Australian Football

Following in the footsteps of a famous parent is never easy, but Don Marinko junior, whose father was a near legendary figure with West Perth, probably managed the feat as well as anyone. Like his father, he commenced his league career with West Perth, and at the end of his debut season of 1952, playing on a half forward flank, was one of his team’s best players in a 21-point Grand Final loss to South Fremantle. The following season saw Marinko make his interstate debut for Western Australia at the Adelaide carnival, the first of an eventual 11 such appearances.

For much of the 1950s Marinko was acknowledged as one of the finest centremen in the WANFL. Always in the thick of the action, he was a team player par excellence, and it is somewhat surprising that he never won the Cardinals’ fairest and best award. In 1959 he captain-coached the side but it narrowly missed the finals. He continued as captain for part of the 1960 season before being replaced by Brian Foley, and his final game for the Cardinals was in the centre in that year’s winning Grand Final against East Perth. 

Ironically, the 1961 season saw Marinko lining up with the Royals, for whom he added a final 32 league games over two seasons in what proved to be something of an Indian Summer to his career. In 1961 he helped the side reach a second consecutive Grand Final, which it lost to Swan Districts, and the following year saw him land the first, and only, club fairest and best award of his career. The 1963 season saw him appointed as the Royals’ skipper but unable to play because of injury.

Unlike his father, Don Marinko junior failed to make West Perth’s official ‘Team of the Twentieth Century’, but he must have been very close to doing so.

Author - John Devaney