The Wimmera Football League is a major Australian rules country league based in Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns in the Wimmera region: the regional centres along the Western Highway from Ararat to Nhill as well as Minyip-Murtoa and Warracknabeal.
History Australian Rules Football appears to of commenced in the Wimmera region in the early 1870s and a combined Wimmera team played a match against Carlton on the East Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of a couple of thousand people in June 1879.
A Wimmera Football Association was first formed in 1902, with teams from Ararat, Horsham and Stawell as the founding clubs.
When Ararat won the 1912 premiership, the winning team was presented with 20 combination sets of a jam spoon, bread fork and a butter knife.
Collingwood (11.10 - 76) defeated Wimmera DFA (8.13 - 61) at Stawell in August 1913.
The 1915 season commenced, but was abandoned in July due to player shortages from enlistments into the Australian Armed Forces.
In 1920 the Wimmera District Football League was reformed and played for the May Cup. The four clubs involved in 1920 were Ararat, Horsham, Murtoa, Stawell. Dimboola joined in 1923 and Nhill in 1925; Ararat spent six years in the Ballarat Football League from 1924 to 1929.
Many Wimmera FL club's actively sought the services of VFL players in the 1920s, who were offered more money in country football than what they were earning from their VFL clubs, such as Roy Cazaly who was captain-coach of Minyip in 1925.
In 1926, the Victorian Football League played the Wimmera Football League at Horsham, with the VFL side defeating Wimmera by three points in heavy conditions.
The Wimmera FL defeated the Gippsland FL in 1928 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, led by captain-coach, Artie Wood.
In August 1929, Perth defeated the Wimmera FL in a match at Stawell.
In 1930, the Wimmera FL defeated Essendon in heavy conditions at Ararat with many former VFL players representing the Wimmera FL in the 1930s.
In June 1930, the Wimmera FL (19.17 - 131) defeated the Western District FA (19.10 - 124) at Hamilton, with Dimboola's Jimmy Lawson kicking ten goals.
In 1932, during the height of the Great Depression, the small town clubs were suffering from financial pressures, and tried to get the league to change the way the gate taking were distributed to the clubs. The larger town clubs, knowing that they would be disadvantaged, blocked the motion. Subsequently, Nhill and Dimboola both went into recess while Minyip and Murtoa replaced their junior sides in the Dunmunkle FL.
In 1931, Stawell's Horrie Hunt kicked 105 goals for the season.
The WDFL approached the Ballarat Football League to merge hoping that greater interest and better football would cause larger gate takings, so in January 1934 the Wimmera FL and the Ballarat FL merged to form the Ballarat Wimmera FL. After three years, in which the Wimmera clubs faced with greater costs and were constantly losing on the field, feelers were put out to the smaller clubs, now playing in the Mid Wimmera FL. A peace deal was settled in September 1936 and the Wimmera Football League was reformed in February 1937 at the Annual General Meeting with Mr. P J Toohey elected as president and a nine team competition was formed.
The Wimmera FL went into recess between 1941 and 1943 due to World War Two, but football in the Wimmera was revived in 1944 with a competition that involved six teams.
In 1945, Dimboola and Warracknabeal joined the Wimmera Football Association, which formed a six team competition.
In 1946 Rupanyup Football Club joined the Wimmera FL and that made it a ten team competition.
John Ledwidge was captain-coach of the Bendigo Football League representative team that won the 1962 VCFL Caltex Country Football Championships by defeating the Wimmera Football League at Horsham.
As a ten team competition the league remain stable until Rupanyip decided the level of football was too hard for them and they opted to drop to the local district competition in 1981. The numbers returned to ten when local district club Imperials-Wonwondah joined in 1983. After fifty fruitless years Jeparit Football Club decided to try their luck in the South Mallee FL from 1990.
St Michaels from the district competition joined in 1993. Founding clubs Minyip and Murtoa decided to merge in 1995.
