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East Fremantle

An Unsurpassable Pedigree

At a time when hyperbole is very much in vogue it is comparatively rare to come across an organisation genuinely deserving of the highest commendation and praise. Such an organisation is the East Fremantle Football Club. Consider its record:

  • 28 senior premierships and 28 times runners up (see footnote 1) since 1898; in the three major football states only Port Adelaide/Port Magpies (35/6) have won more.
  • 35 consecutive league victories between 28 July 1945 and 17 May 1947, including an unbeaten premiership in 1946.
  • The only WAFL club to have achieved a positive win/loss record against all other league clubs.
  • Between 1900 and 1951 the club failed to contest the finals on only one occasion - in 1915, when all sides were depleted because of the war.
  • In the first 12 seasons of this century East Fremantle won no fewer than nine flags, while the premierships of 1905 and 1907 were only lost in the most questionable and controversial of circumstances.

There were few immediate signs of future greatness when the club was first formed in 1898. With the exception of captain Tom Wilson, vice-captain David Christy, and Jim Mullaney, all of whom had played for the recently disbanded Imperials Football Club, the new side boasted little experience and this was plainly evident as it managed just 1 win from 15 games in its debut year. However, the gradual emergence of district football in Western Australia, whereby players represented their local club, proved to be the making of East Fremantle, as Fremantle-based players who had been playing their football for clubs across the river returned home to bolster the ranks.

In 1899 the side won 12 and lost five matches for the year to finish second before going one better in 1900.

In just three seasons the club appeared to have established itself as a power and the remaining years of the first decade of the century only served to reinforce this impression.

After finishing second in 1901 East Fremantle embarked on a sequence of success which many at the time felt by rights ought to have yielded an incredible ten flags in succession. As it was, the club was robbed of success on two occasions under circumstances of the utmost controversy.

In 1905 the scoreboard at the end of the challenge final showed East Fremantle on 6.5 (41) having defeated West Perth 5.10 (40). However, after conferring the goal umpires announced that the scoreboard operators had erred - West Perth had actually scored 5.11 (41), meaning that the correct result was a draw. East Fremantle's protests went unheeded and, presumably still unsettled by the whole affair, they lost the replay.

Two years later there was an even more controversial ending to the premiership decider between East Fremantle and Perth. The final scoreboard read East Fremantle 6.11 (47); Perth 6.6 (42) but, sensationally, post-match claims by Perth that one of East Fremantle's goals had been kicked after the half time bell were upheld by the WAFA Appeals Board and the result of the match - and the destiny of the 1907 flag - was reversed.

During this era East Fremantle were renowned for a 'down the centre' style of play which no other team in the competition could live with.

Prominent 'Old Easts' (see footnote 2) players from the pre-World War One era included rover Charles ‘Dick’ Sweetman, who was to die tragically after sustaining serious injuries in a match in 1911; centreman W.J. ‘Nipper’ Truscott, who shares with Arthur Hodgson (Tasmania) and Fos Williams (South Australia) the record of appearing in five interstate carnivals (and would arguably have appeared in six had it not been for the Great War); full forward Harry Sharpe who, after sharing WAFA goalkicking honours with South Fremantle’s ‘Duff’ Kelly in 1905 topped the list in his own right in each of the three subsequent years; and bullocking ruckman James ‘Carbine’ Gullan who, like Sweetman, was to die tragically at an early age.

East Fremantle’s 1914 premiership was the tenth achieved by the club in its first seventeen years of existence but the following year the club dipped out of the finals for the first time since their debut season.

Successive grand final (see footnote 3) losses to arch rivals South Fremantle followed before there was a return to the winners’ circle in 1918 with an 11.8 (74) to 8.5 (53) victory over emerging power East Perth.

The Royals had their revenge in 1919 to the tune of 22 points and this supremacy was repeated in each of the next three seasons. Subiaco emerged as a surprise force in 1924, downing East Fremantle 7.9 (51) to 3.6 (24) in the grand final, but in 1925 Old East returned the ‘favour’ in stunning fashion. Indeed, 1925 was the first occasion on which an East Fremantle premiership could genuinely have been said to have been won ‘against the odds’. Only third on the ladder after the home and away matches with 9 wins and 6 losses Old East scored resounding wins over West Perth (6.22 to 2.9) in the semi final and East Perth (12.10 to 5.7) in the final to earn a challenge final tilt against the reigning premiers. Most people expected Subi to prove too strong but in the event it was precisely the reverse as East Fremantle romped to a 27 point triumph, 10.10 (70) to 6.7 (43).

