Geelong Gumbies

The Geelong Gumbies are a fantasy football club competing in the Sweet FA, based at the House of Gumby, a makeshift ground comprised entirely of clay, playdough and other water based products.

The Gumbies were born in Season 04 under inaugural captain Catman during an expansion and consolidation of the league which saw 2 licenses revoked, and five given to interested parties. Since their addition to the league, the Gumbies have had eight captains, culminating in the current co-captaincy arrangement between incumbent peterss and the anointed from Season 12; StFly, who had held the Vice Captains role for Season 13. Despite an envied top end of talent, the Gumbies continue to struggle to retain the middle group of player, which often leads them always on the cusp of promise.

History
The Geelong Gumbies were created in Season 04 through the application to then administrator EaglesKickAss and remains the 5th oldest club in the league behind the West Coast Wonders, Mount Buller Demons, Fighting Furies and Roys_FFC.

S04 to S06 - The Early Years
After been born into the Sweet FA the Geelong Gumbies had a few lean years while they watched their other newly formed brethren in the Bombers and the Swamprats tasted early positive results.

Despite this The Gumbies had a period of stability under the guidance of inaugural captain Catman which lasted three years from Season 04 to Season 06.

S07 to S10 - The Promising Start
In a promising start to Season 07 the Geelong Gumbies made the pre-season grand final in Season 07 and were triumphant over the Alberton Swamprats.

S07 Pre-Season Grand Final: Geelong Gumbies 11.9.75 def Alberton Swamprats 10.9.69

This was a promising start to what was once again a frustrating period at the clubs. During the period from Season 07 through to Season 09 The Gumbies had six different captains in three years.

Ninty to Winty
In Season 10 the Gumbies would once again settle into some stability under new captain Ninty famously known for the Ninty2Winty (CHF to FF) set up.

S11 and S12 - The High before the Low
A strong season, where The Gumbies finished Minor Premiers, would see them meet the Fighting Furies in the Season 11 Grand Final. The Furies were looking to make it back-to-back premierships after winning in Season 10 and they succeeded with The Gumbies going down by 20pts.

Fighting Furies 17.13.115 def Geelong Gumbies 14.11.95

Despite being Minor Premiers there was little shame in losing against a team that were in the middle of a Furious Dynasty that had them win three premierships in four years (S08, S10 & S11).

Season 11 would also see captain Ninty hand over the reigns to Peterss after 2 strong years as captain. This was possibly a sign of things to come as the activity of The Gumbies would steadily drop away from this season to Season 12.

S13 and S14 - Rebirth of The Gumbies
After a disappointing Season 13 both on and off the field, The Gumbies decided to build on some solid recruiting by starting a serious rebuild of the club. These recruits would include StFly (S12), Claypigeon (S13) and Lion Cub 16 (S13) who would eventually form the leadership group in the following seasons.

Through out Season 14 the team would cop the tag of inactivity despite showing marked improvement on the previous season. The Gumbies would cop this on the chin though and use it as motivation to continue the rebuild they had already embarked on.

S15 - The Beginning
During the Off-Season leading up to Season 15 the team would continue this recruitment which would see it turn over nearly half of it's list. Other clubs have done similarly but a minor point of difference is that most of The Gumbies recruits have come from outside the league, a nod to the leadership's ability to attract new players to the club.

During Season 15 Pre-Season, The Gumbies would blood much of their youth dropping the Ninty2Winty to the bench and pushing new players into core roles on the field to encourage them, reward activity and create a hunger in the group. The karma-like reward for this would see the Gumbies make the Grand Final of this competition.

Unfortunately it didn't translate to the Premiership season as the Gumbies found their way to their first wooden spoon in the club's history.

S16 - From Worst to First
After claiming the wooden spoon the previous year, spirits remained high at the beginning of Season 16 as they all concluded that they could only move up. The team quickly adopted the message "Year of the Clay" and it could be seen chanted through every match thread, against every opponent.

This upbeat tempo proved successful as the Gumbies finished 2nd on the ladder after the Home & Away season in a stunning turnaround of form. The Gumbies weren't content with that though as the marched onwards with the sole aim of claiming their maiden Premiership.

First Qualifying Final V East Side Hawks
Their first game of the SFA Finals Series would be on the road against the East Side Hawks. The Hawks would lead at every change but the Gumbies slowly closed the gap and took the lead in the last quarter, only to have PooMonkey equalise for the Hawks. At the 12 minute mark, Matt121 missed from point blank range to give the Hawks a 1 point lead in a low scoring quarter. But as the clock ticked over to 13 minutes, the floodgates opened for the boys in blue with goals to Krazy Kris, BoshtrichBurger, Redemptionin09 & Teeth149 as the Gumbies ran out 23 point winners.

Second Semi Final V Fighting Furies
Next up were the Fighting Furies in front of a sell-out crowd at the House of Gumby. There wasn't much to write home about though as the Gumbies got demolished by a clean, technically sound Furies outfit who shot out of the gates, never to be seen again as the yellow and black won by a very convincing 70 points.

