The association between  Mark Washfold and West Perth is a story in itself.  The boy from Leongatta in the Victorian Gippsland had embarked with mate Joe Hogan in 1977 driving a Mr Whippy van on a round Australia tour, during which they stopped in Perth. On their return home Hogan came back to WA and invited Washfold over for a holiday.Moving into a house in Leederville, Joe decided to have a run with West Perth in the 1978 pre season, so Mark accompanied him. The pair would jump the fence as the West Perth playing group were halfway through their laps of the oval, and return from whence they came when they’d had enough. After six weeks of this, Cardinals coach Percy Johnson greeted them with: “who the hell are you blokes?” With West Perth official Kevin Bradley experiencing heart palpitations over the length of Washfold’s hair, Johnson played the pair in a pre season intraclub game, pitting Mark on gun centre half forward Brian Adamson. To his surprise the kid went OK, and as a result was selected at full forward in the season opener against Subiaco. But Washfold did come with good credentials.A premiership player with Leongatta in the strong Latrobe Valley League in Victoria the previous year, in which he booted 122 goals from full forward, he was a fairest and best winner at centre half back as an eighteen year old for the club in 1974. A Hawthorn supporter, he had been shattered when the Leongatta area was transferred from the Hawks zone to Footscray, and had no intention of going to the kennel.   Washfold’s main attribute was his ability to play all over the ground, and he was certainly used in a variety of roles at West Perth. Losing their first four games, the Cardinals won ten in a row before stumbling in the first semi final against South Fremantle.  1979 was a year of disharmony at Leederville, Johnson receiving his marching orders late in the year after a disagreement with a committeeman. Mark was a great fan of Percy, however, and was among many of the players who ended up at the ex coach’s house after the club fairest and best awards night.   Washfold’s exit from West Perth was almost as bizarre as his entry.Working at the Swan Brewery, he had been put on shift work, and was therefore unable to train with the side each second week. Coach Graham Campbell gave him an ultimatum to either quit the job or  football, a situation that came to the notice of Perth coach, Alan Joyce. Joyce offered Mark a spot at the Demons, then contacted the Brewery and arranged for him to change shifts. “The funny thing was that the Brewery boss, Lloyd Zampatti, was a West Perth supporter, so why couldn’t they have done likewise?” said Washfold. As it was, the Cardinals wouldn’t grant a clearance for a month.When Joyce returned to Hawthorn and Ian Miller took over at Perth, Washfold became a permanent though reticent full back. “Although I played probably my best football in those years, I felt I could be used up the ground,” he said. He finished sixth and third in successive years in club fairest and best voting, making an initial State Squad in 1982. “I knew that was never going to be on, because with Perth being a lowly placed side, they had a limit of a couple of players in the final side, and with Rob Wiley and Brian Cousins automatic selections, that was it.”In the pre season of 1984 Washfold developed a spur on his heel, which hampered him to the extent that he retired before the opening game. “I was the fittest I had ever been,” he said. His sixty four games with Perth had added to the forty three he played with West Perth. As his four sons grew, Mark became involved in their football, and coached at Ocean Ridge Juniors for ten years. He also assisted Ross Prunster with West Perth reserves in 1995 under league coach, John Dimmer.Brian Peake, Stan Nowotny, Basil Campbell, Ron Boucher, and Ken Hunter were players he found hard to get on top of, while Rob Wiley and John Duckworth stood out as team mates.  He recalled a scratch match at Subiaco, when Duckworth copped a torrent of abuse from five rows back. “This loudmouth kept it up all day, and got louder and louder,” recalled Mark. “Finally, Ducky snapped, and you could see the fear in the bloke in the fifth row’s eyes as John jumped the fence and raced toward him.”Mark related the story of the Red Rooster Carnival match in Adelaide against Norwood. “ The propertyman had brought the wrong gear, and we were all decked out in Bombay bloomers on a bog of a ground. In the final seconds the ball sailed through the slush to clearly pass over the goal line, giving us the lead, when one of their guys picked it up with the ump yelling “play on.” Percy Johnson went ballistic and copped a fine.”  Leaving the brewery, Washfold worked in the insurance business with team mate Ian Logan for a time before beginning his own business, Washfold Financial Services. Recipient of the Financial Advisor Of The Year from MLC/Navigator, he welcomes any football fan to drop in for a yarn about the game. Mark is an avid golfer, off a nine handicap( “I got it down to five or six a while ago”) at Wanneroo, and utilises his two boats, fishing and cruising, whenever he can get away.  Mark Washfold gave both West Perth and Perth good service in a variety of positions. The bloke who first saw Perth from a Mr Whippy van is happily married to a Western Australian country gal, Deanne, is a proud new grandfather, and is firmly entrenched this side of the country.