2008 WAFL Grand Final

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The 2008 West Australian Football League (WAFL) Grand Final was the culmination of the 124th season of the premier Australian rules football league in Western Australia. It was played at Subiaco Oval on 20 September 2008 and was won by the Subiaco Football Club, who defeated the Swan Districts Football Club by 57 points. [1]

Contents

Background

Subiaco had dominated the 2008 season as no team in a major Australian Rules League had since Port Adelaide in the 1914 SAFL season. [2] After twenty home-and-away games the Lions had lost just one game by the narrowest of margins to their Grand Final rivals in mid-season, with the closest any other opponent got to them being eighteen points. [3] The Lions were targeting their third straight WAFL flag, and their fourth in just five years, all the while finishing an unprecedented seven and a half games clear of second-placed West Perth.

Swan Districts had finished fourth at the end of the season and had beat two higher ranked opponents in South Fremantle and West Perth to get to this match. The game showcased numerous young players who were to be drafted in the upcoming 2008 AFL Draft including Nic Naitanui, Chris Yarran, Clancee Pearce, Todd Banfield, Daniel Rich, Adam Cockie and Greg Broughton. [4]

Teams

Subiaco

FB: Greg Broughton Caine Hayes Darren Rumble
HB:Robert Forrest Aidan Parker Jordan Adamson-Holmes
C: Jarrad Schofield Adam Cockie Chad Cossom
HF: Kyal Horsley David Mapleston Phil Read
FF: Chris Hall Brad Smith Blake Broadhurst
R:Luke NewickMark Haynes Allistair Pickett
I: Daniel Chick Shaun Hildebrandt Daniel Rich
Marc Webb
Coach: Scott Watters

Swan Districts

FB:Paul RichardsonDavid McInley Wayde Twomey
HB: Clancee Pearce Tim Gepper Garth Taylor
C:Michael McInleyJosh RobertsBrett Wolfenden
HF:Brett RobinsonJosh Pullman Tony Notte
FF: Chris Yarran Nic Naitanui Clayton Hinkley
R: Llane Spaanderman Ryan Davis Chris Smith
I: Jeff Garlett Michael Johnson Shane Beros
Todd Banfield
Coach: Brian Dawson

Match Summary

Swans started the game in superb style, as they had the run of the game early, starting with West Coast-listed player Tony Notte kicking the first goal in the opening minute of the game. The underdogs continued to use the ball cleverly and take their chances throughout the opening quarter to open up a somewhat surprising sixteen point lead at quarter time.

In the second term the contest was much more tight and the Lions ferocity was beginning to take its toll on Swans. At half time Subiaco held a slender four point lead.

As the game progressed Swans began to break down across half forward and couldn't find their way to goal enough times to counteract a potent Lions forward set up where WAFL leading goalkicker Brad Smith kicked six goals, Mapleston four and Phil Read and Shaun Hildebrandt three each.

Subiaco then went on in almost 'cruise control' to claim the Premiership.

2008 WAFL Grand Final
Sunday, 20 September Subiaco def. Swan Districts Subiaco Oval (crowd: 23,199) [5]
3.5 (23)
9.9 (63)
15.13 (103)
 22.16 (148)
Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final
6.3 (39)
9.5 (59)
10.6 (66)
 14.7 (91)
Umpires: Gavin Statham, Start Parry, Dean Margetts
Simpson Medal: Chris Hall (Subiaco)
Television broadcast: ABC TV
Brad Smith 6
Mapleston 4
Read 3
Cossom, Chris Hall, Hildebrandt 2
Schofield, Cockie, Hayes 1
Goals2 Notte, Roberts
1 Taylor, Michael McInlay, Garlett, Davis, Geappen, Yarran, Pullman, Naitanui, Wolfenden, Banfield
Brad Smith, Mapleston, Read, Hall, Broughton, Schofield, Hildebrandt, HayesBestRoberts, Spaanderman, Wolfenden, Johnson, Notte, Hinkley
Read for charging Josh RobertsReports

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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.

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The 1940 WANFL season was the 56th season of the various incarnations of the Western Australian National Football League. It saw Claremont win its third consecutive premiership, but its last before returning to the status of cellar-dweller it occupied during its first decade in the WA(N)FL – between 1943 and 1978 Claremont played finals only five times for one premiership. South Fremantle, after a lean period in the middle 1930s, displaced perennial power clubs East Fremantle and East Perth as the Tigers’ Grand Final opponent, and established some of the basis, in spite of three disastrous wartime under-age seasons, for the club's fabled dynasty after the war.

The 1941 WANFL season was the 57th season of the various incarnations of the Western Australian National Football League. Owing to the drain of players to military service in World War II, the league was forced to suspend the reserves competition until 1946, and ultimately this was to be the last season of senior football in Perth until 1945 as the supply of available players became smaller and smaller and the Japanese military threatened northern Western Australia.

References

  1. "Subiaco hat-trick". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  2. Devaney, John; "The Invincibles at Play" (archived)
  3. Subiaco's 2008 Fixture
  4. "WAFL Grand Final: Swans prepare to meet Lions". Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  5. Reid, Russell and Townsend, John; “Lion Kings: Dawson Takes Shot at “Arrogant” Subiaco”; The West Australian ; 22 September 2008, p. 56