Interesting times ahead, will fill ya in Whitey
There has not been one successful merger in the WAAFL in the last 40 years . Of the clubs that have merged usually the club that moves ground disappears and loses all of their identity if not immediately but after a few years meaning that if Maddington move to Piara Waters the club will basically be forgotten in maybe 5/10 years. Generally the clubs have a bit of success for a year or two but after a few years the clubs revert to be about as good as where the host club was prior to the merger. Here are the clubs that have merged since 1980
COLLEGIANS and OLD SCOTCH
Collegians merged with Old Scotch in about 1984. Old Scotch won the B Grade flag in 1981 and the A Grade flag in 1982. Collegians were a B Grade club. They merged to form Collegians Old Scotch. They quickly tumbled down to C Grade from A grade. The Old Scotch name was dumped in the mid 90s and now the club is known as Collegians again the club is about as strong as what the original Collegians was and Old Scotch is now totally forgotten.
CURTIN UNI and OLD WESLEY
Old Wesley were a pretty strong A Grade club and Curtin Uni were a B Grade club. They merged to form Wesley Curtin about 20 years ago and finished last in A Grade the first year after the merge and really struggled for a few years tumbling down to C Grade for quite a few years. They have since got back to A Grade but have changed their name to Curtin Uni Wesley recently which looks like that the Wesley name seems to be on its way out and Old Wesley will be forgotton.
DIANELLA and MORLEY
Dianella were a pretty good B Grade Club and Morley were always in the finals in C 1. They merged in the late 90s to form Dianella Morley and had few good years . They had 5 teams for 2 years after the merge but now are mid table in C3 with 2 teams.
OSBOURNE PARK and BALCATTA
This was an obvious merge as both clubs were about 500 metres from each other. Osbourne Park , nothing to do with the current Osbourne Park, were a powerhouse in the old Sunday League winning many flags and had 4 teams. Balcatta had just won C1 in 1997. They merged to form Balcatta Osbourne Park and won B Grade in 1998 having 5 teams and had a few good years after the merge and have been up and down since and now only have 2 teams.
REDCLIFFE and BELMONT
This was the biggest flop of them all. Redcliffe were the last team to be unbeaten in C Grade and merged with Belmont who were a midfield Sunday League club. Redcliffe had 3 teams and Belmont had 3 teams before the merge. They merged and had 3 teams and finished second last in B Grade in 1999. Only a handful of Redcliffe players went over to the merged club called Belmont Redcliffe. The Redcliffe name was dropped after about 3 years and now Belmont are struggling in C 3 and Redcliffe has been forgotton.
WEST COAST and COWAN UNI
Another total flop. West Coast were a pretty strong A Grade club and Cowan Uni a pretty good C grade club. Merged to form West Coast Cowan and were in A Grade but finished last in A Grade the first year after the merge and quickly dropped to C Grade after 3 years. They bounced back and won C Grade in 2006 as West Coast Cowan. The Cowan name has since gone and now it’s back to West Coast.
OSBOURNE DISTRICTS and COOLBINIA YOKINE
Another huge flop as a merge. Osbourne Districts were always a very competitive B Grade and merged with Coolbinia YOKINE who were in D Grade ( C2) to form Coolbinia West Perth in the mid 2000s. Osbourne Districts were already a three times merged club. Mt Hawtorne merged with with West Perth to form Mt Hawtorne West Perth who later merged with Mirrabooka to form Osbourne Districts. They had a couple of good years straight after the merge but have now tumbled down the grades and are now really struggling in C3 with only 2 teams. A side note to this merge is that Osbourne Districts were based at Robinson Reserve before the merge and moved to Coolbina Yokines home ground. A new club called Osbourne Park then started up at Robinson Reserve a couple of years after the merge and are now a bigger club with theree teams than the now merged club to show that it was a stupid move by Osbourne Districts.
Great bit of historical writing Baboon and remember playing against many of those clubs before and after the mergers.
I might add one merger that came very close for two very strong 1980’s B grade clubs Maylands and Bayswater who were going to merge back in 1990 but all the old members turned up and voted against it. Maylands folded a couple of years later and Bayswater dropped down the grades and are now in E grade struggling for wins.
Maddington had their meeting last night and Piara Waters hold theirs tonight.
Probably the most successful merger of Sunday clubs was the one between WAFA clubs Inglewood and Bayswater in the 1970s. They went from being struggling teams who hadnt played finals in a numbetrof years to being Premiers within 2 years of the merger. It came to an end after the 1979 season. Inglewood went to the WAFA B Grade but struggled to have an impact.
Great read Baboon
I pretty certain that West Coast was formed through a merger of City Beach, Floreat and possibly another club in the area which saw the new club become quiet strong as you mentioned prior to then merging with Edith Cowan Uni much later.
Most mergers generally turn into take overs with one clubs history being forgotten.
