TOPIC:

The 1980 WAFL GF was replayed the other day on YT and it was interesting to watch again for the first time in many years.
It seemed to me we really showed our inexperience in playing in big games (was our first GF since 1965) as SF (who had played in the GF the year before in 1979 & 75) handled the heat and intensity far better, were more assured with their ball handling and foot/hand skills whilst we fumbled and bumbled around with it.
We started that season like a German band winning the first 13 games (after winning our last 5 games in 1979) but SF did beat us the last 4 times we played them that year Round 2 ending our 18 game winning streak, Round 3, 2nd Semi Final & GF.
We desperately missed our skipper and leader Stan Nowotny who was injured also Ian Williams, Alan Cransberg, Ed Blackaby, Brad Shine didnt play in the big one.
For SF Neil Randall & Paul Mountain also didnt play.
As I have posted before one player we could never contain from SF was the late great Maurice Rioli who put on a clinic this day in winning the Simpson Medal whilst Noel Carter & Stephen Michael were not far behind him.

Anyone else have any recollections of this season and GF?

Yes I think attended every game that season. It was a case of two dominant teams but one timing their run to the finals better than the other.

Swans were irresistible in the first set of games, winning three of them by more than 100 points including a 21 goal slaughter of West Perth in front of 22000 people at Bassendean. As we got into May and June, the margins started getting a bit smaller and I thought that the team became too focused on the Marlboro $20000 incentive for winning 12 games in a row. They achieved that against bottom team Subiaco, but it was a real struggle and Swans were actually trailing at 3 quarter time of that game.

The baton was passed to South Fremantle when they beat us at Bassendean in Round 14 for our first loss ( it was only about 3 goals but it should have been a lot more), then a thrashing by East Perth a few weeks later started springing a few doubts.

Swans were still superior to most other teams but were not achieving the large margins that they were getting earlier. Finally South murdered us at Freo in the last game of the qualifying round which whilst not really relevant as far as ladder positions was concerned, gave them a huge psychological advantage going into the 2nd semi final.

We were 2nd best all day in that final and even though we flogged East Perth in the preliminary, I knew deep down that Souths were by far the best team that year and when you look through the quality in their side it was no disgrace for Swans to come 2nd to them.

Interesting year, and one I compare with 1983 that was, for Swans and Souths, almost mirror opposites. As we all know, In 1980 we won our first 13 but them dropped away to lose five of our last 11 games (including finals), but in 1983 our record over the same period was one loss in 11 including finals and including the preliminary final thumping of South that was sweet revenge for 1980. I am bias, but I thought we were the better team in the second semi of 1980, leading at half time and Beasley firing, but there lay the problem with the 1980-1981 teams - smoother our leading forward and we struggled. In our premiership years that followed we had three different leading goal kickers with - comparatively speaking - low goal kicking totals for the period. By then, however, we'd worked out that spreading the load up forward was a better option.

We didn't like the rain that year, did we? Souths, East Perth at Perth Oval and even the second semi were wet and we lost, even though the game that got us the 20 grand was cold and wet.

Interesting point re being too Beasley conscience SH and possibly with Olsen before him.
Certainly in the years after we shared the load up forward more with a more even spread of goalkickers up forward although Brent Hutton in 1984 did win the Bernie Naylor Medal as the WAFL Leading Goalkicker with 84 goals that year although still down on Beasley's 97 goals in 1980 & 119 goals in 1981 tallies.
Can remember the likes of Baker, Holmes, Shine, Nowotny, P.Narkle, M.Richardson, K.Narkle, Kimberley, Marshall, Werner (83 only) sharing 3 or 4 goals a game rather than the big tallies Beasley, Olsen used to kick in some games.

I'll never forget the empty feeling at half time of that Grand Final, knowing that there was no hope of a victory but still an hour of football to play out. It was so hard to look at and a feeling I remembered when the boot was on the other foot 2 years later.

Ive attached spreadsheets for the 1980-84 seasons for Swans. They show who played in each game as well as goals scored by individual players, final scores, venue and margin.

Beasley Hutton wrote: Interesting point re being too Beasley conscience SH and possibly with Olsen before him.
Certainly in the years after we shared the load up forward more with a more even spread of goalkickers up forward although Brent Hutton in 1984 did win the Bernie Naylor Medal as the WAFL Leading Goalkicker with 84 goals that year although still down on Beasley's 97 goals in 1980 & 119 goals in 1981 tallies.
Can remember the likes of Baker, Holmes, Shine, Nowotny, P.Narkle, M.Richardson, K.Narkle, Kimberley, Marshall, Werner (83 only) sharing 3 or 4 goals a game rather than the big tallies Beasley, Olsen used to kick in some games.

They certainly shared it around BH; mates and I would have a bet about who'd be named to play FF in Saturday's West and then see who actually played in that position when the ball was bounced at 2.30pm. Rarely did the two correlate. Opposition teams had no chance of getting the right match up - and it worked. If anyone had told Nowotny in 1977 that he'd be playing FF for Swans six-years later he'd have laughed in your face.

Add the hugely unrated Peter Kenny to that list above BH...his ten or 11 scoring shots in the 1983 Preliminary Final rattled South completely

That 1980 reply was hard to watch last weekend.

From what I remember and just a quick look on Wikipedia.That 1980 South side was a very good wet weather side.And the 80 Swans side wasn't good in the wet.Just got over Subi in round 12 to take the 20k cash.Where also flogged by EP on a wet day by 76 points.
In the second semi Swans lead at halftime by a couple of goals.Also did in the 81 prelim lol.When it rained after half time Swans kicked 2-9 in the second half.And where 4 points down at the 27 minute mark of the final qtr.Lost by 10 points.
The prelim result was amazing.Ep where the hot favourites that warm spring day.The midfield ran riot with Toddy running numbers through the midfield 28-13 = 181 v 15-15=105.
SD started well in the GF scoring the first 3 goals.Then midway in the first term South just took there game to an elite level.Then Swans fumbled the ball,miskicked,handpassed to players under pressure,droppedchest marks.The young players where rattled.Nothing was going to stop South that day.After 1981 most tipsters didn't pick Swans to make the top 4 In 82..After losing at home round 1 v East Freo.

Ch7 commentator John Rogers was rather uncomplimentary towards Simon Beasley in the GF.
Granted he didnt have a good game kicking only 2 goals but he was into him from the get go which was rather tough considering he had kicked 6 goals in the 2nd Semi & 7 goals in the Preliminary Final and 97 majors during the season in what was his breakout year.

Beasley Hutton wrote: Ch7 commentator John Rogers was rather uncomplimentary towards Simon Beasley in the GF.
Granted he didnt have a good game kicking only 2 goals but he was into him from the get go which was rather tough considering he had kicked 6 goals in the 2nd Semi & 7 goals in the Preliminary Final and 97 majors during the season in what was his breakout year.

Beasley and Hoyer couldn't catch a cold in that GF.The midfield where just bombing it as long as they could kick it.