After missing out in 1926 and 1927 East Fremantle topped the ladder - significantly as it turned out - by half a win from East Perth in 1928. A loss to the Royals in the final meant that the right of challenge had to be exercised and Old East duly made amends by 17 points, 10.13 (73) to 8.8 (56). The victory marked the onset of another era of spectacular dominance for Western Australian football’s most feared and respected club.

Another era of dominance

Between 1929 and 1931, Old East completed a sequence of four successive premiership triumphs with wins over South Fremantle by 31 and 22 points and Subiaco by 18 points. The run of success looked set to continue in 1932 after the side qualified for the finals in pole position only to lose both finals contested and end up third. The following year full forward George Doig took his bows, the latest in a long line of Doig family members to make it to league ranks (see footnote 4). His impact was immediate as he kicked more than 100 goals (106 to be precise) for the year, a feat he was to repeat in each of the next eight seasons.

East Fremantle roared back to the top in 1933 with a 10.13 (73) to 7.7 (49) grand final defeat of Subiaco in front of 15,919 fans, meaning that the club had now won no fewer than seventeen senior premierships in its first thirty-six seasons to make it by some measure Australia’s most successful top level club up to that point.

West Perth got the better of the blue and whites in the 1934 grand final by 34 points, 11.7 (73) to 5.9 (39). This heralded a brief two year decline during which East Fremantle finished fourth and third before returning as a force the hard way in 1937. After losing a fiercely fought second semi final to Claremont by 14 points Old East despatched East Perth 11.12 (78) to 7.19 (61) the following week and then gained revenge over Claremont by 10 points, 14.13 (97) to 13.9 (87) in the grand final.

It would be Claremont supporters who would have the last laugh, however, as their club would go on to win the next three premierships in succession, their first at league level. On all three occasions the Monts were directly responsible for ending Old East’s season. In 1938 the two sides met in the grand final, with Claremont winning 14.17 (101) to 11.13 (79) in a replay. The following season Claremont again triumphed in the final match of the season after East Fremantle had looked to be on course to gain revenge following a comfortable win over the premiers in the second semi final.

In 1940 Old Easts only got as far as the preliminary final before Claremont ousted them from premiership contention by 6 goals.

The following year, with John ‘Jerry’ Dolan, who had previously been playing coach of the club in 1930 and between 1932 and 1933, back at the helm the side again featured in the action on grand final day, but West Perth proved too strong, emerging 21 points to the good.

The WANFL operated on an under age basis between 1942 and 1944 with East Fremantle finishing third, first and second.

With Dolan still in charge on the resumption of full scale senior football in 1945 Old Easts made an immediate impression, winning 16 out of 20 minor round matches to top the ladder. The side’s consistent form continued into the finals where it comfortably defeated both West Perth and South Fremantle to take out the flag. The encounter with South Fremantle was the first ‘derby’ grand final since 1930 and took East Fremantle’s record in these contests to 4 wins and 2 defeats. The 1945 grand final also saw the Simpson Medal being presented for the first time. East Fremantle ruckman Alan Ebbs was the inaugural recipient, while team mates Don Gabrielson, Gordon Mann, ‘Charles’ Strang and Salvatore Soltoggio would also have figured prominently in the judges’ calculations. Final scores were East Fremantle 12.15 (87) to South Fremantle 7.9 (51). The red and whites’ day would soon arrive, but for now it was the blue and white fraternity who were clearly ‘cocks of the port’.

An unbeaten premiership

East Fremantle’s dominance continued in 1946 in a fashion which has rarely been equalled in any of Australia’s major football competitions. Some have argued (see footnote 5) that the standard of football being played in Western Australia at the time was low, and that therefore it was comparatively easy for one side to dominate. However, such claims are impossible to verify. What does seem clear is that the best Western Australian players of this time were capable of producing football of comparable standard to that being displayed in any of the other major football states (see footnote 6).

