1985 WAFL season

• East Fremantle, aided by new rover David Bushell and wingman Chris Mainwaring, dominate Swans with the pace and drive and confirm their status as premiership favourties.^[9]
• 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.^[10]

• Perth’s new-found solidity in defence and seven goals from Rea after having been at Mines Rovers in Collie during late 1984 ensures the Demons’ biggest victory since 1980 and second-biggest ever over the Royals.^[13]
• A depleted Claremont side, whose returning captain-coach Moss gave Subiaco first use of the wind, comes back for a surprise win in wet conditions^[14] as Monteath and John Scott upset the balance of Subiaco’s defence.^[15]

• For the first time, the WAFL played a match in Geraldton, one of the largest country towns in WA.
• Don Holmes’ seven brilliant goals – three in the critical final quarter – wins a game where East Perth had the bulk of the play but capitalise poorly.^[16]

Seven goals from rover Sean Regan – a member of a famous East Fremantle family and a cousin of teammate Gerard Neesham – gives East Fremantle a record win over the Royals^[18] after East Perth led by four points twenty minutes into the second quarter. East Fremantle then scored 15.2 (92) to two behinds in twenty minutes.^[19]

• 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.^[20]
• Laurie Keene kicks nine and Victorian recruit Stephen Sells five in the win^[21]
• An unexpected move of key forward Colin Waterson onto the dangerous Rea gives East Fremantle an unexpected boon – the talented attacking player keeps Rea to one goal after half-time and ends Perth’s hope of upsetting the pacesetters.^[22]
• West Perth’s “youth policy” and the resourcefulness of Fong ensures the Falcons win a fine match over a gallant East Perth as a special tribute to former stars John Wynne and Bill Dempsey.^[23]

• 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.^[25]
• East Fremantle kick an amazing 17.13 (115) to 1.4 (10) in the second half, including a WA(N)FL record 14.6 (90) in the final quarter – all without full-forward Darren Bennett and goalkicking rover Roger Kerr, plus having Colin Waterson absent from attack.^[26]

• The crowd at Subiaco Oval is the record for a Subiaco home game there, and sees the Sharks stay undefeated with a comfortable win.^[27]
• 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.^[28]

• East Fremantle’s fine defence – with Browning completely blanketing Garry Sidebottom – and hard-running centreline gives an eighth straight victory with a percentage of 186.74 despite considerable Swan success tagging their prime movers.^[4]
• The inaccuracy of Brett Farmer, Wiley and Bryan Cousins – who score 3.15 (33) between them with most misses being from close-in and Cousins the worst offender with 1.6 (12) – denies Perth an upset win in a match that leaves Lion coach Bunton very angry at his team’s effort.^[30]

• East Fremantle kick an impressive 6.3 (39) to 2.3 (15) into a solid breeze during the final quarter to give suggestions an unbeaten season could be coming – besides maintaining an amazing record of 68 goals to 24 in final quarters so far in 1985. Claremont became the first team to outscore the Sharks in successive quarters, but Graham Moss, recalled at 35 to play centre half-forward, could not counter the East Fremantle defence.^[32]
• A magnificent goal from Les Fong, who had been struggling since his brilliant first-up display, a fine debut at 25 from brother Neale,^[a]and thirty-two possessions from Corry Bewick ensure West Perth stay ahead of Subiaco all game and enter the four despite a bad percentage courtesy of the East Fremantle thrashing in Round 6.^[33]
• Perth produce a gutsy effort with Adrian Barich playing throughout with a broken hand and Willie Dick suffering a persistent flu to win their first game for seven rounds.^[34]

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,^[35] but Subiaco recovers after the Tigers come back from 58 points down to take the lead early in the last quarter.^[36]

• 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^[37] and the great South Fremantle side of 1950^[38]
• 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.^[39]
• 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.^[40]

• 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 only a game out of the four with a superior percentage.^[41]

• 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.^[42]
• East Perth exploit South Fremantle’s weakness away from Fremantle Oval with a workmanlike win to move from last position.^[43]

• 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.^[44]
• 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.^[45][46]

• 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.^[47]
• 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 third straight wooden spoon in doubt.^[48]

With Moss reappointed as coach for 1986 and 1987,^[49] 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.^[50]

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.^[51]

• 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.^[20]
• Subiaco kick their highest score against East Perth, beating their previous 1970 record by fifty-six points^[52] Keene is unstoppable and Leishwan and Sells each kick six goals.^[53]

A superb defence and a brilliant display by future Essendon star Darren Bewick leads West Perth to overrun Claremont.^[54]

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.^[55]

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.^[56]

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^[57] in a thriller in showery conditions.