the early 1980s, powerful sides and eveness

WAFL WAFL General Chat
1

This thread is a response to dg’s and mine’s little discussion on the subi thread about the eveness of the competition in 1980.

At first glance one would not have regarded the compettiion as even, simply because SD won eighteen games, South seventeen, and at the other end of the table, the weakest subi side i have seen just two games.

However, as BH, has stressed in the past, there are a few reeasons to suggest that the WAFL was even:

1 the fact that three of the historically weaker sides finished in th top three
2 that one of those sides won the flag
3 that EF – the best club finished second last
4 SD winning eighteen straight barely a year after finishing last
5 the PFC finished sixth above EF

i am going to suggest, however, and this is sticking my neck out a wee bit, that 1981, was the most even in the WAFL history. Certainly, there is evidence to the contrary: the tigers won 19 games and were the best side i have seen; in addition to the fearful thrashings handed out to the PFC, EF, and WP and even subi, by the top sides.

In truth, the evidence points the other way, that 1981 was the most even season in history

1 the tigers won only their fourth flag
2 none of the big three were in the top three
3 subi finished fifth after being 8th and could have knocked all of the big three out of the four
4 two of the big three EF and wp really strugglled

I think it was the triple facts of the tigers winning just their fourth flag – comparred to South’s tenth from memory in 1980 – and the rise of Subh, together with the demise of wP and EF that makes 1981 slightly more even than 1980; keeping in mind, always that the garlic munchers should have made the finals that year.

A couple of people might want to debate the merits of 1984 as being more even that either 1980 and 1981, but i would disagree for the following reasons:

1 EF made the grand final
2 the PFC and Subi, two of the WAFL’s weaker clubs finished together on the bottom of the ladder.
3 two of the big three made the top four, remmeberrin the efforts of EP that year

finally, here are three little facts to highlight the uneveness of the compettion before 1980:

the big three won 54 flags between them
Ef and EP had less than 6 wooden spoons between them
the PFC never finished last between 1934-1981
bottom spot was sewn up by cl, subi and sd.

– this does not excuse, subi, however from not winning a few more flags, particularly in the 1930s. I have often wonderred why the club lost johnny leonard to wP and then cl, favourring the victorian imports.

2

i would suggest that the historic uneveness of the WAFL was corrected after 1980

Since then we have seen a second era of uneveness develop, which has affected most clubs to variying degrees – including the great EF – only Subi and Cl have been sparred.

3

Yep Late 70s and early 80s great era. It was the last role of the dice for teh WANFL , decline after that.

4

To the naked eye 84 seems more even - the 7 & 8 placed sides both won 9 games.

5

you could probably throw 1982 in your book too mate - Toddy & Johnny Cooper got Swans their long awaited flag
The balance first started shifting after the 1978 season - I think it was Claremont who were emerging and in that process getting in the first Krakouer , Jim
and there were a few 10 year plus droughts broken flag-wise

clearly remember that there were dozens of fine footballers (across all the clubs) who didn’t get gigs in State footy at that time

6

1977 or 78 at the latest, Perth went up in smoke and WP faded from the scene EP remained strong but would fade, while EF remained highly competitive but would suffer a short dive later, SF were emerging as a power who would linger until early 80s, CLaremont began the built to be the greatest side of the 80s and a post eagles power.

7

bazza: correct, the relative decline of the three perth sides was noticeable by the mid 1980s, in a way the loss of Peter Spencer was symbolic of it. We need to keep in mind too, that the decline has been masked, at least in WP’S case, by extensive recruiting; recruiting, which, happily, has got them over the line for some flags since 1995.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that without the recruiting, WP’s premiership drought, would, today be longer than that of the PFC’s.

Can anyone go on the WP thread and pick their best side since 1975 recruitless?

8

The best era of football of all time in my books AR.
Not just because of the rise of my mob and the subsequent hat-trick of flags but we bore witness to probably the most dynamic WAFL team of any era in the Claremont side of 1981.
We also saw some of the greatest players to ever lace up a boot back then everyone from Cable, Moss, Michael, Rioli, Krakouer x 2, Buckenara, Wiley, Peake, Spencer, Fong, Menaglio, Baker, Narkle, Malaxos, Ralph, Beasley, Monteath the list just goes on and on…

9

BH – yes I think your right mate – reading books and talking to people over the years, from a grand father to people on here, i would say the state has had three really strong eras:
the 1930s
the immediate post war era, particularly the South side
the early 1980s, which is unique for the reasons you have said on equality as well as powerful sides.

just thinking about the buckenara saga, in a way merrifield may have got too much money out of hawthorn?

10

The 1930s , which my Grandfather played in was a very good era, but the stand thing of that era was the toughness and brutality of it, there was at least one on field death, Ron Doig, it was a real blood and guts league.

Ark as you say the post war era late 40s into 50s was very good indeed with SF beating VFL sides, the quality was probably at its zenith on a national basis.
Leading into that was the 60s which produced the National State Championship. the 60s and early 70s also produced some record home and away attendances that were not matched.

11

Yep, WP after a stunning 1975 Flag, remained somewhat competitive for a few seasons after but then fell to being a middle of the range team that just could not break out of the rut until the 90s.

12

bazza: as you know 1975 was the swan song of the great side they had around whinnnen and co – by rights the side could have easily won four flags considerring they were red hot favourites to beat subi in 1973.

13

Indeed, a leagcy of a power club through the 60s.

14

West Perth were still a formidable opponent during that period and did manage to upset the top sides each season while also losing some elite talent to other clubs - Chris Stasinowsky Shane Sheridan & Stuart Hillier to South Fremantle , Bill Valli to Subiaco , Brian Adamson to Norwood , Ray Holden to Claremont , Mick Rea to Perth , John Duckworth to Central Districts and later Ross Gibbs to Glenelg to name some

and the power sides on the rise did have some seriously special players that not even VFL sides could come close to

15

Ray Holden went to Perth Sutho :slight_smile:

16

Ark, you know what the response to your WP theory will be don’t you ??? EP have benefitted greatly from the assistance of recruitment via the alignment on a couple of occasions and would 100% not have won a Premiership if that didn’t occur.

17

leedy: as you know, both wp and ep have sufferred an historic disadvantage since around 1980 and have recruitted a lot of players, perfectly justifiably; the key differnce between the two clubs has been that the falcons won flags, the royals did not, and therefore, failed. Let us not forget that the royals were gifted turnbull too, and still could not do it.

18

Having said that about the Royals, one should add in tribute:

getting Turnbull was partly about the eveness of the league
the club did a great job reaching the grand final in 1996
they lost to the historic powerful club of the era
in that sense, had the Royals won, espcially given how disadvantaged the club had been since 1980 or so, it would have been a genuine momemnt of equality, however shortlived, in the history of the competition.

19

bazza: thanks for the post on the 1930s. i remember reading about the loss of poor ron doig, a terrible business. Just to back up your point further, the stories my grand dad told, about how to play the game, were indeed full of violence. ‘Punch him in the back of the head’ in marking contests and so on. I knew a former EP league player whom was cleaned up at Bassendean in the late 1930s and had to quit the game.

20

Yes Ark to say we were a tad unlucky in '96 when we fell 2 points short in a very high class decider would be an understatement.We always knew the Tigers would have 10 Gerard Neesham Docker rejects available to them come finals time which was never considered a real issue,but what we did’nt bargain on was the finals qualification of 2 dual W.Coast premiership in ChrisLewis and Don Pyke who were 27 and 28 respectively,[hardly past their prime]and they were the defining difference in our narrow loss.