A proposed WA state team, 1976-86, excluding VFL/AFL players.

[megadeth86]

This article is about the author's preferred Western Australian state team from 1976-86, including reasons given for many of the choices and an interesting, controversial selection of coach - Mal Brown rather than John Todd, Haydn Bunton Junior or Ken Armstrong. Players who played VFL/AFL are excluded.

WAFL Football Golden Era: OPINION: "My Western Australian State Team, 1976-86, excluding players who played VFL/AFL", by Kieran James (revised version, 14/4/2015) (waflgoldenera.blogspot.com)

Any comments on this team put forward by the author of the article?

 

[Spearhead]

John Todd surely has to be the WA Coach?
We won the National Championship under Toddy in 1983 & 1984!
Barry Cable (77) & Ron Alexander (86) also ahead of Brown.

 

[megadeth86]

John Todd surely has to be the WA Coach?
We won the National Championship under Toddy in 1983 & 1984!
Barry Cable (77) & Ron Alexander (86) also ahead of Brown.

Maybe it was a polemical piece written by someone that loved Brownie! But I get his point that Brown's achievement in bringing Perth up from bottom to third within two or three years was impressive and unheralded. By the time 1987 came around though everyone's attention had turned to West Coast.

 

[Spearhead]

1986 was a funny season Mega.
EF & Subi were the 2 standouts by a mile whilst Claremont who started the season like a German Band were unlucky with injuries mid year including losing Malaxos & Mitchell for large parts and battled into the Finals losing the 1st Semi.
Perth did improve markedly to finish 3rd but they did show signs of improvement in 1985 Brownies first season as coach there.
Both SD & WP went backwards from 1985, for Swans it was the end of an era with losing too many gun players to the VFL in the proceeding years finally taking its toll whilst WP didnt come on as expected maybe they were also an experienced but aging team in 1985 (J.Duckworth, Fong, Menaglio, Murnane, C.Bewick, Mugavin, Bradmore, Perrin etc all close to or over 30yo) and then somehow let Derek Kickett go to Claremont and had their moments but nowhere near as consistent as 85.
SF & EP were quite young teams who showed late in the season they had some very good young talent at their disposal.
Then the introduction of the WCE for 1987 (35 WAFL players in their inaugural squad) and a host of other star players going to other VFL clubs in that year- (Bairstow, Winmar, Spalding, Sartori, Mitchell, Starcevich, Christian, Yorgey, Wilson, Sells, DaRui, Hepburn, Dennis, Harding, Crutchfield, Dean, Turner, Stephens etc) or to the cashed up SANFL clubs at the time- (Panizza, Stasinowsky, Grljusich, Kerr, Lally, K.Taylor, S.Richardson, A.Jakovich, Nelson, Chaplin, Ralph etc) and it seriously weakened the WAFL from 1987 even though it was (and still is to a certain extent) a very good footy League but nothing compared to how strong it was pre 1987!

 

[megadeth86]

1986 was a funny season Mega.
EF & Subi were the 2 standouts by a mile whilst Claremont who started the season like a German Band were unlucky with injuries mid year including losing Malaxos & Mitchell for large parts and battled into the Finals losing the 1st Semi.
Perth did improve markedly to finish 3rd but they did show signs of improvement in 1985 Brownies first season as coach there.
Both SD & WP went backwards from 1985, for Swans it was the end of an era with losing too many gun players to the VFL in the proceeding years finally taking its toll whilst WP didnt come on as expected maybe they were also an experienced but aging team in 1985 (J.Duckworth, Fong, Menaglio, Murnane, C.Bewick, Mugavin, Bradmore, Perrin etc all close to or over 30yo) and then somehow let Derek Kickett go to Claremont and had their moments but nowhere near as consistent as 85.
SF & EP were quite young teams who showed late in the season they had some very good young talent at their disposal.
Then the introduction of the WCE for 1987 (35 WAFL players in their inaugural squad) and a host of other star players going to other VFL clubs in that year- (Bairstow, Winmar, Spalding, Sartori, Mitchell, Starcevich, Christian, Yorgey, Wilson, Sells, DaRui, Hepburn, Dennis, Harding, Crutchfield, Dean, Turner, Stephens etc) or to the cashed up SANFL clubs at the time- (Panizza, Stasinowsky, Grljusich, Kerr, Lally, K.Taylor, S.Richardson, A.Jakovich, Nelson, Chaplin, Ralph etc) and it seriously weakened the WAFL from 1987 even though it was (and still is to a certain extent) a very good footy League but nothing compared to how strong it was pre 1987!

Great post. 1984 was interesting for the small gap in wins between top and bottom teams. Man, we had a great competition back then.

1985 was interesting due to the paper-scissors-rock paradox in the final four: Swans could beat West Perth, Subiaco could beat Swans, East Freo could beat Subiaco, but West Perth could beat East Freo (West Perth won two out of the three qualifying games against East Freo that year including the game where Mainwaring missed with his kick after the siren). But West Perth was eliminated in the first semi final, and never had a crack at the Sharks.

In 1986, fans expected West Perth to keep doing well but Perth took their spot in the final-four - few people saw that coming except a few Demons diehards.