Another factor to bear in mind is that East Fremantle’s superiority in 1946 was not always as conclusive as its overall record might lead one to suppose. True, it managed to win all 21 WANFL matches contested, but not all of the victories were by hefty margins. West Perth in particular afforded stern resistance, as was clearly evidenced by both meetings between the sides in the major round. Old Easts scraped home in the second semi final by 4 points, 9.21 (75) to 10.11 (71), and the grand final a fortnight later was just as tight. The Cardinals threw down the gauntlet in no uncertain terms in the opening term when they kicked 4 goals to 1, and thereafter it took all of East Fremantle’s courage, desperation and resilience to eke out victory by a single kick.

Final scores in the 1946 grand final were East Fremantle 11.13 (79) to West Perth 10.13 (73) with the victors best served by ruckman Alan Ebbs, rover Vic French, and half back flankers Charlie Doig and Don Gabrielson. However, the Simpson Medal was awarded to John Loughridge of West Perth (see footnote 7).

Old Easts' only defeat for the year came against Collingwood in an end of season challenge match in Perth which the Magpies won by 18 points. However, it would obviously be wholly unreasonable to read too much into a single such aberration (see footnote 8).

East Fremantle’s winning streak at WANFL level continued for a total of 35 successive matches before being brought to an end by South Fremantle on 17th May 1947. A then record crowd for a port ‘derby’ of 17,538 packed Fremantle Oval for the clash, which in retrospect might be seen as constituting the ‘passing of the baton’ in terms of Western Australian football supremacy. At the end of the season East Fremantle had slumped to fourth while, for South Fremantle, an era of unparalleled dominance had dawned.

East Fremantle’s fortunes continued to wane in 1948 as the club ran third, before embarking on an unusually long period of comparative anonymity between 1949 and 1952 which, after three consecutive fourth place finishes, ended with the unconscionable depths of fifth position and failure to contest the finals for the first time since 1915. The great ‘Jerry’ Dolan coached the club for the last time in 1950 (having missed the 1949 season, when Jack Sheedy took the reins). All told, he coached or captain-coached the East Fremantle senior team in a total of 166 games over eight seasons for a success rate of 73.2% and four flags. He also coached the 1943 under age premiership team. In the view of many it would be a line-ball decision between Dolan and Phil Matson for the mantle of Western Australian football’s greatest ever coach.

On the move

The most significant event of the 1953 season was the club’s relocation from Fremantle Oval, which it had shared with South Fremantle since the start of the century, to its own home ground of East Fremantle Oval. The team celebrated by making a return to the major round but after comfortably defeating East Perth in the first semi it was no match for West Perth in the preliminary final and went down by 52 points.

Things were definitely moving in the right direction again, however, and the trend continued in 1954 and 1955 when, with players like Jack Sheedy, Con Regan, Alan Preen, Jack Clarke and Ken Ebbs to the fore, Old Easts contested consecutive losing grand finals. It was hard to say which of the two losses was the more upsetting: getting thrashed by arch rivals South Fremantle in 1954 or falling short by just two points against Perth the following year. In any event, the tangible upshot of both years was identical - no additions to the honour board at East Fremantle Oval.

Although East Fremantle gained a small measure of revenge against the Demons the following year by winning comfortably in the first semi final (en route to an eventual third place finish) it was not to be until 1957 that the memory was more irrevocably consigned to oblivion. In that season’s preliminary final the Demons looked to be comfortably on course for a sizeable win as they led 16.17 to 9.6 at three quarter time, only for East Fremantle to unleash a miraculous brand of football in the final term to add 10.4 to 1.1 and sneak over the line by four points. Buoyed by this achievement the players carried on the momentum into the following week’s grand final when warm pre-match favourites East Perth were overcome by 16 points after a dour, low scoring war of attrition. Old East were captain-coached in 1957 by ex-South Fremantle star Steve Marsh who thereby became arguably the most popular Bulldog ever to don the blue and white of their arch rivals.

