Dennis Cometti’s odd assortment of Subiaco Oval memories

Nostalgia has its place and currently Subiaco Oval is nostalgia central. There’s no doubt my fondest memories will always be from Subi because that’s where I saw and felt footy first but I’m also a realist, keen to head east, cross the river and trade decay for decadence.

Here I’ve decided to highlight just a few games pivotal and personal in WA football’s evolution in Subiaco:

The VFL comes to town

When I think of pivotal games I think first of West Coast and Richmond, round one, 1987.

Never has a game been played against a backdrop of such bitterness and division. WA’s decision to join a national competition was highly contentious. Turned out West Coast v Richmond was the curtain raiser. West Perth and East Perth played immediately after.

The crowd was poor, barely over 20,000. I remember it was hot, something that helped the Eagles storm home to win by 14 points.

Then no sooner had that game finished when on to the ground came West Perth and East Perth, dodging numerous people as they went. Safe to say the current president of the Melbourne Football Club, Glen Bartlett, also remembers a wild and schizophrenic day that day.

Dennis Cometti: Glen, you had a distinguished career with East Perth but that day you had a foot in two camps.

Glen Bartlett: Yes, I was 21st man for the Eagles but finished up playing for East Perth.

DC: Only 20 players back then?

GB: That’s right. I’d had a long day but I was really pumped up to play against West Perth because in those days it was a great rivalry.

DC: What was your immediate reaction running out?

GB: I was just stunned. There had been so much discussion on the effect of the Eagles on the local competition but to be running out and seeing almost everybody heading for the exits is something I’ll never ever forget.

DC: The debate and the bitterness. As a player did you feel that?

GB: Of course, moving between the Eagles and East Perth probably magnified it. It harmed many friendships.

DC: The week after, you made your Eagles debut and played well against Essendon at Windy Hill. Compared to Windy Hill, Subiaco Oval had nothing to apologise for.

GB: That’s right, although after watching The Winners for so long I did appreciate the history. Unfortunately we lost by five points.

DC: Quite a contrast is your present surroundings looking out over the MCG.

GB: Sometimes I could pinch myself. The MCG is such a special place. But when Melbourne played our last game at Subiaco in round 14, I was nostalgic. I took my time walking around the boundary after the game. Great memories. Funny, I kept thinking about kicking a footy with the kids there.

Origin and the Derek Kickett issue

For the record I was very much in favour of a national competition. I campaigned strongly for it. But there was strident opposition.

I remember speaking to a meeting of the WAFL 200 club at Subiaco Oval early in 1986. Looking across the room that night I knew all the names, truth be known I could remember all their numbers as well, but the looks of anger and disdain on some of the faces was equally unforgettable.

Another pivotal day that turned personal came later the same year. I’ve always said State of Origin is the purest footy I’ve ever seen but when Victoria came to Subiaco Oval, the atmosphere simply felt different.

WA now had the Eagles. By contrast South Australia weren’t interested in joining a national competition. They had a war chest and they were using it to retain their top players.

For Victorians, that was enough to make SA their primary focus. Very quickly those two States took State of Origin footy to a new level.

And if 1987 was the beginning of the end for WA’s passion for Origin footy it was also the end of a beginning for the mercurial Derek Kickett.

By July’s game not only was Kickett in the WA squad, he had already polled 44 Sandover Medal votes (based on figures after the count).

Still, he was left out of a team that lost by 24 points. Having coached Derek, and as a broadcaster, it was a regrettable day.

In 1986 and 1987, WAFL registered players could only be drafted to the Eagles. Having been overlooked in the ’86 draft, Kickett was craving a chance to impress.

West Perth legendBill Dempsey, Kickett’s employer and mentor, was one of many hoping to see that happen only for the inevitable anti-climax.

“I went to the game with half a dozen mates and I remember when word came over the radio that Derek wasn’t playing, a real groan went through the crowd. It was unbelievable. Our group all just walked out. I often wonder how a shy, delightful young bloke like Derek could have been so unlucky in footy,” Dempsey said.

Four days later I was working for Channel 7 at Claremont Oval. Claremont were playing East Fremantle and Tigers coach Gerard Neesham was good enough to let me speak to Derek shortly before the game.

We both feared he would be on a short fuse. If nothing else we were right.

Derek was reported and subsequently suspended for three weeks. He could no longer win the Sandover, which on the big night made things very awkward to host. Thanks mainly to the class of the eventual winner Mark Watson (30 votes), the event went far better than I anticipated.

Four months later when West Coast finally came calling at Dempsey/Day Scaffolding, Bill turned his great mate Graham Farmer and WA and newly appointed Eagles coach John Todd away at the gate. Derek had decided he would not play for the Eagles. Instead he would join Central District in South Australia, hoping to be drafted in 1988. The following year, approaching his 27th birthday, he finally played his first game in the AFL.

Back to the start

I saw my first game at Subiaco Oval 60 years ago. It was a most unusual game and one I thought about as recently as the Eagles’ heroic extra-time victory over Port Adelaide just a fortnight ago.

My memories of the 1957 preliminary final are few but vivid. Just flashes, the sort of childhood memories common to most of us. East Fremantle had trailed Perth by 53 points at three-quarter-time but remarkably with 45 seconds to go they led by four points.

Then a siren sounded. People rushed on to the ground and chaired East Fremantle players towards the change rooms right beneath my perch in the old public grandstand. The whereabouts of Donald Trump are unknown that day (he would have been 10) but it was a ‘fake’ siren. ‘Small boys’ were suspected. It took six or seven minutes to clear the ground before the two teams re-started. Who knows how much champagne had been chugged? Thankfully the remaining 45 seconds passed without either team scoring. Then the same players I’d seen chaired off once were chaired off again.

East Fremantle ruckman Laurie Nugent was the star of the revival. Long before interchange, Laurie came off the bench at three-quarter-time and played his way into his team’s best players.

DC: Did you have any particular instructions?

Laurie Nugent: Not really but from the bench I’d noticed our rovers were in too close. I said to them I intended to hit the ball hard and wide. We got a couple of quick goals and we were away. We beat ‘Polly’ and East Perth in the grand final a week later.

Hearing this story people can’t wait to tell me how ‘Mickey Mouse’ footy must have been in those days. I’m quick to tell them I saw a game in Launceston 50 years later between Fremantle and St Kilda that wasn’t decided for 72 hours.

An odd assortment of memories I know ... but you had to be there. Tomorrow I’ll be there again. Subiaco Oval, a relic of the past but what a glorious past it is.