Those were my teenaged years, fantastic memories of another time - when teenagers wore WAFL club colours and carried big flags on the trains on a Saturday. And WAFL games were the topic of Monday post-mortems at school. I'm grateful that I was there to see it.

 

[Spearhead]

Me too, I am so glad I lived through that era and went to SD games every week back then.
I was in Primary School during those halcyon WAFL years (1979-86) and not one kid ever talked about the VFL it was all the WAFL and being a SD supporter it was a sensational period.
I can still remember the day after WA beat the Vics in the 86 SOO game at Subi Oval and everyone at the recess and lunch kick to kick was attempting to take hangers like Andrew MacNish's the day before as a lot of us wagged school that day to go along and watch on the Tuesday arvo.
Great days in WA footy!

 

[megadeth86]

Me too, I am so glad I lived through that era and went to SD games every week back then.
I was in Primary School during those halcyon WAFL years (1979-86) and not one kid ever talked about the VFL it was all the WAFL and being a SD supporter it was a sensational period.
I can still remember the day after WA beat the Vics in the 86 SOO game at Subi Oval and everyone at the recess and lunch kick to kick was attempting to take hangers like Andrew MacNish's the day before as a lot of us wagged school that day to go along and watch on the Tuesday arvo.
Great days in WA footy!

I was high-school in 1984 and 1985. Both years, a group of mates wagged school to attend the game. We arranged those days with so much seriousness. There must have been ten of us both years. Once Mom scolded me when I got back as the school had given her a call. I tried to tell her that the game is only once a year, but she didn't back down. Only football fans would understand.

I was there in 1986 too, I was standing in front of the tin shed on the concrete terraces and it happened about 15-20 metres in front of me. Justin Madden was a giant too and MacNish stood on his shoulders - that was one of the greatest marks in history.

 

[megadeth86]

Me too, I am so glad I lived through that era and went to SD games every week back then.
I was in Primary School during those halcyon WAFL years (1979-86) and not one kid ever talked about the VFL it was all the WAFL and being a SD supporter it was a sensational period.
I can still remember the day after WA beat the Vics in the 86 SOO game at Subi Oval and everyone at the recess and lunch kick to kick was attempting to take hangers like Andrew MacNish's the day before as a lot of us wagged school that day to go along and watch on the Tuesday arvo.
Great days in WA footy!

Remember when everyone had a VFL club to support too, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, etc? I think it was 1984 or 1985, Carlton played Claremont at Claremont Oval in a pre-season scratch match. It was very hot that day. As a Carlton fan, that kind of day was very significant too.

 

[Spearhead]

Remember when everyone had a VFL club to support too, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, etc? I think it was 1984 or 1985, Carlton played Claremont at Claremont Oval in a pre-season scratch match. It was very hot that day. As a Carlton fan, that kind of day was very significant too.

Have never really followed a VFL team, I was only interested in how the SD players at each club were going (and there were plenty of them)- M.Richardson, Shine, Kenny, Sartori, Smith, Baker, G.Sidebottom, A.Sidebottom, Beecroft, Beasley, Williams, Rance, Hoyer, Holden, McDonald, P.Narkle, Neesham etc
We beat Collingwood easily a couple of times in Escort Cup/Pre Season games back in that era with us (SD) wearing our traditional Black & White guernsey whilst Collingwood wore an all white ensemble (Att# Eddie McGuire)!!!

 

[megadeth86]

Have never really followed a VFL team, I was only interested in how the SD players at each club were going (and there were plenty of them)- M.Richardson, Shine, Kenny, Sartori, Smith, Baker, G.Sidebottom, A.Sidebottom, Beecroft, Beasley, Williams, Rance, Hoyer, Holden, McDonald, P.Narkle, Neesham etc
We beat Collingwood easily a couple of times in Escort Cup/Pre Season games back in that era with us (SD) wearing our traditional Black & White guernsey whilst Collingwood wore an all white ensemble (Att# Eddie McGuire)!!!

Yes, I have watched the video of that Swans versus Collingwood game on YouTube. That's the way I think a national league should have happened (traditional clubs only). You mentioned some great players - don't forget Keith Narkle.

 

[eastfreo75]

Great post. 1984 was interesting for the small gap in wins between top and bottom teams. Man, we had a great competition back then.

1985 was interesting due to the paper-scissors-rock paradox in the final four: Swans could beat West Perth, Subiaco could beat Swans, East Freo could beat Subiaco, but West Perth could beat East Freo (West Perth won two out of the three qualifying games against East Freo that year including the game where Mainwaring missed with his kick after the siren). But West Perth was eliminated in the first semi final, and never had a crack at the Sharks.

In 1986, fans expected West Perth to keep doing well but Perth took their spot in the final-four - few people saw that coming except a few Demons diehards.

Those were my teenaged years, fantastic memories of another time - when teenagers wore WAFL club colours and carried big flags on the trains on a Saturday. And WAFL games were the topic of Monday post-mortems at school. I'm grateful that I was there to see it.

Mainwaring kick should have been 15m.

That day fueled my hatred for the garlic munchers.