{"id":894368,"date":"2026-09-16T18:18:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/894368\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T18:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:18:33","slug":"wanneroo-amateur-football-club-celebrate-redemption-season-after-last-years-relegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/894368\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanneroo Amateur Football Club celebrate redemption season after last year\u2019s relegation"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a disappointing 2025 season had Wanneroo Amateur Football Club relegated down a grade, it would have been easy for the players to drop their heads \u2014 instead, four teams fought their way to a grand final.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday four of the club\u2019s eight teams played not only for a premiership, but the chance to return to B-grade.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s C1 league team and Ian Dargie colts team took home their respective flags, while the C1 reserves and E1 thirds teams finished runners-up.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe Roos\u2019 league team won the C1 grand final to return to B-grade. Credit: Ann Lord Photography<\/p>\n

Club president Craig Sadler said he felt \u201cvery proud\u201d to watch the club bounce back so strongly and reclaim its spot in B-grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fantastic. We\u2019ve got eight teams overall, but having four teams make the grand finals, it was a fantastic vibe around the club building up to the weekend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was mixed emotions with two wins and two losses, but I think the vibe back at the club on Saturday was great and hopefully that will transition through to next year as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe Roos\u2019 C1 league team after winning the grand final against Wembley on Saturday. Credit: Ann Lord Photography Ann Lord<\/p>\n

All four finalist teams finished the year as minor premiers, with the league, reserves and colts blazing through undefeated.<\/p>\n

The Roos\u2019 redemption season came after the league team was demoted from B-grade at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was certainly a year for us to have to rebuild and reset across the whole club, so we did that pretty well. I think we certainly set ourselves a task that making grand finals was great, but from a club perspective overall, the aim was to get back into B-grade,\u201d Mr Sadler said.<\/p>\n

Past-colt player Daniel \u201cDJ\u201d Acres took the wheel as the new head coach and the club set about shifting the tone and rebuilding for 2026, starting with pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur awards were in October 2025, and pre-season started in November 2025. Pre-season was really a case of \u2018hey boys, I\u2019m just gonna be down at this oval going for a run, kicking the footy around if anyone wants to join in\u2019. It wasn\u2019t mandatory, but I think we had 46 players turn up for the first night of unofficial pre-season,\u201d Mr Sadler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think then we got a vibe that it was going to be a good year for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe Wanneroo Amateur Football Club C1 men’s league team grand final victory will have the club return to B-grade next season. Credit: Ann Lord Photography Ann Lord<\/p>\n

Alongside Acres joining as coach, the club also had several players return to strengthen the club\u2019s numbers, bringing them to more than 250 members.<\/p>\n

The C1 premiership team consisted almost entirely of long-time players who went through the Roos\u2019 colts team, showcasing how club loyalty makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019d set themselves some team goals and it didn\u2019t really matter whether you were playing reserves or thirds or in our fourth side or in the league team, it was just one group that had an ambition to want to succeed this year,\u201d Mr Sadler said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of their return to B grade next year, the club doesn\u2019t plan to simply be \u201cpart of the pack\u201d, hoping to turn their momentum into another finals run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know DJ had a bit of a three-year plan, he wanted to get out of C-grade, then from B-grade into A-grade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do that, you\u2019ve got to make a grand final in B-grade, so it\u2019s good to have an ambition for where you want to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a disappointing 2025 season had Wanneroo Amateur Football Club relegated down a grade, it would have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[638,64,63,14660,596,588,85],"class_list":["post-894368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community-news","tag-football","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}