1984 WAFL season

1984 WAFL season
Teams8
PremiersSwan Districts
6th premiership
Minor premiersSwan Districts
4th minor premiership
Sandover MedallistPeter Spencer (East Perth)
Michael Mitchell (Claremont)
Steve Malaxos (Claremont)
Bernie Naylor MedallistBrett Hutton (Swan Districts)
← 1983
1985 →

The 1984 WAFL season was the 100th season of the West Australian Football League and its various incarnations. The season opened on 31 March and concluded on 22 September with the 1984 WAFL Grand Final contested between East Fremantle and Swan Districts.

It saw Swan Districts record their sixth WAFL premiership, and its third in a row, after a slow start that had it win only half its games in the first fourteen rounds. East Fremantle returned to the Grand Final after four disappointing seasons with only 28 wins from 85 games. After an unsuccessful decade, Subiaco recalled former coach Haydn Bunton, Jr., and despite not improving their position in the seniors, were generally considered to have made major improvement with five more victories and a young reserves side winning the club's first premiership in any grade since their 1974 colts win.[1] South Fremantle, who began with a number of spectacular performances fell away from second place with five losses in their final six games. Claremont lost three-time century goalkicker Warren Ralph to Carlton,[2] and suffered severely from lacking a target in attack,[3] especially as recruit Bruce Monteath suffered severely from injuries.[4] The Tigers were last for five weeks early in the season and second from bottom before a winning streak of five games pushed them to third.

Off the field, the WAFL refused requests to allow telecasts of VFL matches in rural WA by the Golden West network.[5]

  1. ^ Devaney, John; Full Points Footy’s WA Football Companion; p. 278. ISBN 9780955689710
  2. ^ Warren Ralph: Blueseum
  3. ^ Wainwright, Robert; ‘Ward Turns the Table on Tigers’; in The West Australian, 16 April 1984; p. 72
  4. ^ Christian, Geoff; ‘Chips Are Down for the Tigers’; in The West Australian, 9 April 1984, p. 76
  5. ^ ‘League Says No to VFL TV’; in The West Australian, 9 July 1984, p. 96