Twin Triumphs: Hamersley Carine reflects 20 years on from champion club title

There’s no point in baking a cake if you can’t ice it.

On a blustery day in Fremantle twenty years ago, Hamersley Carine put the finishing touches on a recipe that delivered their football club a season of sweet success.

An epic victory over local rivals Stirling concluded an elusive League and Reserves premiership double in B Grade and snapped a 14-year title drought for the club’s senior side.

2026 club President John Keeley reflected on a season that yielded the Hawks’ first, and to date only, PFL Champion Club title.

“The club was absolutely flying (in 2006). To have the league, reserves and thirds all in a grand final that year was absolutely awesome.”   

Fresh eyes on the prize

The Hawks’ year of triumph was driven by new leadership and a playing squad feeding off two seasons of on-field disappointment.

Cycling back to 2004, a disappointing defeat in the B Grade Grand Final at the hands of Scarborough came with the silver lining of a historic promotion to the Perth Football League’s A Grade for 2005. 

But Hamersley Carine’s inaugural crack at the top flight ultimately ended poorly; The Hawks finished with just one win and were immediately relegated back down to B Grade for the following season.

The Hawks were on the brink of going to the next level; they just needed a push.

Following the resignation of club stalwart Chris Davies from the senior coaching position, a familiar face to some was persuaded to take the reins of the club’s top side.

Recruit Mat Babich would be coaxed into officially joining Hamersley Carine as the club’s new playing coach, but the new commander already had some history at Beach Road. 

During his time at South West Football League club Carey Park, Babich would train with the Hawks during the week before making the trip down south to play on Saturdays.

In 2005, Babich moved to WAFL club Claremont under the tutelage of seasoned coach Ashley Prescott. It was here and through his background in the racing industry that he developed an understanding of athletic professionalism.

The new playing coach then introduced these fresh methods to Beach Road the following season, driving his players to reach round one in peak physical fitness.

Contentiously, he introduced a mandatory Sunday recovery session, a practice now adopted by most clubs two decades on but considered quite radical for amateur football at the time.

Premiership midfielder and Hamersley Carine Team of the Half Century captain Tim Hall remembered the preseason as the hardest he ever did at the club.

“We were fit, we were strong, and that really set us up for success. ‘Bab’s brought down a much more professional attitude in how to structure training and how we prepared that everyone just started to buy in,” Hall said.

“When I was coach, if you didn’t do preseason, you weren’t in the team,” Babich said.

“I was always looking for ways to be better. We used to go down to the Hillarys Marina on Sunday morning and walk between the rocks in the water for half an hour, which amateur clubs weren’t doing back then.”

“As a result, we always knew at three-quarter time that we were always the fittest team. No one had ever trained as hard in this competition as we had at that point,” he said.  

“Everyone would whinge and moan about doing a Sunday recovery session, but they would all still rock up,” said Hall.

Playing with a point to prove from the first bounce of 2006, the Hawks’ league and reserves sides ruthlessly tore apart their opposition thanks to their prime fitness, finishing the home-and-away season with a combined record of 30 wins and 6 losses.

“We had a lot of talent in our team that just clicked together really well, guys like Ben Allan, Floyd Aquino, who had been around the club a long time, at centre half forward, Adam Taylor in the ruck and up forward and Tim Hall in the centre,” said Babich.

“We did a lot off field together too, which helped create the camaraderie you need to win a flag.”

“We had a good group of guys that led the way, probably 6 or 7 of us who had been down (at the club) for a while. We knew our time was now, with the quality of the team we had and our ages,” Hall said. 

In another triumph for the club that season, Clayton Fitzgerald, Taylor and Hall both represented WA, the latter being named captain of the All-Australian U23 amateur side.

“It was probably some of the best memories I have of playing amateur football. We beat Victoria in Melbourne for the first time in a long time, and to captain the All-Australian team to Ireland, they’re just memories you can’t forget,” reminisced Hall.

Despite their dominant season, the league side’s premiership hopes were dealt a blow when finals time rolled around. 

 A nightmare six-goal second semi-final loss to Stirling at home meant Babich’s nervy minor premiers would have to take a more difficult path to reach a second Grand Final in three years.

“We had the game against Stirling filmed, and when we watched it back, we counted something like 50 unforced errors we had made. Just basic mistakes like dropped marks and missed tackles; it felt like we couldn’t do anything right that day. “ recalled Babich.

“It was too bad to be real; they beat us fair and square.”

Graced with a double chance, the Hawks faced the daunting prospect of confronting a Fremantle CBC side in the preliminary final, a team they had not defeated all season.

Led by former Fremantle Docker Brad Bootsma, C.B.C had proven tough opposition to crack during the home-and-away rounds according to Babich.

“When we played (Fremantle C.B.C) early in the season, they beat us on our home patch. We were shell-shocked, especially after how hard we worked in the preseason. ”

With just moments to go in the Preliminary Final, it appeared the Hawks were going to suffer the shame of a straight sets exit from the finals, trailing by under a goal with just seconds remaining.

