ABSTRACT: This article
is based on my personal memories of the West Perth Football Club unofficial cheer
squad (hardcore support) which operated in the Western Australian Football
League (WAFL) competition from 1984-86. The article details ‘traditional’, ‘hot’ support for West Perth
Football Club among teenaged supporters from working-class and middle-class backgrounds.
My findings largely conform to
Armstrong and Hughson’s idea of fluid post-modern ‘neo-tribes’ where
affiliations are very loose and people can easily adjust their degree of
commitment to a group and/or leave the group when their personal priorities
change. However, once people joined our group they did not generally adjust
their degree of commitment downwards prior to the group’s break-up.
KEYWORDS: Australian Rules Football, Marxism, Soccer Hooliganism, Sports
History, West Perth Football Club, Western Australian Football, Western Australian
History
A revised version of this article was published in journal
article form as follows: James, K., Working-class
youth supporters of a decimated football league: The West Perth unofficial
cheer squad, 1984-86, Sporting Traditions,
Vol. 31, No. 2, (November) 2014, pp. 51-67.
The 198-page book-length version of this article Goodbye Leederville Oval: History of West Perth Cheer Squad 1984-86 was published in August 2017 and can be bought at the following links:
To buy paperback edition: http://www.lulu.com/shop/kieran-james/goodbye-leederville-oval-history-of-west-perth-cheer-squad-1984-86/paperback/product-23296331.html
To buy hardcover edition: http://www.lulu.com/shop/kieran-james/goodbye-leederville-oval-history-of-west-perth-cheer-squad-1984-86/hardcover/product-23462279.html
“Although
Australian Rules is often referred to as ‘the people’s game’, on account of its
broad popularity and appeal, most writings on the history of football pay
insufficient attention to individual people, and the stories they tell often
lack a human face” (Lionel Frost, Immortals, 2005, p. x).
Introduction
This
article is based on my personal memories of the West Perth Football Club
unofficial cheer squad (hardcore support) which operated in the Western
Australian Football League (WAFL) competition from 1984-86.[1]
West Perth (WPFC) is one of the current nine clubs in the Western Australian
Football League (WAFL).[2]
This was the primary football league in the state of Western Australia until
1987 when newly-created super-club the West Coast Eagles joined the new
national league.[3] This new
national league was known as the ‘expanded Victorian Football League’ (VFL) from
1987-89 and the ‘Australian Football League’ (AFL) from 1990.[4]
The formation of the West Coast Eagles forever relegated the WAFL to a
second-tier league[5] with the
average WAFL match attendance declining from 8,000-10,000 per game in 1984-86
to 4,000 per game in 1987-94 and then further still to 2,000 per game in 1995
and following years. Nineteen ninety-five was the year in which Fremantle
Dockers became Western Australia’s second AFL club. The former East Perth and Richmond
(VFL/AFL) player and South Fremantle coach Mal Brown made the following
comments about the sad decline of the WAFL in the post-West Coast Eagles era:
Sadly, from Perth’s [Football Club]
point of view the West Coast Eagles were hovering overhead, and came into being
the next season [1987] – and that was the end of an era. The West Australian
domestic competition took a nosedive from which it can never recover lost
status or spectator appeal.[6]
This article documents
the fifteen-person unofficial grouping of teenagers aged from eight years to
eighteen years which sat at the northern or Technical School end of the ground
at West Perth’s home venue, Leederville Oval, from 1984-86. It is an important
part of Western Australian social and sporting history; the cheer squad members
were all part of the final generation to grow up in the pre-West Coast Eagles
era in Western Australia when the WAFL was experiencing its glory days.[7]
Although our West
Perth cheer squad never used physical violence, and only once was seriously
threatened by it (at Bassendean Oval, the home of Swan Districts Football
Club), Peter Marsh, a scholar of ‘aggro’ within and among youth sub-cultural
groups, has emphasized the importance of an ‘illusion of violence’ even when
actual violence is not present.[11]
Furthermore, the extant soccer hooligan literature
has discussed the hooligan ‘firm’, a ‘class-for-itself’ to use the term
sometimes imputed (incorrectly) to Karl Marx, in terms of a weekly ritual
performance of heterosexual masculinity whereby a group of hardcore fans
defends its physical turf and the honour of the city and its supporters.[12]
This ‘weekly ritual performance of heterosexual masculinity’ need not always
involve actual violent acts. Australian Rules’ cheer squads in the 1980s clearly
were involved in this ‘macho posturing’ that Marsh and Hughson both term an
‘illusion of violence’. This meant physically controlling and protecting the
area behind the goals at home games unofficially reserved for hardcore elements
of the home team’s support and symbolically ‘invading’ the away team’s suburb
and ground. However, of course, legally speaking, general admission area seats
at a football ground are ‘public space’ and no-one has the right to prevent
anyone from sitting there. A non-cheer squad member could have chosen to sit
right in the midst of our cheer squad although non-verbal cultural cues and our
early arrival at games reduced the probability of this happening.
As mentioned,
‘invading’ the away team’s suburb and its ground were symbolic actions.
However, the cheer squads usually exhibited humility when going to an opposing
team’s ground by sitting at the end closest to the train station (often the end
not utilized by the home team’s cheer squad) and by having a friendly chat with
the opposition cheer squad, if paths happened to cross, at the ground, the railway
station or the city-centre streets. There were cordial and fraternal
relationships between our cheer squad and the equivalent groups from other
clubs consistent with the culture and the ethics of the Victorian and South
Australian cheer squads of the era. As an example of Victorian cheer squad
ethics in the 1980s, there was a place called Classic Cafe in Melbourne city-centre
where the cheer squad members from different clubs would congregate and mingle on
Saturday nights after the regular Saturday afternoon home-and-away games.[13]
When West Perth
played Swan Districts in 1985 (see the last section of the paper) our West Perth
cheer squad displayed a more boisterous and aggressive attitude because: (a)
there had been a heated rivalry between the two clubs dating back ten years;
(b) West Perth was a strong team in 1985 and a genuine on-field threat to Swan
Districts (which had won triple premierships in 1982-84); and (c) the long
train trip together from the city-centre to Swan Districts’ ground had
magnified group self-confidence by the reinforcement of the ‘gang mentality’
mixed with the ‘holiday or carnival atmosphere’. When we visited other clubs’
grounds these three factors were not all present together in the same way
during our cheer squad’s era.
Research
Method
This article is
not a conventional history of any or all eras of the WPFC. The official history
of the club has been written by Brian Atkinson.[14]
Instead, I use ‘aggro’ scholar Peter Marsh’s theory of the ‘illusion of violence’
to analyse the case facts; I also briefly discuss the West Perth cheer squad of
1984-86 in the light of certain theories which were first presented in the
academic literature on British soccer hooligan supporter groups by key authors Armstrong,
Giulianotti, and Hughson.
In regards data sources used this paper relies primarily upon personal
memories. Other data sources include: history books; contemporaneous newspaper
articles; and one recent personal interview with Mike B., the other
joint-founder of the West Perth cheer squad (interview date: 14 July 2011).
