The 1991 WAFL season was the 107th season of the various incarnations of the West Australian Football League. With the West Coast Eagles still pushing attendances down and club finances into the red, the league made further experiments. Following on from the VFLand SANFL it introduced a ‘final five’ to replace the final four in use since 1905, but this did not produce the hoped-for financial benefits and was abandoned after four seasons. A more enduring result of this chance was a ‘double-header’ system of playing finals, whereby the two senior semi-finals were played at Subiaco Oval on the same day, with the first game starting just before noon and the second at the traditional time for playing finals. As a consequence of the double-headers, reserves finals were played at Fremantle Oval and colts at Bassendean.[1]
The league also reverted to the ‘WAFL’ moniker after the change to ‘WA State League’ or ‘WASFL’ was regarded as a failure. At the end of the home-and-away season, the WAFL saw offers from Kalgoorlie City, the South West National Football League and Geraldton to join as expansion clubs in an effort to gain more revenue from television[2] – these proposals never materialised, but the first expansion since 1934 was to occur six seasons later with Peel Thunder.
On the field, Claremont won its fifth consecutive minor premiership in more decisive fashion than any of the previous four, losing only one match after the opening round and achieving the third-longest winning streak in open-age football, though their unbeaten sequence did not equal the 22 games achieved in 1987/1988.[3] The Tiger dynasty would be broken the following season as the drafting of ten key players by AFL clubs decimated their ranks and they avoided the wooden spoon only by percentage in 1992.
Perth and East Perth, pre-1979 power clubs, both returned to the finals after long absences, in the Royals’ case after the bleakest era in their history with only 33 wins in 126 matches and in the Demons’ after being doomed pre-season to win only a couple of games after a clean-out and their 1990 Colts having won only once.[4] East Fremantle, who had not missed finals participation since 1982, were decimated by the in-season resignation of coach Ron Wilcox and president Hans Beyer and did not play finals in any grade.[5] The Sharks were also affected by the loss of number one ruckman Lance Durack after an altercation with Beyer[6] – Durack was recruited by Swan Districts but never played for them and returned to the blue and whites in the tenth round.[7] East Fremantle did recover during June and July but a serious lack of depth, well known to coach Judge, drove them off-course in August.[8] South Fremantle had their worst season since the disaster of 1987, losing in spectacular fashion on numerous occasions in July and August, whilst West Perth, who at one point had due to senior-list injuries to give seven of their colts team a second match in a single day with the reserves, took their second consecutive wooden spoon.[9]
On an individual front, Subiaco broke the longest club drought in Sandover Medal history, winning for the first time since Haydn Bunton, Sr. in 1941. The Lions were, however, to suffer the ignominy of losing the Grand Final in all three grades.[10]
Mick Hastie repeats his Round 7 effort from the previous season with two late goals as the depleted Swans repeat their Grand Final victory.[6]
A depleted West Perth team – minus the returning Bill Duckworth – come back from 0.1 (1) to 7.5 (47) down after twenty minutes to take the lead against a Lion team with eight Eagle-listed players before Haydn Bunton, Jr.’s coaching skill gets the Lions home.[13]
Injury-plagued forward John Hutton kicks five goals in his first senior match after being recruited in 1987 as Claremoent rebound from their opening loss to thrash the Lions.[15]
East Perth fail their first real test as Swan Districts coach John Todd works out a tactic to punch at all costs everything that went near Royal key forwards Glenn Bartlett and Ken Seymour – and uses it to effect.[17]
The return of John Garvanich and six goals from half-forward flanker Willie Dick – who had been at Goomalling in 1990 – leads Perth to top position for the first time since 1978.[18]
Subiaco and East Fremantle kick 26.17 (173) in the first half, the equal sixth-highest on record,[19] but only 10.22 (82) in the second.
The WAFL holds a double-header on Anzac Day at the WACA, but the experiment, as in the 1986 VFL season, is deemed a failure and not repeated.
