History
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PAKENHAM FOOTBALL CLUB
The Pakenham Football Club was formed at a meeting at the Gembrook Hotel on the 16th of March 1892. In our first year it appears that we played teams from Warragul, Berwick, Dandenong, Cranbourne, Ferntree Gully and Melbourne Mail Carriers. Regular matches were played and teams played each other twice. There is no mention of a Premiership or structured League.
On the 27th of April 1892 we played Warragul at Warragul for the first match. The team travelled by steam train to Warragul. The Pakenham team had many familiar names, Brunt, Bedford(2), Colvin, Dillon, Deveney(3), Woods, Ward, Pittard, Paternoster, Sigman, Pennington, Frost, Miller, Hitchens, Milne, Tomlinson, White, Hobson, Egan, Waters and Wilkinson.
Conditions were wet and the ground was slippery. Scores Warragul 2 goals, 5 behinds to Pakenham 2 behinds. Those who deserve special mention for Pakenham were Woods, Dillon, Pennington, Deveney, Paternoster and Waters.
Players travelled to matches in Horse Drawn Carriages, on Horseback and Steam Train. The Secretary used to advertise for games and matches were arranged this way into the early 1900’s.
We entered the Berwick District Association in the early 1900’s and won our first Premiership in 1908 or 1909 and 1914. After the First World War the Association became the Berwick/Dandenong Football Association. We won premierships in 1924 and 1925.
In 1926 we joined the Cora Lynn and District Junior Association and were successful in winning the Premiership.
In 1927 the West Gippsland Football League was formed, of which Pakenham was a Foundation member and the first Premiership team. We remained members until 2001 except for 1936/37 when the team played in the Dandenong District Football League. They won the Premiership in 1936.
The Pakenham Football Club enjoyed a great deal of success in the WGFL winning Senior Premierships in 1927, 1929, 1935, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1962, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1998 and 2000.
We then went through a tumultuous period in 2001 when we left the WGFL and joined the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League in 2002. In our first year in the Peninsula Division we won our 29th Senior Premiership. We now play in a strong and vibrant League, the Casey Cardinia Football League Division of the MPNFL.
Interesting to note, that after Beaconsfield and Pakenham were forced out of the WGFL, the WGFL had to join the Latrobe Valley Football League to survive after teams left to go to the Ellinbank Football League. Those in power at the time should hang their heads in shame by causing the disintegration of a strong Country League with a rich history of 65 years.
