History Of The West Preston Lakeside Football Club
The West Preston F.C. was formed in 1948 in the CYMS competition. It remained there until 1963 when it joined the very strong church based YCW National Football Association.
The club had a reasonable amount of success and it was decided that it should field junior sides as well and from those early days more than 10 players from those sides went on to join the ranks of the then VFL.
The club has continued to grow and in 1981 applied for and were accepted into the prestigious Diamond Valley League (Now Northern Football League), which according to David Parkin and others is the strongest Metropolitan League.
Since 1981 the club has won 9 Senior and 6 junior Premierships and provided 18 Best and Fairest winners in the DVFL. In 1988 and again in 1993 it won the Div. 2 A Grade flag and promotion to Div. 1, only to return to Div. 2 the year after failing both times in the very strong competition.
In 1996 the club was again successful in winning both the A and B Grade Premierships, however this time we remained in the elite level just missing the finals. We have stayed in Div. 1 ever since.
On March 23rd 1998 members of both the West Preston and Reservoir Lakeside F.C.’s met and voted on merging the 2 clubs as Lakies who had just competed in the Div. 2 finals were struggling to get players to fill both sides. Reservoir Lakeside was to bring with it a history steeped in success with 3 Div. 1 A Grade flags and a total of 20 senior pennants as well as 20 competition Best and Fairest winners.
From this day on the West Preston Lakeside F.C. Inc. emerged. They were to be known as the Roosters and Lakies were finally reunited with their old stomping ground J.E. Moore Park.
The new club has never looked back. In its first year despite the haste of putting this new side together missed out on the finals by only 4 points. It was to be the same result in 1999. Then along came the year 2000. The club finished on top of the ladder only to be beaten in the Grand Final by a very committed Northcote Park side.
In 2003 the Roosters won its first A Grade Division 1 flag after finishing 2nd on the ladder. An achievement, which was, celebrated long and hard as a thank you for the many years hard work. Success was again achieved in 2006 & 2008 with the Under 19s taking home the flag. In 2010 the club again won the A Grade Premiership against the more fancied Heidelberg.
In 2009 the club was awarded the Senior Club Of The Year and again in 2010 the junior Club Of The Year by The Northern Football League
On top of all this the West Preston Junior F.C. puts 12 teams on the field each Sunday ranging in age groups from under 9s to under 17s.We also have 2 veterans’ teams. Our club is heavily committed to the Preston YCW District Cricket Club, which keeps the club thriving throughout the summer months.
