Notice: Undefined variable: ub in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 53

Notice: Undefined variable: ub in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 65

Deprecated: strripos(): Non-string needles will be interpreted as strings in the future. Use an explicit chr() call to preserve the current behavior in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 65

Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 69

One of West Perth's finest wingmen, Eddie Wylde made his debut in the first game of the 1953 season as a rover.

A product of the West Perth Juniors, he played with the Cobbers and the Temperance Leagues before coming under the expert guidance of Joe Brooker at Mt Hawthorn, where another future star in Don Marinko was a teammate.

Winner of the fairest and best at Mt Hawthorn in 1952, Wylde was invited to train at Leederville with the West Perth players prior to that year's preliminary final. A speedy player, especially over the first four or five yards, he was extremely good on the ground, and possessed the ability to turn in a very tight circle. 

Playing in the centre in pre season games, the twenty one year old Wylde was chosen to play as a rover in his debut game in round one of the 1953 season, with Steve Marsh his direct opponent. The task didn't daunt the youngster, and he was one of the Cardinals best players in that year's grand final, when they went down for the second year in a row to the all conquering South Fremantle.

“I was engaged to be married during the 1953 season,” he told us. “My future father in law told me before one particular game that he'd give me two pounds(a lot of money then) for every goal I kicked. I bagged six, and he never offered again.”

1954 was the year that Wylde made his name on the WANFL scene.

The rover was selected in the State side for the clash with Victoria at Subiaco Oval in only his second year of league football as part of a three way roving change with Marsh and Subiaco's Don Carter. Kicking a goal and named in Western Australia's best, it's a mystery that he was never again picked for his State.

Wylde capped off a great year by being runner up to Perth's Merv McIntosh for the Sandover Medal.

Eddie Wylde's form didn't go unnoticed, and the following year both he and teammate Brian Falconer received offers from Hawthorn. “I was working for my father in his furniture manufacturing business, and he put it to me that it was either my football or a partnership in the business if I went East. I stayed, and Brian went.”

It was new coach Frank Sparrow who made the switch of placing Wylde onto a wing in 1956, and he  went on to give West Perth many games of good service in that position over the following nine years. The Cardinals re-emerged to take the premiership in 1960, kicking eight goals in the second quarter and winning by thirty two points over a strong East Perth.

As his family grew, Wylde's priorities changed, and, with football eventually taking a back seat, he retired at the end of the 1964 season, after reaching two hundred games with the Cardinals.  He subsequently coached the Marist juniors.

These days Eddie Wylde is retired, after many years in the furniture business followed by a liquor store, and enjoys a round of golf, having been a member of the WA Golf Club, where he enjoyed the company of a lot of old team mates and adversaries.

Marsh and Perth captain Keith Harper were Eddie's nominations as hardest to beat, while some stars in Fred Buttsworth “only played a few games with Fred, but he was a great player,” Ken Ashdown, and Brian France got the nod as best he'd played with.  .

Eddie Wylde was a member of one of West Perth's great sides, and played with many of the club's stars. A State rover, he became an even better player on the wing, and his name is up there with the best at West Perth Football Club.  

 

Search

Keyword

Who's Online?

We have 341 guests and 2 members online

  • westaussieguy
  • Ted Nugent

Newest Footy Recruits

  • MRanker - Fiverr
  • whatoma
  • RobertPes
  • Lost WAFL
  • Duncs1977