Formation
and the Key Characters in the Group
 |
| Figure 1: Fat Pam's cheer squad, 8/8/1981 |
I became aware,
early in the 1984 WAFL regular season, that the earlier famed West Perth cheer
squad, which had congregated behind the northern end goals at Leederville Oval
for many years, had quit completely at the end of 1983. This cheer squad was
interesting as, unlike the other WAFL cheer squads of the same era, it was
dominated by middle-aged females and young children (rather than by male
teenagers). As the football historian Rob Hess has written ‘[i]n a football
world dominated by men, perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Australian
code is the consistently large number of females who support the game’.[15]
The legendary leader of this cheer squad was a woman known by the woefully
politically incorrect moniker of ‘Fat Pam’. The leading women used to stand
upright on the last row of wooden benches behind the northern end goals thus
placing considerable strain upon the said benches. Their cheer squad was large,
committed, and dedicated; it had a huge collection of flags and floggers. Unfortunately
I am not able to discuss Fat Pam’s cheer squad in any more detail here as I was
only 14-years-old during the 1983 season and I knew none of Fat Pam’s group
personally. As Hess has explained, ‘an understanding of crowd behaviour in any
sport is usually difficult given the often transitory and scarce resources
available’.[16] Figure
1 depicts Fat Pam’s cheer squad at the northern end of East Fremantle Oval for
the East Fremantle versus West Perth match on 8 August 1981.[17]
However,
with this cheer squad now disbanded, I sensed a gap and an opportunity. As far
as I was aware, in May 1984, Fat Pam’s group continued to make the banners that
the players ran through at the start of each game. Therefore, our group never
attempted to get involved in this activity, mostly out of respect for Fat Pam’s
group which had been there long before it. I felt that the West Perth team
would be inspired by a vocal group of home supporters, with a colourful
red-and-blue visual presence, at the northern end of Leederville. A Melbourne
Knights’ soccer fan puts forward her view (below) that her team has been
inspired and encouraged on occasion by the vociferous, noisy, and colourful
support of the club’s hooligan firm Melbourne Croatia Fans or MCF:
From what I
can gather, the MCF is largely made up of young men who are passionate about
their club, its heritage and its importance to the Croatian community. They are
loyally devoted to their team and will often travel great distances in order to
show their support. The songs, chants and banners have (according to the players)
been known to lift our team in crucial moments during the match.[18]
The cheer squad
was started by me (aged fifteen years) and my high-school friend Mike B. (aged
sixteen years) in May 1984. I remember that our group already had two large
red-and-blue homemade flags on day one (West Perth versus South Fremantle,
Leederville Oval, 5 May 1984). Our group would add significantly to the two
flags over the next two years ending up with around fifteen flags at one point
or approximately one flag per core member. On this first day of the new cheer
squad Mike B. and I both wore our long-sleeved West Perth replica playing
jerseys. Although these were not the height of fashion even in the mid-1980s we
were both very proud to show our club loyalties. Contemporaneous newspaper
reports confirm that the match, which was day one for the cheer squad, was the
thrilling draw against South Fremantle on 5 May 1984. Atkinson recounts that
the slender Aboriginal half-forward flanker Ron Davis kicked two goals out of
three for West Perth in the last five minutes to draw the game with only
fifteen seconds remaining.[19]
The final score was: West Perth 15.15 (105) drew South Fremantle 16.9 (105).[20]
The official attendance was 7,790.[21]
I remember a joyous mood that day commensurate with an exciting come-from-behind
draw. It was the first drawn match in the WAFL since 20 April 1974. It is remarkable
that the games which I classify now as the first and last games for the cheer
squad were both draws, versus South Fremantle at Leederville Oval on 5 May 1984
and versus Perth at Lathlain Park on 29 March 1986. Atkinson references our cheer
squad as follows: ‘I certainly remember the support and enthusiasm coming from
behind the goals, but because it was unofficial nothing was retained on the
record’.[22]
 |
| Kieran James and Brian Atkinson, 8/7/2011 |
I am reasonably
certain that two fourteen-year-olds, Courtney and his school-friend Rohan H.,
both joined the group on the first day. Both were to form part of the core for
the next two years with Courtney arguably filling a role as deputy leader, along
a second rank, with his suburban junior football friend ‘Thommo’ (aged fourteen
years) who may also have joined the group on that first day. In the group tiny
sub-gangs[23] emerged
following the same pattern, but with much smaller numbers, as Portsmouth’s 6.57
Crew or the Peruvian barras bravas of
Lima.[24]
The sub-gangs operated along the lines of friendships formed prior to joining
the group and based on suburbs of residence.[25]
The sub-gangs had between two and five people each, and each sub-gang had a
particular relationship with the joint-founders, Mike B. and me, and with the
group as a whole.
 |
| Laurie James @ Leederville Oval, 6/7/2011 |
Courtney,
Rohan, and Thommo (the ‘Carine group’) was a sub-gang, as was the ‘Balga group’
of ‘P.A.’ and Dave S. (name changed). Thommo and Robbie, who joined the cheer
squad only in 1985, might best be viewed as ‘floaters’ or non-aligned. Because
Thommo and Robbie knew each other and Thommo knew Courtney prior to anyone
joining the group they were a key link between the sub-gangs. People from the
same districts were viewed as sub-gangs since they would habitually take the same
buses or trains to and from the games together. It was soon possible to see a shaky
organizational chart emerge of the core since the two blonds, Courtney and Mike
B., always had a strong relationship, while I related reasonably well with the
red-head Thommo. The cheer squad also included the three C. brothers (aged
fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen at the group’s inception) who had spent
considerable time in reform homes and were commonly perceived as having no
fixed abode.
 |
| Figure 2 - Tin shed & Technical School, 6/7/2011 |
I now move on
to mention the cheer squad’s most important and famous younger member, Michael
or ‘Half’ as the group members christened him because he was one-half the
height of the other group members. Half was a sandy-haired eight-year-old whose
parents were financial members of the club who sat in the grandstand on the
western wing of Leederville Oval and who attended all ‘away’ games. 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 enclosed confines of the
ground. This was an era before major community concerns about predatory
paedophile offenders had risen to present-day proportions and generally
primary-aged children were allowed to travel on their own to a much greater
extent than is the case today. Half’s parents were never seen by the cheer
squad members but we viewed them as unseen ghostly support from the more
respectable section of the West Perth supporter base. Certainly, the parents
gave the group a certain amount of trust and the group members did feel some
obligation and responsibility regarding Half’s welfare. I certainly felt some
responsibility.
|
| Figure 3 - Mike B. (left) & Kieran J. |
Mike B.
reminded me recently of an incident involving Half which had not made the first
draft of this article.[26]
At one particular game at Leederville Oval, one of the teams was on a scoring
spree and the football repeatedly sailed over the wire fencing which was and is
only around eight metres behind the boundary fence at the Technical School (northern)
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 B. recounts the story[27],
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. 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 that day. Figure 2 shows the tin shed in Leederville Oval’s
north-west corner with the fence and the Technical School visible to the shed’s
right in the picture. [28] Figure
3 shows Mike B. (left) and me at the Exchange Hotel, Kalgoorlie, 14 July 2011.