It was a similar type of grand final a year later but on this occasion it was the Royals who emerged victorious by a mere 2 points. East Fremantle’s status as one of Australian football’s leading clubs had been emphasised earlier that same year when no fewer than four of its players - Jack Clarke, Alan Preen, Norm Rogers and Ray Sorrell - were included in the All Australian team selected after the Melbourne carnival.

The 1959 and 1960 seasons ended with preliminary final defeats at the hands of Subiaco and East Perth respectively while the Lions were also responsible for ending Old East’s season in 1961, this time at the first semi final stage. New kids on the block Swan Districts proved to have East Fremantle’s measure in the grand finals of both 1962 (by 18 points) and 1963 (22 points), securing a premiership hat-trick in the process, while in 1964 it was Claremont’s turn to administer the coup de grace with a heart-stopping 4 point triumph.

The 1965 season saw East Fremantle, which had finished the minor round in fourth place, participate in the ultimate game of the year for the fourth successive time. The opposition was once more provided by Swan Districts, and at three quarter time it appeared certain that Old Easts would again be leaving Subiaco Oval empty handed. True, the margin between the sides was only 21 points, but given that Swans would be kicking with the aid of a substantial breeze in the final term this seemed of minimal relevance. The events of that final quarter were such as to knit themselves into the very fabric of the East Fremantle club identity: players who had hardly been sighted suddenly tapped into resources they were unaware they had, while even those who had been playing reasonably well managed to take their performances to another plane altogether. In this context, the breeze might as well have been non existent, as indeed might the opposition afforded by most of the Swan Districts team. East Fremantle added 9.4 to 2.1 for the term to win ‘going away’ by 24 points in what was arguably the club’s finest hour. Best afield and winner of the Simpson Medal was beanpole ruckman Dave Imrie, who later added the Lynn Medal for club champion for good measure. Other prominent performances came from captain-coach and full forward Bob Johnson, who booted 8 goals, ruck rover ‘Bert’ Thornley, centreman Harry Neesham, and centre half back Norm Rogers.

It was to be six long years - arguably, the longest, bleakest six years in the entire history of the club - before East Fremantle would again be in a position to mount a serious challenge for the flag. After dropping to fourth in 1966 - bad enough in itself - the side spent the next four Septembers watching the finals action from the outer rather than participating at first hand. At the time, it was the longest concerted period of non finals participation in East Fremantle’s illustrious history (eventually surpassed in 2007).

Bouncing back

By 1971, however, there was a new generation of exciting talent at the club. With players like Dave Hollins (who won the Sandover Medal), Max Van Helden, Graham Melrose and Les Holt to the fore, and under the astute coaching of a young Victorian by the name of Alan Joyce, East Fremantle overcame Claremont by 47 points in the first semi final and with a bit of good fortune would have tumbled eventual premiers West Perth in the preliminary final. As it was the Cardinals sneaked home by 3 points after a seemingly goal-bound kick from East Fremantle’s Gary Fenner floated off course at the last moment and went through for a point; it proved to be the final kick of the match.

The WAFL during the early 1970s was the most intensely competitive and unforgiving of Australia’s major football competitions. East Fremantle’s level of performance dropped only slightly in 1972 but it was enough to bring them 10 fewer wins overall for the season and to catapult them out of the four. There was a slight improvement in 1973 as the side squeezed into the finals but East Perth achieved almost effortless supremacy in the first semi, winning by 59 points.

With skipper Graham Melrose playing probably the best football of his life to secure not only the Sandover Medal but virtually every media award going, East Fremantle at long last returned to the winners’ list in 1974. In what, even for the era, was an extraordinarily closely contested season, East Fremantle finished the home and away rounds in pole position half a game clear of Perth (and, indeed, just six and a half games ahead of wooden spooners West Perth, who had managed seven wins for the season and had actually lowered Old East’s colours on one occasion). Once the finals arrived, however, East Fremantle became pre-eminently, as the cliché has it, “a team on a mission”, downing Perth in remarkably similar fashion and by near identical margins in both the second semi final (by 23 points) and grand final (by 22 points). The flag decider, watched by a surprisingly small crowd of 40,758, was hard fought for three quarters with the Demons enjoying a narrow 2 point lead at the final change, but the last quarter brought that traditional Old East ‘lift’ all over the ground which saw them quickly achieve an unassailable lead. Three late goals to Perth made the final scoreline respectable. East Fremantle youngster Brian Peake was many people’s choice as best player afield but the Simpson Medal was split between Perth’s Dave Pretty and Old East centreman Gary Gibellini. Others to do well for the victors included ruckmen Bob Becu and Ferguson, ruck rover Dave Hollins, and 4 goal full forward Paul Nicholls.

