ESSENDON District Football League clubs West Coburg and Strathmore are on either side of Moonee Ponds Creek. Their grounds are two kilometres and several worlds apart.

This week, West Coburg president David Gloury happily described his club's playing list as a league of nations. Whereas in the 1980s many players were of Greek, Italian or Balkan background, the sons of Europeans have now been joined by Lebanese and Sudanese Muslims.

In Strathmore, however, the high price of real estate in the suburb means that few recent immigrants live there. In recent years, Strathmore has paid big bucks to bring in top talent, but those players' backgrounds have more or less reflected the backgrounds of the players before them. A stark illustration of the clubs was presented in the best-player lists after their game at West Coburg's Shore Reserve on Saturday. Best for West Coburg: Haouchar, Destanovic, Abdul-Wahed, Messaike, Vizzini, Lobosco. Best for Strathmore: Little, Hall, Harvey, Wilkinson, Doering, Greaney.

West Coburg has not always been so exotic. The club's alumni include David Dench (North Melbourne) and Wes Lofts (Carlton).

But these days, spectators at West Coburg junior games are accustomed to seeing women in burqas shouting for their sons. If the senior club throws a barbecue, the meat must be halal. If pizzas are ordered after training on Thursday nights, a high proportion must be vegetarian.

Celebrations after the club's B-grade premiership in 2006 took a different bent when one of the players brought in a hookah, a pipe seen throughout the Middle East. Fruit-flavoured tobacco is sucked through water and into a pipe. Every premiership player took his turn on the hookah. Then non-Muslim players resumed their places at the bar.

In recent decades, West Coburg has only camped in A-grade for a few years at a time, whereas Strathmore has had a two-storey house in the A-grade finals. The Mores have played in the past three grand finals for two flags, in 2005-06.

But West Coburg may be catching up. The Burgers have 300 juniors, and under-18 coach Neil Taylor has done an outstanding job grooming players for senior ranks. On Saturday, one of them, Marwon Abdul-Wahed, joined his brother Bassman and cousin Fidaa Ahmad in the team for his first senior game. He was outstanding.

Captain Rabee Haouchar, a multiple league best-and-fairest winner, was a strong leader in the midfield, while Alvir Destanovic kicked seven goals. Players with names such as Smith, Hudson, Power and Flavel also pulled their weight. West Coburg won by six goals. Gloury said it was the club's best win for a decade.

In the Strathmore rooms after the match, coach Jeremy Barnard, brother of Essendon premiership player Paul Barnard, tore strips off his players. No one from Strathmore had imagined a loss to West Coburg. They had to put it in their pipes and smoke it.