Founded in 1900 after disbanding the successful but debt-burdened Fremantle Football Club (not related to the AFL Dockers entity), the club enjoyed its most successful era in the immediate decade following the end of the Second World War, winning six premierships, including a hat-trick from 1952 to 1954.
South Fremantle has a long-standing rivalry with cross-town WAFL club East Fremantle, a fixture commonly referred to as the Fremantle Derby. The club has played at its home ground, Fremantle Oval, from inception and were co-tenants with East Fremantle until 1952, when the Sharks moved to East Fremantle Oval. From the beginning, Souths adopted the club colours red and white, first adding the iconic front vee to its playing jumper in 1928.[1]
For a club with a history of over 120 years, South Fremantle does not yet boast a footballer who has played 300 or more senior League games in the red and white guernsey. The club is also recognised for its significant contribution of players who hail from Indigenous Australian, Italian and Croatian heritage.
History
The Fremantle Football Club (originally known as Unions and unrelated to either an earlier club and the current AFL club of the same name) had won ten premierships in the fourteen years that they were in the WA Football Association (now known as the West Australian Football League). By 1899, however, the club suffered from financial problems that caused the club to disband. The South Fremantle Football Club was formed to take their place following an application to the league by Griff John, who would be appointed secretary of the new club, with Tom O'Beirne the inaugural president. Most players, however, were from the defunct Fremantle club.[2][3]
The new club did well in its first year, finishing runners-up.[4] However, over the next three seasons the performance fell away badly and, in April 1904 a Fremantle newspaper confidently reported that South Fremantle would not appear again. However, the club decided to carry on and centreman Harry Hodge took over as skipper, but the season was a disaster. The club won only one game.[5]
South Fremantle in 1905
They won their first premiership in 1916 and went back-to-back in 1917, both times defeating their local rivals, East Fremantle in the final and challenge final.[6] The 1930s were not as successful, marred by the death of the 23-year-old captain-coach Ron Doig as a result of injuries sustained in a match.[7] After World War II, South experienced their greatest era, with the arrival of future Hall of Fame members Steve Marsh, Bernie Naylor, John Todd and Clive Lewington.[8] Between 1945 and 1956 they would win six premierships, be runners-up three times and make the finals in every season. Since then, however, they have won six more premierships, in 1970, 1980, 1997, 2005, 2009 and 2020.[9]
South Fremantle was the first WAFL club to have won 10 grand finals since World War II. Four of their 14 premierships were won against the club's traditional rivals, East Fremantle. The club completed a rare double in 2009, claiming both the league and reserves premierships. This was the first time the club had taken the Premiership double since 1954.
In 2020 the club received a license to field a team in the WAFL Women's league.[10]
On the 14th of March 2023, the club was fined $25,000, deducted 8 premiership points for season 2023, received a deduction amount to their TPP of $10,525 for 2023 as well as a reduction of 10 player points for 2023.
Fremantle Derby
The Fremantle Derby, is traditionally one of the biggest game of the year on the WAFL calendar. The derbies still have a great following but have decreased in importance compared to the Western Derby, the match between WA's two AFL teams.
The Foundation Day derby on the first Monday in June (a public holiday to mark the Foundation of Western Australia in 1829) is commonly the highest attended game of the home and away season. To the end of the 2023 season the two clubs had met 389 times with South Fremantle winning 186 to East Fremantle's 199 wins, 4 Draws have occurred between the two sides.
The club
Club guernsey & colours
South Fremantle's Guernsey (shown right) used for all WAFL matches is all white with a red V in the centre of the guernsey. During the 1990s they also introduced the reverse of the traditional guernsey with a white V on a red jumper. The South Fremantle colours of red & white stem from the first Fremantle based team who wore red and white in the mid-1880s.
Supporters
South hold three notable WAFL Grand Final attendance records, 1979 v East Fremantle, 52,781, the highest ever attendance at a WAFL Grand Final, 1975 v West Perth, 52,322, the second highest ever Grand Final attendance and 1989 v Claremont, 38,198, the highest ever Grand Final attendance in the post AFL period.[11]
Club song
"We're the Bulldogs" is the theme song of the South Fremantle Football Club which is sung to the tune of "With a Little Bit of Luck", played as the league team comes to the field at home and away games, and after a victory.
We are the mighty Bulldogs
Always fighting on
With victory and flag our goal
With guts and determination
We put the rest to shame
Because our fighting spirit wins the game.
We're the Bulldogs (yes we are)
And we're the greatest (yes we are)
The mighty red 'V' which stands for victory
The rough tough Bulldogs (yes we are)
South Fremantle (yes we are)
The Southerners for ever more
Down by the Port of Fremantle
We hit them really hard
With true grit and courage we win
So come on Souths let's show them
How to play the game to win
South Fremantle for ever more
We're the Bulldogs (yes we are)
And we're the greatest (yes we are)
The mighty red 'V' which stands for victory
The rough tough Bulldogs (yes we are)
South Fremantle (yes we are)
The Southerners for ever more.
Honours
John Dimmer (coach) and David Gault (captain) celebrate after winning the 2005 WAFL Premiership.
With the exception of Hassa Mann, each of the South Fremantle players in the Australian Football Hall of Fame is also an inductee in the West Australian Football Hall of Fame, with Marsh, Todd and Michael awarded legends status.[15]
The South Fremantle Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 2011 with an initial induction of 45 players, coaches, administrators and staff from the club's inception in 1900 to 1979.
