From the day Wally Sidebottom pulled on the boots for Swan Districts in 1952, the name became an institution at Bassendean, with eight players of the same name representing the club over four decades..  Wally Sidebottom was the forerunner of the clan, playing exactly a hundred league games, with his sons, Gary and Allan becoming stars of the WANFL, both going on to play in the VFL, and daughters Cheryl and Dianne representing Australia at netball.   Wally Sidebottom junior also played with Swan Districts, as did Bill and Kim Sidebottom. Dave, the second of the Sidebottoms to represent Swan Districts, was a member of the 1963 premiership side, and played a hundred and twenty eight league games during an involvement with the club that lasted thirty three years.  A product of the Midland Cobbers, where he was coached by Swans legend “Robbie” Robbins, who later became a timekeeper at Swan Districts, Sidebottom made his way through the ranks, eventually presenting himself at Bassendean Oval in early 1959. Selected to join the squad at a training camp under coach Percy Johnson, unforeseen circumstances forced the youngster to quit the league football scene, and he became an apprentice wagon builder at Northam.  “In retrospect, the time I spent at Northam was the making of my football career,” Sidebottom recalled. Playing for Unions, he attributes the lessons and grounding he received from coach, Alby “Nails” Western, the tough South Fremantle defender ,as the best lesson he had received. “ I realised then that I wasn't ready for the next step, and playing alongside Western and against players like Frank Treasure taught me the tricks of the trade,” he said. Moving to Midland to complete his apprenticeship at the Workshops, Dave walked back into Bassendean Oval. “ It was an unnerving experience,” he said. “ There was no sign of recognition from anyone, there was a new coach, Haydn Bunton, who not many of us knew much about, and there were about sixty trying to get a game. Bunton was a hard taskmaster, having trained under the great Percy Cerutty, and he was a  believer in strengthening the stomach. “The biggest motor is the stomach,” he said, and we were put to the sword over sandhills and with medicine balls. He made us believe in ourselves, the man was a great developer of people and their belief in themselves and each other.” “When Haydn arrived at the club, he initiated the guernsey presentation night, which we all awaited with bated breath,” Dave went on. “I was lucky enough to get number thirty in a thirty man squad. Although there were occasions when players were selected from outside the thirty, Bunton mainly kept to the regular list throughout his time at Swans. It was bloody hard getting a look in in 1961 and 2, with most  appearances being a seat on the reserve bench.” Sidebottom was on the bench for his first taste of league football in 1961, but spent most of the first two seasons in the reserves. At five foot ten and weighing eleven stone, his value to the league side was already being capably performed by Bunton, Walker, Nesbit, Gray, Watt, Noble, Sangalli, and Copeman, and it wasn't until1963 that Dave made his mark at the black and whites.  “I was having problems keeping my feet,” he said. “As a midfielder with no great pace, my main attribute was grabbing the hard possessions, and I found myself getting off balance a lot. Late in the season I could sense that my career was on a knife edge, so I had a yarn with Les Jamieson, who had successfully straightened out a fault with speedster Brian Gray. Les was onto it quicksmart, pointing out that I was running like a bandy jockey, and advised me to throw my legs out more.” Sidebottom was reborn, and played every game in 1963. On a wing in the grand final, he contributed to the third of Swans hat trick of flags, but admits: “I'm buggered if I remember much about the game at all. To this day, it's a blur. I can remember the crowd.” The forty one thousand fans who watched  Swan Districts pluck a twenty two point win from the grasp of East Fremantle will remember it, though, especially the black and white supporters.  After winning their first eight straight in 1964, Swans were on track for a fourth flag in as many years, but wilted to miss the finals. “The wheels fell off after ten of our players represented Western Australia that year,” Dave commented. “After the State games we were a completely different side, playing as losers, not winners, and when you do that you lose.” The following year, with Fred Castledine as coach, Swan Districts were back in the grand final, but it was a case of revenge for East Fremantle. “Fred did an achilles, Billy was on one leg, and we lost Nezzy...we were like a ship without a rudder,” Dave explained.  Sidebottom was awarded a special trophy by the club after the game.  At the end of the 1969 season, a tired Dave Sidebottom made the tough decision to quit league football. “The side was struggling, it was time for me to stand aside for new blood,” he said. “It was hard, though, I couldn't face up to going and watching for some time afterwards.” The twenty eight year old did go back, however, following a call from new coach, Walker, to be his runner. “I reckon after a few weeks at that caper I was fitter than I had been in sixty one,” he joked.  After a stint as captain coach of Sunday League club, Midland, Dave's employment took him to Northam,  and was immediately pounced on by local club, Federals, where he was captain coach for a year and a half. The end of his footballing days came suddenly and without warning or fanfare. “I ran out onto the ground, and Peter Haddrill, father of Robert, a bloke who I reckoned was a mate, skittled me. Peter yelled: “get up, Sidey,” as I made every attempt in my power to do so, and it was then that I noticed that my left ankle was at rightangles,” Dave recalled. “They got the ute out, chucked me in the back, and escorted me to Northam Hospital, where I was greeted by my darling missus with: “You stupid old bastard.” In 1977, Dave Sidebottom was coerced by John Todd into taking over the mentoring of the colts, with former South Fremantle player, Gary Scott, coaching the reserves. “It became a full on job, with the three of us, joined by Bob Manning, becoming selectors for the three sides,” Dave said.  After Scott left, Dave became reserves coach, and players from his premiership team of 1979 were to form the nucleus of the successful Swan Districts league combinations of the eighties.   Coaching the reserves until 1980, Sidebottom had another stint in the Sunday League, this time with Belmont Bombers, as coach, before helping Todd out again in 1984 with the colts. The only thing Dave hadn't done at Swans was sit at the meetings, and this was rectified with his election to the Board of Directors in 1989, becoming Director of Football, in which capacity he served for two years.  Dave Sidebottom had success as a mentor of young players, and his thoughts on the influence coaches can have on the making or breaking of young players are worth listening to. “I was just a battler as a kid, there were plenty I saw with much more talent than me,” he said. “You have to be careful how you bring them through.”     He refused to separate any of his team mates as best he'd played with, which is understandable, considering the quality of the men he accompanied onto the field in his career. East Perth's Derek Chadwick( “all I saw of him was the number 22 on his back; it's humbling to be a premiership player when a bloke like him wasn't”), and Wally Martin, from Subiaco(“ ran all day”) were his nominations as hardest to beat.  Retired from work, Dave keeps himself as busy as he wants to be, playing a little tennis and golf.  He and wife Margaret have two daughters(Tracey and Kellie), and a son, Mike, who played fifty four games  as a wingman/half forward at Swan Districts before the injury later known as osteo pubis forced his retirement.  He is a brother in law of Swans stars Fred Castledine and Ken Bagley, the three of them marrying sisters, Margaret, Pat, and Maxine Rourke.  Dave Sidebottom's official association with the black and whites encompassed a period of over three decades, but he is still a dedicated supporter who is a regular at Steel Blue Oval. As a premiership player, coach of young players, and committee member, he can be proud of his contribution to the Swan Districts Football Club.