Other
West Perth Supporter Groups – The ‘Grandstand Falcons’
 |
| Leederville Oval grandstand, 6/7/2011 |
There was a
third unofficial WPFC supporter group called ‘Grandstand Falcons’ which sat at
the top of the grandstand and sang and chanted. They were slightly older than
us but they had around the same number of members. This group’s signature song
was ‘This Time’, a reference to West Perth’s then ten-year premiership drought
which stretched back as far as 1975 (and was only broken in 1995). We only
joined them on two or three occasions and only at ‘away’ venues. The two groups
kept distinct identities. Their group had no flags, banners or floggers. When
Mike B. was upset at the silliness and immaturity of our cheer squad members he
would threaten to join the ‘Grandstand Falcons’ but this never happened! Having
three different cheer squads in existence at West Perth from 1984-86 shows the
intensity of grassroots devotion to the club and to the league in this era just
prior to the transition of Perth to an AFL-city.
The
1984 State of Origin Match (Western Australia versus Victoria)
 |
| Leederville Oval, 6/7/2011 |
There was a
combined Perth-Claremont cheer squad which unofficially represented Western
Australia (WA) in the state match against Victoria at Subiaco Oval on Tuesday afternoon 17 July 1984.[29]
The Perth-Claremont cheer squad invited our cheer squad to join them but I declined
on behalf of our group[30]
so that people in our group could attend separately with their own various gangs
of school friends. The match was held on a school day (Tuesday) afternoon and
so people ‘wagged’ (skipped) school or work to go to the game. Being on a
school day it made logical and logistic sense to attend this match with school
friends rather than with ‘Saturday’s heroes’ because planning for the day could
take place at school on the Monday. Also Mike B. and I felt that the ethical
obligation to attend with school friends overrode the ethical obligation to
attend with the cheer squad since the match took place during school hours. The
school-friends group which attended that day included the following people: Mike B., Paul B., Chad S., Pete L., Roy G.,
Paul D., ‘Gilby’, Wayne D., and Nick S. (not the Perth FC cheer squad leader).[31] However, Mike B. and
I brought the West Perth cheer squad’s famous ‘Cop That’ banner to the game.
Our group stood on the concrete terraces (since demolished) at the Roberts Road
side of the ground in front of the tin shed which was then located at the
half-forward flank position at the city end.
WA defeated Victoria 21.16 (142) to 12.12 (84) and, according to the
author’s personal 1984 season notes, the highlight was Gary Ablett Senior
kicking eight goals for the losing Victorian team.[32] The ‘Cop That’ banner was
captured that day on camera for an Emu Export beer commercial which ran for
many years, and long after the West Perth cheer squad had dissolved. The fact
that the banner was red-and-blue but WA’s playing strip was yellow-and-black
did not deter the Emu Export marketing people from choosing to use the banner
in their long-running TV commercial. For me the sighting of that banner on the
beer commercial was one of the last tangible reminders of the then defunct West
Perth cheer squad of 1984-86. Similarly, I remember reading about the graffiti
tag ‘The Clash’, located on the Harrow Road in West London at the place where
it passes under the Westway, which remained there, fading slowly, long after
that punk rock group’s vigorous life was over.
The
Break-Up of the Cheer Squad in 1986
 |
| Eastern-side of Leederville Oval, 6/7/2011 |
In the long
run, our cheer squad members’ diverse social backgrounds probably led to the
group falling apart in the first few weeks of the 1986 regular season once some
of the key group members had left high-school and the social divisions became
apparent. The world of government high-schools and junior football clubs
produced the appearance of sameness and an egalitarian atmosphere which was
genuine but also, to some extent, did hide real social and economic divisions.[33]
Each of the group members attended government high-schools or (in three cases -
Half, ‘Thommo Junior’, and Mario) primary schools in 1984-85. Government
schools are without a doubt levelling environments. When I went to university full-time
in 1986 it seemed to break the spell of sameness or maybe it just made me ‘feel
different’. My priorities and interests changed. The cheer squad just seemed
less important to me and I stopped attending WAFL games a few rounds into the
1986 season. The group broke up when key core members just stopped putting in
the individual and collective mental effort and energy to keep it alive as a
distinct group-for-itself. I made no attempt to retrieve the cheer squad’s
fifteen flags after Round 1 of the 1986 season which was the only match that
year where the full cheer squad existed in essentially its 1985 form. Mike B.
had also finished high-school by 1986 and he may not have returned to the cheer
squad at all for the 1986 season. We no longer saw each other every day at
high-school in 1986 and this surely was an additional factor as to why the
group broke up.
I do regret
giving up on the cheer squad so easily after Round 1 of the 1986 WAFL season but
any attempt to prolong the group’s life artificially after interest had dropped
off would have been disastrous and pointless. Furthermore, we must also
remember that the times were changing by 1986. The WAFL Commission was fast
putting together a deal to join the expanded VFL national competition above the
heads of the ordinary football supporters (meaning that they were not consulted
about issues such as the new club’s name, colours or jersey design) and even
above the heads of two dissenting WAFL club presidents Bill Walker (Swan
Districts) and Wayne Ryder (South Fremantle).[34]
All of these negotiations and distractions adversely affected the mood at the
grassroots level and WAFL match crowds did fall significantly in 1986 (total
regular season crowds 623,000 or 7,417 per game). However, this drop-off was
nowhere near as great as the 50% further drop-off in 1987 (total regular season
crowds 308,000 or 3,667 per game), the first year post- West Coast Eagles.[35]
As a point of comparison, WAFL regular season crowds had been as high as 810,113
in 1970 (or 9,644 per game).[36]
Analysis
of the Case Data
Application
of Giulianotti’s Theory of the Four Types of Soccer
Spectators
 |
| Perth vs. SDFC, Lathlain Park, 2 July 2011 |
West Perth
cheer squad group members who only occasionally attended games, such as Robert
C., might be classified as followers with ‘traditional’ yet ‘cool’ forms of
club identification. However, there were no or very few ‘consumerist’ WAFL fans
as the league and its clubs lacked market penetration and sold few licensed
merchandise items even when compared with the VFL/AFL of the same era. In the
1980s the WAFL and its clubs sold only beanies, scarfs, playing jerseys,
tee-shirts, windcheaters, and a very limited range of metal badges (‘I love
West Perth’, ‘I hate South Fremantle’ etc. and player picture badges) which
were modelled on VFL/AFL merchandise. Occasionally there were one-off issues of
bar mirrors or mugs, etc., either by individual clubs or by the league itself. The
games were very popular and attendances were high but merchandising was at a
very simple and basic level. There were no such things as ‘away’ or alternative
jerseys so these were fashion accessories not then available to otherwise
fashion-conscious supporters (such as Courtney, Rohan, and Mike B.).
Furthermore, the clubs’ actual playing jersey designs in most cases had not
changed for decades so nobody needed to buy new designs.
