Western Region Football League
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| Formerly | Footscray District Football League |
|---|---|
| Sport | Australian rules football |
| Founded | 1931 |
| No. of teams | 25 |
| Country | Australia |
| Most recent champion(s) |
|
| Most titles | Spotswood (15) |
| Official website | wrfl.org.au |
The Western Region Football League is an Australian rules football semi-professional league, based in the western suburbs of Melbourne, for both seniors and juniors.
The league was formed in 1931, as the "Footscray District Football League".
During the fifties, the VFL club Footscray was financially backing the competition, so they decided to bar clubs that were inside the Essendon zone. This resulted in six clubs leaving. More changes 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 suspended Brunswick Power after the club was found guilty of playing unregistered players. Central Altona had a variety of on-field violence and abuse issues, and 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.
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