2004 WAFL season

• Peel’s score is officially the lowest in the WAFL since 1906, when Subiaco failed to score against South Fremantle.
• The Thunder actually scored 10.10 (70),^[7] but had their score annulled at the WAFL meeting on April 13 because Peter Bird’s clearance from South Bunbury did not apply to this opening game.^[5]
• The first night match at Leederville, between the second- and third-placed clubs of 2003, is viewed a resounding success.^[8]

• Swan Districts kick crucial goals during time-on of the second and third quarters to ensure a more-competitive Peel team under Garry Hocking does not approach its first win.^[9]
• Two thrilling games see the Fremantle clubs winless with Peel after four rounds, with Shark Jason Morgan denied an apparently fair goal after he toed the ball through a pack.^[10]

Subiaco kick fifteen goals without Peel scoring after the winless and crippled Thunder led 6.4 (40) to 2.5 (17) early in the second quarter.^[11]

• Shane Beros, with fifteen possessions in the last quarter, takes advantage of Swan Districts’ ability to turn the match into a stop-start affair and inflicts Claremont’s first defeat.^[13]
• Three late goals from Haydn North stop the Sharks from achieving a major upset despite another eight goals from Simister – who had now scored twenty in three matches.^[14]

• Claremont, unsettled by movements into and out of the AFL, avoid a huge upset only via a late behind from Anthony Jones. Victorian import Cameron Gauci kicks seven for Peel.^[15]
• The result constituted the first time a WAFL/Westar Rules team had won scoring fewer goals since West Perth beat Subiaco in Round 14 of 1998.

• The hospitalisation of coach John Dimmer with a stomach cramp does not disturb South Fremantle and they produce an amazing last-quarter comeback where they go inside fifty metres twenty-five times to Subiaco’s three.^[16]
• A classy first half before persistent rain comes ensures Swans win as expected in a celebration for ninety-one-year-old Lal Mosey, the only survivor of their inaugural 1934 team.^[17]
• East Fremantle coach Rod Lester-Smith’s puzzling decision to move top goalkicker Scott Simister to centre half-forward and utility Jason Morgan to full-forward backfires – a fifteen-minute period in the third quarter of continuous attack that could have won the Sharks the game brings only three behinds.^[18]

Peel win their first match for 2004 with hard running and strong tackling at the finish after South Fremantle took the lead coming from several goals down throughout most of the second half.^[19]

Perth, despite lacking a ruckman after Nigel Edwards was injured, climb to third with their win over South Fremantle, who held on until late in the last quarter but were only briefly on top during the third.^[21]

• Claremont kick the lowest score ever by a visiting team at Bassendean Oval, with the previous lowest being 4.6 (30) by Peel the previous season.^[23]
• Despite losing the toss on a very windy afternoon and finishing with nineteen fit men after a physical struggle, Swans’ miserly defence completely blankets the league leader.^[24]
• In front of the biggest crowd of the home-and-away season, East Fremantle show an extraordinary lack of skill and discipline in wet conditions – giving away four frees behind play whilst in possession – and South achieve six consecutive wins over their rivals for the first time since the 1917 Grand Final.^[25]

In a violent match won well by Perth after half-time, Peel allege Daniel Haines was struck twice and that their treatment by WAFL umpires is unfair compered to the older clubs.^[26]

• Swans expose West Perth’s extreme lack of height (only one player taller than 188 centimetres) and injury (only seven 2003 premiership players) to celebrate the retitling of Bassendean as ‘Steel Blue Oval’ in superb style.^[3]
• Unsuccessful WAFL state captain Brad Smith confirms his status as the league’s most eminent player with five first-half goals, which leaves Claremont winning the $5000 prize for best club after fourteen rounds by a single point due to the deduction of Peel’s 70 points from the opening round.^[27]
• In his first WAFL game since the third round of 1999, Shaun McManus has 35 possessions despite blistered feet, but despite this and six second-quarter goals from fourth-gamer Andrew Wilkie the once proud Sharks move to the bottom as Peel prove much too consistent.^[28]

• East Perth suffer an amazing collapse after kicking 8.6 (54) to 2.2 (14) early in the second quarter, scoring only 0.3 (3) to 9.5 (59) for the rest of the match.^[29]
• West Perth overcome the loss of Helen Logan^[a] and after attending her Friday funeral they fought out the match as a “mark of respect”.^[30]
• Perth overcome a twenty-day break to move a game clear in the four with an impressive display of accuracy in tough conditions.^[31]

• West Perth coach Darren Harris attach the WAFL’s send-off rule after Simon Duckworth was ejected for using abusive language to a goal umpire. Brendon Logan nonetheless leads the Falcons to a fine win over the eventual premiers.^[32]
• Perth kick their lowest score against Claremont, beating 4.9 (33) from 1991.^[33] the Demons had key forward Simon Rudd reported and faced a “please explain” over their supporters’ abuse of field umpires.^[34]
• Perth’s reserves – needing players from Sunday League club Kenwick to field a team at all – scored only 0.1 (1) to Claremont’s 18.24 (132), with the sole behind being rushed in the last quarter.^[34]

