History
Formed in 1878, Geelong West began in the Geelong & District Football Association. The club with their red jumper and white GWFC was not to be confused with the Geelong West Cricket & Football Club who wore a blue and white jumper. The Roosters and were a consistently strong club winning 25 premierships before joining the Ballarat Football League in 1946.
Premiership success followed with the club winning four premierships in a row from 1956 to 1959.
The VFA was looking to expand its association and approached Geelong West. The club had to change its jumper as it clashed with the Preston Bullants, so reversed its colours to a white jumper with a red GWFC monogram. In 1963 the club was admitted into division two of the VFA. In their inaugural season they only missed out on the finals by percentage but took out the premiership the following year, thus earning promotion to the first division.
Geelong West only spent one season at the top league before being demoted again but in 1968, after losing the previous two Grand Finals, they won their second division two premiership.
Once again, the club weren't good enough to last in the first division but things changed in the 1970s, beginning with their third premiership in 1972. On this occasion they deserved to be competing amongst the best teams and in 1975, under the coaching of Bill Goggin, Geelong West claimed a surprise first division premiership by defeating Dandenong in the VFA Grand Final.
By the time the 1980s came around the football club had ran up a large financial debt that it struggled to manage. Lack of support from the local community and a shortage of quality players willing to travel to Melbourne every second week led to the club withdrawing from the VFA after the 1988 season.
They now compete in the Geelong Football League, under the name Geelong West St Peters.
Read more about this topic: Geelong West Football Club
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