premiership victory for the better part of those years.
In a historic day for the Warriors, both the B-grade league and C5 league teams entered their grand finals and emerged victorious, ending the 23-year wait with double premiership success.
The B-grade team defeated Brentwood Booragoon 10.11 (71) to 5.8 (38), and the C5 team downed Rossmoyne 12.3 (75) to 4.4 (28).
Club president Adam Dyer said the coaching staff put the wheels in motion years ago, when they realised it was do or die.
“Just over two years ago we looked at the age of our list and we basically said if we don’t go now, we’re never going to go,” he said.
“The last time we won a league premiership was 23 years ago, and that was a B-grade one as well. We’ve been in and out of A-grade over the years … we are a large and successful club, but if you rate success on winning league premierships, it hasn’t been that great in that area.”
The team came tantalisingly close in 2024, finishing the season undefeated but losing the grand final to North Fremantle by just four points.
Mr Dyer said that sting of disappointment was a huge force behind the club’s continued commitment.
“This core group of guys have been there working so hard for so long, to finally get a flag was just absolute elation. The crowd, the scenes at the oval sort of speak for themselves — it was electric,” he said.
The boys went into the 2026 grand final cool and collected, but self-described “bag of nerves” Mr Dyer said he didn’t let himself get carried away until that momentous final siren.
“When it came to game day, they were extremely switched on. I don’t think it was spoken about, breaking the drought, the team were just very focused, very switched on, they knew what they needed to do,” he said.
The league boys dominated all day, culminating in a 33-point victory over Brentwood Booragoon.
No drastic club changes resulted in the long-awaited victory, but the positive club culture on and off-field continued to grow, with free post-game dinners on Saturdays, new ice baths and a strong connection with the junior Auskick players to build club foundations.
“Our league coach has been there for eight years, Christian Kelly, he’s been working really hard to get the success. The best thing about it is 15 of that playing group that were out there on Saturday were Whitford’s juniors,” Mr Dyer said.
“That’s something we hang our hat on — developing our own players rather than just dragging them in from other clubs … it has really been a sense of community around the club and the way we’re trying to build things. I’m not surprised the success has come on the field as well.”
The players will now hold their heads high as they re-enter A-grade with their trophy cabinet a little heavier.
“Off the field, we’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Mr Dyer said.
“It’s a big step to go into A-grade; we think we’re going to be more than competitive and should play finals, so we’re pretty excited about that as well.”
