ARTICLE: "Lathlain Oval: Where Perth Football Club found success in fresh fields", by J. Townsend, 19/9/17

ARTICLE: The name Pat Fogarty barely resonates in WA football circles now but it is doubtful that West Coast Eagles would be preparing to move to Lathlain Park next year without the Perth secretary’s foresight more than half a century ago.

Perth were based at the WACA Ground for most of their first 60 years but Fogarty, who was secretary for nearly 20 years before having two stints as president, was long convinced the club would only thrive by moving into the heart of its growing district.

It was a strategy later replicated with great success by West Perth in their shift to Joondalup but a move that attracted significant opposition from Perth supporters in the tough years after World War II.

But Fogarty was adamant — Perth had to move or perish.

He had identified the rudimentary ground at Goddard Street, the geographic centre of a new housing development, as the ideal site for the club and spent much of energies convincing the Perth city council of the value of his vision.

Merely delighted when Perth ended a 48-year premiership drought by winning the 1955 grand final, Fogarty was fulfilled four years later when the club moved to Lathlain Park and took possession of the magnificent grandstand fully funded by the council and named after then president EW Jones, a prominent Perth dentist hence his nickname “Brusher”, and himself.

It meant the club could now have their own liquor licence, a significant financial development given their tenancy at the WACA meant they kept little of the bar takings, a fact noted by the cricket association in 1955 when it congratulated Perth on their flag but regretted their imminent departure. The move to Lathlain could barely have been more successful.

Lathlain, Carlisle and surrounding suburbs were developing rapidly and under the energetic management of colts coach Jack Ensor, who would assemble and organise some of the greatest talent in the State’s history as part of his six premierships in seven seasons, Perth would soon enter the most glorious period of their existence.

The tough and inspirational Mal Atwell was convinced to leave East Perth to coach the club, outstanding players Barry Cable, Bob Shields, Greg Brehaut and Frank Pyke emerged as stars, and Perth became a WAFL powerhouse.

A hat-trick of flags was delivered from 1966 to 1968, with Cable living up to his big game reputation by winning the Simpson Medal in each grand final, while the individual honours flowed on Sandover Medal night with Cable (three times), Neville Beard, Pat Dalton, Ian Miller and Bryan Cousins saluting within two decades of the move to Lathlain.

The 1970s were barely less successful, with consecutive flags in 1976-77 and a heart-breaking two-point loss a year later, but the golden age was coming to an end.

The relationship with the council soured to the extent that Perth returned to the WACA for two seasons in the mid-1980s but the move didn’t work and was soon abandoned.

The Demons have been back at Lathlain for the past three decades with their current 20-year absence from finals the longest in WAFL history, but hopeful that Pat Fogarty’s foresight and the imminent arrival of the Eagles may foreshadow another golden era.

[By John Townsend for The West Australian. This article was first published at the following link: https://thewest.com.au/news/perth/demons-found-success-in-fresh-fields-ng-b88604804z] 

The ground opening of Lathlain Park in 1959.

Claremont are 99-points behind Perth in the final quarter of this July 1965 match.

Mal Brown marks for East Perth at the back of Bob Shields while Barry Cable looks on.

All the colour Lathlain Park pictures were taken by Kieran James at Perth versus Swan Districts, 2 July 2011.

The old Victoria Park station (since demolished) in April 2005. The new station is 230 metres to the south of the old station making it very close to where the former Lathlain station was located. 

As WAFL travelling fans will remember it, Lathlain station (pictured here just after its closure in February 2003). It was opened on 2 May 1959 to serve fans attending Lathlain Park and it closed on 3 February 2003.

ARTICLE: "Claremont: A haven for stars and sheep", by J. Townsend, 18/9/2017 (includes Aug. 2012 pics)

ARTICLE: John Hyde’s predicament was typical of the dilemma faced by Claremont throughout much of their early post-World War II history.

A Geelong star who had won two premierships for the Cats and a club champion award, Hyde was Claremont’s gun recruit in 1955 when the Tigers were trying to dig themselves out of a mess on and off the field.

Hyde was put up at the Highway Hotel, a plush watering hole on Stirling Highway often used by visiting celebrities, while he was wooed by the club.

