The South West Football League 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 ...

league based in the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The league is affiliated to the

West Australian Country Football League The Australian Country Football League (WACFL) is the governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in the non-metropolitan areas of Western Australia. The organisation was founded in 1973 as the Western Australian National Country F ...

History

The idea of creating a larger league was discussed early in 1951. The idea that three clubs from the Collie Football Association and the three clubs from the Bunbury Football association would invigorate public interest in the South West region on the state. Talks continued into 1952 and it was finally agreed to trial a competition with all the two associations clubs for a two-year period. The associations administrations would remain separate. Sensing opportunity, Donnybrook left their local competition to become the seventh club. In 1953 the Bunbury-Collie League was founded with seven teams. South Bunbury, Bunbury Railways, Bunbury Pastimes, Mines Rovers, Collie Railways, Centrals and Donnybrook. The public response was evident, interest was up, attendances to games were up and the general standard of play improved greatly. The trial was deemed so successful that it kicked off a series of consolidations of smaller leagues within the state of Western Australia. *1954 Eastern and Western Districts Busselton commenced from Busselton FA. *1955 Eastern and Western Districts Busselton amalgamated to become Busselton *1956 Harvey Brunswick admitted, Bunbury Pastimes becomes Carey Park *1957, the league changed names to the South West National Football League. *1959 Boyanup-Capel-Dardanup joins *1961 Collie Railways and centrals amalgamate to become Collie *1966 Augusta-Margaret River joins *1990 Harvey Brunswick become Harvey Brunswick Leschenault *1991 the name changed again, to the current South West Football League *2000 Boyanup-Capel-Dardanup relocates to Eaton and changes name to Eaton Boomers. *2001 Collie and Mines Rovers amalgamated to become Collie Eagles *2009 Harvey Bulls commence, transferred from

Peel Football League The Peel Football League (PFL) is a country football league based in the Peel region of Western Australia. The competition was formed in 1992 when teams from the Metropolitan Football League and Murray Districts Football League merged. There ar ...

. *2022 Dunsborough Sharks women's, colts and reserves team commence playing *2023 Dunsborough Sharks league team commence playing

Expansion

In 1993 a proposed submission from the new Harvey Football Club was rejected because the SWFL believed10 teams was a sufficient number. Harvey then put in a successful submission into the

where they played their first season in 1994. The start of the 2009 season saw the introduction of the Harvey Bulls, who made the move over from the expanding

. This was different from their bid in 1993, as they had nowhere else to go. The SWFL were also looking for a tenth team (after the merger of Collie and Mines) to get rid of the dreaded bye and extended season. Harvey left the PFL because of the rumour of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

teams entering the PFL for 2009 so therefore increasing travel commitments. This idea fell through but Harvey still joined the SWFL after an 8–1 vote by the SWFL clubs, with HBL the only club opposing the idea. During January 2021, the Dunsborough Sharks, who field juniors teams in the South West put in an application to field a colts side ahead of the 2021 season. This was rejected. Post the 2021 season the Dunsborough Sharks put in an application for a Reserves, Colts and Women's team for the 2022 season. These applications were accepted with a 7–3 vote, allowing the Sharks to field a league team for the 2023 season.

Clubs

Current clubs

Premierships

;League

Grand Finals 2009-22

Notable players

* Syd Jackson * Adam Hunter *

Phil Matson Phillip Henry Matson (22 October 1884 – 13 June 1928) was a record-breaking swimmer, and both a highly successful player and coach of Australian rules football in the early 20th century, chiefly in Western Australia. Family The son of Georg ...

Leon Baker Leon Baker (born 17 August 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) during the 1980s. Baker started playing senior football quite ...

* Michael Warren *

David Hollins David John Hollins (born 15 February 1951) is a former Australian rules footballer who played 189 games for East Fremantle in the WANFL during the 1970s. Hollins, who favoured the drop kick, played as both a centreman and on-baller. Recruite ...

* Phil Kelly *

Michael Christian Michael Christian (born 21 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer and media personality from Busselton, Western Australia who played for East Perth Football Club, East Perth in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and Coll ...

Ben Stratton Benjamin Stratton (born 1 March 1989) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early career Stratton was educated at Dunsborough Primary School and MacKillop C ...

* Peter Miller *

Lewis Jetta Lewis Jetta (born 4 May 1989) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Swan Districts Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Career Early career Jetta played his junior football with Carey Park Junior Football ...

Neville Jetta Neville Jetta (born 12 February 1990) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Jetta was drafted by Melbourne with the 51st selection in the 2008 national dr ...

Kyle Reimers Kyle Reimers (born 10 January 1989) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played with Essendon in the AFL. Debuting in 2007, Reimers was pick number 47 in the 2006 AFL Draft, having played with Peel Thunder in the WAFL. He played for ...

Anthony Morabito Anthony Morabito (born 29 October 1991) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was delisted in 2016 after multiple knee reconstructions and sev ...

* Paul Barnard * Aaron Black *

Kristin Thornton Kristin Thornton (born 5 March 1988) is an Australian rules footballer. He was recruited as the number 54 draft pick in the 2005 AFL draft from Peel Thunder. He made his debut for the Sydney Swans in round 8 against the Carlton Blues kicking o ...

Connor Blakely Connor Blakely (born 2 March 1996) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League (AFL), having initially been drafted to the Fremantle Football Club. Early career Originally from Bunb ...

Troy Ugle Troy Ugle (born 18 April 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer. Playing career Ugle began his senior football career with Carey Park in the South West Football League. In 1986 he joined Swan Districts in the West Australian Football ...

* Ethan Hughes *

Ben Howlett Ben Howlett (born 21 October 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Howlett was selected by Essendon with pick 30 in the 2010 rookie draft ...