Those two victories were against the eventual grand finalists Ark, good pickup. In fact their first victory of the season was against the 1976 premiers and Subiaco only won a total of 4 games that year. I must admit it was a novelty to look at the ladder that year and see Subiaco on the bottom, I’m sure they can’t have won a wooden spoon since the early 80s?
mikeh: as well, they beat the eventual premiers and the side that finished on top after 21 rounds-- I wonder if Perth were trying to help out their old mate Jack? He had not won a game up to that point of the season. Just for the record, that Subi side which failed to win a game for the first half of the season, all the same, counted seven premiership players from the miracle year in 1973.
Yep, SD were way above us, headed by the controversial Macgee as coach for one year.
I was at the East Perth game as a kid Ark. my father took me into the changerooms after the game and i still have the team list from the budget with most of the players autographs. I clearly recall JK Watts coming into the rooms after the game for interviews in a media role and getting more or less shouted down and thrown out. I guess he had been giving Subi the usual grief through the week. What great theatre it was!
singha: a good memory, always enjoyed JKW too. I am sure he had a big smile on his face throughout as the club celebrated our win. Who was the best player in our side?
My clearest old wafl memory. As soon as me and my old man got home straight on the blower to my cousins rubbing it in. Anyway the ferals were a couple of games clear on top so no doubt were getting flogged on the track as only a couple of weeks from the finals. Schultz Catoggio and Fathers I remember that day. On another note in 1977 at the half way mark we were going ok had some really good wins and a couple of games out of the 4 then the last 5 games we got belted and even the wooden spooners gave us a 10 goal hiding in the final game. Ark can you remember the reasons why we went down hill so suddenly?
DG: good post mate. It would have been good to stop the chirpy of all the EP supporters, at least for a week or two.
Have you seen the game below? I think Ric pointed put, once, because we had the biggest lead at quarter time in the history of the league and stuffed it up.
Douge could have been sacked after this, his first game in charge of the club. What do you think? Your right DG, at times we seemed to have played good football, mainly on the back of the mid field you mentioned and the influence of Fathers. We had an unstable side, either through injury or form, just five players or so appearred in 21 games. What happened, for example, to Wayne Loxley? He kicked a goal in the match above, and was never seen again that season.
Actually, 1977, DG, reminded me a bit of what happened in 1981, four years later; the mid field played well with a bit of help from Peter Munro. Ironically, in that year, we fell nine goals behind Old Easts at quarter time and nearly won the bloody match. Do you remember the game DG?
I remember being at that game as a youngster. It was a big upset that day and a kick up the backside for Perth. Looking at the team lists that day it seemed Perth had a few out. Lofts, Currie, Mitsopoulos and Hargrave all missing from the team and this was before the mid season signing of Herbert from Victoria.
Cesspit: thanks for the post. Was Herbert a ruckman? When you look at the game, despite Subi’s much improved efforts, and even allowing for all the players missing, in actual fact, had the Demons kicked straight for goal they would have won the game.
Yes Ark, everyone hated losing to poor old Subi, as you know. Maybe sacking a bit harsh for Douge, that was a nightmare start for him but he redeemed himself mid year with a miracle win against souths at freo, 5 goals down at 3/4 time, 9 goal to 1 last qtr. Unbelievable really as the other two games that year they gave us 20 goal floggings I think.
I remember it mate, first game of the season in 81. Generally we weren’t too bad that year in possibly the strongest WAFL season I’ve seen. We were unfortunate to lose that late season game vs the ferals. We had our chances in that game right up until late in the last. Missed 4th spot to the ferals by two games and a small percentage
Was at both of the games in 1976 and remember that Colin Williams broke the subi games record then held by Austin Robertson in the East Perth game. He played his 252 and last game in this match. Third quarter was remarkable with 19 goals scored ( EP 10 to Subi 9).
Neil Taylor later set a new games record of 260 for subi.
The amazing thing about the struggle with EP in 1981, was that, as you know, in two out of the three games, we took turns at kicking 26 goals against the other team. I saw us leak 26.14 at Perth Oval and it was no fun, listening to the second game at Subi, was, as you can imagine, a lot bloody better. Credit goes to Ken Armstrong and the players, because, I am certain that, at the time, kicking 26 goals against EP and 25 goals against WP, would have been goal scorring records.
Sadly we lost all of our goal kickers the following year:
Gary Buck
Alex Hamilton – he kicked more goals than Basil Campbell in 1981 --jus to highlight how valuable he was to us.
Peter Munro
Neil Taylor kicked less goals in 1982 for some reason
add all that up and we were missing 120 goals once the siren blew to start the season.
It was looking like we were on the up at the end of 81 but as you said Ark we had way too many quality departure. 82 was a funny one, we had our chances in so many games but we just didn’t know how to win
DG: I have come to the conclusion, given all the close games in 1982, that Armstrong nearly over-achieved that year as well. We should have beaten Perth twice, both at Laithlan too, WP once, EP once, the blue and whites twice, SF, at least once possibly twice, and Cl once.
The only side we were not in front of at half-time that season was SD. If you go through all that lot, we would have easily avoided the wooden spoon, probably finishing above EF in sixth.
This game below sums up Subi that year, the game against the tigers I mentioned above:
Remember this game Ark? The dogs had to win to secure 4th spot from the ferals. They didn’t and ferals upset old easts to make the 4. After this game I had a strong feeling success wasn’t far away
Yep remember that game against souths. This was the game when I got the sense that subi were on the move. Came from 5 goals down at half time to beat claremont at Claremont oval. Sells with 6 goals and 12 players will go on to win a premiership 2 years later.
DG – I remember that game well too – the shouts of the South fans as the game slipped away from them at an early stage. It was the first time I had ever seen Subiaco beat South at Fremantle, a memorable game. Yep, EP owed us big time as the yanks say, for helping them out. It was good to see Greg Kelly’s name in that team.
oobi: good post – Subi played well that day against reasonably strong opposition from the Tigers, many of the CL supporters blammed the umpires for the lose. That was the game Sells backed spun through a pack and hooked a goal, a goal which was shown in advert for the next two years on channel 7 – it was great to watch.
1984 was very even year, which partly explains why we finished seventh, but, in truth, we may have under achieved that season. Credit goes to EP for making the four with a slightly under strengthened side.