ARTICLE: "Looking back at the glory days of Fremantle Oval", by John Townsend, 13/9/2017

ARTICLE: It remains the most remarkable individual performance in WA football history.

Bernie Naylor, the outstanding South Fremantle full-forward famous for his arrow-straight torpedo punt kicks, launched 29 shots at goal against Subiaco one fine August day in 1953.

All but six hit their target, but after kicking 23 goals to smash the WA record and equal the best for anyone around the country, Naylor refused to accept any more passes and spent some of the game leaning on a goalpost.

He had done enough, as he confirmed with the modesty of his comments after the slaughter.

“This is a great day for me but without the assistance of my teammates, I could not have broken the record,” Naylor said.

“They had to get the ball and give it to me. All I had to do was kick it.”

Naylor already shared the WA goal-kicking record in a match with East Fremantle’s George Doig and Claremont’s George Moloney after kicking 19 at Fremantle Oval the previous year and warmed up with 18 goals against the hapless Subiaco three months earlier.

Naylor’s momentous match was the highlight of a career that is likely to receive belated recognition next year with his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

There was another momentous event at the ground that season, with East Fremantle leaving their half-century home to forge their future at East Fremantle Oval 2km to the east.

And South Fremantle overcame strenuous objections from the usual suspects — police, neighbouring hotels and the Temperance League — to get a liquor licence, an achieve-ment of considerable foresight given the celebrations later that year when the club won the middle leg of its eventual premiership hat-trick.

Fremantle Oval started as Barrack Green, the recreation ground for the Pensioner Guards who supervised WA’s convicts, and soon hosted its first match only two months after the formation of the WA Football Association, the precursor to the WAFL.

It would eventually host four clubs and showcase a century of champions such as Albert “The Great” Thurgood, bitter rivals and great mates Steve Marsh and Jack Sheedy, and modern-day star Stephen Michael.

It was the training base for the Fremantle Dockers for their first 20 years.

The original Fremantle team, which lasted only two years before folding, drew with Rovers in their initial outing despite scoring 11 behinds to their opponent’s five. Under the rules of the game’s first decade, only goals counted towards the result.

Unions replaced the original Fremantle before soon adopting the same name, but they were to last little more than one tumultuous decade before they folded and current teams South Fremantle and East Fremantle came into being.

[This article was first published by John Townsend for The West Australian at the following link: https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/naylor-king-of-goal-feasts-ng-b88597924z]

South Fremantle versus Swan Districts, 1968

Bernie Naylor (South Fremantle)

Kieran James @ Fremantle Oval main gates for Friday night match, South Fremantle versus Swan Districts, 17 August 2012, one of the coldest nights I can remember in Perth. The minimum temperature at Jandakot for the night of 17th-18th August 2012 was recorded officially at 3.2 degrees. Swan Districts won 17.18 (120) to South 13.7 (85) and the official attendance was 2,047. South was in the contest up until the late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter and the South Fremantle Cheer Squad (behind the hospital-end goals) was excited and then later on very disappointed. 

Chris Egan at South Fremantle versus Swan Districts on a very cold Friday night, 17 August 2012.

South Fremantle Cheer Squad (formed 2002). Wayne is the character in sleeveless South jersey and red cap at the far left of this picture. Patrick Mirosevich is second from left on the front row along the fence (red jumper and white cap). He can be seen more clearly in the other pictures. All match pictures were taken at South Fremantle versus Swan Districts, Friday night, 17 August 2012. Daytime pictures of Fremantle Oval were taken on the afternoon of 17 August 2012.