West Perth’s ruck and centreline power – given by the returning Craig Nelson – demolishes the crisis-stricken Sharks, who are only in the hunt for a few minutes at the start of the final quarter when they kick four goals in five minutes.[21]
Former Swan Districts star John Annear haunts coach Todd as he plays his first WAFL match since 1982 after a calf injury and tags dangerous Swan Troy Ugle out of the match.[22]
Perth unexpectedly win their fourth match out of five in wet conditions[24] as returning ruck-rover Merv Kelly consistently scrambles the ball forward on a day when other tactics prove futile.[4]
After John Todd was reputed to have trained Swan districts under sprinklers during the week, the heavens open and after quarter-time Swan Districts’ small men prove far too good.[25]
Despite East Fremantle beating the four-time minor premiers, new coach Ken Judge is very cautious about the Sharks’ prospects for 1991 after a horror start on- and off-field.[27]
Future West Coast champion defender Glen Jakovich (with eight goals two behinds) and former Eagle Stevan Jackson dominate up forward for the Bulldogs, who record a crushing win after trailing by sixteen points entering time-on in the second quarter.[28]
Young centreman Andrew McGovern comes into the limelight with a brilliant 40-possession display that results in the Tigers taking top spot from the upstart Royals despite their inaccurate kicking (John Hutton scored three goals eight behinds).[30]
In Wayne “Terror” Dayman’s one hundredth match, West Perth record a surprise victory with seventeen fit players despite disciplining several mainstays and uncertainty over the future of coach George Michalczyk.[31]
West Perth coach Michalczyk was reported for abusive language when he called umpire Ray Zoch a “cheat” and ultimately fined $250.[33] Subiaco gained a goal after successive 50-metre penalties from the half-back line and repelled a strong Falcon challenge that before the incident looked as though it would win the match.[34]
East Perth coach Ian McCulloch’s conversion of runner Sean King into a tagger shuts down West Coast-listed South Fremantle centreman Scott Watters in a thrilling, defence-oriented game. Glen Jakovich kicks six in this fiftieth game at eighteen but has no support.[35]
Jason Norrish proves another outstanding youngster for Claremont, whose speed recalls Daniel Panizza when much younger. Subiaco were close early but faded in the third quarter.[36]
In Bill Duckworth’s first match since returning from Essendon, West Perth come back from an early deficit to upset the Royals – undone by a weak defence.[37]
Veteran Phil Narkle and rookie Brendan Retzlaff – consistently interchanged on the wings – decimate Perth in the wet[38] and relegate the Demons from second position.[39]
East Fremantle sees former State ruckman Durack return to dominate the midfield and crush the Lions for a fourth win since Judge’s takeover of the coaching reins.[7]
Geoff Miles – a rare success among numerous WAFL recruits from Victoria – kicks six goals as Claremont crush the Falcons, despite being unavailable for state selection due to an appointment in Victoria.[40]
After Perth led by 23 points in stormy and very wet[38] weather, Neesham – as Perth coach Armstrong admits – win the match by moving defenders Beresford and Miles into the centre and attack, where they undermine Perth’s movement of the ball.[42]
Clinton Browning’s six goals in nineteen minutes despite wet conditions ensures East Fremantle win their fifth match in seven since their coaching change – although Judge still says the Sharks have much to do to be a finals force.[43]
East Fremantle jump from seventh to third in one week but coach Judge is dissatisfied with the Sharks’ failure to maintain their early standard after leading 17.11 (113) to 1.5 (11) after seventeen minutes of the third quarter.[46]
Owing to the poor condition of Subiaco Oval after Perth’s wettest year since 1973,[47][48] the Lions’ match with Swan Districts was transferred to Bassendean and the clubs’ third match transferred to Subiaco.[49]
Claremont again make a decisive comeback when led early in a match, this time from thirty-four points behind at half-time before kicking 12.3 (75) to 5.4 (34) for a seventh consecutive victory.[50]
Perth lose for the eighth occasion in ten matches, whilst a relatively much weaker East Perth end a four-match losing sequence in a game where numerous Demon goals in “junk time” flatter the losers.[51]
With the WAFL recommending a move to the Perth Hills by the Demons (in spite of strong resistance by the committee),[54] the club plays another game in Kelmscott but it again proves a financial flop and the move is abandoned by 1995.[55]
Subiaco’s score is the most accurate in the WAFL is terms of excess of goals over behinds since 1979 and still the equal sixth-most ever,[56] belying previous inaccurate scoring by the team. Former Footscray forward John Georgiades helps crush the Bulldogs with a devastating display from centre half-forward.
Clinton Browning, after two weeks absent with injury, kicks three early goals and combines with fellow veteran Shane Ellis to win a crucial match in the emerging battle for fourth and fifth between East Fremantle, Perth and East Perth.[58]
Subiaco’s 20.6 (126) is their highest score in the first half of a match, and the highest by any club since 1984,[59] but their second half has coach Bunton lamenting that they play too much as individuals.
In order to assess a move to the growing northwestern corridor mooted since the late 1960s,[61] West Perth play a second match there following from their 1989 game with Subiaco. The Falcons moved to Arena Joondalup in 1994.
