1931 WANFL season

1931 WAFL season
Teams7
PremiersEast Fremantle
16th premiership
Minor premiersEast Fremantle
18th minor premiership
Sandover MedallistLin Richards (East Fremantle)
Bernie Naylor MedallistDoug Oliphant (Perth)
Matches played67
← 1930 (WAFL)
1932 →

The 1931 WANFL season was the 47th season of the Western Australian National Football League and the first under that moniker, having been called the West Australian Football League (WAFL) until 1930.

The season saw East Fremantle win its fourth consecutive premiership for the second time, having already done so between 1908 and 1911. It also saw a major revival by East Perth, who had fallen to a clear last in 1929. The Great Depression and consequent search for work saw the beginning of the first major drain of Western Australian players to powerful VFL clubs,[1] with the loss of George Moloney to Geelong, Ron Cooper to Carlton and Keith Hough to South Melbourne,[2] where Hough never played a single match due to the WANFL's refusal to grant the VFL Swans a clearance.[3]

Subiaco, a power since 1924, lost star rover Johnny Leonard to country Victoria but, despite four consecutive losses mid-season, won eight straight to reach the Second-Semi and Grand Finals only to face a much larger player drain than seen so far in the WANFL.[4]

  1. ^ Booth, Ross; 'History of Player Recruitment, Transfer and Payment Rules in the Victorian and Australian Football League'; ASSH Bulletin No. 26 (June 1997); pp. 13-33
  2. ^ Casey, Kevin (1995); The Tigers' Tale: the origins and history of the Claremont Football Club; Claremont Football Club; p. 25. ISBN 0646264982
  3. ^ 'Football Transfer: Agitation over Keith Hough'; The Daily News, 8 July 1931, p. 3
  4. ^ Spillman, Ken; Diehards: the Story of the Subiaco Football Club 1896–1945, p. 132 ISBN 0646358340