A few names come to mind when you think of dominant teams in sport: the 1996 Chicago Bulls, the 1998 New York Yankees, the 2002 Brazilian soccer team.
Well, it’s just about time to add the Peel Thunderbirds youth girls to the list.
They finished their regular season undefeated over the weekend, and in doing so claimed the title of the most successful football team in the state.
The unblemished 2016 follows their undefeated season in 2015. It’s been over two years since the Thunderbirds youth girls lost a match.
But forget the win-loss column, the mind-boggling stat is that the Thunderbirds played 12 games this season and had less than 100 points scored against them, 95 to be exact.
Peel themselves booted a total 823 points, meaning the average score for their 12 games was 69 to eight.
They finished the regular season with a percentage of 866.32 per cent, which would be much higher if not for the mercy rule, which sees any victory over 60 points count as just a 60-point win.
Peel also had 12 players represent the state throughout 2016.
Their immaculate season prompted me to investigate football leagues in WA, from the AFL down to country football, to find a side with a better season than the Thunderbirds.
I failed.
No country, state or AFL football team based in WA has had a better year (statistically) than the Peel youth girls.
The Bayulu Bulldogs of the Central Kimberley Football League went undefeated, but didn’t come close to Peel’s dominance.
Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault have undefeated sides in both the reserves and colts divisions of the South West Football League, but again pale in comparison to Peel’s almighty stat line.
The North Albany reserves dominated the Great Southern Football League, Coastal Titans ran riot in the WA Women’s Football League and Hahndorf reserves had an undefeated year in the Hills Football League.
Morowa’s nippers team in the North Midlands Football League came the closest with a 13-0 record, 157 points against and a percentage of 759, but it wasn’t enough to top the Thunderbirds.
But despite the Thunderbirds Goliath-sized year, coach Justin Hockings said his team needed to remain focused to perform well throughout the finals.
“We’ve had a great year and the girls have held themselves in outstanding fashion, but it definitely isn’t done yet,” he said.
“It’s nice to think about how well the team is doing, but we open our finals campaign against Perth and they really pushed us last time.”
The Thunderbirds play against Perth Angels in a first vs second semi-final on Sunday.
If you know of a football side that’s had a better 2016 than the Thunderbirds youth girls team, let me know with an email at justin.rake@fairfaxmedia.com.au