The Western Suburbs Red Devils (Wests Illawarra, Wests Wollongong, Wests Red Devils or simply Wests Devils) are an Australian rugby league football team based in Figtree, a suburb of Wollongong. The club is a member of the Country Rugby League and compete in the Illawarra Rugby League premiership. The club play out of Figtree Oval, Figtree. Wests wear red and blue jerseys and have won 16 premierships. Wests Illawarra Leagues club is a thriving club in Unanderra.
Wests formed in 1949 with the amalgamation of clubs in the district (primarily Unanderra and Mount Keira). The Leagues Club was established in Unanderra and opened in 1956. The Red Devils won the premiership the following year with a 22âÂÂ6 win over Wollongong. They repeated this effort in 1959 when they defeated Northern Suburbs 12âÂÂ6 in the Grand Final.
With Don Parish at the helm as captain-coach, Wests took back-to-back titles in 1969âÂÂ70. Warren Ryan continued this trend the following two seasons when he took over, defeating Thirroul (18âÂÂ11 in 1971, and 23âÂÂ9 in 1972). Cronulla Sharks legend, Tommy Bishop also guided the team to a premiership in 1978.
Wests were again premiers two years later, winning in 1980 and 1981. The following year the Illawarra Steelers were accepted into the NSWRL premiership, thus all the sides in the league became feeder clubs to this side. Being premiers, a large portion of the Red Devils were contracted to the Steelers. This made life difficult in the 1982 premiership for the Red Devils, but within three years they won another premiership. They followed this up with another in 1989 and 1991.
The Red Devils went through a dry spell from here, not winning the premiership for 18 years. They came close during Brendon Reeves' reign in 2005. They did eventually break the drought in 2009 when they defeated reigning premiers, Thirroul, 14âÂÂ4 under coach Paul McGregor in his first season. They went back-to-back with a 24âÂÂ0 win in 2010, again over the Butchers. In 2011, Wests made it a treble of grand final wins with a 34âÂÂ24 victory over Helensburgh. The Red Devils were unable to match the team of the 60-70s that won four consecutive premierships when they lost 20âÂÂ16 to finals rivals Thirroul in the 2012 grand final.
In 2018 Wests found enough to hold off Thirroul 18âÂÂ16 to claim their first Illawarra League crown in eight seasons. The Devils ran in four first-half tries to lead 18âÂÂ0 at the break before a second-half fightback saw the Butchers get within two with 18 minutes to play.
<small> Players in bold represent current NRL players.</small>