Western Football Netball League

The Western Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball semi-professional league, based in the western suburbs of Melbourne, for both seniors and juniors.

History
The league was formed in 1931 as the "Footscray District Football League".

During the 1950s, the VFL club Footscray was financially backing the competition, so they decided to bar clubs that were inside the zone. This resulted in six clubs leaving. More changes occurred in 1952 as the league decided that clubs had to provide an under-18 competition; this action reduced the club numbers down to twelve. The next initiative was the introduction of an under-16 competition in 1954.

In 1988, the league absorbed clubs from the West Suburban Football League; and, in 2000, to reflect the fact that the league had expanded across the western suburbs, it changed its name to the Western Region Football League. The league's headquarters are at Whitten Oval, which is the home of current AFL club Western Bulldogs.

In 2002, the league, in particular its second Division, found itself a national audience when a Seven Network reality TV show, The Club, followed the performance of a team called the Kensington Hill Hammerheads throughout the season. The players, coach and president were chosen on the show, and after finishing third in the regular season, went on to win the flag.

In 2006, the league suspended the Central Altona Football Club for attempting to re-register a player, and they suspended Brunswick Power after the club was found guilty of playing unregistered players. In addition, Central Altona also had a variety of on-field violence and abuse issues, and they were also in trouble for re-registering banned players.

In 2013, Manor Lakes and Sanctuary Lakes entered the Division Two of the senior competition. In 2014, Werribee Districts transferred from the VAFA, and Tarneit entered a senior team. The league then announced that a third division will form midway through 2014.

In 2015, the Wyndham Suns were admitted to the third division. Parkside, which won the second division premiership in 2014, suffered a bitter internal division and lost most of the players and committee. Instead of being promoted to first division, Parkside staved off recess and were permitted to rebuild the club in the third division.

The league changed its name to the Western Football Netball League in early 2024. Division Three was abolished following the 2023 season. Eynesbury and the Western Rams joined the competition from the Riddell District Football Netball League for the 2024 season.

Clubs
Participating clubs for the 2024 season:

Premiers by club (Division 1)

 * Notes

Women's competition
In 2018 the WRFL held a stand-alone women's competition for the first time as the number of women's clubs in the region grew large enough to allow this. In 2021 the competition expanded to two divisions. As of 2022 there were 14 women's teams across the two divisions, although by 2024 this number had dropped to 9 teams across 1 division.

Division 1
2018: Manor Lakes

2019: Spotswood

2022: Caroline Springs

2023: Spotswood

Division 2
2022: Point Cook Centrals

2023: West Footscray

Junior clubs

 * Aintree
 * Albanvale
 * Albion
 * Altona Juniors
 * Caroline Springs
 * Flemington Juniors
 * Hoppers Crossing
 * Manor Lakes
 * Newport Power


 * North Footscray
 * North Sunshine
 * PEGS Juniors
 * Point Cook
 * Point Cook Centrals
 * Spotswood
 * St Bernard's
 * Sunshine
 * Sunshine Heights
 * Tarneit
 * Truganina Thunder
 * Werribee Centrals
 * Werribee Districts
 * West Footscray
 * Williamstown Juniors
 * Wyndham Suns
 * Wyndhamvale
 * Yarraville Seddon Eagles

Book

 * History of the WRFL/FDFL – Kevin Hillier – ISBN 9781863356015
 * History of Football in Melbourne's North West – John Stoward – ISBN 9780980592924