With Panizza crushing the in-form Georgiades, Claremont hold out Subiaco into the wind in the opening quarter and then score eleven goals with it in the second to what was billed as the WAFL’s “game of the season” and move four games clear on top – effectively sealing the minor premiership.[62]
East Fremantle kick twenty-one goals to three after quarter-time against a woeful South to move two games clear inside the five – and facing Subiaco in a battle for third position.[63]
A quick move from the centre allows Subiaco to win a high-paced thriller after Browning gave East Fremantle the lead thirty minutes into the final quarter. Future 210 centimetres (6 ft 11 in) Docker star “Spider” Burton is best-on-ground.[64]
In a match televised throughout Western Australia, East Perth and Swan Districts produce both breathtaking individual skills and a thrilling finish. Kevin Caton takes two of the marks-of-the-year in thirty seconds during the opening quarter, but these and his eight goals just fail to give Swans victory.[65]
Claremoent, with their defence “irresistible”, lead 10.2 (62) to 0.2 (2) and eighteen goals to two late in the third quarter as Perth appear disinterested.[68]
John Hutton’s thirteen goals is the most by a Claremont player against South Fremantle,[71] whilst the Tigers’ score was their second-highest against the Bulldogs exceeded only in the opening game of 1986.[72]
After six second-quarter gals by Stevan Jackson, Claremont score 19.6 (120) to 2.5 (17) in the second half as Kevin Mitchell obtained 33 possessions and uses all superbly to give the forwards numerous chances.[73]
In Willie Dick’s one hundredth game, the elusive forward’s goalkicking skill and a return to form from the speedy runners has Perth winning only its fifth match in sixteen to maintain a chance of reaching the finals.[74]
A ferocious Perth, tackling fiercely and pouncing upon each loose ball, crushes a “soft” Royal team. Willie Dick scores one brilliant goal after intercepting a handball from George Giannakis and weaving through the defence.[76]
An eight-goal-to-two final quarter – with Billy Krakouer kicking three in three minutes – allows East Fremantle to stay fifth despite Claremont recording another crushing victory – assured by a 17-scoring-shots-to-one opening quarter.
In former Richmond mainstay David Palm’s final match, a depleted West Perth team manages to win at Fremantle for only the second time in thirteen seasons due to a brilliant third quarter with the wind.[77]
East Perth stay in the five via Swan Districts’ win despite Dale Kickett taking control after the blue and blacks put in a gallant first half against the seemingly invincible leaders.[80]
In veteran Falcon “Terror” Dayman’s farewell match (he was carried off the ground), Perth on-ballers Barich (in his 100th game) and Lally (40 possessions) ensure the Demons jump from sixth to fourth.[81]
Since the two finals were played at the same venue on the same day, the attendance figure is the same.
After Swan Districts defender Steven Handley becomes the first WAFL player sent off (for charging Andrew Macnish),[84] Subiaco run riot to kick 9.0 (54) in the final quarter, as Bill Monaghan decimates Kevin Caton and “Spider” Burton again dominates the ruck.
Since the two semi-finals were played at the same venue on the same day, the attendance figure is the same.
A nervous start precedes Claremont further shorten their overwhelming premiership favouritism as future AFL recruits Jeremy Guard, Tony Evans and Andrew McGovern run over the Lions.[86]
In front of a poor crowd Swans redeem two poor displays against the Lions, as the lead changes five times during the last quarter before Subiaco kick 5.0 (30) to one behind in the final fifteen minutes. The return to full forward of Todd Breman – who had played in defence for most of 1991 – pays dividends as he kicks ten goals, breaking the record of nine goals in a preliminary final by Con Regan in 1962.[88]
Snow by field umpire Garrett for striking Hutton in third quarter
Claremont’s score is the highest half-time score in a WAFL Grand Final,[90] and they looked like beating West Perth’s 1975 record margin until late in the game.
^Lague, Steve; ‘Royals on Target for Big Finish’; The West Australian, 22 July 1991, p. 80
^Atkinson, Brian; It’s a Grand Old Flag: A History and Comprehensive Statistical Analysis of the West Perth Football Club 1885-2007; p. 151; ISBN9781921361395
^Stocks Gary; ‘Subi Spellbound by Magic of the Tigers’; The West Australian, 22 July 1991, p. 80
^Stocks, Gary; ‘Davidson Shows Class’; The West Australian, 22 July 1991, p. 82
^Lague, Steve; ‘Subiaco Continue Tradition of Upsets’; The West Australian, 29 July 1991, p. 96
^Stocks, Gary; ‘Seymour Reaps Rich Harvest for Royals’; The West Australian, 29 July 1991, p. 96
^Tennison, Max; ‘Sharks Show Fine Weather to Sink Falcons’; The West Australian, 5 August 1991, p. 88
^Lague, Steve; ‘Fine Weather for Ducks and Swans’; The West Australian, 5 August 1991, p. 88
^Stocks, Gary; ‘Kids Inspire Panizza’; The West Australian, 5 August 1991, p. 88
^Stocks, Gary; ‘Royals Too Strong at the Finish’; The West Australian, 12 August 1991, p. 88
^Tennison, Max; ‘Swans Taken to Task despite Easy Victory’; The West Australian, 12 August 1991, p. 88
