by Brigid Ryan | Jan 24, 2025 | Club News & Events, Falcons History, General
Vale Sal Rees A tribute Today, we gather to honor and celebrate the remarkable life and legacy of Sal Rees, a true pioneer and pillar of the Darebin Women’s Sports Club. Sal’s contributions to our community are immeasurable, and her impact will be felt for...
by Mereki | Mar 1, 2021 | Falcons History
The Darebin Women’s Sports Club has cemented its place in the history of women’s sport in Australia. From humble beginnings, the Falcons have built a community, a family, a home. The success of the AFLW, the Matildas and the Australian Women’s Cricket team has thrown...
by Mereki | Feb 1, 2021 | Falcons History
As this abridged oral history of the Falcons makes clear: Darebin is more than a sporting club, more than a place to play and watch sport. It’s more than its multiple premierships, booming participation numbers and elite pathways. Just how special Darebin has been and...
by Mereki | Jan 1, 2021 | Falcons History
The beginning of the AFLW had an enormous impact at grassroots. The Darebin Falcons were no exception. But while much of the AFLW narrative focussed on pathways for young women and girls to continue their football uninterrupted, for many women who felt like they...
by Mereki | Dec 1, 2020 | Falcons History
While the Falcons premier team continued its winning way through to 2017, it would be myopic not to position this success within the broader landscape of the tumultuous changes to women’s footy, nor their flow on impacts to the rest of the senior footy program at the...
by Mereki | Nov 1, 2020 | Falcons History
After the high of five consecutive Aussie rules senior premierships, the Falcons were perfectly placed to continue their dominance. And in a fashion, they did. The senior team made the grand final in both 2011 and 2012, but there was no fairytale end with the team...
by Mereki | Oct 1, 2020 | Falcons History, Football
After nearly twenty years of providing opportunities for women to play sport, the Falcons spread their wings in 2008 and launched their first junior team: a youth girls Aussie rules team. It would be the beginning of a remarkably successful junior program that would...
by Mereki | Sep 1, 2020 | Falcons History
From the very beginning of the round ball game at the Falcons, fortunes had wavered. The Club went from fielding three senior women’s teams to one. As the core of the playing group grew older, the sustainability of the program was a concern. How to attract young...
by Mereki | Aug 1, 2020 | Falcons History, Football
In the 2005 Falcons Annual Report, senior coach Peta Searle wrote that “you’re only as good as your next game so let’s be ready for a kick ass 2006”. It was a rousing statement that would foreshadow the beginning of one of the most successful eras for Aussie rules at...
by Mereki | Jul 1, 2020 | Falcons History
The 2004 and 2005 seasons were a period of transition and change at the Falcons. With the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games on the horizon, grounds and sporting precincts in the Darebin area were being redeveloped. This meant some clubs would be forced to relocate....
by Mereki | Jun 1, 2020 | Falcons History, Football
If footy fate exists, then it was in action at the end of the 2002 VWFL season. The Falcons footy program was in the midst of a rough patch. While an increase in player numbers at the beginning of the season had encouraged the club to enter a second team in Division...
by Mereki | May 1, 2020 | Falcons History
In July of 2005, the Falcons added another string to their bow—adding 8-Ball as a trial sport. Founding club member and player and long-serving club president Sal Rees brought the game into the fold. Her team, the Devils—who had already been playing for at least...
by Mereki | Apr 1, 2020 | Falcons History
In keeping with the Falcons story, the beginning of cricket at the club has its genesis in friendship. “I used to play cricket against a few of the girls that played for Fairfield,” explained Trish Riddell. “And I used to go watch the football and then I sort of said...
by Mereki | Mar 26, 2020 | Falcons History, Soccer
In 1997, the Falcons made their first step towards becoming the multi-sport club they are today by starting a soccer team. Then club president Sal Rees explains that the decision was driven by the club members. “A number of our players in those early years had come...
by Mereki | Feb 20, 2020 | Falcons History, Football
After five years as the perpetual underdogs, the 1996 season was one that changed the course of the story of the Falcons and they have a bunch of Lions to thank for it. The Ballarat Lions won a premiership in 1995, but that didn’t stop the team folding after the end...
by Mereki | Jan 1, 2020 | Falcons History, Football
At the end of the 1989 Victorian Women’s Football League (VWFL) season, the Fairfield Falcons had lost all but one player. It looked likely to be a disappointing end to the club’s involvement with the only women’s football league in the state after first forming in...
