General News
7 July, 2026
A Warracknabeal Football team known as “The Bulldogs”
FREE TO READ: A treasured football blazer from the Warracknabeal Thirds Football team has been kindly donated to The Warracknabeal Historical Society.
When looking at the emblem on the jacket, you would not immediately recognise it as being of Warracknabeal origin because the colours are red, white and blue with an embroidery of a bulldog’s face, whereas Warracknabeal teams have adorned the colours of maroon and gold for over a century.
After WW2, when young men in the district were in short supply, many clubs were unable to field a “seconds” team to compete in the Wimmera League.
Therefore, in 1946, a smaller district competition was formed to give the young men an opportunity to play a game.
The competition was named the North Wimmera League, and the teams that fluctuated in and out of making an appearance were: Warracknabeal Seconds or Thirds, Cannum, Bangerang, Peppinbena, Tarranyurk, Jeparit Seconds, Willenabrina, Brim, Antwerp, Sheep Hills and Dimboola Seconds.
However, after “seconds”, teams began rejoining the Wimmera league; this league went into recess in 1955.
In 1959, the North Wimmera League resumed with just four teams that could fill teams.
They were Warracknabeal Thirds, Cannum, Bangerang and Sheep Hills.
The Warracknabeal Thirds competed for eight years, winning the premiership in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964.
The league was discontinued after the 1967 season.
You can see in the black-and-white photo that the stripes on the Guernsey are horizontal, just like the Western Bulldogs in the AFL.
This has been confirmed by two locals in the photograph who were part of this Premiership team: Robin Hewitt and Danny Johnson.
In discussions with them, they both recall their guernseys and the Vincent boys who played in the team.
They also remember the play as being tough, rough and hard!
Danny also recalls that when a player received his jacket, it was really something special, and he would wear it up the street, with his chest puffed out just a little further.
Danny believes he has kept the pocket of his treasured jacket, and it is safely stored amongst his treasures somewhere.
Two brothers, Keith and Doug Vincent, and a cousin, G Vincent, played in the Warracknabeal Thirds Team.
The returned jacket belonged to Keith, who was born here in 1939, lived in Shank Street with his family, and then worked in the Post Office for some time.
He left Warracknabeal and spent most of his years living and raising his family in Melbourne, retiring in Western Australia.
On Keith’s recent passing, his family decided to return this jacket to its place of origin.
The Historical Society has been very happy to accept it along with a notebook of match scores and some personal items.
Contributed by Warracknabeal Historical Society
