1971 WANFL season

The 1971 WANFL season was the 87th season of the various incarnations of the Western Australian National Football League, and the forty-first (including three wartime under-age seasons) under that moniker.

Following half a decade dominated with the exception of two challenges from South Fremantle by the three Perth clubs and Austin Robertson's goalkicking, 1971 saw a changing of the guard, with Perth, in Mal Atwell’s last season as coach, dropping to second from bottom owing to the weakness of their forward line,^[1] and Subiaco also fell out of the four after an off-season disrupted by efforts to thwart potential clearances of goal machine Robertson, half-forward George Young, and promising young players Stephen Heal and Peter Featherby.^[2]

After a promising season in 1970 and the acquisition of Colin Tully from Collingwood, John Evans from St. Kilda and 30-possession-per-game rover Ross Parker from VFA club Prahran,^[3] Claremont became early favourites for the flag.^[4][5] The Tigers faltered later on however, and despite playing finals for only the fourth time since 1942 and the first since 1965, were regarded as disappointing. East Perth, despite a noticeable roving weakness owing to the injury-related retirement of Keith Doncon,^[6] won fifteen of seventeen matches but failed in the Grand Final before rivals West Perth, who after a disappointing 1970 returned to second position and sent champion ruckman “Polly” Farmer out on a high note with his sixth senior premiership and second as their captain-coach. More significantly, East Fremantle, after four disastrous seasons, reached the preliminary final under the coaching of future Hawthorn premiership mentor Alan Joyce and nearly overcame the Cardinals in a heart-stopping preliminary.

Although the season did not quite reach the previous season's record average score of 100.76 points per team per game, it did see a record-high losing score and the highest score and greatest winning margin for over a decade.