The Woodville-West Torrens Football Club, nicknamed the Eagles, is a current football club competing in the South Australian National Football League. The current home ground is Woodville Oval but sometimes play at Thebarton Oval which allows for night games to be played. Woodville Oval has accommodated the Eagles since 1993 having previously used Football Park.
Origins of Woodville-West Torrens[]
At the end of the 1990 season, the West Torrens Eagles and the Woodville Warriors merged to save the clubs. The West Torrens Football Club formed in 1897 and won four premierships in 90 seasons and the Woodville Warriors winning no premierships in 37 seasons since their existence in 1964.
Calls for a merger of the two clubs were throughout the 1980's but it wasn't until the inclusion of the Adelaide Crows in the AFL that the clubs realized that they could not operate as separate entities.
It was decided to merge the two sides as the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles, to play their home games at Woodville's home ground, Woodville Oval, and use the West Torrens Eagle emblem.
The club colours of blue, gold and green incorporate the club colours of West Torrens (blue and gold) and Woodville (green and gold). The Eagle logo of the West Torrens Football Club was adopted as the official emblem of Woodville West Torrens. It was also agreed that blue would be the primary colour of the merged club.
1991[]
The Eagles first season would be quite successful. Their inaugural coach would be Neil Balme who had seen two premierships as a coach with Norwood in 1982 and 1984, as well as a premiership player with Richmond in 1973 and 1974. Peter Schwarz would captain the newly merged club. The club's first match was played at Football Park against Sturt which saw the Eagles triumph by 74 points. The Eagles would have four consecutive wins against Central District, South Adelaide, West Adelaide and Norwood. In their inaugural season, the club would make the finals and finish fourth after losing the Qualifying Final against North Adelaide and the 1st Semi Final against West Adelaide (North Adelaide and West Adelaide would face off in the grand final). Scott Morphett would win the Ken Farmer Medal with 99 goals and be voted Club Champion.