Round 14, 1984: West Perth FC 18.11 (119) d Swan Districts FC 11.19 (85), Leederville Oval

The former Swan Districts ruckman Ron Boucher in 2009 when he was working at Busselton Council - we had a confrontation with him this day in 1984 at Leederville Oval's northern-end goals during the reserves game.

Round 14, 1984 – West Perth v Swan Districts, Leederville Oval

This is the day we [West Perth FC] unexpectedly defeated the reigning 1983 premiers, Swan Districts FC, at home at Leederville Oval and by a convincing margin as well. We could beat any team on our day during the 1980s and especially at Leederville Oval where the home-ground advantage was enormous. This game was probably West Perth’s best performance for the 1984 season, a season in which the club sadly missed out on the finals. After Round 14 West Perth was third, Won 7, Lost 6, Drawn 1, so it was a rapid fall from grace over the last seven rounds of the home-and-away fixtures. None of The West Australian’s five resident tipsters tipped West Perth this day against Swans. By this time our West Perth FC Cheer Squad was growing in numbers and commitment and we were accumulating more flags. My 1984 Season Notes, compiled during the 1984 season, state that this was the first day we used our new “COP THAT” banner, a banner later made famous for many years in Perth as a result of its appearance in an Emu Export beer commercial. The banner was made up of one red and one blue horizontal stripe with the words “COP THAT” in white capital letters. This day against Swan Districts was also the day we had a confrontation with feared SD premiership ruckman Ron Boucher. Our confrontation might have occurred in the reserves match since Boucher was not named in Swans’ league team 20 on the morning of the game (Johns and Sartori were to share ruck duties).

There had been animosity between West Perth supporters and Swan Districts’ coach John Todd since Todd left West Perth’s Brian Adamson out of a Western Australian state team in 1975 (Dawson, 2004, pp 148, 150), and this animosity followed Todd across from East Fremantle to Swan Districts (Dawson, 2004, p 179). Dawson (2004, p. 179) writes as follows about the relationship between Swans and West Perth during the 1980s: “The feud was always publicly denied, but continued into the 1980s and all Swans-West Perth games were well-attended with many fiery incidents, off and on the field”. 

      We [West Perth cheer squad 1984-86] had a variation of our “walks on water” chant reserved for opposition players as follows: “Ronnie Boucher walks on water/ everybody knows that bullshit floats”. P.A., Mike C., Pete C., and Thommo, especially, thought that this chant was just hilarious. There was an alternative, negative chant “Ronnie Boucher woo-hoo” and at the last syllable we would raise our hands and then move the open right hands in downwards motion in front of our raised, stiff wrists. Mike B. [West Perth cheer squad founder] recounted to me an incident involving Boucher that had failed to rise to the top of my memory and which had missed the first draft of this article. This is one fiery incident relating to West Perth versus Swans matches in the 1980s which has not hitherto been published. According to Mike B. (personal conversation, Kalgoorlie, 14 July 2011), on this day at Leederville, Boucher became upset by our chanting and walked up to where Mike B. and I were seated, leaned forward over the boundary fence, grabbed Mike B. by his West Perth replica jersey, and demanded to know: “What did you f***ing say?” In deep shock, Mike B. managed to stammer: “I’m really sorry, Mr Boucher”. In an interesting postscript to this story, Mike B. (personal conversation, 14 July 2011) mentioned years after this Leederville Oval incident contesting an arm-wrestling bout against Boucher in Broome which was the town where Boucher was then living. To no-one’s surprise Boucher ultimately won the competition overall against all contestants. 

