SWAN DISTRICTS - Part One: 1934 to 1979
Affiliated: WAFL/WANFL 1934-present
Club Address: P.O. Box 61, Bassendean 6054, Western Australia
Home Ground: Steel Blue Oval (formerly known as Bassendean Oval)
Formed: 1934
Colours: Black and white
Emblem: Swans
Premierships: SENIORS 1961-62-63, 1982-83-84, 1990, 2010 (8 total) RESERVES (from 1925) 1946, 1964, 1979, 2006 (4 total) COLTS (from 1957) 1957-8, 1971, 1991, 2007-8 (6 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - R.P. Rodriguez Shield: 1962, 1965, 1974-5, 1980 (5 total)
Sandover Medallists: G.Krepp 1935; J.D.Davies 1944+; H.Bunton 1962; W.Walker 1965, 1966, 1967 & 1970*; P.Narkle 1982; M.Grasso 1990; J.Wasley 1996; S.Beros 2003; A.Krakouer 2010 (9 Medallists/12 Medals, including 1 under age)
All Australians: Frank Sparrow 1953; Bill Walker 1969; Bob Beecroft 1972; John Todd 1983 (non-playing coach) (4 total)
League Top Goalkickers: M.George (90) 1974; S.Beasley (97) 1980; B.Hutton (83) 1984 (3 total)
Swan Districts' Official 'Team of the Century': Click here
Highest Score: 40.11 (251) vs. Subiaco 20.7 (127) at Bassendean Oval in round 19 1979
Most Games: 305 by Bill Walker from 1961 to 1976
Record Home Attendance: 22,350 in round 6 1980: Swan Districts 27.20 (182); West Perth 8.8 (56)
Record Finals Attendance: 50,883 for 1982 grand final at Subiaco Oval: Swan Districts 18.19 (127); Claremont 11.12 (78)
Overall Success Rate 1934-2010: 41.3%
+ denotes awarded when the league operated an under age competition only.
* indicates awarded retrospectively by Westar Rules authorities in 1997. Bill Walker thereby became the only player to win 4 Sandover Medals.
For many years, Swan Districts was very much the Cinderella side of the Western Australian National Football League, an object of pity or scorn, but seldom much respect. After breaking through for a first ever premiership in 1961, however, Swans went on to enjoy more success over the ensuing three decades than any other club in the competition. Admittedly, since claiming their 7th flag in 1990 their fortunes have declined somewhat, but never to the extent of attracting pity or scorn from their competitors. [see footnote 1]
In actual fact, Swan Districts' entry into WANFL ranks in 1934 was not an altogether inglorious one. The side was competitive right from the start, and 7 wins from 18 fixtures represented an Australian record for a club in its debut season in any of the three major state competitions (VFL, WANFL and SANFL).
Many members of Swan Districts' original league side had had previous experience with other WANFL clubs, and this may in part explain their initial high level of competitiveness. Prominent Swans during the club's early years included Clem Rosewarne, 1935 Sandover Medallist George Krepp, Ted Holdsworth, Rupe Maynard, Andy Zilko, Jack Murray and Hughie Forbes.
After finishing 7th in their debut season Swan Districts rose to 5th in 1935 before slumping to 7th again, albeit with 9 wins from 20 games, the following year. In 1937 the side really came of age, however, winning 14 out of 21 minor round matches to qualify for the finals in 3rd place. Perhaps predictably, however, on first semi final day reigning premiers East Perth proved to have just that little bit more finals know how than the Swans as they edged home by 14 points.
If 1937 was, in the circumstances, highly creditable, the 1938 season, despite following a superficially similar pattern, ultimately proved a major disappointment. Swan Districts again qualified for the finals in 3rd place but then succumbed to East Perth once more in the first semi final, this time by the agonising margin of a solitary point. Final scores were East Perth 8.18 (66); Swan Districts 9.11 (65).
In retrospect, Swan Districts' first five seasons in the WANFL can be looked upon as something of a honeymoon period. Starting in 1939 the club's fortunes deteriorated sharply, and for most of the next two decades the Swans were very much the chopping block they might have been expected to have been from the start.
After finishing 6th with a 7-13 win/loss record in 1939 the club plummeted to its first wooden spoon the following year with just 2 wins from 20 games. A second wooden spoon followed twelve months later, and when the WANFL senior competition was suspended owing to the war in 1942, Swan Districts proved incapable of raising a team to participate in the under age competition which replaced it.
The WANFL continued on an under age only basis for a further two seasons with Swans resuming participation to finish 2nd and 6th. [see footnote 2]
The re-commencement of full scale senior football in 1945 saw Swans put in an encouraging season to reach the first semi final before losing to South Fremantle. The club's first nine senior seasons had yielded a respectable 38% success rate and three finals appearances, but it was to be another fifteen years before the side would again contest a finals series. During those fifteen years the Swans barely managed to win 20% of their games and ended up with the wooden spoon on no fewer than 7 occasions. Sixth position on the ladder in 1953 (7 wins) and 1955 (5 wins) represented the side's best return.
