TOPIC:

Grassy in 81 Wiley and the Buzz where playing VFL.What did Perth do with all the cash from thoes 2 star players.

gtr: Perth may not have got anything for Wiley if he was uncontractted. The system was a bit strange in those days, often, as you would remember, clubs swapped players which was a pppr substitute. How do you get a good swap for the best rover in Australia at the time?

SD in 1981: As someone whom was supportting Swans in the finals the year, I can honestly say that I was profoundly disappointted with the result. Don't forget the black and whites were leadding at half-time and got completely carved up in the second half. It was a wee shock listening to it on the wireless/radio; I mean South nearly broke Swan's scorring record for the game which they had set in 1980 against EP (28.13).

It is good that this thread has had such fine posts

AR did Perth pick up the likes of Herbert, Freame, Collie, Tschirpig, Lane et al from Richmond around that same time?
Not sure if they were players exchanged for the Wiley recruitment?

Wayne Loxley was the ressies coach Grassy, we went backwards because we lost a lot of good players at the end of 81, Bucky in particular. Ark in 81 it came down to the round 19 clash vs the ferals, if we won we would've been only one game out of the 4 behind the ferals. We led at 3/4 time and I remember the final qtr was a close one and a very young Brian Taylor had the chance to put us back in front late in the term, about 25m out directly in front, kicked it into the man on the mark and then the ferals kicked away to win by 25pts. At the end of the day it wouldn't have been enough anyway as although we beat souths and the d's in the last 2 games, the ferals snagged the last game vs old easts and had a better %

BH: just adding to Grassy's good post, all the Richmond players arrived after Wiley so I think he might have steered them to the PFC. Peter played for Richmond, although I don't think he made the league side.

DG: I re-call the game against EP, I had everything crossed but it was not to be. We were a little unlucky that year because we lost to WP and SD by less than a kick, games, which, had we won them, would have seen us sneak into the four by percentage even if we had lost at Perth Oval. I think at one stage we led Swans by six goals, but they were still good enough to come back and win. They also had ten more scorring shots than us so the scorebaord was not really a true reflection of the game.

Interesting stat re Lane was that he lead the VFL Under 19s goalkicking with over 100 goals in 1980 and that was matched by his Richmond clubmates Mark Jackson (or was it Brian Taylor?) in the Reserves and Michael 'Disco' Roach (better known as the father of former Swans player Tom) in the League!!

BH: good one: I did not know that, so there you go. The presence of the other fellows at Richmond would explain why he never got a game in their league side. Did Perh play him at full-forward?

True Ark we weren't a bad side in 81. Those close ones hurt for sure but I remember a big factor was the round 16 and 17 beltings to tiges and swans, 99/123pts, when we were looking reasonably good before that fortnight of hell

ArkRoyal wrote: BH: good one: I did not know that, so there you go. The presence of the other fellows at Richmond would explain why he never got a game in their league side. Did Perh play him at full-forward?

I reckon that was the year Mick 'Stinger' Rea emerged as a Full Forward of promise AR he lead Perths goalkicking with 74 majors that year.
Lane only played 5 games & kicked 5 goals that season.
Ken Whitfort ex Melbourne also played a few games that season he might have been in the Alan Johnson exchange?

DG wrote: True Ark we weren't a bad side in 81. Those close ones hurt for sure but I remember a big factor was the round 16 and 17 beltings to tiges and swans, 99/123pts, when we were looking reasonably good before that fortnight of hell

DG & AR as an outsiders point of view I thought Subi were on the rise in 81 with good young players like Keene, D.Lamb, C.Brown, B.Taylor, Thomas, Marshall, Fussell, Lohoar, Lee etc showing signs of promise whlist complimenting the established stars like Buckenara, N.Taylor, P.Lamb, Douge, Schultz, Gepp, R.Brown and the recruitment of Valli, Hamilton, Reeves, Munro, Miers, Begg, Murray, Melville et al.
It was short lived tho with 82 proving a lot tougher with a few boys moving on to the VFL or injured.