But when he was due to sign a contract with the Tigers during his first visit to his proposed home ground at Claremont Oval, the meeting fell through in the most unusual circumstances. “Sheep had got into the tin shed that served as our change rooms, office and boardroom and had made a complete mess,” Claremont great John O’Connell recalled.

“Here we were trying to sign one of the best players in the country and we were doing it in a building where you wouldn’t keep your dog.”

The soiled premises obviously didn’t dissuade Hyde because he joined the club. O’Connell later went to Geelong, though not as part of any trade, but it was indicative of Claremont’s ground woes in their first four decades.

The sheep were cheap lawnmowers, if prone to awkward side effects, but the tin sheds were a staple for many years after the grandstand burnt down one night in 1944.

Claremont were accepted into the league in 1926, the club evolving from the Cottesloe team that started 20 years earlier, and played their first season at the neighbouring Showground while Claremont Oval was made ready for senior action.

The showpiece was the elegant wooden grandstand which contained a massive concrete bath in the home change room. It was often used by the entire team until it was condemned by health authorities.

Sadly for Claremont, the loss of the grandstand had a marked impact on the club’s fortunes — with distinct parallels to its recent sojourn at the Showground while Claremont Oval was redeveloped.

Numerous theories developed about the cause of the devastating fire, which destroyed most of the club’s records, photos, jumpers, training equipment and even a well-used piano.

The most credible attributed liability to American sailors who often drank at the nearby Claremont Hotel before repairing to the football ground for further refreshments.

After the 1964 Grand Final

It was a cruel blow for a club that had little success in its first decade before becoming a dominant force inspired by coach Johnny Leonard and champion player George Moloney that would play in seven grand finals in as many years and win a hat-trick of premierships.

The stars continued to arrive — Les McClements and Sonny Maffina in the 1940s then Les Mumme, Kevin Clune and Denis Marshall in the 50s — before the establishment of the highly effective junior council in the 1970s. One of the most tangible legacies left by the often controversial but far-sighted Mal Brown saw Claremont develop into one of the powerhouses of the modern game based on the fertile local recruiting zones.

Flags soon came in abundance, players in their dozens were ushered off to the national competition and, after a decade and half of negotiations, the WAFL’s most plush facility was opened on the site of what was once a sheep paddock.

[By John Townsend for The West Australian. This article was first published at the following link: https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/claremont-a-haven-for-stars-and-sheep-ng-b88603445z]

View from above Claremont Oval in 1965

Mort Kuhlman (Claremont) and Ron Evans (West Perth) in June 1965

Maurie Jones getting help for an elbow injury in August 1965

Kieran James (WAFL Golden Era Website) in the centre of Claremont Oval feeling the magic in the air and dreaming that he was Mossy and it was 1981 again. He can see the Krakouers running past and out of the corner of his eye sees Warren Ralph racing into a forward-pocket to take the mark. This picture was taken before the recent re-development of the ground.

The colour pictures were taken in August 2012 before the re-development of the ground and show pretty much how the ground looked like during Claremont's glory years in the early-1980s.

ARTICLE: "Leederville Oval: The modern arena at the heart of footy history", by John Townsend, 16/9/2017

ARTICLE: Athletics. Boxing. Cricket. Darts. Football. Lacrosse. Rugby. Shooting. Soccer. Tennis. Table tennis.

Add the open-air picture theatre in the 1920s and the regular fire brigade games and Leederville Oval is surely WA’s most versatile sporting ground.

And it could have been so much more than that.

In the late 1950s, West Perth Football Club president Dick Fletcher — whose name remains on the grandstand built at the time — pushed for Leederville Oval to host the 1962 Empire Games as part of a long-term vision to develop the ground into a multi-sport complex and headquarters of WA football.

“(Given) the growing doubt in the minds of football authorities about the future of Subiaco Oval as our football headquarters, Leederville Oval could meet all requirements,” Mr Fletcher said in 1959 to foreshadow the debate of half a century later.

“Leederville Oval could be made a showplace ... it could accommodate 100,000 people.”

Mr Fletcher’s dream was not to be, though the ground has been redeveloped into a much smaller but boutique stadium that is shared successfully by two clubs.