By 1961 the popularity of football in Western Australia was at an all time high with an average of more than 30,000 spectators attending each week's round of matches. The unexpected success of the Western Australian state side in capturing the national title at the Brisbane Carnival was one important factor in reinforcing the game's popularity. However, arguably of even greater importance was the equally unexpected emergence of Swan Districts as a league power for the first time, providing the WANFL competition, which had consistently been dominated by the same few clubs since the end of World War Two, with a long overdue breath of fresh air.
Australian football all time great Haydn Bunton junior leads his Swan Districts team mates onto Subiaco Oval before the 1961 WANFL grand final against East Perth
Swan Districts took a gamble in 1961 by appointing the young Haydn Bunton junior as senior coach. Bunton, whose father had won three Sandover Medals with Subiaco in the 1930s, had spent his early years in Perth but had played virtually all of his football in South Australia. [see footnote 3] Bunton's courage and dedication were undeniable, but his coaching pedigree was limited. Many felt that what Swans most needed, after claiming the wooden spoon in 1960, was an experienced hand at the helm, but almost immediately Bunton set about showing that the committee had made an inspired choice:
Bunton extricated players from beer gardens around Perth and the city's resort beaches, provided them with a sense of belonging, and set each player a personal challenge. To a man, the players responded to their coach, a supreme leader and master tactician, and won...... [see footnote 4]
Among the newcomers to respond to the Bunton technique was rover Bill Walker, who would go on to become arguably the greatest player in the history of the club. Nevertheless, it was Bunton's "genius (that was) solely responsible for the club's dizzy climb from the bottom to the top of the premiership table in one winter". [see footnote 5]
During the minor round Swan Districts won 12 out of 21 matches to finish 2nd on the ladder to East Perth but most observers considered it of critical significance that the Royals had won all three head to head clashes during the year. The East Perth lobby grew even stronger after the 2nd semi final which resulted in a thoroughly convincing 48 point triumph to the Royals, and when the black and whites had to struggle all the way to overcome Subiaco in the following week's preliminary final the only doubt in most people's minds was how much East Perth would end up winning by.
People had reckoned without Bunton, though, and the 1961 grand final became, above all else, a testimony to his tactical acumen. East Perth's key player was Graham Farmer, arguably the greatest ruckman - some would say the greatest player - in the history of the game, and Bunton reasoned that, without Farmer's influence to contend with, the Swans would be better than an even money chance. He was right. Thirty years later he recalled the simple but masterful ploy he devised to stymie Farmer's impact and, in effect, win the 1961 grand final for Swan Districts:
"Fred (Castledine) had to come in and get hold - get his (Farmer's) left arm out of the way. Once he had that arm, that was it. Keith Slater was coming in on his right, and Castledine was getting in the way of that arm before he could get it up...... We had rehearsed this." [see footnote 6]
| Swans ruckman Keith Slater played the game of his life to realise Bunton's
ploy, and with the likes of Bunton himself and Bill Walker
crumbing superbly
East Perth remained distinctly second best all day. Final scores were Swan
Districts 17.9 (111); East Perth 12.15 (87) after Swans had led at every
change by 17, 13 and 31 points. Keith Slater later admitted that "I got
away with a few illegal things in the grand final of '61. That's the luck of the
draw." [see footnote 7] Most of the
'illegal things' must have remained unobserved because Slater was a clear choice
for the Simpson Medal as best afield, with full back
Joe Lawson, rovers Bunton and Walker (5 goals), centre half back Ken Bagley and wingman
Johnny Mack also impressive. The match remains one
of the epochal moments in Western Australian football history.
Inspired with confidence by their 1961 triumph the Swans rapidly emerged as the 'team to beat' in 1962. A 14-7 win/loss ratio was good enough to secure the minor premiership and after East Fremantle was despatched to the tune of 35 points in the 2nd semi final the team entered the 'big one' in the unaccustomed position of favourites. No doubt wary of what had happened to East Perth the previous year, however, Bunton's charges played fierce, committed football to reaffirm their superiority over 'Old Easts' by 18 points, 14.10 (94) to 10.16 (76). Ruckman Keith Slater was again the lynch pin of the team's success, with sterling support being rendered by half forward flanker Keith Watt, wingman Brian Gray, centre half back Ken Bagley, full back Joe Lawson and follower Fred Castledine. |
Keith Slater - click to enlarge. |
The Sandover Medal victory of captain-coach Bunton was the icing on the cake of a sensational season.
The 1963 season brought something of a premiership hangover as the side struggled to make the finals, losing all 3 minor round encounters with 1st semi final opponents East Perth in the process. However, when it really counted Swans turned the tables in style, with their 15.11 (101) to 7.11 (53) victory being rounded off with a 10 goal final term.
A fortnight later, however, the team was good deal less convincing, and indeed could justifiably be regarded as fortunate to escape from its preliminary final encounter with minor premier Perth 8 points to the good. After a solid 1st half Swans appeared to go to sleep and only straight kicking enabled them to keep their noses in front.