Preliminary Final V East Side Hawks
Due to the unique nature of the SFA Finals Series that year, the Gumbies moved on the Preliminary Final against the Hawks yet again who had already lost twice that series. The House of Gumby was sold out again although it was slightly easier to spot opposition supporters this time but for the fans that showed up, they were not disappointed. In a complete reversal from the week before, the Gumbies were handing out the punishment as the Hawks went down by 63 points. This set up a clash yet again with the Fighting Furies and would be a rematch of the Gumbies only other Grand Final appearance back in S11.

Grand Final V Fighting Furies
Gumbymania had exploded as hundreds of thousands of fans made the trek to Boncer's Castle for the S16 Grand Final. Little did anyone know, just how historic this game would become. The Gumbies lead at every change albeit by 10 or less points. Their inaccurate kicking kept the Furies in with a chance all day and they looked to strike as fightingfury_88 put the Furies ahead 100-99 early in the last quarter. After a miss by wotdoiput, Filthy Sanchez slotted a goal from point blank to give the yellow and black a 6 point lead at the 12 minute mark.

With Jeremias 5th behind for the day, Gumbies fans couldn't bare to see another loss eventuate to the Furies. The cool head of winty shone through as he kicked his 4th for the day and put the Gumbies ahead by 1 with 10 minutes remaining. It was at the 20th minute when the Gumbies began to dream as the standout Best and Fairest for the Gumbies all season, Mr Gor, kicked home a marvellous goal that put the Gumbies up by 7 and looked to seal the fate of the Furies.

The Furies wouldn't be discouraged though as they took just 90 seconds to bring the margin back to just 1 point. The last 3 minutes would be a vicious tussle for possession as the Gumbies ran the clock out to hold on by 1 point in what many are calling the best Grand Final in the history of the Sweet F.A.

BoshtrichBurger would cap it off by winning the Deestroy Medal.

Colours
The Gumbies sought to retain their association to the Geelong Cats of the AFL by taking their traditional hooped design and general blue and white colour scheme. Each season the club has accepted offers or petitioned for alterations to their jumpers, variations of a theme as the colour scheme was always kept, Season 14 being no exception.

Season 14 Variant
In Season 14 the Home jumper saw a return to the hard edge with muted colours; navy blue and teal, being the primary set, adorned with white trimming. The Away jumper replaces the hoop design with a horizontal tri-colour, divided by a white line at the chest, this theme is inverted for the Clash variation.

Club honours

 * Premierships: none
 * Minor premierships: Season 11
 * Pre-season premierships: Season 07

Best and Fairest (Construction Certificate)

 * Carn_The_ Cattas (S06)
 * Perth Swans (S10)
 * peterss (S11)
 * Rojo_Jr (S12)
 * StFly (S13)
 * Claypigeon (S14)

Mobbenfuhrer Medal winners

 * BlueFan04 (S09)
 * Claypigeon (S14)

Geelong Gumbies Rising Star Award winners

 * Bucketss (S11)
 * StFly (S12)
 * Jeremias & Claypigeon (S13)
 * TheDoctor11 (S14)

Best Clubman winners

 * ShaunDuggan (S11)
 * Ghossein (S12)
 * StFly & peterss (S13)
 * StFly (S14)

Golden Boot winners

 * winty (S11) 66 Goals
 * Not Officially Awarded - Most likely winty though
 * winty (S13) ?? Goals
 * winty (S14) 32 Goals

Gumbies Finals Player of the Year

 * Perth Swans (S11)
 * peterss, krisholio14 & ballanFYNE (S12)

Tool of the Year

 * Rojo_Jnr (S13)
 * Striker475 (S14)

Frankston Rover Award winners

 * peterss (S12)

AlfAndrews Medal winners

 * RIZZ0 (S05)
 * Winty (S13)

Season 15

 * Claypigeon - Wing
 * StFly - Center Half Back

Match records

 * Highest score: 26.12.168 S08R15 vs Wonders
 * Lowest score: 6.15.51 S14R10 vs Hawks
 * Highest losing score: 23.12.150 S04R05 vs Razors
 * Lowest winning score: GUM 9.4.58 S14R13 vs Bombers
 * Biggest winning margin: 100 S04R07 vs Dockers
 * Biggest losing margin: 80 S04R17 vs Swamprats

Records set by players
*At the end of Season 13
 * Most matches:  156 WaLkEr_ThE_StAr
 * Most goals in career: 361 winty
 * Most goals in a season: 106 Rizzo - S03
 * Most goals in a single match: 10 Rizzo - S05R13 vs Furies
 * Most Best and Fairest awards: 1 Carn-The_Cattas ; Perth Swans ; Peterss ; Rojo Jnr ; StFly ; Claypigeon
 * Most Dream Team points in career: 8896 peterss
 * Most Dream Team points in a season: Unknown
 * Most Dream Team points in a single match: 184* Portentous