After the grand final East Fremantle headed to Adelaide for the Australian club championships where it lost to Sturt by 9 points and overcame a Tasmanian combined side without even needing to try.

The second half of the 1970s was especially noteworthy for the emergence of Brian Peake as one of the most prodigious talents in the game. However, not even Peake could enable East Fremantle to maintain a position of pre-eminence in Western Australian football. After failing to qualify for the finals in both 1975 and 1976, the side’s next involvement in the September action proved to be an unmitigated disaster as it was twice (in both the second semi and the grand final) annihilated by Perth. Brian Peake’s Sandover Medal win that year afforded scant consolation.

The 1978 season brought yet another in the sequence of spectacular nosedives which have tended to beset East Fremantle over the past four decades or so. The side finished sixth, with just 10 wins, and looked to be well and truly on the skids, but the following year was to bring yet another spectacular reversal of fortune, only this time of the right kind. Under new skipper Brian Peake, now sporting trademark '70's facial hair, Old East fielded an all Western Australian combination in 1979 in what was a noteworthy season all round for Western Australian football (see footnote 9). Peake himself enjoyed another memorable year, winning his fourth consecutive Lynn Medal as East Fremantle’s best and fairest player, and rounding off the season by winning the Tassie Medal at the Australian championships, the first - and only - Old Easts player to do so.

East Fremantle’s 1979 premiership victory was by no means the consummation of a season’s dominance. As a matter of fact, the side looked distinctly mediocre at times during the home and away rounds, losing on one occasion to Claremont by 86 points, and on another even less auspicious occasion to East Perth by 103 points. This latter defeat was the first ever time that East Fremantle had lost a game by more than 100 points. Once the finals arrived, however, it was a different story. Old East achieved revenge against both their minor round conquistadors in quick succession, overcoming the Royals in the first semi final by 2 points in a high scoring thriller, and then, responding vibrantly to the incentive of a potential ‘derby’ grand final, emphatically downing Claremont by 27 points in the preliminary final.

The blue half of Fremantle had enjoyed marginal supremacy over the red half during 1979 (2 wins to 1) and grand final day saw their dominance extended. In a high standard, see-sawing tussle Old Easts ultimately displayed superior fitness and desperation to see off their opponents with an 8 goal to 2 final term after trailing by 4 points at ‘lemon time’. Forward pocket/rover Kevin Taylor booted 7 goals to earn the Simpson Medal and take his season’s goals tally to 102, while not far behind him were Tony Buhagiar, the irrepressible Brian Peake, and Doug and Stephen Green. If it was not exactly the club’s finest hour, it was certainly one of the most highly satisfying.

The yo-yo syndrome

The Old East yo-yo syndrome quickly reasserted itself in 1980 as the club endured one of its worst ever senior campaigns, finishing seventh with just 5 wins from 21 starts. Things were not quick to improve either as the side went on to miss the finals in both 1981 (seventh again - 5 wins and 16 losses) and 1982 (for sixth place with 8 wins, 13 losses).

In 1983 the Western Australian club with arguably the richest tradition of all took the drastic measure of divorcing itself to some extent from that tradition by adopting a new emblem, that of the arch predator of the sea, the shark. It was felt by the newly expanded club board that the introduction of this emblem would render the club more attractive to potential sponsors at a time when the sponsorship dollar was becoming increasingly critical to achieving and maintaining success. It was probably entirely coincidental, but in 1983 the side’s on field performances improved sufficiently to enable participation in the major round for the first time since the premiership year of 1979. There was to be no return to premiership glory, however: in the first semi final reigning and eventual back to back premiers Swan Districts emphasised that the Sharks still had something of a mountain to scale by winning easily by 59 points.

