By Adrian Ceddia
THE Western Region Football League (WRFL) toasted its 75th birthday in style with a cocktail party last week.
Special guests at the function included league life members, past and president club presidents and supporters, who met to relive memories and share stories of the last three-quarters of a century of football in the western suburbs.
The event featured a unique DVD presentation of WRFL history, detailing its origins, the highlights of the past 75 years and the events and people who have made the league what it is today.
The WRFL began in 1931 under the Footscray District banner and has grown into one of the most competitive league in the state.
“It must have been an exciting time and yet nerve-racking time to be part of something that was brand new and not knowing whether or not it would last,” WRFL president Ian Hamm said.
“But last it has,to become one of the strongest and proudest institutions not only of the West, but of the city of Melbourne and indeed Victoria.”
Mr Hamm spoke of the important influence of players, umpires and club members over so many years, and emphasised the league’s greatest strength was its local community.
“The real value of the institution that is the WRFL is not the football played,” he said. “(It) is the community of people that come together to make it up. We should consider how many of us in this league have been brought together by our common love of football.”
For all the weekend’s WRFL action, see Sport.
