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Bit of reminiscing on the Subi thread of their fantastic 1986 GF win v EF(well deserved too)....just spent my afternoon lockdown watching the EF v Subi 1985 GF...tough old affair, Subi off to flyer kicking 7 in the 1st stanza with the breeze due to the silly skills,of Sells and Mort. In the second stanza Wrensted dragged EF back into the game with Clinton Browning, who gave Crutchfield the Subi FB an all mighty bath....whilst up the Subi end Waterson was giving Keene a bath, running off the big fella with ease.

The second half was a tight old affair, goal for goal, with Subi missing some very easy shots....once again Wrensted through the middle was the difference again, with Hoult, Christie and Waterson were magnificent up back. In the last quarter, Browning kicked a couple to get a match tally of 6....whilst Wrensted kicked his 3rd to go along with his 30 possessions for the game. Sells missed a sitter, the ump missed a Keene free kick in the goal square ...the rain came and went and came again....Harding and Scott were fantastic throughout the game....Lockyer and Dean couldn't kick straight to save their lives....

Not sure how Brian Taylor won the Simpson, good little player, but didn't even think he was Subi's best player....Scott, O'Loughlin, Phil Lamb and Neil Taylor were more influential.....but considering the tightness of the game, the wet weather how Brownings 6 goals up front or Wrensted's 30 possessions and 3 goals through the middle or Watersons effort to nullify Keene whilst collecting 20 odd possessions himself weren't better then Brian Taylor is mystifying.....

Great to see a few established older champs at the time in Alexander, Featherby, Peake and Neesham running around along side future VFL/ AFL youngsters in Mainy, MacNish, Zanotti, Wrensted, Scott, Harding, Scott,Keene, Wilson, Lockyer etc ....great era to watch footy....loved seeing two of my favourites at the time in Hoult and Billy Jones in action again....funny watching that game, it was pretty obvious to see, more so knowing the result of the 86 GF, that Subi had a fantastic team in the making....anyone know why Monkey Brennan didn't play in the 85?....

Michael Brennan missed the 2nd Semi Final with a hamstring injury, so it either wasnt right for the Grand Final or he was fit but they decided it wasnt worth the risk of him injuring it again.

EF won the season and deserved to win the flag on that basis. From a Subiaco perspective, we botched both the 2 semi final and gf, both games should have been won.

Good post by the way freezin

AR considering EF's flying start to 1985 and where Subi had come from in the previous 10 years or so it was a pretty good effort that year to finish 2nd and only just go under in the GF.

yep, bh, mate, that puts it into perspective well. EF also deserved it, given that, they had just fallen short to SD the year before.

That was a good team in 85 Freeze.Started the season well and slowed a bit towards the end of the season.
Lost to Richmond in the Fosters cup at the Mcg.Narrowly after leading all night.With a few home town decisions.
Who was added to the 85 squad that wasn't there in 1984.Some decent recruits from the midwest-Mainwairing-Lockyer-Wrenstead.3 pretty handy players there.

gtrxuone wrote: That was a good team in 85 Freeze.Started the season well and slowed a bit towards the end of the season.
Lost to Richmond in the Fosters cup at the Mcg.Narrowly after leading all night.With a few home town decisions.
Who was added to the 85 squad that wasn't there in 1984.Some decent recruits from the midwest-Mainwairing-Lockyer-Wrenstead.3 pretty handy players there.

The fosters cup loss to Richmond was at VFL Park. The Grand Final win was the fourth from five matches played that season against the runner up - all on their own dung heap mind you. The 1 defeat came in the last round of the H & A season despite a healthy 22 point 3 quarter time lead.

Added to the side that lost the 1984 GF were the Bomber (back from Geelong) Neesham (back from Swan Districts) ,a rookie down from Geraldton called Chris Mainwaring, Robert Solin (from East Perth) was a solid addition to the back line. It was a break out season for Barge Lockyer with 71 goals- though the conditions on the day did not suit. Billy Jones came into the side without having much impact on the day and Gavin Wake was a passenger.

From the 84 side came out Shane Ellis (to Essendon), Kevin Taylor (to Swan Districts), Monkey Brenan (Injury) Graham Kickett, Darren Bennett, Ray Sterrett and John Nolan.

Brian Taylor's (19 disposals) Simpson medal is one of the great unsolved mysteries of that time. At least 10 East Fremantle players and 6 of his own team mates had better games.

Retrospective 1985 GF East Fremantle player rankings
9 Wrensted,
8 Waterson, Browning, Wilson
7 Neesham, Harding, Rankin, Christie
6 Peake, Solin, Forman, Lockyer,
5 Mainwaring, Jones, Kerr, Hoult
4 Alexander, Green, Turco,
2 Wake

Ti Em....spot on with those votes mate....Willo definitely came to life after the 1st quarter....Wake kinda of got left on the bench as the likes of Hoult, Solin and Forman improved over the course of the game....interesting that Big Ron stayed on the bench for 2/3 of the game....I guess if Monkey had of been fit, Wake wouldn't of played....so I guess looking back Wake won't be complaining about his lack of game time....

Will you be doing a retrospective report from the 1984 WAFL GF Freeze?

From memory if Steve Sells running into an open goal with a few minutes left had of converted the result could have been different...but that's footy I guess.