WAFL topples VFL

IF you were a West Coast Eagles supporter living in WA you probably wouldn’t have headed to Northam, 100km east of Perth, on Saturday to see the WAFL take on the VFL as your team was playing on the telly at exactly the same time as the interstate game. If you were a Fremantle member attending the game against Collingwood at Subiaco you wouldn’t have had time to travel to Northam and get back to Perth in time for the AFL game.

So with that slice of slick scheduling behind it the interstate game didn’t draw much of a crowd at the good-looking Henry Street Oval in the home town of Eagles captain Darren Glass.

None of this bothered the players and a great game resulted. The VFL led at each change and at one stage during the third quarter led by 31 points. The WAFL kept pegging them back, most significantly just before three quarter time when the lead was whittled down to a manageable 14 points.

Everything pointed to another surge by the VFL but in the last quarter Steven Dodd, Andrew Stephen, David Crawford, Kyle Hams and Tallan Ames were outstanding for the WAFL and forwards Brennan Stack and Tim Geappen finally broke free. The WAFL kicked 5.3 to 0.2 and powered to a 17-point victory.

Wayde Twomey, never a noted goal kicker, booted five for the WAFL and won the Simpson Medal, captain Paul Johnson was outstanding in the ruck, Clancy Wheeler was a versatile big man, Marlon Motlop, Brendan Lee, Craig Wulff and Rory O’Brien were good in the midfield and Paul Bevan kicked three goals.

Chris Cain won Victoria’s best player award the Frank Johnson Medal, Marcus  Marigliani was dashing,Sam Lloyd kicked four goals, Josh Scipione kicked three and Myles Sewell was classy as usual.

Marc Webb coached the AFL team and Gary Ayres was in charge of the VFL.

WAFL 17.16 (118) VFL 15.11 (101)

About Les Everett

A Footy Almanac veteran, Les Everett is the author of Gravel Rash: 100 Years of Goldfields Football and Fremantle Dockers: An Illustrated History. He is the footyalmanac.com WAFL correspondent and uses the money he makes from that role to pay for his expensive websites australianrules.com.au and talkingfrankie.com and fund the extravagant Vin Maskell at scoreboardpressure.com

Comments

  1. Missed that one Les. Obviously the Vics state team couldn’t beat WA without a team stacked with WA players like the old days.

  2. Funnily enough the WA coach, captain and the Simpson Medal winner are all Victorians. I sure that didn’t hurt anyone as much as seeing Polly, Cabes etc in the big V.

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