Founded 1992 No. of teams 8 | President Barry Butterworth | |
Sport Australian rules football Most recent
champion(s) Baldivis (League)
Waroona (Reserves)
South Mandurah (Colts) | ||
The Peel Football League (PFL) is a country football league based in the Peel region of Western Australia. The competition was formed in 1992 when teams from the Metropolitan Football League and Murray Districts Football League merged. There are currently eight league and reserves teams and nine colts teams.
Contents
The formation years
The Metropolitan Football League (MFL) was a predecessor to the PFL and competed from 1988 to 1991 under the administration of the Sunday Football League. The six founding MFL teams in 1988 were Kwinana, Manning, Midland, Mosman Park, North Fremantle and Cockburn. In 1989, the MFL grew from 6 teams to 8 teams with the inclusion of Mundijong Centrals and Pinjarra. These two teams were previously competing in the Murray Districts Football League (along with Harvey Town, South Mandurah and Waroona).
The MFL gained another two teams in 1990, with the admission of South Mandurah and Waroona, who were forced to join the league when the Murray Districts Football League disbanded at the end of the 1989 season. Cockburn also did not compete in 1990, but re-entered for the final year of the MFL in 1991.
In 1992, the ten MFL teams broke ties with the Sunday Football League and combined with Mandurah (from the Sunday Football League) and Belmont to form the new Peel Football League (PFL). In 1994, Midland, Mosman Park, Manning, North Fremantle, Cockburn and Belmont left the PFL to form Division 2 of the Sunday Football League (along with a new club from Kingsley). However, the loss of these six teams was offset by the admission of Rockingham (from the WA Amateur Football League) and a new team from Harvey.
Note: The information above was sourced from Sunday Football League Yearbooks and Westside Football Newspapers.
Merger rumours and the loss of the Bulls
The end of 2008 saw the end of neighbouring competition the Sunday Football League. This fuelled rumours that 4 of their clubs would be joining the competition in 2009. There were many mixed reactions throughout the competition, with majority of the people and clubs involved, against the idea. Even though clubs rejected the offer, rumours fuelled that the WAFC were going to over rule the clubs and input the new clubs in by themselves. The Harvey Bulls reacted immediately. With playing numbers already at a dangerous low, and coming off a poor season, the input of the four clubs would increase travel time and therefore playing interest would tumble further. So in an effort to increase interest in the club, it held a meeting within the community to decide on their future. There were two options decided to vote upon. Move to the South West Football League or fold. In an overwhelming decision it was voted to create a submission to become the tenth team in the SWFL.
While all this was happening the PFL decided to try to fight of the merger. All clubs voted against it, but it was up to the WAFC to decide on their fate. Meanwhile, the SWFL decided to look into the Bulls submission. The Bulls had a meeting with the SWFL board and both parties came out of the meeting happy, and it was now up to the other clubs in the SWFL to vote upon the Bulls in a months time. The bulls needed to get 7 or more votes out of 9 to enter the competition.
The SWFL voted late December on 2008. 8 of the clubs voted in favour of the Bulls with the only club against it was neighbouring and now rival team Harvey-Brunswick-Lecshanault Lions. In their 15 years in the PFL the Bulls played in 6 Grand Finals, winning 3 premierships, and played in 12 finals series.
Later it was decided that the SFL teams were better suited to enter in the amateur Perth competition. However Armadale were nevertheless admitted to the PFL to replace the Bulls.
Grand final results
LEAGUE
1992 Mundijong Centrals 17.12.114 d Mandurah 10.9.69
1993 Mandurah 9.11.65 d Pinjarra 8.7.55
1994 Pinjarra 16.9.105 d Mandurah 8.6.54
1995 Mandurah 19.22.136 d Harvey 18.14.122
1996 Harvey 9.9.63 d Rockingham 8.12.60
1997 Rockingham 14.17.101 d Pinjarra 7.5.47
1998 South Mandurah 16.6.102 d Mundijong Centrals 12.15.87
1999 Mundijong Centrals 13.10.88 d Harvey 8.8.56
2000 Mundijong Centrals 14.10.94 d Harvey 10.6.66
2001 Pinjarra 14.11.95 d Mundijong Centrals 7.7.49
2002 Pinjarra 9.9.63 d Mandurah 6.13.49
2003 Mandurah 11.8.74 d Pinjarra 9.9.63
2004 Harvey 14.10.94 d Pinjarra 9.5.59
2005 Harvey 16.17.113 d Rockingham 3.15.33
2006 South Mandurah 15.14.104 d Waroona 9.7.61
2007 Mundijong Centrals 13.7.85 d South Mandurah 8.8.56
2008 South Mandurah 26.16.172 d Mundijong Centrals 5.5.35
2009 Waroona d South Mandurah
2010 Waroona 20.18.138 d Mandurah 7.2.44
2011 Waroona 16.7.103 d Rockingham 8.7.55
2012 Waroona 8.7.55 d Rockingham 7.9.51
2013 Pinjarra 15.14.104 d Waroona 12.7.79
2014 Pinjarra 14.7. 91 d Mundijong Centrals 12.13. 85
2015 South Mandurah 13.6. 84 d Waroona 10.5. 65
2016 Baldivis 10.7. 67 d Waroona 9.8. 62
Premierships
LEAGUE
RESERVES
COLTS
Honour board
LEAGUE
AFL players who originally come from PFL clubs
- Paul Bower (South Mandurah)- Carlton
- Daniel Haines (South Mandurah)- Fremantle
- Matt Riggio (Waroona) - North Melbourne
- Daniel Wells (Kwinana) - North Melbourne
- Hayden Ballantyne (Baldivis) - Fremantle
- Farren Ray (Mandurah) - Western Bulldogs/ St Kilda
- Brock O'Brien (Pinjarra) - Fremantle
- Nathan Wilson (Mandurah) - GWS Giants
- Brad Walsh (Rockingham) - Carlton
- Harley Bennell (Pinjarra) - Gold Coast/ Fremantle
- Ben Newton (Baldivis) - Port Adelaide/Melbourne
- Josh Schoenfeld (Rockingham) - Gold Coast
- Bradley Lynch (Mandurah) - Western Bulldogs