A year later and it was once again the Swans who were responsible for ending East Fremantle’s bid for the flag, but on this occasion it was on the final Saturday of the season. The Sharks had performed consistently well for most of the 1984 season to finish the home and away rounds in second spot, a single win behind the Swans. They then astounded most observers by going straight into the grand final with a 15.12 (102) to 10.16 (76) second semi final win. The premiership seemed theirs for the taking. However, when the big day arrived, with Swan Districts predictably again providing the opposition, many of the younger East Fremantle players froze; by quarter time, the match was as good as over, with Swans having surged to a 10.7 (67) to 0.3 lead. Even in the second term, when the Sharks fought back determinedly to get to within a couple of straight kicks, it was clear that the finals hardened men from Bassendean held too much in reserve. After half time they again kicked clear and although East Fremantle ultimately managed to equal their tally of a fortnight previously, on this occasion it left them six goals adrift, Swan Districts winning 20.18 (138) to 15.12 (102).

Despite the disappointment of a losing grand final there was considerable optimism at East Fremantle Oval as the team prepared for the 1985 season. It was widely believed that the squad of players at the club was the strongest for many years, and that with the inevitable honing of skills that a further season’s experience would bring, coupled with the insatiable hunger brought about by going so close in 1984, the Sharks would prove to be well nigh unbeatable in 1985, and so in fact it proved. Indeed, after opening the season with a 79 point mauling of their previous season’s nemesis East Fremantle remained unbeaten until round 13 when West Perth edged home by 2 points. The side lost on only 3 further occasions all year, with 2 of those defeats coming in the final 2 rounds of the season after the minor premiership had been clinched.

The finals did not prove to be quite the cakewalk expected, however. Subiaco, which had lowered its colours to the Sharks in 2 out of 3 meetings during the minor round (see footnote 10), provided stern opposition in both the second semi final, which it lost by 12 points, and grand final, when both sides had 27 scoring shots and the margin was just 5 points. Midway through the final quarter of the grand final East Fremantle enjoyed a comfortable lead only for the Lions, if the pun can be excused, to come roaring home; with the scores at 15.12 (102) to 14.13 (97) in the Sharks’ favour and the ball in the Subiaco forward lines the siren sounded. Best players for the victors were Clinton Browning, Murray Wrensted and Colin Waterson, but the Simpson Medal went to Brian Taylor of Subiaco.

The Lions had ample revenge over the Sharks in 1986 winning an anti climactic grand final by 69 points, this after the Sharks had triumphed with deceptive ease in the second semi final, winning 20.13 (133) to 12.11 (83).

A changing landscape

The seeping alterations to the football landscape which had been occurring since the 1960s suddenly burgeoned into a full-scale cataclysm in 1987 with the admission of Perth-based West Coast and Brisbane to an expanded VFL. At a stroke, the WAFL competition was denuded of more than 40 of its best players, with East Fremantle, which lost no fewer than 14 members of its 1986 squad (see footnote 11), among the worst affected. Despite this, the Sharks ran a creditable third in 1987, as indeed they did in 1988 and 1989. The 1989 season saw Brian Peake, who in the minds of some was the greatest player the game has seen, play his 300th WAFL match for East Fremantle. Peake, who also spent four seasons with Geelong, was certainly a highly decorated player, winning six Lynn Medals, a Sandover, and the 1979 Tassie Medal, as well as making 22 interstate appearances for Western Australia, gaining selection in three All Australian teams, and playing in three East Fremantle premiership combinations. In 1990, he crossed to Perth where he played a further 10 games for a career total of more than 400.

The Sharks’ fortunes declined somewhat in 1990 (fourth) while in 1991, for the first time ever, not one of East Fremantle’s three sides (seniors, reserves and colts) qualified for finals participation. Things could hardly have been more different a year later, though, as all three sides made it through to the September action, with both the seniors and the colts ultimately going top. As far as the senior side was concerned the 24 point ‘derby’ grand final victory over South Fremantle was a testimony to the judicious (pun intended) coaching of Ken Judge, who comprehensively won the strategic battle of wits with his opposite number, Malcolm Brown. In the second semi final a fortnight earlier the Bulldogs running brigade had been in irrepressible form, but on this occasion Judge firmly and decisively seized the initiative from the start by instructing players like Steven Bilcich and Clayton Anderson to suppress their own game and apply themselves single-mindedly to the task of quelling the effectiveness of their immediate opponents. Anderson succeeded to the extent of restricting his direct opponent Mark Collins to just a couple of kicks to three quarter time, while Bilcich, who was commissioned to mind Wally Matera, did so effective a job that he was most people’s choice as best afield (see footnote 12). After a closely fought first three quarters which ended with South Fremantle a single goal to the good the Sharks, with the aid of a fairly stiff breeze, added 5.3 to 0.3 in the final term to win with deceptive comfort, 12.19 (91) to 9.13 (67).

