The 2007 season will go down as a significant watershed in the history of the Dunsborough Football club. The club is only three years old having enjoyed it’s first competitive season in 2005 with it’s one and only senior men’s team.

In the second year it won the fourth division league title and added the fourth division knockout cup to the trophy cabinet. The third year attracted many more players to the club, enough for Dunsborough to field two men’s teams in different divisions of the South West competition.

But the real story of Dunsborough 2007 was the introduction of a successful women’s team to the club’s stable.

The efforts of the first two seasons saw Dunsborough promoted to the second division after refusing the South West Association’s directive for the club to compete in the Premier league.

Wisely the management of Dunsborough insisted that such a promotion was a step too far for a young club, a sentiment that was supported by the facts of competition in the second division in 2007.

However, a place in the Premier league is a target Dunsborough will keep in their sights for the future.

As it was Dunsborough performed creditably in the second division competition finishing fourth.

It was a season in which the second division really was a reserves competition for the Premier league.

Because only seven clubs were prepared to compete in the Premier League it meant that each week there would be a bye in that competition.

The second division initially fielded eight clubs in competition and in their wisdom the South West Association placed Dunsborough against the Premier League bye.

This allowed the Premier League clubs to use as many of their Premier League players against Dunsborough as they wished – which most did.

Despite this imbalance Dunsborough acquitted themselves well being outclassed on two occasions against Bunbury United.

Many of the matches witnessed Dunsborough holding the lead deep into the second-half only to let it slip in the closing minutes when the opposition introduced fresh Premier League players.

Hopefully the 2008 season will be a fairer competition that will allow Dunsborough the opportunity to judge their improvement based on merit.

The improvement in many of the younger players was satisfying with the two brothers Clint and Jake Thompson stepping-up, especially when Tony Plumb decided his time in the first team was over and would play only on the second team

Richard Olsen, Keiran Smith, Cid Richards and Jake Finney will provide much of the backbone to the first team this year

Unfortunately the club has lost quality in Luke Taylor, Micky Doyle, Nick Gomersall, John Crosbie and Geoff Holt most victims of the itinerant nature of Dunsborough.

Hopefully new faces will appear that will maintain the development that has been evident in the past three seasons.

One such face that bobbed up late last year was new goalkeeper Craig Ryan from New South Wales who demonstrated that he is probably the best goalkeeper in the South West

Again the second team of the club gave a strong showing finishing third on the fourth division league ladder.

While the first team attracts the attention because of the up and coming young players competing at the higher level, the second team allows the veterans of the club to maintain an active interest in the game.

Again the club will lean heavily on the likes of Mike Finney, Willie Hind, Dave O’Shaunnessy, Tony Plumb, Wayne Davies and Paul Andrews to name a few in 2008

If any team in Dunsborough warrants special mention then the women’s team must take centre stage.

They started the season slowly with Gary Mayers taking over the role of coach and guiding many of the players who had never played the game before.

At season’s end the women’s team developed a formidable reputation and finished in second place to Hay Park, the only club they couldn’t beat in the league season.

But they got their revenge in the second division knockout cup final with a comprehensive 3-0 win.

Brooke Johannssen won a stack of awards from the South West Association including “Player of the Year” in the second division, was the second top goal scorer in the league and was judged the best player in the final.

But it was a team full of talent from the backline through to the strike force with the emergence of players like Amelia Lotze, Emma Olsen, the French sisters Erin and Kate, Joanna Schleuter and the Tarrant sisters Rebecca and Kate.Unfortunately the Tarrants will be in New Zealand for 2008.

However, the pre-season indications are that the Dunsborough women could be in for stellar year in 2008.

The following are the league ladders for those competitions involving Dunsborough in 2007:

Men’s Division 2
     Pld    W    D    L    GF    GA    Pts
Bunbury UTD    18    15    1    2    72    13    46
Australind    18    13    3    2    51    21    42
Hay Park UTD    18    10    4    4    57    22    34
Dunsborough    17    7    2    8    47    38    23
Dynamos    18    5    7    6    36    40    22
Busselton    18    1    4    13    22    63    7


Men’s Division 4
     Pld    W    D    L    GF    GA    Pts
Bunbury UTD    15    13    2    0    81    19    41
Blackwood UTD    15    8    2    5    54    50    26
Dunsborough    13    6    2    5    43    30    20
Busselton    14    5    2    7    32    37    17
Dalyellup    14    4    2    8    40    69    14
Capel    13    0    2    11    23    68    2


Women’s Division 2
     Pld    W    D    L    GF    GA    Pts
Hay Park UTD    20    15    3    2    79    19    48
Dunsborough    20    13    1    6    60    28    40
Busselton    20    10    4    6    32    24    34
Dynamos    20    9    4    7    47    32    31
Margaret River    20    10    1    9    39    40    31
Dalyellup    20    4    5    11    15    62    17
Blackwood UTD    20    4    3    13    16    43    15
Capel    20    3    3    14    18    58    12



The following are the goalscorer’s for the season in each division taken from the official records of the South West Association:

Men’s Second Division:

Luke Taylor        12
Richard Olsen        11
John Crosbie        10
Stephen Palmer      6
Geoff Holt          2
Kieran Geal          2
Wayne Perna          1
Nick Gomersall      1
Clint Thompson      1
Micky Doyle          1
Chris Gilomen          1
Jake Thompson      1

Men’s Fourth Division:

Mike Finney        7
Gavin Davies        5
Yaroslav Bydtaev    5
Tony Plumb        5
Richard Olsen        4
Kieran Geal        4
Gary Mayers        4
John Crosbie        2
Craig Agar        1
Chris Gilomen        1
Wayne Perna        1
Romain Calmels    1

Women’s Second Division

Brooke Johannessen    24
Emma Olsen        12
Erin French          5
Heidi Sounness      4
Joanna Schlueter      3
Mia Halse          3
Stephanie Plumb      2
Kate Tarrant          2
Kate French          2
Amelia Lotze          1
Grace Lindsay          1
Bree Skenner          1
Genevieve Greaves      1
Dene Mayers          1
Rebecca Tarrant      1
Each match the referee allocates votes to the best three players in the game with values of three, two and one votes.

The following are Dunsborough’ s tallies for the three teams in 2007

Men’s Second Division:   

Micky Doyle            11
Geoff Holt              9
Steve Palmer              7
Luke Taylor              7
Clint Thompson          6
John Crosbie              6
Richard Olsen              3
Nick Gomersall          3
Jake Thompson          2
Keiran Smith              2
Tony Plumb              1   


Men’s Fourth Division:

Tony Plumb            14
Gary Mayers              5
Gavin Davies              5
Mike Finney              4
Richard Olsen              3
Colin Pratt              2
Josh Hope              2
Chris Gilomen              1
Willie Hind              1
Wayne Davies              1


Women’s Second Division

Brooke Johannessen        37
Joanna Schlueter          9
Kate French              7
Emma Olsen              5
Amelia Lotze              5
Dene Mayers              4
Erin French              4
Heidi Sounness          3
Rebecca Tarrant          2
Stephanie Plumb          1
Bree Skenner              1