Premiership Reflections by Brian Dawson: from the 80’s

‘Premiership Reflections’ tells the story of Swan Districts’ eight premiership seasons, with special emphasis on the Grand Final matches, intertwining comments and details from those years with the 2024 reflections of those who were intimately involved: Ken Bagley and Bill Walker 1961-63; John Todd, Graham Melrose and Keith Narkle 1982-84; Peter Hodyl and Brad Shine 1990 and Brian Dawson and Josh Roberts 2010.

Keep reading for a sneak peak from Dawson’s latest work.

1982 Grand Final excerpts (JT is John Todd, GM is Graham Melrose)

Across the two weeks leading up to the match the coach strongly reminded the players that it was “us against them” and urged them to stand up and be counted and join the ranks of the 1961-62-63 Premiership heroes. There were also other powerful motivators to use: the Grand Final was to be Sandover Medallist Phil Narkle’s 100th game and President John Cooper had stated that he was going to step aside at the end of the year. Plus, there were the finals disappointments of 1980-81 to rectify and the hated Swannie wobbles tag to dispel. John Todd skillfully worked all of these elements into the pre-match build up, which went smoothly as the side was settled with no injury concerns, until the Friday night before the game! At the last training session number one ruckman and chief Claremont intimidator Ron Boucher sprained his right ankle, and the big man thought he was going to have to pull out of the team. Enter Dr Ron Seman and the trainers, who worked their magic sufficiently (with strapping, cortisone and pain killing injections) that Boucher not only played but showed no signs of any ankle problem during the match. On the Friday the coach also did an unusual thing. He felt a compelling urge to go to Subiaco Oval, where he walked around the boundary and then lay down in the centre circle. Here, he stared up at the sky and visualised the game unfolding: “I saw Swans well in front prior to the final siren, which gave me great confidence that we would prevail the next day.” While he did not remark on this to the players later that day, his sense of inner confidence did rub off on them and they went into the game with a strong conviction that this would be their day.

The early stages of the third quarter saw Swans dominating the game but only kicking points. Set shots by Ross Fitzgerald, Peter Kenny (who had been shifted forward, with Don Langsford going back to defence to play on Farmer) and Stan Nowotny all missed, and a long running shot by Keith Narkle went out of bounds on the full. From the Claremont kick in, Swans just forced the ball forward with relentless pressure until it ended up with Brad Shine, who ran into an open goal. Two minutes later Phil Narkle kicked his second for the day, from a free kick taken on the half forward flank and the Swans lead was now out to 50 points:

(JT) “We were just so ferocious, guys like Fog’s (Jon Fogarty), Sol’s (Tony Solin) and Shiner (Brad Shine) were just so hard at the ball and the opponent, that blokes like Malaxos and Farmer just couldn’t get a look in. And with Mellie continuing to get leather poisoning, they just couldn’t score against us.”

After 17 minutes, two more Swans goals definitely put the game out of Claremont’s reach. A Ross Fitzgerald kick from the boundary line carried the pack and bounced through for a goal, ably assisted by some perfect shepherding by Peter Kenny. Then, in the very next play, a long kick forward by Brad Shine saw Ron Boucher once again stand tall, mark and goal from 15 metres out. At this point it appeared that Claremont were completely demoralised and down and out:

(GM) “I remember thinking at about this time…where is Mossy?” (Claremont Captain– Coach Graham Moss).

(JT) “Claremont were very disappointing on the day, Mossy would have expected a lot more from them, especially after winning in 1981.”

This beautifully presented coffee table history book comes with photos from each premiership year and has a recommended retail price of $50, but pre-order now until 5 September for the special price of $40 and save!
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