Wearing the Club Colours
Although our
cheer squad, sadly, did not grow much over its two-year life, the fifteen core members
(see Appendix A for list of core members) were loyal and dedicated, and, on
good days of fine weather and interesting opponents, large numbers of
hangers-on and drifters of various ages would join us. This was especially so
at away games where West Perth fans had no habitual place to sit and were wary
of the home team supporters. West Perth fans, especially at away games, would
tend to look for and congregate with groups of people wearing the club colours
and looking like an authentic and believable gang of supporters. This is why
the club colours were so important and why, with the exceptions of Mike B.
(replica playing jersey excluded), Courtney, and Rohan, the group did not
follow the designer dressing style of the 1980s English soccer ‘casuals’. This
finding also confirms with Hughson’s observations about the Bad Blue Boys members
at Sydney United who also tended to wear club colours.[41]
Post-modern
Neo-tribes
However,
although it is true that we did not want to disturb others’ lives outside of
match-days, match-day commitment was reasonably high during the period May 1984
to March 1986 as the fifteen core members attended all or nearly all the
home-and-away games. This supports the proposition that the vast majority of
the people listed in Appendix A (all but numbers 10 and 12 on the list) were
traditional hot supporters. We had a policy of letting core members take home
one flag each as long as he brought it back to the next match which encouraged
commitment and a sense of belonging to the group.[45]
By contrast, we kept the messy paper-mache floggers in a store-room at
Leederville Oval and used them only at home games. The floggers were found by
one of our members in a Leederville Oval store-room and we presumed that they
had been used by Fat Pam’s group.
Social
Class
Sandover
Medal Night, Perth Entertainment Centre, 27 August 1984
I will now
discuss the WAFL Sandover Medal Night held at the now demolished Perth
Entertainment Centre on Monday 27 August 1984. This was the first time ever
that the fairest-and-best player award presentation night has been opened to
the general public and it has never been opened to the public again. I view the
move as part of an effort to ‘take the game to the people’, a move towards
empowerment, at the same time as the WAFL commissioners were simultaneously
disempowering people by negotiating to be part of an expanded VFL competition over
the heads of the ordinary club supporters and even over two dissenting club
presidents. Other empowerment initiatives of the era included Channel 7 hosting
Sunday ‘World of Football’ panel shows at WAFL clubs’ social rooms on a
rotating basis. On these days non-members and opposing fans were made welcome
free-of-charge for the duration of the panel show. Twice our group attended
such shows – once at Leederville Oval and once at Bassendean Oval.
The Perth Entertainment
Centre (opened on 27 December 1974 and closed in August 2002) held around 8,200
people. Tickets were sold to the Sandover Medal Count for a reasonable fee,
three dollars per person or around the cost of a match-day concession ticket,
and supporters were allocated specific areas within the venue according to the
club they supported. The cheer squad members made an effort to attend and
secure tickets for the members and for the younger people in the group such as
Half and Thommo Junior (Thommo’s younger brother aged around eight). Given that
the Medal Night was held on a weekday, winter’s evening in a city-centre venue (in
an era prior to mass gentrification of the inner-city) not surprisingly the
main group of people in attendance were the hardcore cheer squad members
carrying their big flags and banners. Most other people preferred to watch the
live Channel 7 telecast from the comfort of their warm living rooms out in the
suburbs. Perth, Claremont, Subiaco, West Perth, and East Perth all had large
vocal cheer squad groups at the venue that night. Of course our group cheered
and waved flags whenever a West Perth player received a vote just like on any
match day. Fitting in with the carnival mood of the evening, there were three
tied winners of the award, Michael Mitchell and Steve Malaxos of Claremont and
Peter Spencer of East Perth.[52]
 |
| Can bar, P v SD, Lathlain Park, 2/7/2011 |
The sensationalist
article by Byrne opened as follows: ‘Telephone switchboards ran hot at West
Australian Newspapers, Channel 7 and talk-back radio programmes yesterday as
people protested about the handling of this year’s Sandover Medal presentation’.[55]
The writer goes on to explain how callers were ‘disgusted’ because the ‘winners
were booed by jeering flag-waving fans’ during the two-hour event. George Michalczyk
of West Perth was forthright, hostile, and even a tad moralistic and superior
in his comments spoken in his capacity as head of the Players’ Association: ‘It
was a commercial failure and a TV failure. I don’t think there are any positive
things to say for it. I think the general public reaction will say that this
will never happen again at the Entertainment Centre’.[56]
Of course the vast majority of the fans present enjoyed themselves tremendously
by behaving exactly as they would on any match day. Michalczyk need not have worried
himself too much: by 1987 most of these noisy, teenaged, flag-waving fans had stopped
attending WAFL games (having shifted over to support West Coast Eagles).
The moralistic
public uproar, a clear case of ‘moral panic’, resulted in the 1985 medal count night
being shifted back to its traditional venue, The Golden Ballroom of the
Sheraton Perth Hotel, and the ordinary supporters were again excluded. Nowadays
the Brownlow (AFL) and Sandover Medal (WAFL) nights are corporate events at
luxury hotel ballrooms, and players and WAGS (wives and girlfriends) dress up
in their showy fineries.[57]
The counts have become fashion shows and places to be seen. Carlton VFL/AFL player
Brendan Fevola’s behaviour at the 2009 Brownlow Medal Count included vomiting,
swearing, spilling beer, simulated sex acts, and molestation of women.[58]
No teenage cheer squad member behaved in such ways at the Perth Entertainment
Centre in August 1984 although some of them might have accidentally spilled
their soft drinks!
Swan Districts versus West Perth, Bassendean Oval, 1985
 |
| Bassendean Oval, 12/7/2011 |
A trip to
Bassendean Oval to play Swan Districts requires a long train journey from the Perth
city-centre on the ancient Midland train line (opened 1 March 1881). Swan
Districts is the most remote from the city-centre of the eight traditional WAFL
clubs. By WAFL standards it is a fairly compact ground with the outer grassy banks
being less deep and less high than those at East Fremantle Oval, Leederville
Oval (prior to its recent renovations) or Lathlain Park. Like a soccer ground,
all spectators are relatively close to the play. Even the famous old stands hug
the playing arena closely and cast much of it in shadow in the late afternoons.
