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| The old tin shed in the north-western corner of Leederville Oval in Perth, 6 July 2011. This shed has basically remained unchanged since the 1970s. The Technical School is visible behind the barbed-wire fence. The eight-year-old West Perth football hooligan Michael ("Half") stole many match footballs from the Technical School grounds during one memorable 1984 WAFL game. |
I now move on to mention our most important and famous younger member, Michael or “Half” as we christened him because he was one-half the height of the other people in the group [West Perth FC cheer squad, 1984-86]. Half was an eight-year-old whose parents were financial members of the club who sat in the grandstand on the western wing of Leederville Oval. They allowed Half to set his own agenda, go his own way, and make his own friends during the games as long as he didn’t leave the oval. His parents were never seen by us but I suppose we viewed them as spectral support from the more respectable section of the West Perth supporter base. Certainly they gave us a certain amount of trust and we did feel some obligation and responsibility regarding Half’s welfare. Half was a very passionate West Perth supporter although I believe he lived in the East Perth district in either Bayswater or Maylands.
The sandy-brown haired eight-year-old "Half" or "Halfy" joined the cheer squad for every home game for two years (1984-86) and he always joined us on the playing surface after games for the informal kick-to-kick sessions among the group members. He was always regarded as an important part of the group and his nickname was a sign of affection. He was a carefree extrovert who liked chatting and laughing and would get very excited during significant moments of play when West Perth was doing well. At such times he would run around and climb up on to empty seats, waving his flag furiously. He would enjoy the insulting cheer squad chants and enjoy negative discussions about other teams and verbally jousting with rival fans of his own age if any of them came too close. Like all of us, he genuinely loved and admired the playing group, the team, and the club but in the innocent way you would expect of an eight-year-old.
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| Kieran James (author), LO northern end, 6/7/2011 |
Mike B. reminded me recently (personal conversation, Kalgoorlie, 14 July 2011) of an incident involving Half which had not risen to the top of my memory and so had not made the first draft of this article. At one particular game at Leederville Oval, one of the teams was on a scoring spree and the football would repeatedly sail over the wire fencing which was and is only around eight metres behind the boundary fence at the Technical School end of the ground. Half knew the quickest way from the oval into the Technical School grounds and, due to his knowledge of this route combined with his pace and alertness, he was always first through to the Technical School to recover the footballs. As Mike recounts the story, Half used to put the footballs under his jumper, re-enter the ground, and then give the footballs to his mother seated in the grandstand who was complicit in the thefts. One can only imagine the height and width of his perpetual cheeky grins on this particular afternoon! Mike says this occurred at many of the games but at one game in particular there was a scoring spree at the Technical School end and Half stole many footballs on this day alone. This article has a picture (above) of me standing in our cheer squad’s behind-goals area at the Technical School end of Leederville Oval. In the redevelopment of the ground over the past ten years the seats behind the goals and on the scoreboard wing have all gone but those in front of the tin shed, in the north-western corner of the ground, still remain today as they were in 1984 [by Kieran James, 30 December 2011].
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| Mike B. (left) and Kieran J., West Perth cheer squad 1984-86 founders, pictured here 25 years later at the Exchange Hotel, Kalgoorlie, 14 July 2011 |
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| Kieran James, West Perth cheer squad 1984-86 joint-founder (left) pictured here with Brian Atkinson, former West Perth FC President and official club historian, Perth, 8 July 2011 |
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| Curtin University sports historian Dr Sean Gorman (left) and Kieran James, West Perth cheer squad joint-founder 1984-86, pictured here at Curtin University, 5 July 2011. Dr Gorman wrote the excellent book BrotherBoys about Jim and Phil Krakouer which includes a detailed and historically important section on the 1981 WAFL Grand Final between Claremont and South Fremantle. |
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| Leederville Oval, looking west from the northern-end goals, 6 July 2011. During the 1980s West Perth could be unbeatable here at home especially on fine sunny days like this one with the home crowd in full voice. However, the period 1976-86 disappointed West Perth fans as the team never played in a Grand Final. Although the team often defeated the eventual premiers (e.g. Swans twice in 1982 and 1984 and East Fremantle twice in 1985) it also lost many games against lowly-placed teams which it should have won. An interesting fact which most people are not aware of is that in Swans' triple-premiership years of 1982-84 West Perth beat it 5 times out of 9 in the qualifying rounds. This demonstrates how potential went unfulfilled at West Perth in this era. |
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