2000 saw local Horsham clubs change their names, St Michaels became Horsham Saints and Imperials-Wonwondah became the Horsham Diggers.
Horsham Diggers later merged with Natimuk FNC under the banner Natimuk United at the start of 2014; following an exodus of players in the 2008 pre-season, the Diggers had struggled on and off-field, and had won three matches in the previous four seasons. The merged club plays home games at Natimuk and City Oval.
Southern Mallee transferred from the Horsham District Football League in 2018 after dominating the competition.
Following the 2023 season Southern Mallee merged with Jeparit Rainbow from the Horsham District Football League to form the Southern Mallee Thunder.
Club Locations
Current Clubs
ClubColoursNicknameHome groundFormer LeagueEst.Years in WFNLWFNL Senior Premierships Total Years Ararat RatsAlexandra Oval, AraratBFL1871 1937– 14 1949, 1951, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1971, 1975, 1986, 1999, 2001, 2023, 2024, 2025 Dimboola RoosDimboola Recreation Reserve, DimboolaMWFL1880s 1937– 5 1937, 1946, 1959, 1985, 2013 Horsham DemonsHorsham City Oval, HorshamBFL1876 1937– 26 1938, 1960, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1989, 1990, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018 Horsham Saints SaintsCoughlin Park, HorshamHDFNL 1993– 2 2015, 2016 Minyip-Murtoa BurrasMinyip Recreation Reserve, Minyip and Murtoa Recreation Reserve, Murtoa–1994 1995– 5 1996, 1997, 1998, 2019, 2022 Nhill TigersDavis Park, NhillMWFL1880s 1937– 5 1964, 1965, 1969, 1981, 2026 Southern Mallee ThunderBeulah Memorial Park, Beulah; Hopetoun Recreation Reserve, Hopetoun; Sir Robert Menzies Park; Jeparit, Rainbow Recreation Reserve, Rainbow–2023 2024– 0 - Stawell Central Reserve, StawellBFL1874 1937– 8 1939, 1940, 1948, 1950, 1978, 1987, 1995, 2000 Warrack Eagles EaglesAnzac Park, Warracknabeal and Brim Recreation Reserve, Brim–2000 2001– 1 2002
Former clubs ClubColoursNicknameHome groundFormer LeagueEst.Years in WFNLWFNL Senior PremiershipsFate Total Years Horsham Diggers DiggersHorsham City Oval, HorshamHDFNL1976 1983–2013 1 1988Merged with Natimuk to form Natimuk United in Horsham & District FL in 2014 Jeparit RedbacksSir Robert Menzies Park, JeparitMWFL1899 1937–1989 0 -Moved to Southern Mallee FL in 1990MinyipBluesMinyip Recreation Reserve, MinyipMWFL18751937-199461952, 1954, 1984, 1991, 1992, 1993Merged with Murtoa to form Minyip-Murtoa in 1995MurtoaMagpiesMurtoa Recreation Reserve, MurtoaMWFL1880s1937-199411980Merged with Minyip to form Minyip-Murtoa in 1995 Rupanyup PanthersRupanyup Recreation Reserve, RupanyupCWFL1880s 1946–1980 3 1961, 1963, 1973Moved to Horsham & District FL in 1981Southern Mallee GiantsGiantsBeulah Memorial Park, Beulah and Hopetoun Recreation Reserve, HopetounHDFNL20152018-20230 -Merged with Jeparit-Rainbow to form Southern Mallee Thunder after 2023 seasonWarracknabealLionsAnzac Park, WarracknabealBFL1870's1937-200051947, 1953, 1966, 1977, 1994Merged with Brim to form Warrack Eagles following 2000 season
Senior Football Grand Finals The best on ground award in the Wimmera FNL senior football grand final receives the Greg Binns Memorial Award, which was first awarded in 1990. Greg passed away in 1987 from a rare blood disease, aged 27 years old. Greg and the Binns family have had a very long association with football in the Wimmera and the Binns family were associated with the Jeparit FNC.