Since the formation of West Coast Eagles in 1987, ‘Swans’ has had a reputation,
fiercely and jealously guarded, of being the epitome of a traditional WAFL
club.[59]
Bill Walker of Swan Districts was one of only two WAFL club presidents to vote
against the entry of West Coast Eagles into the expanded VFL (now AFL). Even
the once vibrant Midland and Guildford districts, at the centre of Swan
Districts’ geographic heartland, retain a large proportion of historic
buildings and they seem to have remained somewhat shielded from the economic, social,
and demographic change that the rest of Perth has experienced.
 |
| Figure 4: R.A. McDonald Stand, 12/7/2011 |
Although there
was and is a members’ stand, the R.A. McDonald Stand, in the ground’s
south-western corner, has always contained vocal and hardcore Swan Districts’
supporters of all ages.[60]
The stand still contains such supporters today, although nowadays there are
empty seats during the main game. In the WAFL’s golden era patrons had to
arrive long before the start of the main game to be assured a seat in the McDonald
Stand (usually pronounced in rapid-fire manner as if there was an extra ‘s’ as
in ‘McDonald’s Stand’). My late maternal grandfather Herbert Arthur Acott (born
17 March 1906 – died 4 July 1999) and his best friend Ernie Henderson always sat
there, towards the top, in the 1970s and into the first half of the 1980s.[61]
The McDonald Stand
is only 20 or 30 metres from the southern end goals. The northern end goals are
furthest from the train station so, logically, they are not the place for the
visiting cheer squad. The logic of the era was that the visiting cheer squad would
stay near the entrance that was closest to the train station so that meant the
southern end at Claremont Oval and the eastern end at Perth Oval.
 |
| Figure 5: McD. Stand from southern-end goals |
I can recall
our cheer squad this day entering what were then the most popular gates of the
oval, in the south-west corner closest to Success Hill train station, with the giant
flags. We took the path of least resistance and set ourselves up behind the
southern end goals, 20 to 30 metres from the McDonald Stand at a 45-degree
angle. The group’s red-and-blue flags and banners were right there in front of
the line of sight of the McDonald Stand’s inhabitants (see Figure 6). Swans’
colours are black-and-white and so the cheer squad’s red-and-blue flags stood
out that day like the first year of colour television. The heritage-registered ground
remains largely unchanged today. The McDonald Stand is pictured in Figure 4. Figure
5 shows the McDonald Stand as viewed from the southern end goals while Figure 6
shows the opposite view (the southern end goals as viewed from the McDonald Stand).[62]
 |
| Figure 6: Southern-end goals from McD. Stand |
Our cheer squad
chanted its usual chants that day but with perhaps unusual venom. 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 combined
state team in 1975.[63]
This animosity had then followed Todd across from East Fremantle to Swan
Districts.[64] Dawson 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’.[65]
Swans’ record home ground attendance remains today the 22,350 people who
watched Swans play West Perth on 10 May 1980 (Round 6).[66]
 |
| Bassendean Oval |
One of our cheer
squad’s chants in games against Swans was ‘Ronnie Boucher walks on water /
everybody knows that bullshit floats’.[67]
Swan Districts had no recognized or organized cheer squad then but generally
cheer squads accept each other’s chants as just part of the job description and
not to be taken seriously. Much more dangerous than the opposing cheer squads
are the disorganized fans. The cheer squad also had its famous song, sung to
the tune of the classic children’s song ‘Old McDonald had a Farm’: ‘Old McDonald
had a stand / eyie eyie oh / and in that stand was full of pigs / eyie eyie oh’.
Of course our group members all thought this song was very funny and we sang it
repeatedly and at maximum volume. The distant origins of the real Mr R.A.
McDonald (see previous footnote #60) meant that by 1985 our group clearly
intended to insult a revered ancient folklore deity instead of an actual known
person. The song was in effect an attack against local gods.
Around
three-quarter time during the main game (Australian Rules’ matches have four
equal length quarters), the cheer squad members saw that a group of around eight
Aboriginal youths, around the cheer squad members’ ages or slightly older, had
very quietly surrounded us and taken up strategic seating positions just
outside our group on all three sides. This Aboriginal group began to make
intimidating comments including that they would beat up our group members after
the game. The Aboriginal group members were shirtless and wore no club colours
but they were clearly Swans’ supporters. I could tell that our group members
were apprehensive. Aboriginal youth culture and the culture of the suburbs around
Bassendean Oval were not well known to any of our group members. None of us had
any reputation in the area that he could call upon.
 |
| Ron Boucher (SDFC) in recent years |
All of our cheer
squad members began to watch the game much more diligently; we adopted a much
lower profile. We became just normal fans rather than a cheer squad as such. Even
the noisiest members became very quiet which was remarkable. People paid
detailed attention to the match, looked straight ahead, and quietly conversed
in their twos and threes. This was partly a strategic act and partly a
sub-conscious switch to the self-preservation mode. The chanting mostly stopped
although I am sure that we still waved the flags after West Perth goals. It was
almost as if we mentally decided to instantaneously disassemble the cheer
squad. However, we were still ‘ready for service’ in that nobody left the
physical position he was in prior to the chilly confrontation beginning. It was
a mental battle of hearts and wills. We refused to physically disassemble but
we toned our activities down. Of course disassembling would have had its own
risks as we could have been picked off one by one.
When the game
ended, or possibly five or ten minutes prior to that, we looked around us and saw
that the Aboriginal group had disappeared. I do not think that anyone even saw
or heard them leave. Perhaps our group had passed some kind of existential test.
Possibly the Swan Districts’ group had decided that we were ‘good guys at
heart’ or possibly they had just lost interest in confrontation or had
somewhere to go straight after the match. Swans’ on-field victory that day might
possibly have been seen by the Aboriginal group as being vindication enough for
them as Mike B. today claims[68].
The match was either Swans’ defeat of West Perth 19.14 (128) to 15.12 (102) on
8 April 1985 (attendance 10,500) or its defeat of West Perth 22.12 (144) to
21.16 (142) on 20 July 1985 (attendance 9,462).[69]
One interesting fact is that West Perth defeated Swans five times out of nine
during Swans’ triple premiership years of 1982-84.[70]
By contrast, in 1985, when Swans was not among the top two teams but West Perth
made the finals series, Swans defeated West Perth three times out of three in
the regular season and one more time in the first semi-final (when third plays
fourth).[71] Such
are the vagaries of football.
It must be
pointed out that our cheer squad members never viewed this encounter as any
sort of ‘racial war’ – the cheer squad was multicultural and had a
multicultural ethos. For example, Dave S. from Tuart Hill was an ethnic Chinese
and the brothers Tony and Mario were of Italian ethnicity. In fact West Perth
supporters have for many years been referred to by the racist tag of ‘Garlic
Munchers’ (especially by East Perth fans). This tag emerged because of the
large Italian support base which was attracted to the club in the post-World
War II period.
 |
| North Adelaide Cheer Squad (SANFL) |
On reflection,
our group had probably become a little elitist and self-assured. For me I had
attended games in the VFL/AFL at Princes Park and Windy Hill and in the South
Australian National Football League (SANFL) where I had stood in the pouring
rain amidst the Port Adelaide Magpies’ cheer squad at Alberton Oval (the
hardcore of the hardcore). By importing cheer squad culture into Western
Australia, along with leaders of the Perth and Claremont cheer squads, I had thought
I was sophisticated, well-travelled, and well-informed (and perhaps even ‘Victorian’).
