My day at the WAFL
Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 2:42 pmOver the Easter Weekend I went over to Perth to visit a friend and on the Saturday got him to drop me off at the WAFL match at Arena Joondalup between West Perth and Swan Districts. Arena Joondalup is the new home of West Perth who used to play at Leederville oval which is close to the city. West Perth moved to Joondalup for reasons similar to South Adelaide moving to Noarlungta however the ground isn't as far out of the city nor is it as cold.
The day started off by a West Perth volunteer convincing me to buy a raffle ticket. Next I entered the ground at a charge of $10 which included a free Budget.
The ground was surrounded by a grass mound apart from a Grandstand on the South Western flank which had a couple of blocks of terrace seating in front of it about 15 rows high. The only exception to the mounding was a little shelter shed where quite a few gathered which was in a very similar position to where the opposition supporters gather at Noarlunga on the North Western flank.
Catering and toilets were situated underneath the Grandstand. The other place to get food, drink and alcohol was in the South Western pocket.
Just before the match commenced I went up to the bar and grabbed a beer. My choices were Tooheys Extra Dry, Some light beer I can't remember what, Emu Bitter and 4x Gold all in cans. I grabbed an Emu bitter just to enter into the WA spirit for the day. I mentioned to the barman I was from SA and stirred him up by saying that in our comp 5mins before the game youd have to at least line up behind 1 or 2 people to get a beer. He came up with a good reply guaranteeing me I would not be tasting a beer as bad as West End or Southwark which turned out to be correct (all a matter of taste of course). Even allowing for the fact I was holiday and the beer generally tastes better Emu Bitter left West End and Southwark for dead.
The crowd seemed around the 1500 mark and most of the people I talked to agreed. Swan Districts had a fraction more supporters than South get to away games but no more than West or Glenelg. There were certainly less scarves and flags around than our comp and neither side had anything that resembled a cheer squad. According to the people I spoke to Swan Districts have one of the best travelling supporter bases in the competition which means the atmosphere of most matches must be very one-sided.
The match was quite free flowing with a lot of skill errors in the first half and West Perth led at half time by 41 points. Swan Districts came back and won an entertaining match by 9 points and chaired their captain off the ground after his 150th game. On the whole it wasnt as physical and the skills were a bit down compared to our comp. I thought there was less possesion footy than in the SANFL but im only going on one game.
I was amazed when at Quater time the Swan Districts coach realised a couple of messages wern't delivered by the runners to the players and the coach had to say to the runners make sure you deliver the messages boys. I could not believe that this sort of error could be made at league level. It was just another little thing that left me with a lesser opinion of the competition. Whats more the runners appeared to be 23 or 24 yeras of age.
The paper the next day claimed the match was the best for the season so far and that there was "about 4000" there. What a lot of rubbish the latter is.
On the whole I enjoyed myself and its good top see there are still people passionate about WAFL football. Most things about the comp just appear to be about 20-30% off what we have here and it does make you feel proud that we do things better and have a better competition.
The only thing they have over us is the fact that the Saturday paper dedicates a page to the weekends games.
The day started off by a West Perth volunteer convincing me to buy a raffle ticket. Next I entered the ground at a charge of $10 which included a free Budget.
The ground was surrounded by a grass mound apart from a Grandstand on the South Western flank which had a couple of blocks of terrace seating in front of it about 15 rows high. The only exception to the mounding was a little shelter shed where quite a few gathered which was in a very similar position to where the opposition supporters gather at Noarlunga on the North Western flank.
Catering and toilets were situated underneath the Grandstand. The other place to get food, drink and alcohol was in the South Western pocket.
Just before the match commenced I went up to the bar and grabbed a beer. My choices were Tooheys Extra Dry, Some light beer I can't remember what, Emu Bitter and 4x Gold all in cans. I grabbed an Emu bitter just to enter into the WA spirit for the day. I mentioned to the barman I was from SA and stirred him up by saying that in our comp 5mins before the game youd have to at least line up behind 1 or 2 people to get a beer. He came up with a good reply guaranteeing me I would not be tasting a beer as bad as West End or Southwark which turned out to be correct (all a matter of taste of course). Even allowing for the fact I was holiday and the beer generally tastes better Emu Bitter left West End and Southwark for dead.
The crowd seemed around the 1500 mark and most of the people I talked to agreed. Swan Districts had a fraction more supporters than South get to away games but no more than West or Glenelg. There were certainly less scarves and flags around than our comp and neither side had anything that resembled a cheer squad. According to the people I spoke to Swan Districts have one of the best travelling supporter bases in the competition which means the atmosphere of most matches must be very one-sided.
The match was quite free flowing with a lot of skill errors in the first half and West Perth led at half time by 41 points. Swan Districts came back and won an entertaining match by 9 points and chaired their captain off the ground after his 150th game. On the whole it wasnt as physical and the skills were a bit down compared to our comp. I thought there was less possesion footy than in the SANFL but im only going on one game.
I was amazed when at Quater time the Swan Districts coach realised a couple of messages wern't delivered by the runners to the players and the coach had to say to the runners make sure you deliver the messages boys. I could not believe that this sort of error could be made at league level. It was just another little thing that left me with a lesser opinion of the competition. Whats more the runners appeared to be 23 or 24 yeras of age.
The paper the next day claimed the match was the best for the season so far and that there was "about 4000" there. What a lot of rubbish the latter is.
On the whole I enjoyed myself and its good top see there are still people passionate about WAFL football. Most things about the comp just appear to be about 20-30% off what we have here and it does make you feel proud that we do things better and have a better competition.
The only thing they have over us is the fact that the Saturday paper dedicates a page to the weekends games.
...lost something like the last 5 Preliminary Finals.