Tiger Tales
From an upcoming book:
West Coast (also known as West Coast Cowan) may have only been in existence since 2001, but the club has an extensive footprint in the history of Amateur football going back to 1975. The Tigers, who are based at City Beach Oval, were created out of a joint venture between the West Coast and ECU clubs prior to the 2001 season. They have played most of their football in B Grade, where they won the 2007 premiership. The Tigers played in A Grade for two seasons prior to their current spell, which began in 2014. Overall, the club and its various forebears have won 28 premierships prior to the 2016 season (20 on the West Coast and Cowan side and eight on the ECU/Churchlands side).
The West Coast Football club was formed in 1984 when Floreat-Marist joined forces with City Beach. After spending their first four seasons in B Grade, they played in A Grade from 1988 to 2000, and won the premiership in 1994.
Marist Old Boys entered the WAAFA in 1970 and reached B Grade in 1972 and they were still there when they became Marist in 1978. Marist merged with Floreat Park (1963-1978, and an A Grade side in 1975-1976) to become Floreat-Marist in 1979 and the Kangaroos spent four seasons in B Grade before merging with City Beach for the 1984 season to become West Coast.
The City Beach club wore a white, red and black uniform and played out of City Beach Oval between 1975 and 1983. Starting in E Grade, they spent their final two seasons in B Grade before merging with Floreat-Marist.
The Cowan extension involves seven different club names in 26 seasons, but they always played at Churchlands Oval. T.C. Churchlands started in 1975 in D Grade and were a B Grade side in 1980 when they changed their name to Churchlands. They had dropped to F Grade when they became Churchlands CAE for the 1983 season and made another change to WACAE in 1984. This name was to stick until 1991, when the name Cowan University was adopted for the C Grade side. Following a one-year term as ECU Churchlands in 1998, the club’s last two seasons in 1999-2000 were played under the banner of the ECU Hawks.
Nice work Casual. What’s the book? West Coast Club History or part of a WAAFL History Book?
West Coast is certainly one of the better examples of how a merger can work.
A history of current grassroots football leagues and clubs. A follow up to a book that I currently have at the printer about the 2016 season around the state
If the histiory on mjmkk
Looks like it’s piara bulls next year, both teams passed the merger.
That is definitely the word out Maddington way which seems such a shame for a traditional Sunday League Club.
Also hearing that Maddo and PW have done a deal with the WAAFL that any new club formed by the merger will take the spot of wherever Maddo (and not PW) finish this year. So that would mean the new Piarra Bulls would be allowed to field teams in B grade next year if Maddo avoid relegation, or C1 if they don’t, instead of C3 which is where PW look like finishing this year.
I’m no expert but this looks like it’s against the WAAFL constitution and by-laws, so if it is true surely it raises the question of whether a sweet-heart deal has been done between one or two officials of Maddo and the WAAFL?
Which part of the constitution or by-laws are you referring to?
What is happening down at piara been looking at the scores and it has not been pretty has the merger affected the playing group people left not being happy ?? Can someone from piara shed some light on the matter ?
A lot injuries and workers doing fifo this year isn’t helping the case. Sharpshooter
Last couple of weeks some players have pulled up sick on game day and having to double up some Ressies. Last week against Dianella 1 was sick, 1 had a wedding on and forgot to tell the coach and others had last minute family issues. So had 3 odd double up, not really an excuse for playing the way we did but, can only deal with it on the day.
Ps: I play thirds so I wasn’t at the league game only heard about it after my game.
Vicko21
Clause 5 of the WAAFL constitution says that the league is only made up of clubs that have been admitted. The Association’s Act or whatever it is called will make the merger a new club and so as soon as the merger happens both Maddington and Piara Waters will cease to be members of the WAAFL.
The new club whether its Piara Bulls or Maddo Waters will then have to apply to be admitted to membership. By-Laws 6.1 and 6.2 cover that situation and at best the new club will be considered a probationary club and will have to do 2 years as a probationary club before being allowed to apply to be a full club.
By-Law 4 requires only the top 2 teams in C3 to get promoted and that would not allow an existing C3 club like PW to jump at least 4 grades as it breaches the relegation and promotion system.
Also the more recent probationary clubs have been put into either E grade or C4 so the new merger will be breaching this protocol as well.
That’s my take on it all but I suppose a smart alec lawyer from North Beach may be able to polish up my take on things or fill in some gaps.
It walks like a sweet-heart deal, it looks like a sweet-heart deal and it quacks like a sweet-heart deal so it’s a sweet-heart deal.
My guess is they don’t consider mergers as a (brand) new club as both are already full members and it is in the best interests of both clubs and the league to keep them in a higher grade and not in a lower grade where they will flog everyone.
Precedents that I have seen from football and cricket suggest that mergers are treated as existing clubs and that they usually end up playing in the higher grade.