WAFL Collectables

Love seeing a WA football great in this card set, released in SA this week. Graham Moss is a legend of WA footy and I would much prefer him to appear on a card featuring the state jumper than in a Victorian or VFL jumper. Details on purchasing the autographed card are in the link.

THE WA FOOTBALL JUMPER OVER TIME
Less than three weeks now until the State of Origin clash with Victoria. So I thought I would give everyone a look at some of my WA state jumpers, the oldest of which dates to the late 1930s. As you can probably tell, I've collected these over many years and am always on the lookout for more, especially if they are for any of the designs I don't yet have. I'll have another post for you with the rest of my state jumpers in the coming days. And then I'll start digging out the player jackets from the 1980s and 90s.

With the big State of Origin match fast approaching, the WA Museum will have a temporary exhibition on the iconic 1977 game at Boola Bardip in February. Today, I've dropped them several items from my collection on loan, including this jumper issued to Rob Wiley for the game. It's one of 55 WA state & state of origin jumpers now in my collection, but it's one of the absolute best. That said, I'm always looking for more.

A few years ago, I created a post featuring all my WAFL carry bags. Somehow, it's disappeared from this page. Nevermind, the collection has grown since then, so here's an update. Clearly, the bags marked "WANTED" are not in my collection.. but I wish they were! The others all are. And I would love to see any bags not featured here.

17 years. That's how long I have been chasing the 21 programmes from the 1977 Ardath Cup competition. The grand final, played in Adelaide, was between Norwood and East Perth and was a brilliant contest. The VFL pulled out of the national cup competition for 1977, leaving the VFA clubs and state teams from NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT to fill the void. Most games were played in SA, with one in Melbourne and 5 in WA. The last programme I was chasing is now in the mail from Adelaide after another collector kindly contacted me this week. It's from the Preston v NSW game (played in Adelaide). There are no crowd figures available for this game, but the ACT v Caulfield game (also in Adelaide) only drew 250 people.. so I can't see it being much higher. All of which means not many programmes would have been sold on the night. No wonder it took 17 years to find one.

Sometime in the early 1960s, Caltex service stations gave away these cloth patches, presumably with a tank of petrol. Each is about the size of an A4 piece of paper and, sadly, I've never seen more than a handful of them in all my years of collecting. Can anyone out there help with a better photo of the Claremont version? Or any photo at all of East Fremantle and South Fremantle?

Today's addition to the collection is something I have waited almost five years to land since I was first show a photo of it in early 2020. Fresh from Victoria (can you believe it!), is this 1969-1975 East Perth player issue jumper. Given where it came from, and the mix of wool and acrylic, this is almost certainly a jumper worn by/issued to John Burns, who wore #3 for the Royals from 1970-1973 before making his name with North Melbourne and Geelong in the VFL. Burns played in East Perth's 1972 premiership team and was a star for the Roos in their maiden flag in 1975, kicking four goals from midfield in a performance that could well have won him the Norm Smith Medal if it had existed in those days.

It's been ages since my last post, but this morning I picked up two cracking windcheaters featuring East Perth's Phil Kelly and Perth's Gary Gibellini from 1979. I already had the West Perth version, featuring Peter Menaglio. I've never even seen the South Fremantle version. Has anyone got one? Who's on it? I have included photos of the others, and I would love to hear from you if you wouldn't mind parting with your Subiaco (Peter Featherby), East Fremantle (Rod Lester-Smith), Swan Districts (Ross Fitzgerald), Claremont (Graham Moss) or South Fremantle (unknown player) windcheater. Happy to pay good money for them.

It's taken many years, but I have this afternoon added a 1958-1963 WA jumper to my collection. This one was worn by Derek Chawick against Victoria.

Only a few tickets left for tomorrow's screening of classic Perth games and highlights @ The Backlot cinema in West Perth. Don't miss out!

Limited tickets still available for tomorrow’s 1pm screening/Q and A event at The Backlot Perth. Doors/Bar open 12 Noon. Tix here.

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/the-backlot-perth-26421517971

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