Peel Thunder Football Club

Peel Thunder

Names
Full name	Peel Thunder Football Club
Nickname(s)	Thunder
2015 season
After finals	Knocked-out in First Semi Final
Home-and-away season	3rd
Leading goalkicker	Leroy Jetta (39 goals)
Best and fairest	Jacob Ballard
Club details
Founded	1996
Colours	Blue      Teal      White
Competition	West Australian Football League
Coach	Cam Shepherd
Captain(s)	James Flaherty
Premierships	Nil
Ground(s)	Rushton Park (capacity: 10,000)
Other information
Official website	http://www.peelthunder.com.au/

The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The club joined the WAFL as an expansion team in 1997.

Since the 2014 season, Peel has served as the host club for the Fremantle Dockers of the Australian Football League, an arrangement which will see Fremantle’s reserves players playing WAFL football for Peel.^[1]

History

Peel Thunder was formed in 1996 after the West Australian Football Commission (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 competition. Geoff Miles was appointed as the club’s inaugural coach and Phil Gilbert appointed captain. The Thunder in 1997 won only one game against Claremont in the satellite town of Rockingham and finished last, with Scott Simister winning the inaugural best and fairest, and won only one further game in their next two seasons against East Perth at Perth Oval.

In 2011, Peel Thunder were fined A$10,000 for breaching the league’s salary cap rules.^[2]

In the first seventeen years of its existence, to the end of 2013, Peel Thunder won only 69 matches out of 334 played, or a 20.6% winning percentage,^[3] one of the poorest prolonged periods in any state-level club's history in Australia. During that time, the club won nine wooden spoons, finished outside the bottom two only twice, and never won as many games as it lost in a season. Its best season during that period was a sixth-place finish with a record of 8–12 in 2008.

In 2014 season, Peel signed a deal to serve as the host club for the Fremantle Dockers of the Australian Football League for at least five years, an arrangement which allows reserves players from Fremantle's AFL list to play senior WAFL football for Peel.^[4] In 2015, the second season of this arrangement, Peel reached the finals for the first time in its history, finishing third on the ladder with a record of 13–7.^[5]

Club song

The club song was "We are the Thunder", which is a club song for every Peel Thunder home game victory.

Honour board

Season	Position	Win/Loss	Coach	Captain	Dudley Tuckey Medal	Leading goalkicker
1997	9	1–19	Geoff Miles	Phil Gilbert	Scott Simister	Scott Simister (27)
1998	9	1–19	Geoff Miles Troy Wilson	Phil Gilbert	Darren Bolton	Scott Simister (31)
1999	9	0–20	Troy Wilson	Scott Simister	Scott Simister	Scott Simister (54)
2000	8	4–14	Shane Cable	Bill Monaghan	Vance Davison	Dean Buszan (32)
2001	6	7–11	Shane Cable	Vance Davison	Derek Hall	David McPharlin (25)
2002	8	7–11	Peter German	Derek Hall	Darren Bolton	Scott Simister (46)
2003	9	1–19	John Ditchburn	Derek Hall	Derek Hall	Derek Hall (22)
2004	8	5–15	Garry Hocking	Brandon Hill	Daniel Haines	Cameron Gauci (40)
2005	9	3–17	Garry Hocking	Grant Welsh	Pat Travers	Justin Wood (29)
2006	8	6–14	Chris Waterman	Grant Welsh	Rory O'Brien	Dean Buszan (44)
2007	8	5–15	Chris Waterman	Grant Welsh	Daniel Haines	Dean Buszan (30)
2008	6	8–12	Chris Waterman	Grant Welsh	Hayden Ballantyne	Hayden Ballantyne (75)
2009	9	5–15	Chris Waterman	Daniel Haines	Ben Howlett	Kain Robins (33)
2010	8	3–17	Trevor Williams	Daniel Haines Brendon Jones	Rory O'Brien	Matthew Battye (27)
2011	9	5–15	Trevor Williams	Brendon Jones	Kristin Thornton	Bradley Holmes (36)
2012	9	5–15	Trevor Williams Mark Moody	Brendon Jones	Brendon Jones	Bradley Holmes (52)
2013	9	3–17	Cam Shepherd	Brendon Jones	Viv Michie[6]	Bradley Holmes (33)
2014	8	4–16	Cam Shepherd	James Flaherty	Brendon Jones[7]	Matt Taberner (18)
2015	3	13–7	Cam Shepherd	Brendon Jones	Jacob Ballard	Leroy Jetta (39)
2016			Cam Shepherd	Gerald Ugle

