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The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. 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.
The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The club joined the WAFL as an expansion team in 1997.
Mark Hutchings is an Australian rules footballer who last played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL) and currently plays for West Perth Football Club. From Perth, Western Australia, Hutchings captained his state at the 2009 National Under-18 Championships, and, having also played for East Perth in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), was selected by St Kilda in the 2010 Rookie Draft. A midfielder, he was delisted after a season at the club without having made his senior debut, and transferred to West Perth upon his return to Western Australia. Establishing himself as a regular player for the team, Hutchings was one of the competition's best players during the 2012 season, playing state football, finishing second in the Sandover Medal, and winning West Perth's best and fairest award. He was drafted by West Coast at the 2012 National Draft, and made his senior AFL debut during the 2013 season, playing nine matches during his debut season, as well as playing in a premiership for West Perth.
The 1980 WAFL season was the 96th season of the West Australian Football League in its various incarnations.
The 1997 Westar Rules season was the 113th season of senior football in Perth, Western Australia. It featured a number of dramatic changes to a competition whose popularity had been dramatically reduced by the drain of players to the Eagles and Dockers of the AFL. The competition's name was changed from the prosaic ‘West Australian Football League’ to ‘Westar Rules’ in an attempt to update the local competition for a more sophisticated audience. However, this change became regarded as unsuccessful and was reversed as per recommendations of the “Fong Report” after four seasons. West Perth also changed their name to Joondalup to recognise their location in Perth's growing northwestern suburbs, but changed back after the ninth round.
The 1996 WAFL season was the 112th season of the West Australian Football League in its various incarnations.
The 1930 WAFL season was the 46th season of the West Australian Football League in its various incarnations, and the last before it changed its name to the ‘Western Australian National Football League’. The season saw East Fremantle win the premiership for the third consecutive season, marking the second time that the club had achieved the feat; the club was never seriously challenged as the best team except during the interstate break and achieved the unusual feat of being the only club with a percentage of over 100. Jerry Dolan said in retrospect that East Fremantle's 1930 team was the greatest he had ever played in or coached – including even the unbeaten team of 1946.
The 1999 Westar Rules season was the 115th season of the various incarnations of the West Australian Football League and the third as “Westar Rules”. It is most notable for the first winless season in open-age Western Australian football since Midland Junction in their final 1917 season lost all twelve of their games, although South Fremantle in the under-19 1944 competition lost all nineteen of their games. Peel Thunder, who at the completion of the season had won only two of their first sixty Westar Rules matches, achieved the equal second-longest winless season in a major Australian Rules league behind SANFL club Sturt in 1995. Although beforehand most critics thought the Thunder would improve on what they did in their first two seasons, late in the season none of the major Westar Rules writers gave them a chance to win even against second-last East Perth at Rushton Park.
The 1929 WAFL season was the 45th season of the West Australian Football League in its various incarnations.
The 2000 Westar Rules season was the fourth season of ‘Westar Rules’ and the 116th season of the various incarnations of senior football in Perth. It was the last season before the competition's name was changed back to the traditional ‘WAFL’ as it was clear the public had not been attracted by the change. Owing to the Sydney Olympics, Westar Rules shortened the 2000 season from twenty to eighteen matches per club, and retained this eighteen-match season in 2001 and 2002 before going back to the current twenty-match season.
The 1975 WANFL season was the 91st season of senior Australian rules football in Perth and the forty-fifth as the “Western Australian National Football League”. The season saw West Perth, after unexpectedly falling to last in 1974, rise under former Fitzroy coach Graham Campbell to a remarkable premiership win over South Fremantle by a record 104 points in front of what was then the biggest WANFL crowd on record and has since been only exceeded by the 1979 Grand Final. The Bulldogs, apart from Claremont the least successful WANFL club between 1957 and 1974, rose with arrival of Aboriginal stars Stephen Michael and Maurice Rioli to their first finals appearance in five years and began their greatest era since their golden days of the middle 1950s. With East Perth, revitalised after injuries affected their 1974 campaign, and the inconsistent but at times incomparable Swan Districts, they comprised a top four that remained unchanged for the final fourteen rounds.
The 1928 WAFL season was the 44th season of the West Australian Football League. The most notable event of the season occurred off the field on Monday, 11 June, when champion East Perth coach Phil Matson was killed in a truck crash at Nedlands after being thrown into a telegraph post. The Royals under the coaching of Paddy Hebbard did manage to reach a challenge final against minor premiers East Fremantle, but were beaten and suffered an abrupt fall to a clear last the following season.
The 1974 WAFL season was the 90th season of the various incarnations of senior football in Perth and the forty-fourth as the "Western Australian National Football League". It continued the fluctuating fortunes of clubs that had been part and parcel of the league since 1970, with East Perth, the most consistent player in the competition for eight years, missing finals participation for the only time in seventeen seasons between 1966 and 1982 due largely to injuries to key defenders Gary Malarkey, who missed the second half of the season, and Ken McAullay who did not play at all. West Perth fell from runners-up to their worst season since 1939, largely owing to the loss of 1973 leading goalkicker Phil Smith which left a gaping hole in their attack.
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 2002 WAFL season was the 118th season of the West Australian Football League. It saw East Perth, despite the end of the first host club scheme that was thought to have unfairly favoured the Royals, win their third successive premiership for the first hat-trick in the WA(N)FL since Swan Districts between 1982 and 1984. The Swans themselves had a disastrous season as chronic financial troubles, which had plagued the club for almost a decade were combined with disastrous results on the field. The black and whites were within two points of a winless season in the seniors and did little better in the lower grades.
The 1925 WAFL season was the 41st season of the West Australian Football League. It was notable as the season where a fully-fledged system of district football was firmly in place after two seasons of planning, with Perth divided into eight zones, one of which was allocated to Claremont in preparation for their entry to senior WAFL ranks for 1926 and another covered the Midland area later to be allocated to Swan Districts. Along with this, the WAFL introduced a reserves competition for players not good enough for their club's league team.
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 1924 WAFL season was the 40th season of the West Australian Football League. Although East Perth and East Fremantle completely dominated the season until after the Carnival, each having lost only one match of the first eleven, neither was to win the premiership and the Royals’ record sequence of five consecutive premierships came to an end in the semi-final.
The 1923 WAFL season was the 39th season of the West Australian Football League. It saw East Perth set an unequalled WAFL record of five consecutive premierships, which in major Australian Rules leagues has only been beaten by SANFL club Port Adelaide with six straight from 1954 to 1959 and equalled by Sturt between 1966 and 1970. The Royals prevailed after two superb games with East Fremantle, who had had its last two home-and-away games cancelled due to undertaking a tour of Victoria and South Australia.
References
- ↑ Hope, Shayne (23 September 2013). "Surprise stoppages win the critical factor". The West Australian . pp. 6–7, The Game.
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