Glenunga Rams going for three Adelaide Footy League premierships in-a-row
Glenunga Football Club has gone from battling in the depths of the Adelaide Footy League to shooting for a third-straight flag and will attempt to join a very exclusive club this Saturday.
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History beckons this Saturday for the Glenunga Football Club – a team which is the architect of one of local football’s most remarkable rises.
Following back-to-back flags the past two seasons, the Rams are charging towards a three-peat of premierships when they take on Old Ignatians in the Adelaide Footy League division three grand final.
But if you walked into the Rams’ Webb Oval base just four years ago, the notion of winning a premiership at all may well have been laughed off.
Midway through the 2016 season Glenunga had a 3-7 record and was staring down the barrel of potential relegation to division six.
A drastic rejuvenation has pushed the club to almost unprecedented success, with a fifth tier flag in 2017 and a division four premiership last year.
Key to the Rams’ chances of a three-peat this Saturday is a trio of brothers – James, Sam and Nick Wundke.
This season is the first time the three have played together.
Ruckman James, 29, and centre-half forward Nick, 22, were part of the back-to-back flags and were joined at Glenunga by defender Sam this season, after he left SANFL club North Adelaide.
James says it has been special to be involved in the revolution at the Rams.
“To build a club from the bottom up, so to speak, has been great to be a part of,” says James, who played league football at the Roosters and Sturt.
“We have a policy of bringing in good people first ... surrounding ourselves with people wanting to continually be better.”
Nick says a premiership win on Saturday would trump the previous two with all three brothers involved.
The fourth and oldest Wundke, Michael, is a three-time Ken Farmer Medallist as the leading goal kicker in the SANFL but is currently playing country footy for Kaniva Leeor United.
As for Michael joining the Rams next year to complete the quartet of Wundkes, Sam, 24, says “you never know – watch this space”.
If Glenunga is to win a third successive flag, it will join an exclusive club.
Pulteney was the last team to achieve the feat when it took out back-to-back-to-back flags in 1998 (A7), 1999 (A6) and 2000 (A5).
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But it has not all been smooth sailing for Glenunga.
Former coach Brian Leys – who led the club in the 2017 and 2018 triumphs – and the Rams cut ties just weeks after last years premiership.
He was replaced by Norwood premiership rover and Jack Oatey Medallist John Cunningham.
“What I saw early on was this was a group that had a lot of ability, but was also very motivated,” Cunningham says.
“They are in that good age bracket and have the energy to push up into higher divisions.”
No matter the result on Saturday, the Rams will be promoted to the league’s second tier next season.
Glenunga last played in division two in 1982, when it finished bottom and winless.
It fell to as low as division seven in 2010.
patrick.keam@news.com.au