One interesting point from the match results is Dennis Cometti (West Perth coach) continuing with his unorthodox practice of playing players out of position. Phil Bradmore started at centre-half-back before being shifted back to his customary centre-half-forward position where he started to have a major influence on the game and eventually was rated second best-on-ground. David Marsh of The West Australian wrote: “After Phil Bradmore had been outclassed by Swans’ centre-half-forward Peter Sartori in the first term, Cometti moved him to centre-half-forward, where he was an instant success, marking strongly and making good use of the handpass” (Marsh, 1984, “Falcons hit a high note”, The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, p. 96). It is a moot point whether West Perth could have done better in the 1984 WAFL season had all this experimentation by Cometti never happened. David Marsh concluded in the same post-match article “Cometti deserves much of the praise for Saturday’s victory” because he switched Bradmore to centre-half-forward. However, a less charitable interpretation is that Cometti erred by not playing Bradmore at his customary centre-half-forward position from the opening bounce.

It was frustrating to support West Perth throughout the 1980s – brilliant one day, terrible the next. The “terrible” days are reflected in the club’s percentage of 93.18% after 14 rounds (see League Table below). It was doubly frustrating as often the brilliant performances were against the eventual premiers such as Swan Districts in 1984 and East Fremantle in 1985. The 1984 WAFL season was a promoter’s dream. There was a bunch of teams in the middle of the table very close together in terms of wins and losses. It was this tightness of the competition that made it possible for West Perth to drop from third to sixth in the last seven games of the home-and-away season. (WP would lose 5 and win 2 of these last seven games.) East Perth was sixth after Round 14 at Won 7, Lost 7, while Subiaco was seventh at Won 6, Lost 8. Only Perth was out of contention for the finals and even they had not been horrible with 4 wins and 10 losses and a respectable percentage of 83.67% (nowhere near 2012 Greater Western Sydney territory) [by Kieran James, 21 July 2012].

Likely line-ups:

(Source: The West Australian, Saturday, 7 July, 1984, p. 189)

West Perth FC

Backs: Papalia, Comerford, Morgan

Half-backs: Michalczyk, Bradmore, Bonson

Centres: Warwick, O’Brien, Mifka

Half-forwards: D Kickett, Nelson, Simms

Forwards: Davis, Hendriks, Gastev

Ruck: Crole, Menaglio, Fong

Interchange from: Mountain, Bell, Fraser

In: Papalia, Bell, Mountain, Crole, O’Brien, Nelson

Out: Bogunovich (hip), Campbell (knee), Dayman (ankle), Stephens, Hathaway

Swan Districts FC

Backs: Ware, Mullooly, Hetherington

Half-backs: Langsford, Rance, Solin

Centres: Brenton, Neesham, Narkle

Half-forwards: Richardson, Sartori, Holmes

Forwards: Marshall, Hutton, Shine

Ruck: Johns, Fogarty, Kimberley

Interchange: Hodyl, M Smith

Out: Hoyer

Selections:

GEOFF CHRISTIAN: Swan Districts

KEN CASELLAS: Swan Districts

ROBERT WAINWRIGHT: Swan Districts

DAVID MOSS: Swan Districts

TIM GOSSAGE: Swan Districts

(Source: The West Australian, Saturday, 7 July, 1984, p. 189)

Match results – Saturday 7 July, 1984, Leederville Oval

West Perth FC 3.1 7.4 14.9 18.11 (119) d Swan Districts FC 4.5 6.9 9.15 11.19 (85)

Scorers: WP: Bradmore 4.1, Fong 2.3, Davis 2.2, Gastev 2.1, D Kickett, Michalczyk 2.0, Comerford, Crole, Mifka, D Simms 1.0, Bell 0.1, Forced 0.3.

SD: Holmes 3.1, Narkle 2.0, Fogarty 1.3, Brenton, Marshall 1.2, Sartori 1.1, Richardson, M Smith 1.0, Kimberley 0.4, Hutton 0.2, Johns, Langsford 0.1, Forced 0.2.

(Source: The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, 1984, p. 97)

Weather: Unsettled, strong south-westerly breeze.

(Source: The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, 1984, p. 97)

Attendance: 7,146 (from WAFL Online)

Free kicks: WP: 7, 9, 12, 4 – 32.