Two years later East Fremantle would win yet another flag, but this time there would be no comfort about it, deceptive or otherwise. After qualifying for the finals in third spot it proved necessary to negotiate three tough fixtures in order to secure involvement in the grand final. First, West Perth were overcome by 28 points in the qualifying final, only for flag favourites Claremont to put a proverbial spanner in the works the following week in the second semi. The Tigers won with some ease, 17.13 (115) to 11.2 (68), and looked odds on to win the premiership. Not that East Fremantle even looked likely to be contesting the premiership at half time of the preliminary final a week later against the Falcons. West Perth had had winners all over the ground and led by 36 points, 9.15 (69) to 5.3 (33); only a slight waywardness in front of goal on the part of certain Falcons forwards had kept East Freo in the game, albeit tenuously. In the third term though the game began to change as the Shark midfielders started to get a run on. At the final change West Perth still led, but the margin was down to 13 points and it seemed clear that the momentum was with the easterners. Perhaps predictably, the last quarter was one way traffic, East Fremantle adding 6.3 to 0.3 to win with a comfort that, at half time, would have been almost impossible to imagine.

The momentum carried on throughout the first three quarters of the following week’s grand final as the Sharks led Claremont a merry dance to rattle on 12 goals to 3 and effectively put a mortgage on the destiny of the 1994 premiership. Although the Tigers rallied somewhat in the final term their improvement was of purely academic interest and a final margin of just 21 points was scarcely a reflection of East Fremantle’s superiority. Best for the Sharks in a match that attracted just 17,594 spectators to Subiaco Oval were Mark Amaranti (4 goals and the Simpson Medal), Justin Sanders, Craig Treleven and veteran skipper Steve Malaxos.

With newcomers like Martin Mellody featuring prominently East Fremantle mounted genuine premiership challenges in each of the following three seasons only to fall at the penultimate hurdle in 1995 and 1996 and, most disappointingly of all, in the grand final of 1997 to arch rivals South Fremantle. The Sharks had more than enough chances to win in 1997 but ended up 6 points adrift after the Bulldogs staged a titanic last term recovery. If salt for the wound were needed it was provided by the fact that, in 1997, East Fremantle Football club was celebrating its official centenary. The level of disappointment felt by all those associated with the Sharks can clearly be inferred from reading Jack Lee’s review of the 1997 season in his otherwise meticulously thorough history of the club, Celebrating 100 Years of Tradition. Other than recording the line scores, no mention of that year’s grand final is made.

East Fremantle’s domination of the 1998 Westar Rules (see footnote 13) season was consummate. Having qualified for the finals in pole position, with only 2 losses for the year, the side went on to reach the grand final almost effortlessly after a 53 point second semi final defeat of West Perth in which the Falcons were restricted to just 3.17 (35). When the Sharks and Falcons met again on grand final day it was a similar story, albeit after West Perth had firmly thrown down the gauntlet late in the second term. At that stage East Fremantle, having looked comfortable early on, were reeling after the loss of three players with debilitating injuries; the Falcons failed to press home their advantage, however, and an 11 point deficit at half time was as close as they got. The final siren saw East Fremantle 43 points to the good, 20.10 (130) to West Perth’s 13.9 (87). The Simpson Medal went to Sharks on-baller Adrian Bromage, with other significant contributions coming from skipper Steve Bilcich, centre half forward Scott Spalding, and wingman Gary Dhurrkay.

