1977 WANFL season

1977 WAFL season
Teams8
PremiersPerth
7th premiership
Minor premiersPerth
6th minor premiership
Sandover MedallistBrian Peake (East Fremantle)
Bernie Naylor MedallistRay Bauskis (South Fremantle)
Matches played88
← 1976
1978 →

The 1977 WANFL season was the 93rd season of the Western Australian National Football League in its various incarnations. It followed on from the previous season's high scoring to set another record for the highest average score in WANFL history[1] at 109.57 points per team per game, which was to be broken substantially in the following few years due to the introduction of the interchange rule allowing for a faster game with less exhausted players. 1977 was in fact that last WA(N)FL season with no score of over 200 points until 1988.

The season saw Perth win their second consecutive premiership with a resounding win and record WA(N)FL Grand Final score over East Fremantle who were in the finals for the first time since their last premiership in 1974. It was the fifth premiership in twelve seasons for the Demons, and their last as of 2022: Perth have not played in a Grand Final since 1978, and did even not qualify for the finals between 1997 and 2020.

To counter the uneven quality of inter-league matches between the WANFL and the VFL due to recruiting of top interstate players by Victoria, a State of Origin match was held in Perth the week following the Grand Final. Western Australia showed its quality as a developer of Australian Rules talent with a crushing 94-point win over the best players bred in Victoria, and until the advent of the national competition and the West Coast Eagles State of Origin football, this proved very popular with Western Australian and South Australian crowds and television in Victoria. However, after that it declined to the point of being abandoned after 1999.

  1. ^ Poat, Peter, ed. (1977). "Scoring Record". Ross Elliott's West Australian Football Register: 15.