When at a Carlton versus Essendon match at Windy Hill in 1984 I had lied about
my name to two Carlton supporters and had tried to convey a (false) impression
that I lived permanently in Melbourne. Back in my home state I wore a duffel
coat with West Perth player name and number (Rod Alderton) on the back to
signal my credibility as few football supporters in Perth who had not travelled
to Victoria were aware that such match-day attire existed. Our cheer squad went
to Bassendean Oval thinking that because there was no organized Swan Districts’
cheer squad we could pretty much do as we liked. I probably did not ‘rate’ the
Aboriginal group when I first saw it as it was not a Victorian-style cheer
squad and their guys were shirtless and did not wear club colours. Why was this day memorable aside from just
the physical threat? Perhaps because different concepts of fandom, match-day
behaviours, and dress codes were operating and these concepts clashed. I almost
certainly had an elitist attitude. I respected and tried to keep cordial
relationships with the Perth and Claremont cheer squads but I did not perceive
any necessity to have a similar fraternal and respectful attitude with respect
to any or all Swan Districts’ fans. I may well have perceived the Swans’
Aboriginal group as ‘backward’ or ‘unsophisticated’.
Conclusion
This article has discussed the West Perth unofficial
cheer squad (hardcore support) which operated in the WAFL competition from
1984-86. I have analysed the case data and conclude that our group’s experiences
are broadly consistent with the concept of fluid ‘post-modern’ ‘neo-tribes’ introduced
to the literature of hardcore soccer support by Armstrong and Hughson. The
concept suggests that hardcore supporter group affiliations are very loose and group
members can and do adjust their degrees of personal commitment to groups and/or
leave groups when they feel that group membership no longer best serves their immediate
interests, goals, and preferences. However, contrary to prior findings, once
people joined our group they did not generally adjust their degree of
commitment downwards prior to the group’s break-up. The article has explained this in part by
referring to the fact that core members were given one flag each to take home
on the proviso that they brought it to the following week’s game. This arguably
increased members’ sense of belonging to the group and commitment to the group.
Two additional reasons are now introduced. Secondly, our cheer squad lasted
only two years whereas Armstrong’s study of Sheffield United Blades covered a
longer period and over a longer period we expect to observe more changes in
both group membership and the commitment levels of existing members. Thirdly,
we were not a ‘fighting firm’ like the Blades and much of the changes in
commitment levels Armstrong observed for Blades’ members related to their
relative willingness to engage in physical confrontation. With Blades’ members the
commitment level changes related more to willingness to be involved in violence
as opposed to actual interest in Sheffield United football matches. In this
respect English soccer hooligan firms of the 1980s were different from the
Australian Rules Football cheer squads of the same era.
The scenario of a ‘decimated football league’,
where crowds drop four-fold over a ten-year period, could happen to minor
soccer leagues in Europe in the future. For example, it could happen in
Scotland if Rangers and Celtic were to join the English Premier League (EPL).[72]
It could happen in Europe if the best
clubs abandon their own national leagues to join a new European Super League competition
involving clubs from multiple countries (whether
this be an officially sanctioned competition or otherwise).[73]
This article has documented the Western Australian experience of a ‘decimated
football league’. If a third club from Perth is ever admitted into the VFL/AFL
then the WAFL will most assuredly ‘die further’ and ‘die yet again’.
I accept that the perspective adopted here
has been tinged with nostalgia in the four senses that the term ‘nostalgia’ is
used by Georg Stauth and Bryan Turner.[74]
There is an online community of WAFL supporters, mostly aged in their forties and
above, who insert their nostalgic perspectives of the WAFL’s golden era on to
various contemporary discussion forums including the ‘Lost WAFL’ Facebook group
page and Jack Frost’s ‘WAFL Golden Era’ website at http://waflgoldenera.blogspot.com.[75]
However, WAFL fans in Perth born after (say) 1980 have no personal memory of the
league’s golden era. For them there is no personal sense of something precious having
disintegrated in front of their very eyes. Increasingly, as the years pass,
these will be the supporters that will form the core constituency of the league
and its clubs. Future research must also consider how this younger generation
experiences and enjoys WAFL fandom and what things they value the most about
the WAFL and how they think it should change (if at all).
APPENDIX
A
Sub-gangs,
West Perth cheer squad, 1984-86 (ages as at 1984)
The Booragoon sub-gang
1 *Kieran J.; 15 years;
Applecross Senior High School student (1984-85) then university student (1986)
2 *Mike B.; 16 years; Applecross
Senior High School (1984-85) then occupation unknown (1986); school friend of Kieran
The Carine sub-gang
3 Courtney; 14 years;
high-school student (probably at Carine SHS); junior football friend of Thommo
4 Rohan H.; 14 years; high-school
student, school friend of Courtney
Floaters / non-aligned
5 *‘Thommo’; 14 years;
high-school student (1984-85); apprentice plasterer (1986); junior football
friend of Courtney
6 *Robbie; 14 years; joined
cheer squad 1985 aged 15 years; lived in Balga; took buses home with Balga
sub-gang; knew Thommo before joining cheer squad; could be classified with Balga
sub-gang
The Balga sub-gang
7 *‘P.A.’; 18 years; lived
in Balga; employment situation unknown
8 *Dave S.; 16 years; lived
in nearby Tuart Hill but took buses to games with P.A. and Robbie; school /
employment situation unknown
The C. brothers sub-gang
9 *Mike C.; 16 years; in
and out of reform homes
10 *Robert C.; 15 years;
only went to games occasionally; had criminal record
11 *Pete C.; 14 years; in
and out of reform homes
12 *Female niece of the C.
brothers; 4 years; brought to games occasionally
The Churchlands sub-gang
13 Ben McA.; 12-13 years;
high-school student (probably at Churchlands SHS)
14 Tony; 12-13 years; school
friend of Ben
15 Mario; 8-9 years;
younger brother of Tony
The younger members
sub-gang
16 Michael aka ‘Half’; 8 years;
parents were financial members of West Perth; no family relationship to other
cheer squad members; lived in Bayswater or Maylands
17 *‘Thommo Junior’; 8 years;
younger brother of Thommo
(* denotes took public
transport to and from games)
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following
for advice, information, and assistance: Mr. Brian Atkinson, official historian
of the West Perth Football Club and the author of It’s a Grand Old Flag; Mike B., joint-founder of the WPFC cheer
squad 1984-86; Mr. Chris Egan, Perth Glory
historian and WAFL supporter; Dr. Sean Gorman, Curtin University
academic, Claremont supporter, and the author of BrotherBoys; and Mr. Patrick
Mirosevich, present-day South Fremantle (WAFL) cheer squad member. This paper
is dedicated to Mike B.’s late mother.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein
are not necessarily the same as those of Brian Atkinson; the West Perth
Football Club (WPFC); the West Perth Football Club cheer squad 1984-86 or any
of its members; the Swan Districts Football Club (SDFC); the Australian
Football League (AFL); the Western Australian Football Commission (WAFC); or the
Western Australian Football League (WAFL).
[1] A cheer
squad is a semi-organized group of hardcore supporters (typically teenagers)
which sits in the same strategic place at home games and which supports the
team through chants, songs, flags, and banners. Cheryl Critchley documents that
the first Australian Rules’ cheer squad was formed at VFL/AFL club Richmond in
1959. Cheryl Critchley, Our Footy: Real
Fans vs Big Bucks, Wilkinson Publishing; Melbourne, 2010, p. 17.
