TOPIC:

you're probably spot on with all of the above grassy...claremont went the biff in '88 with Melesso, Higgins, Neesham all getting rubbed out in the fallout from the game. I think Gary Kemp and Ian Dargie did as well but they were more in retaliation. Keeney was a controversial inclusion because he failed to qualify by one game from memory and Subi argued he was a travelling emergency for WCE during the year which shouldn't be included in his game count...i think my memory serves me ok but will stand corrected if otherwise...not including travelling emergencies in games played is now standard practice so don't see a problem. I'm not sure about wind shifts etc but do know claremont lost the plot and subi capitalised on their ill-discipline. similar to east freo in 1986 when the solin's, scott rowland, that flea david bushell, george christie plus a few others went the knuckle and finished up second best.

Interesting topic.Claremont 1991.Off the top of my head at least 6 players from that side drafted into the Afl in 1992..1987 was another strong Claremont side,maby 1 draw for the season V Subi the rest all big wins.
More recent time East Perth 2014.Subi nailed them on the wet Grand Final day.Lycett up front ,Wulff playing great footy,Johnson.Moss,Clutterbuck,Oakley Nicholls and a player gone missing Ryan Maldenis.

Seen that wind shift happen many a time there, good & bad experiences with it. I think we would have struggled that day without Keene but as BC said there was no problem with it rule wise. The gutsy prelim win over old easts set the win up imo

Leedy wrote:

MarkOlsen wrote: no side post 86 would get within 5-6 goals of the Claremont 87 side.

Ben Allan, Don Pyke, Guy McKenna, Derek Kickett all went on to decorated careers and were quality WAFL players before that.
Neesham was a star, Goulding was a top WAFL player along with Thorne and Hann and then Ralphy at full-forward.
nobody from the Subi 08 side would get anywhere near the 1st 4 players I listed.

Not far off the mark Olly, I remember we beat SF by 210 points (still the official record winning score outside of the under age comp during the war years) and we played CL the next week and lost by 98 points !!!

But you did beat them early in the year

DG wrote:

Leedy wrote:

MarkOlsen wrote: no side post 86 would get within 5-6 goals of the Claremont 87 side.

Ben Allan, Don Pyke, Guy McKenna, Derek Kickett all went on to decorated careers and were quality WAFL players before that.
Neesham was a star, Goulding was a top WAFL player along with Thorne and Hann and then Ralphy at full-forward.
nobody from the Subi 08 side would get anywhere near the 1st 4 players I listed.

Not far off the mark Olly, I remember we beat SF by 210 points (still the official record winning score outside of the under age comp during the war years) and we played CL the next week and lost by 98 points !!!

But you did beat them early in the year

Yep, we got the wooden spoon that year, 87 Claremont was a great side, but it was still really a pre Eagles residue side I guess, after that I reckon their 89 side was bloody good...

Have a look at the historical section of the WAFL web site. In the ladders section, they have converted everything to the final five system, accordingly Subiaco apparently made the finals in 1981. The problem with this of course is two-fold: it is not only re-writting history, but will create phantom 'elimination finals' for historians of WA football in the future.

All good responses to the thread by the way.

WAFL FootyFacts doesn't have that problem

There's a number of issues on waflonline including every game at Claremont oval is shown as the Showgrounds -

By numbers the best side since 1986 was Subiaco 2008.

Here's the best H&A seasons (all time) sorted by win loss record

waflfootyfacts.net/allseasonswinloss.php

Without doubt the Claremont side in 87 is the best post budgies with the 91 Tigers side 2nd best!

Yep, always on the site -- it is a very good one indeed. Thanks again for all the work you have put into it.