During the period 1991 to 2000 the Sharks were Western Australian football’s most successful club with five grand final appearances for three flags, and an overall success rate of 61.4%. Despite this - or, rather, because of factors outside the club’s control - attendances at East Fremantle Oval plummeted, from an average in 1991 of 4,430 per game, to significantly less than half of that a decade later. On a perversely positive note, since the arrival on the scene of the West Coast Eagles East Fremantle has probably produced as many AFL draftees as any other club in the land, and the battle hardened club hierarchy seem under few illusions as to the harsh realities of life for those who inhabit what might be called ‘Australian football’s second tier’. If being a regular and reliable contributor to the AFL treadmill constitutes a somewhat less high profile vocation than a club of East Fremantle’s pedigree warrants, it nevertheless at least represents a valid survival mechanism at a time when ‘survival’ has very much become a watchword for virtually every sporting organisation in the land.

As far as on-field performances go, the 21st century has, to date, been far from auspicious, with the club failing to qualify for the finals every season since 2002, and even succumbing to the rare, if not quite unique, indignity of wooden spoons in 2004, 2006 and 2018. Restoring the club to what many would argue is its rightful place at the forefront of the West Australian game is going to be far from easy, but the Sharks have faced stiffer challenges over the years, and triumphed, and it would surprise no one to see them challenging seriously for premierships again with in the next two or three seasons.

Footnotes

  1. These totals do not include the under age premiership won in 1943 nor the grand final loss incurred in 1944.
  2. East Fremantle became known affectionately as 'Old East' (or 'Old Easts') after the admission to the competition in 1906 of East Perth. The nickname continued to be used until 1983, when the emblem of the Shark was adopted.
  3. The term 'grand final', while not technically entirely accurate, is used here - and throughout the pre-1931 section of this entry - to mean 'premiership deciding match'. Depending on the circumstances, this could actually be either the final or the challenge final.
  4. Eleven members of the Doig family played league football in Western Australia, mostly for East Fremantle; together they featured in no fewer than 39 premiership sides.
  5. See, for example, The Tiger's Tale by Kevin Casey, page 60.
  6. Western Australia were victorious in 5 out of their first 6 post-war interstate encounters with the acknowledged 'major states' of Victoria and South Australia, their only defeat coming against the South Australians at the 1947 Hobart carnival.
  7. Between 1945 and 2001 the Simpson Medal was awarded to a losing player in the grand final on only seven occasions, five times as outright winner, and twice as a joint recipient.
  8. This, unfortunately, is precisely what Robert Pascoe does in The Winter Game, page 133, suggesting that Collingwood's victory on this occasion could somehow be regarded as a barometer of the respective football standards at the time in Victoria and Western Australia. If this argument is accepted, South Fremantle's repeated dominance over Victorian opposition, both at home and away, during the late 1940s and early 1950s - feats conveniently ignored by Pascoe - would inevitably give rise to an interesting conclusion. See the entry on South Fremantle for further details.
  9. Among the season's highlights were Western Australia's 17.21 (123) to 16.12 (108) vanquishing of Victoria in the inaugural state of origin championship final, and East Fremantle's 32 point defeat of St Kilda in Melbourne in the VFL night series. Over the years, victories by Western Australian club sides over their Victorian counterparts have been rare enough; wins in Melbourne, however, have been like hen's teeth. Another memorable feature of the 1979 football season was the establishment of an all time WAFL aggregate attendance record of 1,013,615 which included an all time high of 52,817 at the grand final.
  10. Subiaco's win came in the final home and away fixture of the year when East Fremantle were, by common consent, relaxing. Earlier, when the stakes were arguably higher, the Sharks had won by 97 points in round 7, and 71 points in round 14. Finals football is an altogether different affair, however.
  11. Not all of these departing players joined West Coast, but the Eagles were nevertheless by some measure the single biggest source of the 'player drain', as indeed they would continue to be, season in, season out, for some considerable time.
  12. Not the Simpson Medal voting panel's though. They plumped for evergreen Shark ruckman Clinton Browning - not that any members of the blue and white fraternity really cared much either way.
  13. The brief change of the competition's name from Western Australian Football League to Westar Rules was an ill-conceived attempt to update the local game for a supposedly more discerning, sophisticated clientele. Hardly anyone was fooled.

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.