One of the often told stories of Western  Australian football is that of  Steve Marsh coming to Perth from the Goldfields in 1945 to try out with East Fremantle and walking into the wrong changerooms,  signing with arch rivals South Fremantle instead. It was when both clubs shared Fremantle Oval, and Marsh walked through the gate  into the first room open and in doing so began a rich partnership with the Bulldogs, sharing in six premierships. Legendary East Fremantle coach Jerry Dolan tried to repair the damage after training, but the nuggety rover had been won over by the South camp, who couldn’t believe their good fortune.Although missing out on the champion rover by a cruel twist of fate initially, East Fremantle were to receive consolation twelve years later when Marsh finally found the East rooms, which by then were further afield at Moss St and led them to a premiership.A mere five feet six inches and eleven stone, Steve Marsh was arguably the Goldfield’s greatest football export, and at the time was heralded as the best rover Western Australia had seen.   He won the Walker Medal for South Fremantle’s fairest and best a record six times(equalled later by another champion in Stephen Michael), played in a total of thirteen grand finals, winning nine, was the 1952 Sandover Medallist, and received a Simpson Medal in 1953, a year in which he was also an All Australian player.  Marsh was an inductee in the WANFL Football Hall Of Fame in 2004, followed in 2006 by similar recognition from the AFL Football Hall Of Fame.    Steve Marsh was a very quick, elusive, determined, hard working rover with an impeccable kick. As with all great rovers, he was a phenomenal reader of the play.Yet the boy from Kalgoorlie was initially reluctant to try himself out at league level.  In 1941, at the age of seventeen, he lined up with Railways, but joined the army the same year. He was able to return to be part of two premiership sides in the following two years.It was avid East Fremantle supporter Ted Smythe who convinced the young tyro to make the trek to Fremantle Oval to sign with East.  To Smythe’s chagrin, it didn’t pan out that way.Marsh was an instant success. Because of his diminutive stature, there was little choice of positions for him to play, and as the club already had two regular wingmen, rover it was. He was one of the team’s stars in a season which culminated in a worthy runner up to the all conquering rival, East Fremantle.  But the tide was turning, and the following seasons were to become known at South as the  “Golden Years”, with Marsh a significant factor.  Steve Marsh was to become a character of the game in later years, and  had his first taste of controversy in his second season at South. After round seven, the selection committee, believing Marsh to be in Kalgoorlie for the weekend and unavailable, omitted him from the team. Marsh, however, later notified the selectors he was available to play, and duly turned up at the ground. Captain “Corp” Reilly wanted the side changed to include Marsh, but the club felt that the initial team couldn’t be changed. Marsh then refused to play, and Reilly threatened to pull out also. The incident led to the resignations of both coach and captain.The following years were fruitful for both Marsh and South.  Marsh played in all six premierships during the late forties and early fifties and had chalked up 226 games  to the end of the 1956 season.  He was fairest and best in 1950, 51, 52, and 56.After the 1956 season, Marsh applied for the South Fremantle coaching job but was up against a formidable opponent in Clive Lewington, who had already led the club to four flags. He was unsuccessful, and East Fremantle pounced.  The lure of three hundred pounds was a huge incentive in those days, and Marsh became the first ever outsider to become coach of East Fremantle.Having been  fairest and best with South the previous year, Marsh was still a formidable player, and the little man with the big number one in the blue and white relished the added responsibility, leading  his new charges to a premiership in his first season at Moss Street, breaking a drought of eleven years.  With his coaching duties, Marsh became an outspoken figure in Western Australian football, and became known for his penchant of calling a spade a spade.He retired as a player in 1958, but was forced out onto the arena for one game in 1960, when the East Fremantle club had a flu epidemic, a game resulting in a thirteen goal win over Perth.  His coaching career ended controversially in 1961 when,  at three quarter time of the second last game of the  season,  Marsh asked the players to walk off  in protest at the umpiring, but they  refused so he resigned as coach.  When one career closes, often another beckons.  And so it was with Steve Marsh.  His blunt, no nonsense, straight from the hip style lent itself well to a critic role in the media, and he became an integral part of Channel Seven’s midday Sunday “World Of Football” show for many years.  He was well respected by both the football public and staff at the station for his forthright views on the game plus his professionalism and attitude to his fellow staff. His comments weren’t straight from the television presenter’s textbook, but they were straight to the point and looked forward to by thousands of regular viewers.Steve Marsh was without peer as a rover in his day, and, with subsequent stars like Cable and Walker, shares the title “best ever” today.Steve Marsh is a Fremantle and Goldfields legend. That’s a combination that’s hard to beat.