• Brandon Hill becomes the first Peel player to reach one hundred WAFL/Westar Rules games and, despite possibly the mark of the year from Troy Longmuir, Peel win at Joondalup for the first time – in the process virtually ending West Perth’s chances to defend their premiership.^[35]
• Despite Troy Wilson kicking 2.9 (21), Perth suffer another embarrassment and Andrew Merrington from centre half-forward scores 5.1 (31) and Demon defender Rob Rushton gives a gift goal by kicking the ball thirty metres backwards to Merrington during the third quarter.^[36]

• East Perth squander a chance for a huge victory and much-needed percentage when they let East Fremantle come back from 1.6 (12) to 7.10 (52) at half-time to only sixteen points down at the finish – leaving the Royals well behinds South Fremantle and Swan districts on percentage.^[37]
• This time Subiaco hang on against South Fremantle to cement their double-chance berth against an opponent lacking key forward Ryan Murphy.^[38]
• Peel record their first win at the newly christened “Steel Blue Oval” and their twenty-fifth as a WAFL/Westar Rules club via the directness of their play and Fremantle squad rover Dylan Smith’s tenacity^[39] – thereby making East Fremantle almost certain of a first wooden spoon in 106 years.

• Perth rebound from three humiliating losses to be only percentage out of the four as the club’s character shines through despite poor disposal and weak second and third quarters.^[40]
• East Perth move (though with a remaining bye) to third with a surprise win led by last-minute recall Adam Pickering, who collects twenty-six possessions and shuts out John Crabb.^[41]
• Brent Jones’ kicking practice pays off as he kicks a towering 55-metre goal that, along with the move of Leath Teakle onto Longmuir, shouts out the West Perth attack for East Fremantle’s second win of 2004.^[42]

• After holding East Fremantle to 0.5 (5) with the wind in the opening quarter, Swan Districts kick 22.9 (141) in the final three quarters to seal the wooden spoon and end a worrying four-match slump.^[43]
• West Perth, via exceptionally fierce tackling, kick fifteen unanswered goals until the last minute of the game to show that, though out of the running, they could still shape the four.^[44]
• Perth’s lack of height, with no player above 192 centimetres (6 ft 4 in), is cruelly exposed by South Fremantle, who show with their victory that they could be a danger to Claremont and Subiaco in September.^[45]

• Swan Districts are forced into physical training on the Sunday as they produce an insipid last three quarters where – with the advantage of the breeze in two of them – they score 6.5 (41) to Claremont’s 23.9 (147).^[47]
• An unusual incident whereby a kick by Hayden North during time-on in the last quarter struck a seagull does not disturb South Fremantle’s matchwinning burst.^[48]

• With Brad Smith clearly headed for the AFL in 2005,^[b] Subiaco found a ready-made replacement in former defender Sam Larkins, who combines with Smith for eleven goals as the Lions run away after East Fremantle looked within reach of an upset for a brief period in the third quarter.^[49]
• An amazingly selfless act of courage by Shane Creevey allows Peel to hang on after being 39 points ahead at three-quarter time. Creevey absorbed a very hard bump from Perth forward Simon Rudd and managed to clear the ball. It was Creevey’s fiftieth match and he copped a knee in the side.^[50]

• South Fremantle’s score, on a wet night,^[52] was their lowest open-age score since kicking 2.7 (19) against East Fremantle in Round 9, 1926, and their lowest against East Perth since kicking 1.0 (6) in Round 2, 1918.^[53]
• Troy Wilson kicks six in the cool, wet and very windy conditions, and the Royals kicked 4.3 (27) into the wind in the third quarter^[54] to stay in the running for the finals.
• Swan Districts had to lose by 17 or more points for the Royals to get in, but won their first victory at Joondalup since 1994 to get into the finals for the first time since that season.
• Subiaco win the minor premiership and the $5,000 ‘Prestige Loans Award’,^[c] but coach Peter German denies any advantage because he believes the win will simply make Claremont study the Lions’ game more intensely.^[55]

In their first final since 1994 Swan Districts repel conclusively a third-quarter Bulldog challenge with six straight last quarter goals, three of them from Adam Lange. Swans wingman Craig DeCorsey kicks six goals, five in the first half.^[56]

Subiaco dominate Claremont throughout the first three quarters, and Brad Smith becomes the first WAFL/Westar Rules player to kick 100 goals since Jon Dorotich in 1997.

• Claremont show up Swans’ lack of finals experience as the black and whites go from 2.0 (12) to 2.12 (24) between the 10-minute mark of the opening quarter and time on in the third.
• The final margin flatters Swan Districts who kick the last five goals.
• Anthony Jones, normally a backman, plays a key role for the Tigers at centre half-forward.^[59]

Sam Larkins provides a perfect antidote to Claremont’s targetting of leading goalkicker Smith, and the Tigers do not take control at any stage, as eight unanswed goals in the second half ensure Subiaco’s first premiership since 1988.