1937 Perth Carnival

Last updated

Tassie Medalist Mick Cronin Mick Cronin.jpg
Tassie Medalist Mick Cronin

The 1937 Perth Carnival was the ninth edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition.

Contents

Overview

Just like in the Perth Carnival of 1921 only South Australia and Victoria took a team to Western Australia.

Only one of the games was a blowout, with Western Australia handing South Australia their worst ever carnival loss, in a 116-point win. George Doig kicked seven goals for the home side.

In the second game, South Australia came close to upsetting Victoria and got within two points at the final siren. The last four scoring shots of the game were all behinds to South Australia inside the final two minutes of the game. [1]

The final game of the carnival would decide the overall winner and after going into the game as underdogs Victoria hung on against Western Australia at Subiaco Oval to win by eight points. The win was thanks largely to Victorian full-back Jack Regan restricting Doig to just three goals. Other Victorian stars who took part in the carnival included Haydn Bunton, Jack Dyer, Les Hardiman, Dick Harris and Keith Shea.

An enormous crowd estimated to be 40,000 people (38,022 who paid admission, plus members and guests) witnessed the final match between Victoria and Western Australia. The crowd set a new record for the highest crowd in Western Australian sporting history, exceeding by a considerable margin the previous record of 27,273 set at an interstate match in 1929. Considerable damage was suffered by facilities at Subiaco Oval, including the partial collapse of the fence around the arena, due to its inability to accommodate such a large crowd. [2] The crowd of 23,263 to Western Australia's first match was also one of the highest in the state's history, and was drawn in spite of heavy rain which forced the traditional parade of teams to be cancelled. [3]

Results

1937 Perth Carnival
Saturday, 7 August (3:00pm) Western Australia 25.15 (165)def. South Australia 6.13 (49) Subiaco Oval (crowd: 23,263) [3]
Wednesday, 11 August (3:00pm) Victoria 15.25 (115)def. South Australia 16.17 (113) Subiaco Oval (crowd: 18,240) [1]
Saturday, 14 August (3:00pm) Victoria 14.13 (97)def. Western Australia 13.11 (89) Subiaco Oval (crowd: 40,000) [2]

Tassie Medal

The inaugural Tassie Medal was awarded to Mick Cronin (Western Australia), who polled 13 votes. Ned Hender (South Australia) was second with 9 votes, and J. Hooper (Western Australia) and Jack Regan (Victoria) were equal third with 7 votes each. [2]

Related Research Articles

Fremantle Football Club Australian rules football club

The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). It was founded in 1994 in honour of the rich footballing history associated with the Western Australian port city of Fremantle, and entered the AFL the following year, making it the second team from the state after the West Coast Eagles to be admitted to the competition.

West Australian Football League

The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the third-most popular league in the nation, behind the nationwide Australian Football League (AFL) and South Australian National Football League (SANFL). The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, with the top five teams playing off in a finals series, culminating in a Grand Final. The league also runs reserves, colts (under-19) and women's competitions.

A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory, popularised by the rugby league State of Origin series. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval in Perth, the initial brainchild of Leon Larkin. The selection criteria for Australian football have varied, but they are generally applied to players who have played most of their juniors games in a particular state or territory, hence the name "State of Origin". In Rugby league the criteria are different, where players are selected for where they either first played senior Rugby league or where they played in the majority of senior competitions. The annual rugby State of Origin series is one of Australia's most popular sporting events. The name is also used in Australia for small sporting events which generally involve domestic representative teams.

East Fremantle Football Club

The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is East Fremantle Oval. East Fremantle are the most successful club in WAFL history, winning 29 premierships since their entry into the competition in 1898.

George Doig Australian rules footballer, born 1913

George Ronald Doig was an Australian rules footballer who played for and later coached the East Fremantle Football Club in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). A member of the Doig sporting family, Doig kicked 1095 goals from his 202 games playing almost exclusively as a forward, becoming East Fremantle's leading goalkicker of all-time, and leading the WANFL's goalkicking on six occasions. He kicked more than 100 goals in a season nine times, which included a haul of 152 goals in 1934 that set an elite record which was not broken until Bernie Naylor kicked 167 goals in 1953. Doig captained the club for two seasons, from 1940 to 1941, also filling the role of coach during the first season.

Interstate matches in Australian rules football

Australian rules football matches between teams representing Australian colonies, states and territories have been held since 1879. For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition and international matches meant that football games between state representative teams were regarded with great importance. Football historian John Devaney has argued that: "some of the state of origin contests which took place during the 1980s constituted arguably the finest expositions of the game ever seen".

Australian rules football in Western Australia is the most popular sport in the state.

Michael Clifford Fitzpatrick is an Australian businessman, sporting administrator and former professional Australian rules football player. He was chairman of the AFL Commission from 2007 to 2017.

Western Australia Australian rules football team

The Western Australia Australian rules football team is the state representative side of Western Australia in the sport of Australian rules football.

