TOPIC:

it goes to show that a lot of football has always been one-sided, some people today seem to think it is a new thing. The most interesting one for me amongst the list of the slaughtered is the WP team of 1981. The club was in the four at the end of the second series and then fell apart; I think their percentage declined 20 per cent by the end of the season: Campbell left soon after for the second time

ArkRoyal wrote: Thanks Mikeh: I would agree with all of your observations about the dreaded Lions of that time. We managed 17 goals at Bassendean in the first series, but still lost by six goals or so. I suppose given the status of SD at the time this was a reasonable performance, but a defeat is a defeat. In regards to the performances against South and one against Claremont, just terrible. Makes you wonder, if even given the limitations of the team, there were divisions in the club. Overall, I think Perth were unlucky to get the wooden spoon that year; they won a game less than us, but were more competitive.

Which your favourite Swans side from the early 80s?

I think my favourite was the 1980 team. Even though they lost the Grand Final that year to an outstanding South Fremantle team, the Swans of that year played some fantastic footy. Players like the Narkle brothers,Richardson, Neesham, Gillespie, Fogarty, Holmes, Beasley, Melrose, Langsford. Many of these guys went on to play in some or all of the 82 - 84 premiership sides

ArkRoyal wrote: BH:: thanks for writing. I think you have summed it up pretty well. We sort of had the edifice of a side with all those players you mentioned, hence the couple of early wins, but goodness me they could diabolical at times. The three other clubs you mentioned were really good: although, in terms of premierships, South and Claremont under- performed from 1979-1984. Do you have a favourite swans side from the early 80s?

oobisubi: thanks for writing back also. I also remember the two early wins under Fairclough, I got carried away after that again; we would make the four and this and that; the whole bloody team never got a kick for the rest of the year. Oh well.
Can you remember whom kicked 10.1 in one of our few wins?

Just to answer your question AR funnily enough our 1981 team which eventually finished 3rd was a favourite as it was probably close to our most talented side during that 79-85 period.
When you consider we had the likes of Simon Beasley, Craig Holden, Darryl Sutton, Ian Williams that season but all left for the VFL at seasons end & thus missed our hat-trick of flags from 82-84.
82 was special obviously as we won our first flag for 19 years and first in my life time, 83 as we came from a long way back during that season & the 1st Semi in the finals & 84 as it was almost a new side after losing so many players to the VFL & retirement over the previous few seasons.
We might have to start a topic on this in the Swans thread.
Now sorry mate back to the topic at hand that being Subi in 83!

The other thing to remember from that time AR was Subi had no money (yes that is right, tho hard to believe nowadays) and couldnt afford the top class recruits and tended to pick up blokes at the end of their careers who were still very good servants such as Bill Valli, Alex Hamilton, Brian Douge and less so Brian Cook, Archie Duda, Glen Durnthaler et al.
From memory they also had to sell off some of their most promising players eg the likes of Mick Johns & Ken Marshall to Swans!

Mikeh: I was going to mention 1980, but given the end I thought I would leave it.
BH: your a bit similar, as the 1981 finals effort was a farce

But I liked the 1980 side which went 18 games undefeated. My favourite player was Mike Smith. A question for both: would John Todd have been under pressure at the end of 1981?

Subi: I vaguely remember the financial struggles of the club around 1980 or so. I remember all those names you mentioned BH, all gave good service along with Neil Taylor Phil Lamb Dwayne Lamb and Rod Brown ( an ex SD I believe)

The money situation did not turn around until the club got $200,000 in 1982 for Buckenara. We then had the good luck to develop a good team when Western Underwriters put up $400,000 if we made the finals and won a flag.

ArkRoyal wrote: Mikeh: I was going to mention 1980, but given the end I thought I would leave it.
BH: your a bit similar, as the 1981 finals effort was a farce

But I liked the 1980 side which went 18 games undefeated. My favourite player was Mike Smith. A question for both: would John Todd have been under pressure at the end of 1981?

Subi: I vaguely remember the financial struggles of the club around 1980 or so. I remember all those names you mentioned BH, all gave good service along with Neil Taylor Phil Lamb Dwayne Lamb and Rod Brown ( an ex SD I believe)

The money situation did not turn around until the club got $200,000 in 1982 for Buckenara. We then had the good luck to develop a good team when Western Underwriters put up $400,000 if we made the finals and won a flag.

I vaguely remember that there was some agitation amongst some Swans people at the end of 1981 about whether Todd could take the team to the next level but Toddy had the benefit of the unshaking support of the President at the time, John Cooper. Thank goodness for that! As for Mike Smith, he was a very classy player who made footy look easy. Unfortunately he was a little injury prone which prevented him from reaching his full potential

mikeh: yep all ended very well for SD in that period. The club deserved it given where it had come from in 1977.

I had forgotten Clint Brown kicked 10.1. I guess our leaky defence was the reason he was shifted down back? A bloody good player. His game against Hawthorn in 1986 was a ripper - he gave Dermie a bit of stick.
I recall the financial troubles when Subi were rumoured to be going to be amalgamating with Wanneroo. I recall a post match trophy presentation when the best player of the visiting team donated his match winnings to the Subiaco cause. That left an impression on me.

Singha: Great post: I remember the Wanneroo thing as well. It was great how the whole football community helped Subi out It was certainly a club in crisis, both on and off the field from the mid 70s, to say the least. On the field, I was looking at some 1976 budgets and particular the colts squad. I was shocked, as to my knowledge, only one player played league football for the club; but, on reflection, this is a large part of the reason for the poor performance from 1976-1983.

I believe the concept of state of origin football originated as an exhibition match to raise money for subiaco's dire financial position at the time.