1975 WANFL season

The opening round attendance of 47,716 was a WAFL record beating the 45,525 who attended the opening day of 1968.^[4]

South Fremantle’s great speed demolished the taller Royal team, whilst veteran Bob Carson held a ruck division previously viewed too weak.^[5]

Swans’ high-power attacking football led by Brian Close and veteran Bill Walker’s old-fashioned drop and stab kicks moves the club to early premiership favouritism.^[6]

• In Bill Dempsey’s 300th WANFL match, West Perth end Subiaco’s unexpected unbeaten beginning. David Parkin, now cleared from Hawthorn, plays in the reserves whilst coaching Subiaco’s league team.^[7]
• The crowd of 15,889 was then a record for a home-and-away game at Subiaco Oval.^[7]
• After Walker left the field, Swans had no answer to the pace of South Fremantle, who took their place at the top.^[8]

West Perth kick ten unanswered goals after being only two points ahead to demolish Swan Districts in the last quarter.^[9]

Subiaco use gold guernseys with maroon lions for the first time, after their maroon ones (with gold lion) were partially missing and the published number sequence broken.^[10]

Murray Couper kicks thirteen goals in a surprise thrashing, the equal second largest tally by any Perth player behind Albert Gook’s sixteen against West Perth in 1939.^[11]

On the first really wet day of the season, Swan Districts defeat Perth at Bassendean for the first time since April 1967,^[12] ending an 11-match winning streak that remains the second-longest at the ground and the longest until 2007.^[13]

Claremont do not kick their first goal until time-on in the third quarter, and kick their lowest score for thirty years.^[14] Only inaccuracy by full-forward Max George, who kicked 4.7 (31), saves them from further humiliation.^[15]

• West Perth hold top position by showing that Swan Districts’ reliance on height and weight could not beat the Cardinals’ superior skill.^[16]
• Rovers Wiley and Mitsopoulos exploit a dominant Demon ruck for the Demons’ first win at East Fremantle since 1970 and move the Demons within a game of the top four.^[17]

• Instead of a week’s break during interstate games, the WANFL experimented with the VFL practice of a “split round” over two weekends, but the experiment was not persisted with.
• At odds of 7/1 against, Claremont win against a strong breeze by holding the in-form Perth, who earlier recorded seven consecutive behinds during the second quarter.^[18]

A week of studying coaching tactics with future champion Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy pays off for the Royals, whose get-the-ball tactics given them eleven free kicks for holding-the ball in the first quarter and carry on to knock West Perth from top position.^[19]

An all-in-brawl at Fremantle Oval after an altercation on the half-time siren, in which Bulldog captain Ciccosto is hit by an onlooker, is followed by a 10.7 to 0.5 third quarter by South Fremantle who move clear on top.^[20]

Swan Districts kick their highest score on record to that point, beating a previous record from 1961 against South Fremantle.^[21] Their 11.7 (73) is still the largest last-quarter score at Bassendean Oval.^[13] Brian Close, playing as a rover, kicked ten goals – still a record for Swans against East Fremantle.^[22]

In wet conditions, East Perth trail 2.4 (16) to 7.7 (49) during the second quarter, but hold Swan Districts goalless after half-time as Peter Spencer and Larry Kickett established an iron grip on the middle of the ground.^[23] It would become the last time a WA(N)FL team was goalless in the second half until 1983.

• With Garry Sidebottom exploiting West Perth’s lack of physical strength to dominate the ruck and kick five goals resting in attack, Swan Districts’ muster a superb win in mud and rain to take top position ahead of the other three finalists by percentage.^[24]
• West Perth’s score remains their lowest against Swan Districts,^[22] and until 1983 was the lowest by any visiting team at Bassendean Oval.^[13]

• West Perth’s win, with a forward line revitalised by Barry Day and Norm Knell, jumps them from fourth to top as the other two finalists lose.^[25] The Cardinals were to beat their highest score for 1975 in each of their final three matches.
• Subiaco send Peter Burton out a winner^[a], as the retiring ruckman dominates Swans’ danger players Sidebottom and Bob Beecroft.^[26]
• East Fremantle’s win is the biggest with two fewer goals in WA(N)FL history.^[27] It is the most recent senior WA(N)FL win with two fewer goals, though in 1984 South Fremantle won with three fewer goals.

Bob Carson’s defeat of Ron Alexander and the roving of Ciccosto and Maurice Rioli overwhelm a Royal side decimated by the tactical gamble of alternating centreman Spencer as a rover.^[28]

A brilliant first half, including 88 possessions to a mere 49 in the first quarter against the wind, gives West Perth revenge for their Round 20 caning.^[29]

Swans’ wasteful 3.11 (29) with the wind in the first quarter and the dominance of South Fremantle ruck-rover Eddie Bauskis decides a low-standard if tough match.^[30]

In front of a record Grand Final crowd, West Perth, with veterans Whinnen and Dempsey dominating their on-ball division, overwhelm South Fremantle in the second half to record the largest Grand Final win on record.^[32]