The 1921 Perth Carnival was the fourth edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition, staged in August 1921. It was the first carnival to take place in Perth and was won by the home state, Western Australia.

The 1956 Perth Carnival was the 13th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition. It took place from 11 to 23 June at Subiaco Oval, Perth.

The 1930 Adelaide Carnival was the seventh edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition. It was held from 30 July to 9 August and was the second carnival to be hosted by the South Australia city of Adelaide.

The 1934 WANFL season was the 50th season of the various incarnations of the Western Australian National Football League. Following upon numerous unsuccessful attempts to revive Midland Junction during the 1920s, Bassendean-based Swan Districts were admitted to the competition. The black and whites were more competitive than previous new clubs owing to the presence of a number of players with previous WANFL experience, including Fred Sweetapple from West Perth, captain-coach "Judda" Bee from East Fremantle and Nigel Gorn from South Fremantle, but after five promising campaigns were to endure nineteen open-age seasons without once winning as many matches as they lost.

The 1933 WANFL season was the 49th season of the Western Australian National Football League in its various incarnations. It was the last year of a seven-team senior competition, and saw George Doig, during the second semi-final, become the first player to kick one hundred goals in a season.

The 1977 WANFL season was the 93rd season of the Western Australian National Football League in its various incarnations. It followed on from the previous season’s high scoring to set another record for the highest average score in WANFL history at 109.57 points per team per game, which was to be broken substantially in the following few years due to the introduction of the interchange rule allowing for a faster game with less exhausted players. 1977 was in fact that last WA(N)FL season with no score of over 200 points until 1988.

The 1935 WANFL season was the 51st season of the Western Australian National Football League. The season saw West Perth win the premiership under the coaching of Johnny Leonard; it was the only time in West Perth's history that it won consecutive premierships, preceding a brief but exceptionally steep decline that saw the Cardinals four years later suffer the equal longest losing streak in WA(N)FL history.

The 1936 WANFL season was the 52nd season of the Western Australian National Football League. The most conspicuous features were the rise of Claremont to their first finals appearance since entering the WAFL ten years beforehand after having won only forty of its first 183 games, and the thrilling finals series in which East Perth rose to their first premiership for nine years after holding on to a thrilling struggle for fourth position where all eight clubs were in the running well into August, then winning two finals by a solitary point. In the process the Royals set a record for the most losses by an eventual premiership club in major Australian Rules leagues, but won their last open-age premiership until 1956. The Royals overcame much adversity to win the premiership, including a crippling injury toll and a schedule modified to allow them to tour Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania between 4 July and the first week of August.

The 1937 WANFL season was the 53rd season of the Western Australian National Football League. The season saw numerous notable highlights, including:

  1. Five players kicked 100 goals, a number equalled in the major leagues of VFL/AFL, VFA/VFL, or SANFL, only in the 1939 VFA season.
  2. Frank "Scranno" Jenkins won the Sandover Medal in his debut season of senior football with a record high under the 3-2-1 voting system of 34 votes.
  3. In the second round, East Fremantle broke their own 21-year-old record for the highest score in league history.
  4. East Perth drew three games in one season, a feat equalled in major Australian Rules Leagues only by VFA club Moorabbin in 1958 and West Perth in 1960. The Royals could easily have drawn a fourth game but for crowd acclamation preventing umpires from hearing the bell against Subiaco on Foundation Day. No senior Australian Rules team at any level is known to have tied four matches in a season, but Geelong’s Under-19s did so in 1971.
  5. Swan Districts, with Ted Holdsworth kicking at least six goals in each of the first ten games, reached their first finals series in only their fourth WANFL season. Holdsworth was to reach his 100 goals in two fewer games than George Doig took in his 152-goal 1934 season, but concussion and a broken hand eliminated the prospect of a new record.

The 1927 WAFL season was the 43rd season of the West Australian Football League. It saw the last premiership of the East Perth dynasty dating back to the end of World War I, as mastermind coach Phil Matson was to be killed in a truck crash the following year and the Royals were to fall to a clear last in 1929 as most of their champions retired. Despite opening their permanent home ground at Claremont Oval, newcomers Claremont-Cottesloe showed little improvement on their debut season and again won only a single game. The most notable change in fortunes was from South Fremantle, who had their first season with more wins than losses since their last premiership in 1917, and extended Matson's Royals in the grand final.

The 1938 WANFL season was the 54th season of the Western Australian National Football League, and saw Claremont, under champion coach Johnny Leonard who had transferred from West Perth, win its first premiership after losing two Grand Finals and drawing the first one this season. The blue and golds were to win the following two premierships before a long period near the foot of the ladder after Claremont Oval was gutted by a fire in 1944.

References

  1. 1 2 "Football Carnival". The West Australian. Perth, WA. 12 August 1937. p. 20.
  2. 1 2 3 "Football carnival". The West Australian. Perth, WA. 16 August 1937. p. 15.
  3. 1 2 "Football carnival". The West Australian. Perth, WA. 9 August 1937. p. 16.