TOPIC:

mikeh wrote:

Ti Em wrote:

mikeh wrote:

1984. East Fremantle won the 2nd Semi final but Swans got another crack at them with a come from behind win over Claremont.
I managed to convince most of my class at school that East Freo would win and a pregame vote on the outcome got up in favour of the blue and whites. Swans only kicked 10 goals to zip in the first quarter! 

Amazingly Ti Em the Sharks managed to cut the margin back to 1 point in the 3rd quarter but the effort of playing catch up footy in a grand final was too much for them in the end.
That was a fantastic game of footy and you didnt have to wait much longer for redemption!

I know we had won the 2nd semi but i am not sure the belief was really there and often it is the case one has to be lost before you win a GF. Gerard Neesham, who played very well in the 1985 flag, I have heard revealed that Toddy had told his charges at 3 quarter time in 84 GF that they had not done enough and would be overrun.in last kicking into wind.  

I'd hazard a guess that no WAFL player has appeared in more grand finals in the one decade than Gerard Neesham.
Swan Districts bowed out in the preliminary final in 1981 and Neesham spent 1982 with the Sydney Swans.
Other than those two years, he appeared in every grand final in the 1980s, with either Swans, East Fremantle or Claremont, including seven in a row between 1983 and 1989.
Including the 1977 GF with Old Easts, Neesham played in nine WAFL grand finals (five wins, four losses).
Plus, he was non-playing coach when the Tigers lost in 1990 and won in 1991 and 1993.
So, Neesham was involved in 12 WAFL grand finals all up.  
If you wanted to achieve some success in your career, the logical move was to join whatever club Gerard was currently at!
The next best I can think of is Phil Matson's 11 grand finals (eight with East Perth and three - I think - with Subiaco).
Some of the learned folk on this forum might be able to produce competitors for Neesham and Matson (Jerry Dolan perhaps?).  
 

Thanks for all the great posts. Good one on Neesham, AD,one has to hand it to him.DG: I agree on 96, the Royals would have gone in narrow favourites, but Claremont was strengthened by the Eagles.
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Cheers, Ark, a very good topic.
In retrospect, I'm glad I was living over east and couldn't make it back to see East Perth lose the 1996 Grand Final by 2 points.
It's amazing that two players - Todd Ridley (7) and Chris Lewis (4) - shared 11 of Claremont's 13 goals.

1978 was certainly not expected to be a close game. Perth were warm favourites after beating EP easily in the second semi. Losing Couper and Quartermaine during the week made it look more possible of an EP win. I remember Dennis Commetti saying on channel 7 that the only chance EP had of winning was if they could stop Wiley. Even though he still played a reasonable game, Wiley’s effectiveness was reduced by shall we say, dubious means.

Sounds like Brownie tried to adopt a similar dubious tactic with Bomber the following year.... failed miserably from memory... poor old  Wayne Cormack....how many bearded EF players back then and Reeves still farked it up....or was Cormack the intended target all along?... LOL

Freezin wrote:

Sounds like Brownie tried to adopt a similar dubious tactic with Bomber the following year.... failed miserably from memory... poor old  Wayne Cormack....how many bearded EF players back then and Reeves still farked it up....or was Cormack the intended target all along?... LOL

I think the dogs were slight favourites in the 79 GF…happy to be corrected.  I went with a couple of South supporters who were cock-a-hoop before the ball was bounced.  Well they were for a while!!

Cesspit wrote:

1978 was certainly not expected to be a close game. Perth were warm favourites after beating EP easily in the second semi. Losing Couper and Quartermaine during the week made it look more possible of an EP win. I remember Dennis Commetti saying on channel 7 that the only chance EP had of winning was if they could stop Wiley. Even though he still played a reasonable game, Wiley’s effectiveness was reduced by shall we say, dubious means.
The Royals with one 7 game Marlboro cup round to go were 3 games and percentage out of the four,and no margin for error.All Perth had to do to win the 1978 premiership and  to stop our barnstorming finish was to defeat us in round 19 at Lathlain Park[where quartermaine and Couper played]and they very nearly did until the siren sounded as the glorious Alex Hamilton snap sailed through goals to give us a 5 point win,and the rest was history.We effectively won 9 of our last 10 games,with 9 of those being sudden death, and i still get goosebumps just thinking about it,and is the greatest come from behind flag winning performance in WAFL history..

Amazing effort by Gerry Neesham, the only bloke that came close to that record would be Darren Rumble for Subi, I think he played in 9 league GF's (2003 2004 2006 - 2009 2011 2014 - 2015) between 2003 and 2015 for 6 flags.

2010.
SD & CL played 5 times that season for 2 wins and a draw each.
CL did smash us at Claremont Oval twice (including the 2nd Semi Final) but the GF was never going to be played there.

Also from memory 1983, 1984 & 1990 were all considered to be a fairly even contest going into the game.