1985 WAFL season

Les Fong kicked nine goals in an amazing display of roving for the Falcons. He had never kicked more than five before and only 20 and 21 in the 1984 and 1983 seasons.

For the first time, the WAFL played a match in Geraldton, one of the largest country towns in WA.

• Subiaco record their first win over Swan Districts since the same round of 1978, ending a run of twenty straight losses, the equal longest run by one club against another since 1958.^[4]
• Laurie Keene kicks nine and Victorian recruit Stephen Sells five in the win^[5]

• Perth coach Mal Brown threatens to not pay his players as the Demons fall away from 32 points up near three-quarter time to lose by thirty-one.^[6]
• East Fremantle kick an amazing 17.13 (115) to 1.4 (10) in the second half

• The crowd at Subiaco Oval is the record for a Subiaco home game there, and sees the Sharks stay undefeated with a comfortable win.^[7]
• Future Geelong star Mark Bairstow, at a time when he is criticised for coming to Perth only to train and play, decimates East Perth who lose in all grades for the sixth week running and concede their highest-ever score.^[8]

Perth produce a gutsy effort with Adrian Barich playing throughout with a broken hand Willie Dick suffering a persistent flu to win their first game for seven rounds.^[9]

Michael Mitchell takes an amazing high mark over Greg Wilkinson that came to be regarded as the best mark in the WAFL for many years,^[10] but Subiaco recovers after the Tigers come back from 58 points down to take the lead early in the last quarter.^[11]

• East Fremantle record their twelfth straight win, their best start since their perfect season of 1946 and exceeded since then only by Swan Districts in 1980, East Perth in 1959^[12] and the great South Fremantle side of 1950^[13]
• South Fremantle came back from a 39-point deficit to win thanks to several unusual moves and shutting down key Lion Laurie Keene, who kicked only one goal.^[14]
• Motivation from former Warwickshire bowler Rudi Webster drives Clarement – led by recruits Peter Thorne from Melbourne and John Scott from East Perth to a flawlessly-played upset over the three-time premiers.^[15]

• For the first time, the WAFL plays a game in the Pilbara town of Dampier, an experiment repeated in 1989 and 2010.
• With Dorotich kicking ten and Vigona six, South Fremantle demoralise the premiers after half-time, kicking 15.6 to 7.6 to be onyl a game out of teh four with a superior percentage.^[16]

• Colin Waterson’s demolition of Keene ensures East Fremantle bounce back devastatingly from their first defeat as ex-Fitzroy player David Rankin moves from defence to be part of a dominating midfield.^[17]
• East Perth exploit South Fremantle’s weakness away from Fremantle Oval with a workmanlike win to move from last position.^[18]

• In Ron Alexander’s three hundredth senior match, John Todd’s interchanging of centre half-back Rance and injury plagued centre-half forward Peter Sartori breaks down the power Shark goal-to-goal line and the Swans are poised to threaten Subiaco’s hold on second position.^[19]
• With schoolteacher Glyn Williams returning to the team in an emergency despite little training, East Perth claim another significant scalp by beating an in-form Claremont in very wet conditions.^[20][21]

• The return of Warren Dean, after injury and abortive stints in defence and the ruck, allows the Lions to thrash Claremont in a fluctuating match where Claremont kick 8.6 (54) to 1.4 (10) after half-time before Subiaco pile on 11.7 (73) in the last quarter.^[22]
• A brilliant display from Wayne Ryder, who combined with Mick Rea and Bryan Cousins for twenty goals, gives Perth a crushing win to keep a second straight wooden spoon in doubt.^[23]

With Moss reappointed as coach for 1986 and 1987,^[24] Claremont produce a fine win over Swan Districts to keep the pressure on West Perth in a scenario comapred by the press with 1964 when the Tigers had won from fourth position.^[25]

A crucial win for West Perth is marred by violent crowd behaviour whereby a group of West Perth supporters – known by the police beforehand as potentially dangerous – spit and hurl cartons of chocolate-flavoured milk at their East Perth counterparts.^[26]

• Perth record their first win over Claremont since the last round of 1978, ending a run of twenty straight losses that is Claremont’s longest winning run over any club and Perth’s longest losing run in open-age WA(N)FL football.^[4]
• Subiaco kick their highest score against East Perth, beating their previous 1970 record by fifty-six points^[27] Keene is unstoppable and Leishwan and Sells each kick six goals.^[28]

A superb defence and a brilliant display by future Essendon star Darren Bewick leads West Perth to overrun Claremont.^[29]

An injury-crippled West Perth outfit fails to break its Swan Districts hoodoo as Garry Sidebottom kicks nine goals and the Falcons are never closer than eleven points after the first few minutes.^[30]

In a high-standard match, Subiaco, despite losing to a resurgent East Fremantle, lose no friends and escape injuries from their first final since 1974.^[31]

This was the first final Subiaco had won since the 1973 Grand Final, and ended Swan Districts’ hat-trick of flags

Regarded as one of the best-ever WAFL Grand Finals, the inexperienced Subiaco team nearly topples a powerful East Fremantle combination^[32] in a thriller in showery conditions.