Written by Ron Head

The year was 1961.

Swan Districts were playing the highly fancied East Perth in an attempt to win their first premiership since being admitted to the WAFL in 1934. After finishing last the previous season it had been a rags to riches story for the Swans, and Swans centre half back Ken Bagley was holding up the Royals’ forward moves with regularity until a bone crunching clash with Polly Farmer put him down for the count with a bad shoulder injury.

In an inspirational display, the game defender shrugged the handicap off as an inconvenience as he led the Basso Boys to a historic premiership.

And that was the hallmark of Ken Bagley, one of the best defenders and all round footballers to wear not only the black and white but the yellow and black of Western Australia.

Ken Bagley was the definition of versatile. He represented Western Australia as a centreman, centre half forward, and centre half back among other positions, and just about played the field with Swans. A high marking, long kicking player,with immaculate disposal, he represented Western Australia sixteen times, including the legendary 1961 Brisbane Carnival, and the 1966 Hobart Carnival.

He was a driving force in each of the three premierships of 61 to 63, and rose to the occasion on the big stage of the grand finals and State games, winning the Simpson Medal in the 1963 grand final. Inducted into the West Australian Football League’s Hall Of Fame in 2004, Bagley was also selected in the Official Swan Districts Team Of The Century.

Ken Bagley spent his early years in Gingin, moving to Midland at the age of eight. He played his junior football with Midland, quickly coming under notice to be picked in the Swan Districts under sixteen combined side. He graduated to the Swans colts, playing his first league game in 1958, at the age of seventeen.

He went on to play 232 games over twelve years for the black and whites. “ I’ve got no regrets about my football days” Bagley told Footygoss recently. “I’m happy to have played in the era that I played in. If I hadn’t I would have missed out on the privilege of playing with the blokes I played with, and that was one of the highlights of my career,” he said.

The Swans outfit of that era were a unified group, and were often intimidating to the opposition. “Early on in my career we were playing at Claremont Oval, and a former Victorian who had been around the traps, Billy Byron, mouthed off at me so I poked my chin out at him, ” Bagley laughed.

“He knocked me out.”

“Then the cavalry arrived. Fred Castledine was predictably first on the scene followed by several others, and fixed the poor bugger right up.”

Although remembered chiefly as a centre half back, centre and centre half forward were Bagley’s favourite positions. When we asked him who his toughest opponents were, it brought back home just how good the bloke was, to have played on the stars of the game. “Ian Stewart(Richmond and St Kilda, two Brownlows), was a champion and of course a tough man to play on, but Polly Farmer(East Perth), Barry Cable(Perth), Laurie Kettlewell(Subiaco), Freddy Lewis and Ken Holt(East Fremantle), Lorne Cook, Denis Marshall(Claremont), Johnny Brindley(South Fremantle), and Mel Whinnen and Bill Dempsey (West Perth) were all very good”.

He reckoned all of the Swans players were worthy of a mention as best he played with, but settled for Billy Walker, Keith Slater, Haydn Bunton, Eric Gorman,Fred Castledine, John Turnbull, Tony Nesbit, and Max Kelleher.

After retiring from league football in 1970, Bagley played about half a dozen games with Midland in the Sunday League. “It was as if I’d had a target on my back”he recalled. “I got belted and pummelled from pillar to post so I quickly decided that there was no point in doing this, so hung the boots up”.

Bagley had been coaching the Swans colts toward the end of his career, so took on the reserves following his stint with Midland. Following that he served on the Swan Districts Football Club Board for two years.

Bagley has always been firmly entrenched into the Swan Districts Football Club, with himself, Fred Castledine, and Dave Sidebottom marrying three sisters. Ken also has high hopes for his grandson Jordan Lockyer, former West Coast player Andrew Lockyer’s son, who is showing potential playing in the West Perth junior district. He attends West Coast matches, but is not a great devotee of the modern game.

“I don’t really enjoy watching it,” he said. “ Players go to ground with three or four on top and get penalised for holding the ball. There’s too much scragging, in the back, kicking backwards, wasting time, and then there’s the interference at the boundary throw ins.” He also admitted he has some concerns about the number two AFL draft pick, Nicholas Natanui. “He will be stopped from playing his natural game, using his high leap, by all the scragging and interference.” are Bagley’s fears for the young star.

Formerly a salesman and later an owner of a printing company, Ken Bagley likes nothing better than a good game of golf these days. He leads a good life, still seeing a lot of former teammates and opponents, but is essentially a family man who enjoys the home life with his wife, Maxine and the happy times with his son,daughter, and their families.

Ken Bagley was not only a great player for Swan Districts and Western Australia but certainly one of the most versatile. When Ozfooty put that to him, with a shrug of the shoulder he laughed, “That was handy, because when I was getting beaten, they had somewhere else to put me.”

That wouldn’t have happened too often.