[2] Since the entry of Swan
Districts into the WAFL in 1934 the only new club to enter the league has been
Peel Thunder in 1997, which increased the total number of WAFL clubs from eight
to nine.
[3] Lionel Frost, Immortals: Football People and the Evolution
of Australian Rules, John Wiley & Sons; Melbourne, 2005, p. 277.
[4] The AFL
operates as an American-style ‘cartelized’ system, meaning that there is no
promotion and relegation between the AFL and either the WAFL or other
second-tier leagues. Richard Giulianotti and
Roland Robertson, Globalization &
Football, SAGE Publications; London, 2009, p. 114.
[5] Frost, Immortals, p. 234.
[6] Mal Brown and Brian
Hansen, Mal Brown & Mongrels I’ve Met,
Brian Edward Hansen; Mt Waverley, 1994, pp. 179, 188.
[7] Regarding
Perth Glory soccer supporters, as opposed to Australian Rules’ supporters in
Perth, see Tara Brabazon, ‘What’s the Story Morning Glory? Perth Glory and the
Imagining of Englishness’, Sporting Traditions,
vol. 14, no. 2 (1998), pp. 53-66.
[8] John
Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’s “Ethnic Tribes”: a New Case for the
Carnivalesque’, in Eric Dunning, Patrick Murphy, Ivan Waddington and Antonios
Astrinakis (eds), Fighting Fans: Football
Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon, University College Press; Dublin, 2002,
p. 41, emphasis original.
[9] Gary
Armstrong, Football Hooligans: Knowing
the Score, Berg; Oxford, 1998; John Hughson, ‘Football, Folk Dancing and
Fascism: Diversity and Difference in Multicultural Australia’, Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Sociology, vol. 33, no. 2 (1997a), pp. 167-186; John Hughson, ‘The Bad Blue
Boys and the “Magical Recovery” of John Clarke’, in Gary Armstrong and Richard
Giulianotti (eds), Entering the Field:
New Perspectives on World Football, Berg; London and New York, 1997b,
Chapter 12, pp. 239-259; John Hughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes: Expressive Fandom
in Australian Soccer’s A-League’, Sport
in Society, vol. 2, no. 3 (1999), pp. 10-30; John Hughson, ‘The Boys are
Back in Town: Soccer Support and the Social Reproduction of Masculinity’, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, vol.
24, no. 1 (2000), pp. 8-23; Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’s “Ethnic Tribes”, pp.
37-48.
[10] Author’s
group interview with Pave Jusup, Kova, and Sime of MCF hooligan firm at
Melbourne Knights, Sunshine North, 11 January 2011; Patrick Mignon, ‘Another
Side to French Exceptionalism: Football without Hooligans?’ in Eric Dunning,
Patrick Murphy, Ivan Waddington and Antonios Astrinakis (eds), Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a
World Phenomenon, University College Press; Dublin, 2002, pp. 62-74;
Antonio Roversi and C. Balestri, ‘Italian Ultras Today: Change or Decline?’ in
Eric Dunning, Patrick Murphy, Ivan Waddington and Antonios Astrinakis (eds), Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a
World Phenomenon, University College Press; Dublin, 2002, pp. 131-142.
[11] Peter Marsh, Aggro:
the Illusion of Violence, J M Dent & Sons; London, 1978; Hughson,
‘Australian Soccer’s “Ethnic Tribes”, p. 40.
[12] Armstrong, Knowing the Score, p. 148; Cass Pennant,
Cass, paperback edition, John Blake
Publishing; London, 2008, p. 15.
[13] Adam
Muyt, Maroon and Blue: Recollections and
Tales of the Fitzroy Football Club, The Vulgar Press; Carlton North, 2006,
p. 139.
[14] Brian Atkinson,
It’s a Grand Old Flag: a History and
Comprehensive Statistical Analysis of the West Perth Football Club, West
Perth Football Club; Joondalup, 2008.
[15] Rob Hess, ‘“Ladies are
specially invited”: Women in the Culture of Australian Rules Football’, The International Journal of the History of
Sport, vol. 17, nos. 2-3 (2000), pp. 113-114.
[16] Ibid., p. 116.
[17] Fat Pam’s cheer squad can also
be seen on the video-clip of the 7 May 1983 West Perth versus Subiaco game
recently posted to YouTube.com. The cheer squad is at far left of screen
(behind the Leederville Oval northern end goals). The link is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gmZMzTr7CA&feature=related [accessed 7
August 2011].
[18] Personal
e-mail communication with the author, dated 23 August 2010.
[19] Atkinson, It’s a Grand Old Flag, p. 201. Ron
(Ronald Brian) Davis (DOB 11/8/1963) played 13 games for West Perth in 1984-85
and kicked 22 goals. Atkinson, It’s a
Grand Old Flag, p. 354.
[20] Ibid., p. 334; The West
Australian, Monday, 7 May, 1984, p. 81.
[21] The attendance is taken
from the WAFL’s official website at the following link (then select the year
1984 by the pull-down menu): http://www.wafl.com.au/games [accessed 21 July
2011].
[22] Personal e-mail
communication with the author, dated 9 December 2010.
[23] Armstrong, Knowing the Score, pp. 323-332.
[24] Aldo Panfichi and Jorge Thieroldt, ‘Barras
Bravas: Representation and Crowd Violence in Peruvian Football’, in Eric
Dunning, Patrick Murphy, Ivan Waddington and Antonios Astrinakis (eds), Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a
World Phenomenon, University College Press; Dublin, 2002, pp. 143-157.
[25] See Appendix A for a list
of sub-gangs with the group members belonging to each.
[26] Personal interview with
the author, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, 14 July 2011.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Figure 2 was taken by the
author on 6 July 2011.
[29] Source: My personal notes
compiled during the 1984 season.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Ibid.
[33] For an insight into the
world of junior football clubs readers are referred to the retelling by Carlton
AFL player Brendan Fevola, Fev: in my Own
Words, with Adam McNicol, hardcover edition, Hardie Grant Books; Richmond,
2012, pp. 17-33 of his junior days at suburban Narre Warren.
[34] For more details, as told
by Bill Walker, see Alan East, 75 Years
of...Black & White, the Swan Districts Football Club, Swan Districts
Football Club; Perth, 2009, p. 153.
[35] Crowd figures cited in Tony
(A.J.) Barker, Behind the Play...a
History of Football in Western Australia from 1868, West Australian
Football Commission; Perth, 2004, p. 241.
[36] See the Full Points Footy
website at: http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/subiaco_(2).htm#Top [accessed 7
January 2011].
[37] Armstrong, Knowing the Score, p. 266.
[38] Richard Giulianotti, ‘Supporters, Followers, Fans and Flaneurs: a Taxonomy of Spectator
Identities in World Football’, Journal of
Sport and Social Issues, vol. 26, no. 1 (2002), pp. 25-46, cited in
Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization
& Football, pp. 142-143.
