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):
New book about supporting West Perth in the seventies and eighties:
GOODBYE LEEDERVILLE OVAL
Link to buy (also available through Amazon):
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. |
No comments:
Post a Comment