Leederville Oval opened as an official football ground in 1915, only three months after the Gallipoli landing and amid a bitter public debate about whether league football should even be played when World War I casualty lists overshadowed the sport. Then premier — and Subiaco president — Jack Scaddan put the case for the affirmative when he officially opened Leederville Oval.

“Young people need an outlet for their energies and there is no better sport for the purpose”, he said.

But it would be only a few more weeks before public sentiment forced the premature end to the season.

West Perth were the new tenants at a ground that was first used unofficially in 1898 and the Cardinals, as they were before morphing into the Falcons, would remain there for 80 years, until their move north into the heart of their growing metropolitan zone at Joondalup.

The WAFL’s oldest club, born in 1891 from the ashes of the defunct Metropolitans, would have two golden periods at Leederville. They won three flags in four seasons in the early 1930s as goal-kicking machine Ted Tyson spearheaded a powerful outfit.

New book about supporting West Perth

Their record in playing in 10 consecutive second semifinals from the end of World War II has never been matched.

But only two premierships were delivered in that period, mostly because South Fremantle had the greatest array of talent in WAFL history at the same time, though the presence of Stan “Pops” Heal, Ray Schofield, Ray Scott, Wally Price and John Loughridge meant West Perth may have been beaten but were rarely overwhelmed.

West Perth’s move north preceded the arrival of East Perth and later Subiaco, whose homes were redeveloped from their historic roles as suburban grounds into national and international venues. The co-tenancy may not have been what Mr Fletcher envisaged all those years earlier, particularly the unpalatable thought of his club’s bitter rival East Perth calling Leederville Oval home, but the concept is not far from his dream.

[This article was first published by John Townsend in The West Australian at the following link: https://thewest.com.au/sport/wafl/leederville-oval-modern-arena-at-the-heart-of-footy-history-ng-b88600150z]

Watch 5 minutes 28 seconds from West Perth versus East Perth, 26 August 1978, Leederville Oval (final score: EP 11.19 (85) d. WP 11.10 (76), attendance: 24,567):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4c130mEJ28

New book about supporting West Perth in the seventies and eighties:

GOODBYE LEEDERVILLE OVAL

Link to buy (also available through Amazon):

http://www.lulu.com/shop/kieran-james/goodbye-leederville-oval-history-of-west-perth-cheer-squad-1984-86/paperback/product-23419830.html (paperback)

http://www.lulu.com/shop/kieran-james/goodbye-leederville-oval-history-of-west-perth-cheer-squad-1984-86/hardcover/product-23408547.html (hardcover)

SYNOPSIS:This book is the memoir of Kieran James, and details his experiences as co-founder of West Perth Football Club’s unofficial cheer squad (hardcore support) from 1984 to 1986 (Western Australian Football League / WAFL). Using Marsh’s theory of the “illusion of violence”, the author links the cheer squad to the academic literature on British soccer hooligans, Italian ultras, and other soccer supporter groups from around the world. The book details “traditional”, “hot” support for West Perth Football Club among teenaged supporters from middle-class and working-class backgrounds. The findings 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. The book also allows the reader to relive great WAFL matches and meet again key players from the era.

Darryl Gore (EF) chases Ron Bewick (WP), August 1960

WPFC supporters Yvonne Maxwell and Maxine Tetley, August 1960

Claremont versus West Perth, August 1968 with Graham Farmer watching on

Brian Foley with trainer R. Bonser, August 1959

Laurie James with painting of Ted "Square" Kilmurray in the EPFC building @ Leederville Oval.

This view of the tin-shed at the south-west corner of Leederville Oval with the Technical School at rear is essentially unchanged since the late-seventies (picture date: 6 July 2011).

Authors Kieran James (left) and Brian Atkinson (author of West Perth's official history book), 8 July 2011. In Chapter 5 of Kieran James' new book Goodbye Leederville Oval you can read a lengthy debate between Kieran James and Brian Atkinson about West Perth's move to Arena Joondalup and whether it was the right thing for the club with Brian on the YES side and Kieran on the NO side.

All colour pictures were taken by Kieran James and Laurie James on Wednesday 6 July 2011. On sunny winter days like this one, West Perth was a force to be reckoned with at Leederville Oval during the seventies and eighties.