Top 5: Best AFL Yarra Ranges/Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League teams since 2000
The Yarra Ranges and Yarra Valley Mountain District footy leagues may be no more, but some great teams took the field over the years. Dave Turner has had a crack at naming the best from the past 20 years. Did he get it right? Vote in our poll.
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When it joined forces with the South East Football Netball League to form the AFL Outer East in 2019, AFL Yarra Ranges — the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League to many — departed into the pages of history.
But before that amalgamation, there was some pretty good footy played in the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges.
Today we look at five of the very best teams of the last 20 years of the league.
5. WANDIN 2001-02: Bridesmaids no longer
The back-to-back Bulldogs ended one of the most frustrating droughts in local footy.
After its 1992 grand final win, Wandin got to the big dance seven-odd times and departed heartbroken every time.
Then Craig Gislingham took the helm. The Vermont legend had won 10 flags with the EFL powerhouse and knew a thing or two about September success.
With ex-Richmond/Melbourne man Andy Goodwin playing a big part, the Bulldogs won their way through to the 2001 season-decider against Upwey Tecoma.
But 20 points down at halftime, it looked like ‘bridesmaids again’.
Goodwin, however, played a massive second half and kicked the sealer in a 10-point win.
Aptly his beaming image, premiership medallion in hand, graced the front page of the Lilydale Leader and he said the club was just “sick and tired of losing grand finals. We have finally pulled one off and this means so much to the Wandin community”.
A year later, Gislingham’s Wandin did it again with a nine-point win over Woori Yallock.
Daniel King, Ben Eales, Brett Bayliss, Troy Mullen, Dave Crellin, Ian Iadema and Brad Foletta made for a pretty handy side.
4. MONBULK 2005-06: Hardworking Hawks fly high
Sandwiched in between flag wins by some star-studded Silvan outfits in 2004 and then 2007-08, Monbulk racked up a pair of gritty, blue-collar premiership wins.
The Hawks had recruited pretty well prior to the 2005 season and served notice that they meant business when they upset Silvan’s flag-unfurling party with a win over the champs in the opening round.
The Chris Hughson-coached Hawks went on to win the club’s first flag since the double of 1997-98 when they again overcame the Cats in a mud-spattered grand final likened to trench warfare, 5.13 (43) to 1.9 (15).
The following year, Monbulk again topped the ladder but suffered a hiccup when beaten by Upwey Tecoma in the second semi-final before gaining revenge over the Tigers with an 18.16 (124) to 10.12 (72) grand final win.
Always plenty of hardworking grunt in the midfield with Tim Wragg providing a handy target up forward, Monbulk’s Class of 2005-06 contained a number of club greats including coach Hughson, life member and B & F legend Vin Dunstan, Shannon Koole, Michel Hughson and Mark Mullinder.
3. WANDIN 2015: Clean sweep, 20 from 20
After topping the ladder but losing the grand final in 2014, following a preliminary final exit the year before, Wandin set about assembling a star-studded line-up that would make amends in 2015.
And, with canny coach Brett Fisher at the helm, it did just that by sweeping the home-and-away season 18-0 before beating Healesville twice in the finals to secure the flag.
The Bulldogs had attacking options to burn — Michael Fowkes (52 goals), Jimmy Messis (47), Scott Dwyer (42), Joel Coombes (38), Kire Talevski (38) and Jarrod Bayliss (22). Opposition defences could cover one, maybe two, even three on a good day, but there was always another ready to pop up with a goal when needed. Man mountain Robbie Ross dominated the ruck duels while Matt Polkinghorne provided constant drive in the midfield and Wandin’s defence was both miserly and an attacking springboard.
Despite starting the grand final as an unbackable favourite, Fisher said at the time: “Really, really relieved after the lead-up, a little bit of pressure being 19-0 and not meaning anything unless you get the 20th one”.
This was one the Bulldogs weren’t letting slip.
2. SILVAN 2007-08: Classy Cats’ savage claws
Silvan had finished a disappointing fifth in 2006 and set about gathering one of the most star-studded line-ups in league history.
Former Essendon players Aaron Henneman, Marc Bullen and Ben Haynes joined former Bombers clubmate Gary Moorcroft, who was already assistant coach at the club.
Cats star Chris Goodlet returned after a year off for a knee reco and there was a host of younger players thriving with the experienced heads around them.
Simon Rourke was at the helm as coach and the Cats finished minor premiers with Moorcroft kicking 119 goals and Bullen a century as well. Silvan then stumbled, with a second semi-final loss to Woori Yallock, but bounced back to beat the Tigers by 39 points in the grand final.
Rourke stepped away from footy at season’s end and Haynes took the reins as coach for 2008, with Moorcroft his assistant.
The Cats proved to be unstoppable, sweeping the season with Moorcroft kicking a staggering 164 goals.
While the Essendon quintet were important, Goodlet, Owen Weatherley and Brett Hartman were all outstanding footballers who were matchwinners on their day.
1. WOORI YALLOCK: 2012-14: Tenacious Tigers’ Triple
For sheer longevity, the Woori Yallock premiership hat trick, four in five years if you throw in 2010, is hard to top. Coached by Tigers legend Danny Ryan, Woori didn’t always start favourite but, like all great teams, found a way to win.
Ryan himself has few peers — premiership player, captain, coach; a league B & F medal; interleague rep and coach — and his Tigers of 2012-14 were pretty special.
A mix of veterans and young stars just starting their careers, Woori Yallock boasted players the calibre of Brendan Sneddon, Daniel Lewis, Nick Tennant, Ben and Zach Monkhorst, Jordy Williams, Mitch Bonuda, Marcus Baxter and Jake Matthews.
In 2012, Ryan took the coaching reins from Damian Monkhorst and guided the Tigers to a second-place finish. An injury-ravaged Woori was smashed by Gembrook Cockatoo to the tune of 115 points in the second semi-final but hit back to beat the Brookers by 39 points in the decider.
The following year, Woori scraped into fourth spot and had to get over Emerald, Belgrave and Wandin in successive weeks before beating Upwey Tecoma in the grand final.
“We’re the Steve Bradburys of footy up here,” Ryan joked at the time. “We waited for everyone to fall over then we came through.’’
In 2014, Woori Yallock again finished second, this time behind Wandin, before earning a week’s rest and then accounting for the Bulldogs in the decider.
Ryan announced his retirement at the end of the game and bowed out with particular pride in the fact that the flag had been won by a team with 18 of the 22 having played their junior footy at the club.
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