_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Glen Waverley Hawks Football Club was founded in 1973 to pursue an interest in football for the youth of a fast growing area.

Initially games were played at Madeline Street Reserve and after sub division took place at which is now known as Legend Park the club moved to its new home Capital Reserve which has become a landmark in the area.

The Club grew to such an extent that it was able to field 2 teams in each age group from U/9's - U/14's with one U/15 and U16 team, a total of some 320 boys.

It has become the most respected, successful and decorated club in the Waverley and surrounding area. Such was the intensity and dedication of the club that seven players have reached the ultimate and played VFL/AFL football with Michael Pickering becoming Captain of Richmond. Michael was also our first best and fairest winner in the U/10 1973.

Numerous other players have distinguished themselves in their own right.

In 1980, due to the growth in the area and the foresight of the committee the Glen Waverley Hawks Sports Club was founded and encompassed the Football, Cricket and Netball Clubs.

The Glen Waverley Hawks Sports Club is now the governing body of all sporting activities in the club.

As a result of this growth the club was able to lobby the council to advise and support the development of the current clubrooms which were opened in 1989.

The success of the club in the past has given the current executive the confidence to pursue the continuing expansion and development of the Glen Waverley Hawks for the future members of the Club.

In 2001 the committee felt for the club to grow, to its previous status, they needed to move from the WJFA and play divisional football. The move was made to field our under sixteen side in the Eastern Football League.

With the success of our sixteens in 2001 the club moved all age groups to the EFL in 2002 and it was not long before the club achieved success with premierships in 2005 and 2006 with our under 12s and 13s

In 2005, saw another significant change in the direction of the Glen Waverley Hawks with introduction of senior and reserve sides entered into the EFL. This decision was and is crucial to the growth and development of our junior players.

2018 was an exsiting step towards making the Hawks one of the premier grounds in the EFL.  A brand new pavilion was completed eary April which gave us a purpose built Canteen / Bar with large open social rooms facing the ground.  This has, for the first time, allowed us to host lunchoens.  

Our Netball teams (Blue and Yellow) both made it to their Grand Finals with the Blue team winning making it back to back, while the Yellow team fell short after what was a fantastic season.

Junior football continues to grow with the Under 14s playing in a Grand Final with the merged team of Northvale FC playing their season in Southern Metro Football League.  

the Senior Football Club created a mission statement - One Club, One Goal, Two Flags and with the playing group on board, set about putting in the hard work required to achieve this goal.

 

Recruiting had the committee and coaching staff excited about the pending season ahead.  A lot of work was done both off and on the field in preparation for the round 1 clash against Whitehorse Pioneers.

 

While we struggled to organise a decent number of practice matches for the boys, we started to wonder what the season would bring when Whitehorse showed that their season sights were firmly set on getting to the Grand Final, giving the Hawks a lesson in skills and teamwork by defeating us 11.7.73 to 9.11.65.

 

Round 2 presented much of the same as the previous week.  We hosted our first home game in our new social rooms and although the mood in the rooms was upbeat with special guest speaker Sam Kekovich, the same could not be said for our on field performance - Glen Waverley Hawks 6.8.44 defeated by East Burwood 10.10.70.

 

To our coach's credit, Ryan Flack believed that we had the team to match it with the best.  With a large number of new players, it was only a matter of time when the boys would gel as a group.  This came in round 3 when we travelled to Forest Hill with the boys working well on the small ground defeating the zebras 10.12.72 to Glen Waverley Hawks 15.12.102.

 

With the 30 point win from the previous week, the Hawks never looked back and continued their winning season taking the next fifteen games straight to earn the second chance.

 

The "Get out of gaol card" was played as we lost by 2 points in a nail biter in week one of the finals against Whitehorse Pioneers.  If felt like Deja Vu as we had to face off against East Burwood with memories from round 2.  But this fairy-tale story was not going to end this week as the boys ended up winning by 19points.

 

Grand Final day presented a perfect sunny day for football.  The energy in the rooms was evident along with a few signs of nerves.  Ryan Flack presented, what would be his last, pre match address to the boys.  Game strategies reviewed and final checks before the boys took to the field.

 

The first half of football was sluggish at best with low scores for both teams leading into the half time break - GWH 3.3.21 to WHP 0.4.4.  The boys held onto a 7 point lead at three quarter time. 

 

The elusive first flag for the Club slipped away as the final siren sounded with the 16 point loss to Whitehorse Pioneer 6.12.48 defeating Glen Waverley Hawks 4.8.32.

 

Season 2020 was tipped to be an exciting year in the history of the club, as we signed former Assistant Coach, Dylan Price to the position of the Senior Head Coach - which was his first head senior coaching role. We signed a few players back to the Hawks including former junior Ash Black from Knox.

Unfortunately due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 season was not able to go ahead as planned.

 

At the conclusion of the year of 2020, the club re-branded to the Glen Waverley Football Netball Club (GWFNC) still undertaking the nickname of the Hawks.

 

Season 2021 came along quite quickly and unfortunately the club's president of 2020, Gary Hocking stepped down. Therefore, the committee were lucky enough to appoint Matthew Hollard to the position of Club President for the 2021 Season. Matthew has vast experience in sports development, sports management and business. 

 

A highlight from Season 2021 so far, was when the Hawks hosted local rivals the Waverley Blues at Staircom Oval for the Bendigo Bank Pinewood Cup in Round 6. The match was a nail-biter all the way to the last few seconds when gun full-forward Andrew Clifford took a screamer to kick the last goal of the game, to get GWFNC over the line and beat Waverley Blues to win the Pinewood Cup for the first time in the club's history. The club gained a huge level of exposure on the social media channels with vision of the mark going viral and featuring the 7AFL & The Local Footy Show.

 

A new era for the Glen Waverley Football Netball Club began in September 2021, when the club announced that well decorated VAFA coach Brett Gatehouse was appointed for the 2022 Season. Coming from St. Mary's in the VAFA, Brett brought along quite a few players from his previous club and the hype around the place was exciting. Alongside Brett in the coaches box is Phil Buck, Bill Anderson and Scott Gatehouse as his assistant coaches. Current captain is Mitch Potts, with vice-captain D'Arcy Grant and deputies to be are Ash Black and Bailey Meyer.

 

Club Destroyed (2023)
As widely reported in the media, a post season event conducted by players has brought the club to its knees. Ex-Captain, Mitch Potts was suspended by the EFNL for 8 weeks after he was found guilty of breaching Eastern Football Netball League's statement of rules 6.1.1 "conduct unbecoming of a member" after an investigation was completed in March.

 

As the club approaches its 50th anniversary, only the Yellow Netball team remains standing as the sole surviving team..

Go Hawks!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________