Honours

Club honours

Colts Premierships: (2) 2004, 2005

Individual honours

Sandover Medallists: (2) 2002: Allistair Pickett, 2008: Hayden Ballantyne

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 14, 2002 – 1.10 (16) vs Subiaco
• Greatest winning margin: Round 11, 2001 – 71 points vs. Swan Districts at Bendigo Bank Stadium
• Greatest losing margin: Round 3, 1999 – 195 points vs. South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval

AFL draftees

The following is a list of Peel Thunder players who have been drafted to clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). Players currently on an AFL list are listed in bold:

Draft	Pick	Player	Club	Games	Goals
1998N	10	Hill, BrandonBrandon Hill	West Coast	0	0
1999R	2	Bolton, DarrenDarren Bolton	Fremantle	2	0
2000R	49	Walkingshaw, DaleDale Walkingshaw	Fremantle	0	0
2001R	4	Buszan, DeanDean Buszan	West Coast	0	0
	36	Haines, DanielDaniel Haines	Fremantle	16	4
2002N	2	Wells, DanielDaniel Wells	Kangaroos	224	145
2003N	4	Ray, FarrenFarren Ray	Western BulldogsSt Kilda	205	58
2004R	5	Nye, RyanRyan Nye	Adelaide	0	0
	40	Thornton, AshleyAshley Thornton	West Coast	0	0
2005N	20	Bower, PaulPaul Bower	Carlton	70	5
	28	Riggio, MattMatt Riggio	Kangaroos	10	0
	54	Thornton, KristinKristin Thornton	Sydney	6	3
2006N	2	Gumbleton, ScottScott Gumbleton	Essendon Fremantle	35	45
	38	Hawksley, JamesJames Hawksley	Brisbane Lions	32	6
	47	Reimers, KyleKyle Reimers	Essendon	60	68
	52	O'Brien, BrockBrock O'Brien	Fremantle	3	1
2007R	18	Chartres, DannyDanny Chartres	Essendon	0	0
2008N	21	Ballantyne, HaydenHayden Ballantyne	Fremantle	119	191
2009N	4	Morabito, AnthonyAnthony Morabito	Fremantle	26	14
	25	Black, AaronAaron Black	North Melbourne	50	64
2010R	20	Howlett, BenBen Howlett	Essendon	117	57
2010N	2	Bennell, HarleyHarley Bennell	Gold Coast	83	92
2011P	2	Wilson, BlayneBlayne Wilson	West Coast	9	0
2011R	48	Lawrence, KelvinKelvin Lawrence	Melbourne	0	0
2012N	31	McIntosh, KamdynKamdyn McIntosh	Richmond	22	7
2014R	24	Walsh, BradBrad Walsh	Carlton	3	1

References

1. Quartermaine, Braden (31 October 2012). "West Coast and Fremantle will enter WAFL alignments from 2013". Perthnow. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
2. Peel fined for salary breach - FootyGoss. Written by Mr Dandalooa. Published 24 March 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
3. Peel Thunder - WAFLOnline. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
4. Quartermaine, Braden (31 October 2012). "West Coast and Fremantle will enter WAFL alignments from 2013". Perthnow. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
5. "McDonald's WAFL Qualifying Finals Preview". 5 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
6. ‘Michie Voted Thunder’s Best and Fairest’
7. ‘Fairytale Comeback Capped Off for Brendon Jones’

External links

• Peel Thunder Official Site
• Full Points Footy History of Peel Thunder