South Warrnambool, Nirranda dominate 2023 HFNL, WDFNL seasons

Only five clubs in the Hampden and Warrnambool and District leagues - three in the former and two in the latter - have achieved the double flag feat in the past two decades.

The achievement, which from a numbers point of view seems hard to pull off, has become increasingly common in recent history - in large part to two clubs' dominance.

In the Hampden league, Koroit has mastered the art. It won double flags in six seasons in the 21^st century - 2003, 2007, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

For Nirranda, it's come three times in the past four completed WDFNL seasons - 2018, 2022 and 2023.

Warrnambool (2002) and Dennington (2015), like South Warrnambool, have achieved it once.

It feeds into the notion that success breeds success. But arguably it's more than that.

So much goes into winning teams nowadays - development, recruitment, time to gel and arguably luck - staying injury free can make or break a season.

Suffice to say it's rare to have everything working symbiotically at the right time of year.

While the five clubs have made it count on grand final days, others have shown their respective netball and football teams can have a positive affect on the other.

Several clubs have featured on both stages on grand final day despite one team walking away without the ultimate prize.

Terang Mortlake's 2008 senior football premiership came the same season its netball team was defeated in the decider while Panmure and Old Collegians did similar things in 2004 and 2005, albeit with netball premierships.

Meanwhile, Warrnambool has seen it from both sides.

The Blues' senior open netballers won back-to-back flags in 2008 and 2009 as their footballers fell short hours later while three seasons later - 2012 - the footballers tasted success while it was heartbreak for netball team.

Periods of success can also come in waves even if they don't always lead to trophies with Camperdown (2015-18 netball defeats and 2018 football defeat) and Port Fairy (2016 netball win and 2017 football loss) making grand finals in either netball or football in consecutive years, as did the North Warrnambool Eagles (2015 netball win and 2016 football loss).

The winning feeling can permeate a club, the numbers in the past decade show that. If footy fortunes rise, they can inspire netballers and vice versa.

It will be interesting to see in 2024 if South Warrnambool and Nirranda can sustain their success across the football and netball realm, or if others starting to rise up a particular ladder can help lift their counterparts.

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