The Peel Thunder Football Club is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club playing in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) 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 March to September, ...

(WAFL) and

WAFL Women's WAFL Women's (WAFLW) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFLW is the premier women's football competition in Western Australia, and from 2023 is contested by eight teams owned and operated by clubs in ...

(WAFLW). The team is based in

Mandurah, Western Australia Mandurah () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 107,641 as of the 2021 census. Mandurah's ...

, with their home ground being

Rushton Park Rushton Park (also known as Lane Group Stadium under ground sponsorship arrangements) is an Australian rules football ground located in Mandurah, Western Australia. Having been in use as a football ground since the early 1960s, the ground is c ...

. The club joined the WAFL as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

in 1997. Since 2014 Peel have been in a formal

alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Structu ...

with the

Fremantle Dockers The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of Fr ...

of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

, an arrangement which sees Fremantle's reserve players play for Peel.

History

Peel Thunder Football Club was formed in 1996 after the

West Australian Football Commission The West Australian Football Commission is the governing body of Australian rules football in the state of Western Australia. Operations The WAFC was formed in 1989 to manage the sport in Western Australia. The commission is registered as a not- ...

(WAFC) granted a ninth licence in the WAFL to the Mandurah-Peel region. The licence was issued on the condition that the club be ready to compete in the 1997 Westar Rules season.

Geoff Miles Geoff Miles (born 10 January 1962) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood, West Coast and Geelong in the Australian Football League (AFL), formerly VFL. Miles was primarily a hard running wingman or half back but ...

was appointed as the club's inaugural coach and Phil Gilbert appointed captain. The Thunder managed just one win in 1997 and finished last on the ladder, with

Scott Simister Scott Simister (born 24 February 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL). Simister spent time in three states during his career, starting in Victoria. He was recruited by ...

winning the inaugural best and fairest. They managed another one-win season in 1998, before going winless in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. In March 2011, the club was fined $10,000 for breaching salary cap rules involving player payments to midfielder

Rory O'Brien Rory O'Brien (born 2 June 1989) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He most recently played for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League, as a . He previously played for the ...

during the 2009 season. Between 1997 and 2014, the Thunder failed to qualify for the finals, with their best season coming in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

when they recorded an 8–12 win–loss record and a sixth-place finish. During that time, they collected nine wooden spoons, including three in a row twice (1997–99 & 2011–13), and finished second last seven times. In

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, Peel became directly aligned with the

of the

, an arrangement which saw Fremantle's reserve players playing exclusively for Peel in the WAFL for the first time. In

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, the second season of this arrangement, Peel qualified for the finals for the first time in its history, finishing third on the ladder with a club-best record of 13–7. Due to Fremantle's decision to rest a host of its key AFL players ahead of their finals campaign, the majority of Peel's usual Fremantle contingent was called up for AFL duties, which impacted Peel's ability to field a competitive team against West Perth in the qualifying final. As a result, Peel was blown out of the water by West Perth, losing their first finals game 145–36. Despite regaining many of their Fremantle players for their semi-final clash against

East Perth East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from ...

the following week, they were knocked out of the finals with an 84–62 defeat at the hands of the Royals. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, the Thunder finished the home and away season in fourth place on the ladder with an 11–9 record. Despite a drop off from 2015, Peel headed into the WAFL finals with a huge boost thanks to Fremantle's poor season in 2016. With Fremantle missing the finals in 2016, it provided Peel with a huge contingent of players for their finals campaign. Behind 17 Docker-listed players, the Thunder won three do-or-die finals in a row against East Perth, West Perth and South Fremantle respectively to reach their first ever WAFL grand final. In the grand final, Peel defeated Subiaco by 23 points to win their first WAFL premiership. Peel's midfield had too much running power and grunt inside for Subiaco, with Docker Connor Blakely winning the

Simpson Medal The Simpson Medal is an individual prize awarded for Australian rules football in Western Australia. The medal has been donated by Dr Fred Simpson and family since 1945. Simpson Medals are currently awarded to the following players: *The best pla ...

on the back of 38 possessions. Fellow Docker Ed Langdon was also an important contributor with 39 disposals, eight marks and a goal. Peel were a foundation member of the

competition in 2019. The club recorded their first senior women's premiership in the competition in the 2020 season.

Honour board

Honours

Club honours

Individual honours

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant and b ...

lists: (2) 2002:

Allistair Pickett Allistair Pickett (born 4 August 1973) is an Australian rules footballer who played for Subiaco in the WAFL. Pickett won the 2002 and 2004 Sandover Medals. Playing career A small and pacy rover, Pickett started his career in the 1990s with ...

, 2008:

Hayden Ballantyne Hayden Ballantyne (born 16 July 1987) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League. He was a 2014 All Australian and has previously won a Sandover Medal while playing wit ...

lists: (2) 2016: Connor Blakely, 2017:

Luke Ryan Luke Ryan (born 6 February 1996) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A versatile player Ryan is a Doig Medalist as well as an All-Australian. Early c ...

Records

*Highest score: Round 11, 2001 – 23.11 (149) vs. Swan Districts at Bendigo Bank Stadium *Lowest score (official): Round 1, 2004 – 0.0 (0) vs. Claremont at Rushton Park – the team's on-field score of 10.10 (70) was annulled for playing Peter Bird with an invalid permit *Lowest score (on-field) : Round 16, 2016 – 1.5 (11) vs. West Perth *Greatest winning margin: Round 2, 2017 – 86 points vs. East Fremantle at Bendigo Bank Stadium *Greatest losing margin: Round 3, 1999 – 195 points vs. South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval Source
WAFL.com.au

AFL draftees

The following is a list of Peel Thunder players who have been drafted to clubs in the

(AFL). Players currently on an AFL list are listed in bold: Source
PeelThunder.com.au

References

External links

* {{Authority control West Australian Football League clubs WAFL Women's Sport in Mandurah Australian rules football clubs in Western Australia Australian rules football clubs established in 1996 1996 establishments in Australia Australian Reserve team football