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| The picture shows East Fremantle supporters on the scoreboard bank at East Fremantle Oval protesting the alignment of East Perth with West Coast Eagles prior to East Perth's visit to their ground for a WAFL match in May 2014. This scoreboard bank is a familiar sight to all WAFL fans and even those who do not love the club are forced to respect it. Although only AFL clubs get the lion's share of media coverage today historically the two most successful league-standard clubs in Australia are East Fremantle and Port Adelaide Magpies. We should respect these great clubs for what they have given to our game. You can almost smell and bottle that culture of respect and success once you walk inside the gates at East Fremantle Oval, a truly hallowed ground for WAFL fans. The way that winning culture is passed on through the generations is truly remarkable. This is a ground feared and respected by all opposition fans. For a West Perth fan the chilly ocean winds, the transport difficulties (no train station), and the bleak grey tin sheds at each end were the physical backdrops to regular depressing defeats at the hands of the home team. I like what David Edmondson has posted on Facebook: "East Fremantle, no-one's bitch since 1898". I remember standing on this screboard bank with my late grandfather Herbert Acott to watch Fremantle Dockers play Essendon in a practice match prior to the 1995 season [by Kieran James]. [These pictures were first posted by Ian Ross on the "Say No to AFL clubs in the WAFL" Facebook page on 4 May 2014 and are used here with Ian's kind permission.] |
