Howl good! Reliving the Manly Wolves best year

Rewind twenty years, The Manly Wolves fielded a total of two Men’s sides, languishing down the bottom of Sydney’s second tier AFL competition. Fast forward to the 2025 season, the Wolves run out four Men’s senior teams, plus a Masters side, not one but two Under 19’s Men’s teams and five(!) Women’s teams, inclusive of an Under 20’s side, bringing the total tally of sides running onto the field in the maroon and white every weekend to twelve! Incredible. 

Both first grade sides not only play in AFL Sydney’s Premier Division, but both finished as minor premiers in 2025. The club boasted premiership winners in four different grades, as well as a couple of heart breaking Grand Final defeats in a couple of others…The Wolves have become a powerhouse of the Sydney AFL competition, having been crowned 2025 AFL Sydney’s club of the year. 

The long and the short of it is the Manly Wolves are flying, and so too is AFL on the Northern Beaches, with record numbers being seen across the four junior clubs on the Beaches – Manly Bombers, Forest Lions, Narrabeen Tigers and Balgowlah Suns.

Thanks to local juniors and ex Manly Wolves, like Sam Wicks who is a regular feature in the Sydney Swans side and Jess Doyle who plays for the GWS Giants, a clear pathway has been forged from ovals like Weldon all the way to the SCG and MCG for young boys and girls on the Beaches daring to dream big. 

But back to 2025, far and away the most successful for the club in the 56 seasons that preceded it starting way back in 1969. Although falling agonisingly short of the ultimate goal in both Men and Women’s Premier Division, the club takes great pride in the fact that 9 out of 12 sides made finals, contested Grand Finals in 6 of them and got the chocolates in 4.

Whilst the Men’s sides have tasted plenty of success over the journey, highlighted by four 1st grade Premierships in a row, including two of them when first promoted to Sydney’s Premier Division in 2013, the Women’s program is the one that has exploded over the last decade, with young girls and ladies flocking to the sport now that AFLW has become a mainstream sport. The Wolves fielded a side in every division of the women’s competitions in the Sydney AFL in 2025.

So, as we farewell season 2025, the Wolves are setting the bar high and striving to make 2026 even more successful than the season just gone. Preseason training will recommence in November at various locations around the Beaches, due to ground availability in summer like Curl Curl and Manly Vale.