Season Summary: 1965

The writing was on the wall for the Seagulls in 1965, with the club losing a wealth of experienced key position players to coaching posts with other clubs coupled with the unexpected retirements of several players both before and during the season, which would make the task of challenging the top teams over the following years even more difficult. Players departing included Lindsay Murphy (125 games, 146 goals), Leo Maloney (107, 115), Alan McAsey (80, 61), Greg Taube (73, 2) and Bobby Turner (54, 90). Turner did return in 1966 and played a further three games. Furthermore, Bob Ware was restricted to only eight games due to a serious illness. The only recruit of note was former Footscray and South Melbourne player Charlie Evans.

This was made clearly evident by the poor season that followed, with the club missing the finals for the second time in three years. Playing its fifth consecutive match at North Port Oval (the last home and away match of 1964 and three finals were all played at Port Melbourne) the season opened brightly enough for the Seagulls with a victory in the 1964 grand final rematch away against Port, 12.10.82 to 9.20.74 (Jim Jenkinson 4 goals), and saw the Club in fourth position, the only time all season it was in the four. Ten losses in the next twelve games meant the finals were out of question, and the team fluctuated between seventh and eighth spot on the ladder all year. As the season progressed it was obvious that the lack of experienced key position players and injuries made serious inroads on the strength of the team, and by round 13 only three wins had been recorded and relegation to the second division seemed a possibility. Four successive victories in rounds 14-17 at home against Coburg (14.11.95 to 8.10.58) and Oakleigh (9.7.61 to 6.6.42) and away against Geelong West (5.13.43 to 4.5.29) and Yarraville (11.15.81 to 8.11.59), enabled the Club to finish seventh on the premiership ladder with a 7-11 Win/Loss record, five games out of the final four. More significantly, Port registered their first win at Williamstown since 1952, and Jim Jenkinson was the leading goalkicker with a total of 29, the lowest since Bob Addison's 23 majors in 1933. The team averaged just over nine goals per game in 1965.

Tom Russell won the Andy Taylor Memorial Trophy for best and fairest from Jenkinson and captain Daryl Ward. Russell also played his 100th senior game for Williamstown during the year.