The 1975 WANFL season was the 91st season of senior Australian rules football in Perth and the forty-fifth as the “Western Australian National Football League”. The season saw West Perth, after unexpectedly falling to last in 1974, rise under former Fitzroy coach Graham Campbell to a remarkable premiership win over South Fremantle by a record 104 points in front of what was then the biggest WANFL crowd on record and has since been only exceeded by the 1979 Grand Final. The Bulldogs, apart from Claremont the least successful WANFL club between 1957 and 1974, rose with arrival of Aboriginal stars Stephen Michael and Maurice Rioli to their first finals appearance in five years and began their greatest era since their golden days of the middle 1950s. With East Perth, revitalised after injuries affected their 1974 campaign, and the inconsistent but at times incomparable Swan Districts, they comprised a top four that remained unchanged
for the final fourteen rounds.
East Fremantle, plagued by injuries to Doug Green[1] and a broken wrist for Brian Peake during the first game against West Perth,[2] falling from premiers to fifth and Perth after a slow start of five consecutive losses from runners-up to sixth. Subiaco fell from fourth to second-last and begun a bleak era with no subsequent finals appearance until 1985, but owing to the loss of Featherby, Robertson and Fitzpatrick to retirement or the VFL, critics generally predicted this before the season. Despite recruiting champion East Perth and Richmond player and coach Mal Brown, Claremont collected their fourteenth and to this date last wooden spoon by an equal-record six clear games, as Brown set a record of fifteen matches suspended during the season – beating another Tiger recruit from East Perth in “Nails” Western forty-three seasons previously.[3]
Swans’ high-power attacking football led by Brian Close and veteran Bill Walker’s old-fashioned drop and stab kicks moves the club to early premiership favouritism.[6]
In Bill Dempsey’s 300th WANFL match, West Perth end Subiaco’s unexpected unbeaten beginning. David Parkin, now cleared from Hawthorn, plays in the reserves whilst coaching Subiaco’s league team.[7]
The crowd of 15,889 was then a record for a home-and-away game at Subiaco Oval.[7]
After Walker left the field, Swans had no answer to the pace of South Fremantle, who took their place at the top.[8]
Subiaco use gold guernseys with maroon lions for the first time, after their maroon ones (with gold lion) were partially missing and the published number sequence broken.[10]
Murray Couper kicks thirteen goals in a surprise thrashing, the equal second largest tally by any Perth player behind Albert Gook’s sixteen against West Perth in 1939.[11]
On the first really wet day of the season, Swan Districts defeat Perth at Bassendean for the first time since April 1967,[12] ending an 11-match winning streak that remains the second-longest at the ground and the longest until 2007.[13]
Claremont do not kick their first goal until time-on in the third quarter, and kick their lowest score for thirty years.[14] Only inaccuracy by full-forward Max George, who kicked 4.7 (31), saves them from further humiliation.[15]
West Perth hold top position by showing that Swan Districts’ reliance on height and weight could not beat the Cardinals’ superior skill.[16]
Rovers Wiley and Mitsopoulos exploit a dominant Demon ruck for the Demons’ first win at East Fremantle since 1970 and move the Demons within a game of the top four.[17]
Rodney Burnby does ACL and doesn't play the rest of the season.
Instead of a week’s break during interstate games, the WANFL experimented with the VFL practice of a “split round” over two weekends, but the experiment was not persisted with.
At odds of 7/1 against, Claremont win against a strong breeze by holding the in-form Perth, who earlier recorded seven consecutive behinds during the second quarter.[18]
A week of studying coaching tactics with future champion Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy pays off for the Royals, whose get-the-ball tactics given them eleven free kicks for holding-the ball in the first quarter and carry on to knock West Perth from top position.[19]
An all-in-brawl at Fremantle Oval after an altercation on the half-time siren, in which Bulldog captain Ciccosto is hit by an onlooker, is followed by a 10.7 to 0.5 third quarter by South Fremantle who move clear on top.[20]
Swan Districts kick their highest score on record to that point, beating a previous record from 1961 against South Fremantle.[21] Their 11.7 (73) is still the largest last-quarter score at Bassendean Oval.[13] Brian Close, playing as a rover, kicked ten goals – still a record for Swans against East Fremantle.[22]
In wet conditions, East Perth trail 2.4 (16) to 7.7 (49) during the second quarter, but hold Swan Districts goalless after half-time as Peter Spencer and Larry Kickett established an iron grip on the middle of the ground.[23] It would become the last time a WA(N)FL team was goalless in the second half until 1983.
With Garry Sidebottom exploiting West Perth’s lack of physical strength to dominate the ruck and kick five goals resting in attack, Swan Districts’ muster a superb win in mud and rain to take top position ahead of the other three finalists by percentage.[24]
West Perth’s score remains their lowest against Swan Districts,[22] and until 1983 was the lowest by any visiting team at Bassendean Oval.[13]
West Perth’s win, with a forward line revitalised by Barry Day and Norm Knell, jumps them from fourth to top as the other two finalists lose.[25] The Cardinals were to beat their highest score for 1975 in each of their final three matches.
Subiaco send Peter Burton out a winner[a], as the retiring ruckman dominates Swans’ danger players Sidebottom and Bob Beecroft.[26]
East Fremantle’s win is the biggest with two fewer goals in WA(N)FL history.[27] It is the most recent senior WA(N)FL win with two fewer goals, though in 1984 South Fremantle won with three fewer goals.
Bob Carson’s defeat of Ron Alexander and the roving of Ciccosto and Maurice Rioli overwhelm a Royal side decimated by the tactical gamble of alternating centreman Spencer as a rover.[28]
A brilliant first half, including 88 possessions to a mere 49 in the first quarter against the wind, gives West Perth revenge for their Round 20 caning.[29]
Swans’ wasteful 3.11 (29) with the wind in the first quarter and the dominance of South Fremantle ruck-rover Eddie Bauskis decides a low-standard if tough match.[30]
Barrett, Eddie Bauskis, McKay, Haddow, Magro, Carson
In front of a record Grand Final crowd, West Perth, with veterans Whinnen and Dempsey dominating their on-ball division, overwhelm South Fremantle in the second half to record the largest Grand Final win on record.[32]
Notes
a Burton would return briefly in 1976 to help the struggling Lions.
References
^Lee, Jack; Celebrating 100 Years of Tradition: East Fremantle Football Club 1898-1997; pp. 365-366
^East, Alan; ‘Peake in Attack’; The West Australian, 2 June 1975, p. 46
^Casey, Kevin; The Tigers’ tale : the origins and history of the Claremont Football Club; p. 133 ISBN0-646-26498-2
^Christian, Geoff; ‘Football Arrived with Record Crowd’; The West Australian, April 7, 1975, p. 40
^Casellas, Ken; ‘South Cut East Perth to Ribbons’; The West Australian, 14 April 1975, p. 54
^East, Alan; ‘Who’s Going to Stop Swan Districts’; The West Australian, 21 April 1975, p. 55
^ abChristian, Geoff; ‘West Perth Prick the Bubble at Subiaco’; The West Australian, 26 April 1975, p. 92
^Hopkins, Collin; ‘Swans Cut Back to Size by Pacy South’; The West Australian, 28 April 1975, p. 47
^Christian, Geoff; ‘Swans Collapse Under Pressure’; The West Australian, 12 May 1975, p. 42
^‘No Firm Policy on Guernseys’; The West Australian, 19 May 1975, p. 43
^East, Alan (2005); From Redlegs to Demons : A History of the Perth Football Club from 1899; p. 215
^East, Alan; “Swans Find Something Extra at the Right Time”; The West Australian, 2 June 1975, p. 47