Given this, East Fremantle, which had comfortably accounted for Perth in the 2nd semi final, understandably started the 1963 grand final as warm favourites, but recent history had shown that this was precisely how Swan Districts liked things. Playing with all the vigour and tenacity for which they had become renowned they never allowed their opponents to settle and, after the opening term, were always the better side as they pulled away in the last quarter to win 17.10 (112) to 13.12 (90) in front of a then record crowd of 46,659. Full forward Eric Gorman played his best game of the season and perhaps his life to register 9.1 while other outstanding performances came from centre half forward Ken Bagley, centreman John Turnbull, centre half back Fred Castledine, half forward flanker Craig Noble, and back pocket 'Tony' Nesbit.
The 1964 premiership hangover was even more potent than in 1963 and Swans plummeted to 6th with just 9 wins. It was the signal for Haydn Bunton to end his association with the club and return to Norwood.
Under new coach Fred Castledine Swan Districts re-discovered the winning habit in 1965 as they topped the ladder after the home and away rounds with 15 wins from 21 games before comfortably downing Claremont in the 2nd semi final.
The Swans' grand final opponents East Fremantle had won only 11 minor round games to scrape into the 4 and had then had to struggle hard to win both their finals matches. Not surprisingly therefore it was Swan Districts who were most people's favourites to land the flag, and for the first three quarters of the grand final everything appeared to be proceeding according to predictions. Anyone entering Subiaco Oval at 'lemon time' in the 1965 grand final would have looked at the scoreboard which showed Swan Districts 14.5 (89) leading East Fremantle 9.14 (68), noted that Swans would be kicking with the aid of a good 3 to 4 goal breeze in the final term, and automatically arrived at the conclusion that the match was as good as over.
Tragically, the Swan Districts players, without Bunton to keep them grounded and focussed, must have reached the same conclusion, for somehow they permitted their opponents to stage arguably the greatest last quarter come back in senior Australian football history and add 9.4 to 2.1 to win comfortably by 21 points. (A more detailed, goal by goal account of the 1965 WAFL grand final can be found here.) Defeat dealt the club a body blow from which it would not recover for the better part of a decade.
Between 1966 and 1973 the Swans won just 44 and tied 2 of their 168 matches for a success rate of 26.8%. They failed to contest the finals each year and in 1968, 1970 and 1971 ended up with the wooden spoon.
|
John Todd |
The 1974 season brought a partial recover as the Swans defeated
Subiaco
by 23
points in the 1st semi final and were competitive a fortnight later in going
down to Perth by 15 points. The team finished 3rd again in 1975 but then missed
the finals for 4 seasons straight.
The appointment as coach of John Todd in 1977 was the catalyst which would eventually see the Swans return to their triumphant ways, but at first the going was hard. John Todd was in many ways an atypical Western Australian coach. Whereas the best Western Australian teams have traditionally been renowned for producing highly-skilled, open, flowing football Todd tended to favour a more 'Victorian' approach. His teams were tough and determined, capable of brilliance, but more typically achieving victory by relentless running supplemented with substantial amounts of vigour. It is probably no coincidence that Todd went on to become the first coach to steer the West Coast Eagles into the finals as his style was eminently suited to the dog eat dog desperation of the VFL. |
That it was also suited to the more open style of football on offer in the WAFL only became clear very gradually. Consecutive wooden spoons in 1977 (3 wins) and 1978 (4 wins) gave no indication of what was to come, but a climb up the ladder to 5th (11 wins) in 1979 showed that the Todd formula was starting to reap dividends.
Where now?
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Footnotes
1. Between 1961 and 1990 Swan Districts won a total of 7 premierships, Perth 5, Claremont and East Fremantle 4 apiece, Subiaco and West Perth both 3, and East Perth and South Fremantle both 2. Return to Main Text
2. Technically, and indeed officially, the Swan Districts under age side of 1943 achieved the club's first ever grand final appearance, going down 11.11 (77) to 17.15 (117) to East Fremantle. However, realistically the premierships and Sandover Medals won during the period 1942-4 cannot be accorded the same status as those won during the years when the WANFL/WAFL/Westar Rules competition operated on a full scale, open age basis. Return to Main Text
3. Bunton made his league debut for North Adelaide in 1954 at the age of seventeen and the following year was chosen to represent South Australia against Western Australia in Perth. He coached Norwood in 1957 (2nd) and 1958 (4th) before accepting a contract to coach Launceston in the NTFA in 1959. While there he was involved in a car accident in which he sustained a serious knee injury but, aided by world-renowned athletics coach Percy Cerutty, he made a rapid and near miraculous recovery which enabled him to return to Norwood as a player in 1960. His ambition to coach was still overwhelming, however, and he took little persuading to take the coaching reins at Swan Districts the following season. Return to Main Text
4. Men of Norwood: Red and Blue Blooded by Mike Coward, page 210. Return to Main Text
5. Ibid., page 210. Return to Main Text
6. Polly Farmer by Stephen Hawke, page 140. Return to Main Text
7. Ibid., page 210. Return to Main Text