[39] We often debated the
merits of 1984 coach Dennis Cometti’s (the present-day AFL commentator) strategy
of playing key players out of position at the start of games (including
centre-half-forward Phil Bradmore and ruckman Craig Nelson).
[40] Bill
Gardner, Good Afternoon Gentlemen, the
Name’s Bill Gardner, with Cass Pennant, Paperback edition, John Blake Publishing;
London, 2006.
[41] Hughson,
‘Football, Folk Dancing and Fascism’, pp. 167-186; Hughson, ‘The Bad Blue
Boys’, pp. 239-259; Hughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes’, pp. 10-30; Hughson, ‘The
Boys are Back in Town’, pp. 8-23; Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’s “Ethnic
Tribes”’, pp. 37-48.
[42]
Armstrong, Knowing the Score, p. 306; Hughson, ‘Football,
Folk Dancing and Fascism’, pp. 167-186; Hughson, ‘The Bad Blue Boys’, pp.
239-259; Hughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes’, pp. 10-30; Hughson, ‘The Boys are
Back in Town’, pp. 8-23; Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’s “Ethnic Tribes”’, pp.
37-48.
[43] Cass
Pennant, Congratulations, you have just
met the I.C.F. (West Ham United), John Blake Publishing; London, 2003; Cass Pennant and Rob Silvester, Rolling with the 6.57 Crew: the True Story
of Pompey’s Legendary Football Fans, Paperback edition, John Blake
Publishing; London, 2004.
[44] Armstrong, Knowing the Score, p. 267.
[45] My mother and I made all
the flags and banners so I had legal ownership over them rather than the club.
[46] Eric Dunning cited in Astrinakis, ‘Subcultures of Hard-core Fans’, p. 91.
[47] Gary
Armstrong and Rosemary Harris, ‘Football Hooliganism: Theory and Evidence’, Sociological Review, vol. 39, no. 3
(1991), pp. 427-458; Dick Hobbs and David Robins, ‘The Boy Done Good: Football
Violence, Changes and Continuities’, Sociological
Review, vol. 39, no. 3 (1991), pp. 551-559.
[48] Hughson,
‘Football, Folk Dancing and Fascism’, pp. 167-186; Hughson, ‘The Bad Blue
Boys’, pp. 239-259; Hughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes’, pp. 10-30; Hughson, ‘The
Boys are Back in Town’, pp. 8-23; Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’s “Ethnic
Tribes”’, pp. 37-48.
[49] Personal online
communication to the author, dated 14 June 2013.
[50] See
Frederick Engels, ‘Preface to the Peasant War in Germany’, in Karl Marx & Frederick Engels Selected
Works, International Publishers; New York, 1968, p. 243; Karl Marx, ‘The Eighteen Brumaire of
Louis Bonaparte in Karl Marx &
Frederick Engels Selected Works, International Publishers, New York, 1968,
pp. 138, 145, 168, 176, 178 and 243; Karl Marx,
Capital: a Critique of Political Economy
Volume 1, Ben Fowkes, translator, Penguin Classics; London, 1976, p. 767
[originally published 1867]; Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels, ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party’ in Karl Marx & Frederick Engels Selected Works,
International Publishers; New York, 1968, p. 44.
[51] Armstrong, Knowing the Score, p. 149. The former
North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley is one of Balga’s most famous ex-residents.
He began his league career at West Perth in 1984. See: http://www.deanlaidley.com.au/profile/
[accessed 7 October 2013].
[52] Kevin Casey, The Tigers’ Tale: the Origins and History of
the Claremont Football Club, Kevin Casey; Perth, n/d but probably 1996, p.
156.
[53] Barker, Behind the Play, p. 194.
[54] Geoff
Christian, ‘A Birthday Sandover for Wrensted’, The West Australian, Tuesday, 27 August (1985), p. 96; Geoff
Christian, ‘Bairstow’s Sandover in a Count Thriller’, The West Australian, Tuesday, 16 September (1986), pp. 87-88.
[55] Linda
Byrne, ‘Protests hit Sandover “Muddle”’, The
West Australian, Wednesday, 29 August (1984), p. 128.
[56] George Michalczyk cited in
ibid., p. 128.
[57] Stephen Alomes, ‘One Day
in September: Grass Roots Enthusiasm, Invented Traditions and Con Temporary
Commercial Spectacle and the Australian Football League Finals’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 17, no. 1
(2000), pp. 82-83.
[58] Fevola, Fev: in my Own Words, pp. 252-257; Roger
Franklin, Fev Unauthorised: the Biography
of Brendan Fevola, Football’s Flawed Genius, Paperback edition, Slattery
Media Group; Richmond, 2012, Chapter 8, pp. 114-137; Suellen Hinde and Vaughan
Mayberry, ‘New Year’s Leave: Fev’s Career on Knife’s Edge after Latest Drama’, The Sunday Mail [Brisbane], 2 January
(2011), p. 3.
[59] East, 75 Years.
[60] The R.A. McDonald Stand
was opened on 23 July 1938. East, 75
Years, pp. 21 and 87. R.A. (Dick) McDonald was President in the early years
of the Swans club and played an important role in the then second-division club
gaining WAFL admission in 1934 when he was acting in his capacity of member of
the Bassendean Road Board. East, 75
Years, pp. 12-16, 20 and 191. Unusually, he served as President in three
one-year stints - 1934, 1937, and 1950. East, 75 Years, p. 20.
[61] Eunice James, personal
interview with the author, 16 July 2011.
[62] Figures 4-6 were taken by
the author on 12 July 2011.
[63] Brian
Dawson, John Todd: Six Decades of Footy,
Cambridge Publishing; West Leederville, 2004, pp. 148 and 150.
[64] Ibid., p. 179.
[65] Ibid.
[66] East, 75 Years, pp. 23 and 212.
[67] Ronnie Boucher was Swan
Districts’ aggressive and flamboyant ruckman of the era. He played 193 games
for Swans and kicked 87 goals during the years 1971-76 and 1978-84. East, 75 Years, p. 223.
[68] Personal interview, 14
July 2011.
[69] Atkinson, It’s a Grand Old Flag, pp. 334 and 335.
[70] Ibid., pp. 201, 333 and 334.
[71] Ibid., pp. 334 and 335.
[72] Giulanotti and Robertson, Globalization & Football, p. 113.
[73] Ibid., pp. 29, 113 and 119.
[74] Georg Stauth and Bryan S. Turner, Nietzsche’s Dance: Resentment, Reciprocity, and Resistance in Social
Life, Blackwell; Oxford, 1988, p. 47.
[75] The clubs themselves often
tap into the golden era for contemporary marketing purposes. For example, on 15
August 2013, East Perth posted a picture of its 1978 premiership team on its
official Facebook page and asked the club’s Facebook ‘friends’ to identify the
pictured players. The post had received 82 comments and 155 ‘likes’ by 19
August 2013.
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| All pictures at foot of this article were taken at: Perth versus Swan Districts, Lathlain Park, 2nd July 2011. |
