Alberton Football League - History

History

The Alberton Football League was formed in 1946, replacing the earlier Alberton Football Association, and comprised eight clubs—Carrajung, Devon, Foster, Ramblers, Toora, Welshpool, Woodside and Yarram. The name of the league is taken from the small town of Alberton, near Yarram.

The Ramblers Football Club survived just three years in the league before disbanding and Won Wron were accepted into the league for the 1949 season. Four years later, Carrajung followed suit which enabled Fish Creek to join the Alberton League in 1953.

In the early years, Woodside dominated the competition as the club won six consecutive premiership from 1947 to 1952. Fish Creek then produced the most outstanding era of success in the Alberton League as it claimed 11 premierships from 15 successive Grand Final appearances between 1953 and 1967. The recruitment of former VFL Collingwood player, Maurice 'Mocca' Dunstan helped the club attain a standard of professionalism that was second to none for a sustained period.

Much focus throughout the late 1950s and 1960s centred around the future of football in the region, with many suggesting that the South Gippsland Football League and the Alberton Football League merge to generate a more powerful football league across South Gippsland for better growth in the sport. However, the AFL continued to function through many debates and became progressively stronger by the 1970s.

In 1969, the Meeniyan-Dumbalk United and Stony Creek Football Clubs joined the Alberton League after the SGFL eventually disbanded as Welshpool won a treble of premierships from 1969 to 1971. Welshpool also became the first club in the AFL to produced an undefeated season with its flag in 1970.

By the late 1970s, Yarram were looking to join the Latrobe Valley Football League but remained with the AFL and by the end of the 1981 season the league was reduced to nine clubs when Won Wron and Woodside merged to form the Won Wron-Woodside Football Club.

The inclusion of Tarwin in 1988 returned the number of clubs to ten but by 1995, Welshpool had amalgamated with Devon.

In 1996, Dalyston, Wonthaggi Rovers, Inverloch, Korumburra and Bena joined the Alberton FL, after the Bass Valley Wonthaggi FL had been disbanded as part of a restructuring of local football by the Victorian Country Football League. The "final five" system was first utilized with the inclusion of the new clubs.

Devon-Welshpool and Won Wron-Woodside created the Allies when they merged in 1997 and then Bena and Korumburra joined forces to become Korumburra-Bena in 2001.

In 2005 the Phillip Island and Kilcunda-Bass football clubs moved from the defunct West Gippsland Football League to the Alberton Football League, the Wonthaggi Rovers amalgamated with Wonthaggi Blues, who were leaving the West Gippsland Latrobe Football League, to form the Wonthaggi Power and the final six was introduced.

The 2008 season saw a large contingent from the Devon-Welshpool-Won Wron-Woodside Football Club leave to create a new club, the Woodside and District Wildcats, in the North Gippsland Football League. 2008 also saw controversy as Yarram boycotted a match against Wonthaggi Power. The clubs met in both that year's grand final and the previous year's, with Yarram premiers in 2007 and Wonthaggi in 2008.

The 2010 season saw Wonthaggi Power ejected from the Alberton Football League and submitted into the higher level Gippsland Football League. With their departure the Alberton Football League shrunk to a thirteen team league with rounds consisting of six matches with one team per round having a bye. The 2010 Alberton Football League fixture was designed so that each of the thirteen teams all received two byes each during the Season. The fixture also increased from eighteen home and away rounds in 2009 to twenty in 2010, with the exclusion of the mid year break that has occurred in seasons preceding the 2010 season.

Alberton Football League matches are officiated by umpires from the South Gippsland Umpires Association.