The second induction occurred in 2015, mainly covering the years up to and including 1987 (the year West Coast entered the VFL), and eight of the existing members from the inaugural intake were elevated to legend status.[16][17]
The third intake occurred on 14 August 2021, with a further eight members inducted and two existing members elevated to Legend status.[18]
There are currently 88 members in the club Hall of Fame. The current ten club legends, in alphabetical order by surname, are:
During NAIDOC Week in 2009, South Fremantle celebrated their long and extensive link to Indigenous Australians by naming an Indigenous Team of the century from the 78 Indigenous players that had played for them since Jimmy Melbourne first played in 1902. Selected by former club captain and chief executive Brian Ciccotosto, premiership coach Mal Brown and journalist Ray Wilson.[19] Four of the players selected, Stephen Michael, Maurice Rioli, Nicky Winmar and Peter Matera, were also selected in the Australia-wide Indigenous Team of the Century.[20]
Since the expansion of the Victorian Football League to become the national elite league in the late 1980s, numerous players from South Fremantle have represented various teams, especially the two Western Australia-based teams, West Coast and Fremantle. The list below is a summary of South Fremantle players who have achieved the highest individual honours while playing for a VFL/AFL club.
↑ Christian, Geoff; Lee, Jack; Messenger, Bob (1985). Jordan, Ray (ed.). The Footballers: A history of football in Western Australia. St George Books. p.15.
↑ "FOOTBALL". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 28 May 1900. p.7. Retrieved 16 March 2011. The South Fremantle club, which has risen out of the ashes of the once redoubtable, but now defunct, Fremantle Club, possesses practically the same combination of players who wore the red and white colours last year. The name is changed but that is all
The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from April to September, with the top five teams playing off in a finals series, culminating in a Grand Final. The league also runs reserves, colts (under-19) and women's competitions.
The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks and colloquially referred to as East Freo, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is East Fremantle Oval. East Fremantle is the most successful club in WAFL history, winning 30 premierships since their entry into the competition in 1898. East Fremantle's last premiership was in 2023, when they defeated Peel Thunder.
The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The club was formed in 1933, and joined the then-Western Australian National Football League (WANFL) in 1934, acting as a successor to the Midland Junction Football Club, which had disbanded during World War I, in the Perth Hills region.
The West Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is an Australian rules football club located in Joondalup, Western Australia. West Perth competes in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW) and is the oldest existing Australian rules football club in Western Australia. Originally located at Leederville Oval, the team was relocated in 1994 to Arena Joondalup, a sports complex in the northern suburbs of Perth. The team's club song is "It's a Grand Old Flag" and its traditional rivals are East Perth.
Glen Darren Jakovich is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Peter Matera is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is regarded as one of the greatest West Australians and indigenous players being a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and Indigenous Team of the Century as well as being 5 time All-Australian and 2 time premiership player.
John Herbert Todd was an Australian rules footballer who played for the South Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL). He also coached with success at East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Swan Districts, West Coast, and Western Australia. The only coach that comes close to John Todd in games coached is Jock McHale, who coached Collingwood. Mick Malthouse later broke McHale’s coaching record for games coached, but McHale still has won the most VFL/AFL premierships (8). Malthouse won 3 Premierships. A State Memorial service was held on 21 August 2024 for John Todd.
The Fremantle Football Hall of Legends was inaugurated by the Fremantle Football Club in 1995, in recognition of the new Australian Football League team's links with its home city's football heritage. The inductees are nominated by the two clubs from the Fremantle area in the West Australian Football League: East Fremantle and South Fremantle. In time, players who represented Fremantle in the AFL will join their predecessors in this prestigious Hall.
Stephen Albert Michael is a former Australian rules footballer. More recently, Stephen is the patron of the Stephen Michael Foundation, supporting disengaged, at-risk and disadvantaged youth across Western Australia.
Australian rules football is the most popular sport in Western Australia (WA). There are 29 regional club competitions, the highest profile of which is the semi-professional West Australian Football League. It is governed by the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC). With more than 95,000 registered adult players, it has the second largest of any jurisdiction, accounting for almost a fifth of players nationally and growing faster than any other state.
Maurice Joseph Rioli Sr. was an Australian rules footballer who represented St Mary's Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and Richmond in the Victorian Football League.
Stephen William Marsh was an Australian rules footballer who represented South Fremantle and East Fremantle in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL) during the 1940s and 1950s.
Walter John Matera is a former Australian rules footballer. He played with the West Coast Eagles and Fitzroy in the AFL and for South Fremantle in the WAFL.
Jonathan Michael Dorotich is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and for the South Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).
Bernard George Andrew Naylor was an Australian rules footballer who was one of the most successful full-forwards in the history of the West Australian Football League. The WAFL now awards the leading goalscorer each year the Bernie Naylor Medal.
The Bernie Naylor Medal is an Australian rules football award which is given to the leading goalkicker at the end of each home and away season in the West Australian Football League. It is named after South Fremantle full-forward Bernie Naylor. Before the Bernie Naylor Medal was first awarded in 1996, there was no physical award given to the competition's leading goalkicker, although there had been proposals for such a trophy to be instituted.
John Gerovich is a former Australian rules footballer who played with South Fremantle in the Western Australian National Football League during the 1950s and 1960s.
Warren Campbell is a former Australian rules footballer for North Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL), South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and St Mary's in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL).
The 1997 Westar Rules Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the South Fremantle Football Club and the East Fremantle Football Club, on 21 September 1997 at Subiaco Oval, to determine the premier team of the Westar Rules for the 1997 season. South Fremantle won the game by 6 points, 13.7 (85) to 11.13 (79), with David Hynes of South Fremantle winning the Simpson Medal as best on ground.
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