“Stirling were there watching us, and they had actually packed up and gone back onto the bus they had hired, ready to leave,” Babich recalled.

Enter Hall’s state teammate, Adam Taylor, who coldly iced the game for the Hawks with a clutch goal from a set shot 40 metres out tight up against the Wanneroo Showgrounds boundary. 

To the surprise of the onlooking Saints players in the crowd, Hamersley Carine had pulled the game from the fire, Taylor’s last-gasp goal sealing his club’s right to challenge for the premiership in the following week.

“Tayls’ was one of the best players and forwards in the league, so whenever he had the ball in hand for a shot on goal, you just had so much trust in him. He recognised that too; everyone was pumping his tyres up because he was kicking bags of goals all that year,” said Hall.

“In that moment, having the ball in his hands was the best thing we could have hoped for.”

A Saturday to savour

Coronation day for the PFL’s 2006 Champion Club was September 16 as the Hawks played off in a league and reserves grand final doubleheader at Fremantle Oval.

The day began with the Reserves renewing their season-long battle with Fremantle CBC, while Babich’s league side got their rematch against their north-of-the-river nemesis in the league decider.

“(Stirling) were our closest rival and they had some really solid and experienced guys in their side. Chris Gerryn, their league coach, played at Claremont and East Perth; Kingsley Hunter was with the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle and their full forward Jeremy Lloyd played at East Perth, ” Babich recounted.

“There were no big margins against them; it was always a tight tussle.”

The reserves started the day off on the right foot for the club, defeating Fremantle CBC by 16 points, 8.7 (55) to 6.3 (39), securing the club’s first premiership for the day.

Now all eyes were on the league squad.

Babich knew his team would need to be at their best to claim the title, but a slice of luck was already on their side.

“We had a running joke that white shorts were our thing; when we wore them (as the away team), we nearly always won,” he said.

“You want to (go into the game) knowing that you’re confident, but we played such a poor game against them in the second semi-final, and running on the field after the reserves just won, you just didn’t want to let the club down.”

“It wasn’t cockiness or arrogance, but there was just something about us that we knew we could do it, after the other finals and the 2004 Grand Final loss,” recalled Hall.

Kicking into a weighty breeze in the first quarter, the Hawks started the game goalless but responded with five majors in the second to reclaim the lead at halftime.

They arrived at three-quarter-time still leading by two goals.

It had been a bruising and taxing affair, with both teams throwing their weight around at the contest.

“The first quarter (in a grand final) is always going to be hectic, and they got out to a small lead, but as the game went on, we just worked harder than them,” Babich said.

“That mentality of knowing we were the fittest and strongest team in the competition carried us through.”

With only one quarter left in the season and the premiership on the line, Babich had one final message for his players as they looked to defend their 11-point lead.

“I had some funny sayings that year, and I always used to talk about baking the cake.”

“So for three quarters we had been baking it, and now it was time to ice it in the last- there’s no point baking a cake if you can’t ice it.”

“I had said it for most of the year, and eventually the reserves guys cottoned on to it, so they were just waiting for me to say it at three-quarter time to summarise what was going on.”

Buoyed by their coach’s words, the Hawks would hold on to win by 13 points, 11.14 (80) to 9.13 (67).

It was Hamersley Carine’s fourth senior premiership and ended a frustrating 14-year wait for a flag, to date the club’s longest gap between league premierships.

Taylor backed up his heroics from the week prior by kicking five goals and was unanimously named the best player on the ground.

“Tayls was one of the guys who just had so much talent; he could have played 100 games of WAFL if he wanted to, but he decided to play with his mates. He got his body right that year, and he played some great footy for us,” Babich recounted. 

“He started the game in the ruck and hit the first tap straight down to me, right down my throat, and we just thought we were on from there. Stirling got the jump on us early on the scoreboard but we never felt threatened or overawed by the situation,” said Hall.

“We just knew it was going to all eventually happen as we got into the gears of our game.”

With the cake now baked and iced, it was time for some fun for the triumphant Hawks. 

Keeley, then a Colts player and the league side’s runner on Grand Final day, remembered the ecstatic festivities that followed the twin titles.

“My main memory is when we got back to the footy club after a big bus trip from Fremantle, a committee member had just filled the clubrooms with balloons. It was just an epic celebration of a great year.” 

Earlier in the day, the club’s “thirsty thirds” had nearly made it a hat-trick of flags for the football club. 

In Mosman Park, just a few suburbs across from where the Hawks’ top two sides were sewing up the league and reserves double, club icon Dwane Carr’s team were forced to settle for second place, going down to Fremantle CBC in the B Thirds grand final.

Not that it dulled the celebrations back at Beach Road.

Hamersley Carine will celebrate the 20th anniversary of both premierships on Saturday 15 August at Carine Open Space.

Replays of both Grand Finals will be shown in the clubhouse from 1:00 pm, followed by an official celebration of the players, coaches and volunteers who made the season so memorable.

By Spencer Robertson