SD: 9, 5, 4, 5 - 23.

(Source: The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, 1984, p. 97)

Best players:

1 John Gastev (West Perth) – A devastating 22-kick roving display. Inspired his teammates with his never-say-die attitude.

2 Phil Bradmore (West Perth) – After a quiet first quarter at centre-half-back, he played brilliantly at centre-half-forward.

3 Paul Mifka (West Perth) – Provided considerable drive on a wing with a 17-kick performance.

Team rankings: WP: J Gastev 1, P Bradmore 2, P Mifka 3, D Warwick 4, L Fong 5, D Simms 6.

SD: S Richardson 1, D Langsford 2, P Sartori 3, B Kimberley 4, J Fogarty 5, T Mullooly 6.

(Source: The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, 1984, p. 97)

	R 14
	P	W	L	D	%	Pts
EASTFREM**	14	9	5	-	107.47	36
SOUTH FREM	14	8	5	1	122.77	34
WEST PERTH	14	7	6	1	93.18	30
SWAN DIST*	14	7	7	-	111.03	28
Claremont	14	7	7	-	100.90	28
East Perth	14	7	7	-	89.07	28
Subiaco	14	6	8	-	97.57	24
Perth	14	4	10	-	83.67	16

(Source: The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, 1984, p. 97)

*eventual 1984 WAFL premiers

Coaches’ Comments:

Dennis Cometti (WEST PERTH):

“They [WP] battled hard and I’m proud of the way they stuck at it.

“A lot of people made comments about our loss to South Fremantle a week earlier. But that effort wasn’t all that bad, because we had several players on the sidelines”.

(Source: David Marsh (1984), “Falcons hit a high note”, The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, p. 96)

Match analysis
Quotes from DAVID MARSH:

Les Fong

“West Perth were swept to success against Swan Districts at Leederville Oval on Saturday on an irresistible wave of self-discipline and team-spirit.

“This wave, which began as a ripple during the first quarter, continued to swell till it was big enough to submerge Swans in the final term

“The skill, stamina, courage and discipline of the West Perth players brought coach Dennis Cometti one of his best moments since taking over the Falcons in 1982.

“Cometti deserves much of the praise for Saturday’s victory. After Phil Bradmore had been outclassed by Swans’ centre-half-forward Peter Sartori in the first term, Cometti moved him to centre-half-forward, where he was an instant success, marking strongly and making good use of the handpass.

“His strong attacking play and the brilliant roving of John Gastev was the spark needed to set West Perth alight.

“Captain Les Fong was a courageous rover and Doug Simms played soundly at centre-half-back in the second half.

“West Perth had clear winners on the wings, with Dean Warwick and Paul Mifka providing tremendous drive.

“Full-back Geoff Hendriks, ruckman Stuart Crole and ruck-rover Peter Menaglio were consistently good performers.

“Half-forward flanker Steve Richardson was active for Swans, but he lacked support.

Derek Kickett & Les Fong

“Sartori shone at centre-half-forward in the first half and then excelled in the ruck.

“Swans also received good service from Barry Kimberley, Tom Mullooly, Don Langsford and Keith Narkle.

“West Perth played with far greater discipline than their rivals.

“An example of this was shown in the third quarter when the West Perth players were consistently first to the ball.

“In the 31-minute [third] quarter, the Swans players gave away 12 free-kicks and four 15-metre penalties and received only four free-kicks”.

(Source: David Marsh (1984), “Falcons hit a high note”, The West Australian, Monday, 9 July, p. 96) [archival research by Kieran James].

Rex Lipp (left) and Ron Boucher (right). I did a Google search for Ron Boucher and this is one of the images that came up. This is from a Queensland website and I can't be sure whether this is "our" Mr Ron Boucher because of the sunglasses.  It would be great if a more knowledgeable person could comment on this.