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[Principal sources: 'The West Australian' of 30 September, 2 October and 3 October 1907]
The
1907 premiership decider between East Fremantle
and Perth at the Claremont Showgrounds attracted a record crowd
for the competition, together with a record gate of £200.
The game to which that crowd were witness “was undoubtedly the best
that has been witnessed on the coast this season”.
Although it was not immediately realised, it was also to prove one of the
most controversial matches in the top level history of the sport.
Just
prior to the commencement of the match both sides made one change to the teams
that had been published a couple of days earlier, Brown replacing Norman Doig
for East Fremantle, and Louis Cherry coming in in place of Henry Shepherd for
The two teams therefore lined up as follows:
PERTH
| BACKS | Harry Crase | Reg Cherry | Ron Southee | |
| HALF-BACKS | Mick Kennedy | Len Edwards | Richard Kennedy | |
| CENTRES | Lou Cherry | Doug Moffat | Andy Ferguson | |
| HALF-FORWARDS | Austin Gilligan | Roy Wilson | Harry Nankervis | |
| FORWARDS | Jack Leckie (captain) | Harry Edmonson | Ossie Winston | |
| FOLLOWERS | Alex Clarke | Eddie Thompson | Billy Orr |
| BACKS | E.Kjellgren | Jim Beswick | John Doig | |
| HALF-BACKS | L.Bidstrip | Jim Doig | Tom Wilson (captain) | |
| CENTRES | Charles Honeybone | Sydney Parsons | Arch Strang | |
| HALF-FORWARDS | George Brown | Harry Sharpe | Chas Doig | |
| FORWARDS | William McIntyre | Jim Hesketh | Dave Christy | |
| FOLLOWERS | Albert Heinrichs | Dick Scott | Charles Sweetman |
|
Charles 'Dick' Sweetman |
In the first finals match, played at Fremantle Oval, Perth, after seeming in control from midway through the second quarter against South, had to endure a nervous final few minutes before hanging on to win by 4 points, 4.5 (29) to 3.7 (25). The second week of the finals saw East Fremantle take on West Perth at Claremont Showgrounds. A dominant opening quarter burst of 5.1 to 2.0 by the Fremantle side set up an eventual 10 point win, but overall it was a somewhat less than convincing performance. The grand finalists had confronted one another twice during the course of the 1907 minor round, on both occasions at the Showgrounds. In round 6 Old Easts had won by 9 points, 6.9 (25) to 5.6 (36), while in round 13 Perth had raced away to a resounding and, in the view of most observers at the time, sensational 28 point victory, 6.4 (40) to 0.12 (12). If the general consensus was that this was something of a freak result, it nevertheless emphasised the fact that East Fremantle could by no means expect to have things all their own way on grand final day. This, indeed, was how it proved, although nobody could possibly have predicted the bizarre sequence of events that combined to make the 1907 grand final such an incredible, indeed unique, occasion. |
|
East
Fremantle had the aid of the breeze in the opening term, and the game got
underway in fast, furious fashion, with neither side dominant, and play
proceeding repeatedly from end to end. The
first goal of the game was kicked by McIntyre for Old Easts, but their advantage
was maintained for only a couple of minutes as Perth surged straight into attack
from the ensuing centre bounce, and after some frenetic play in front of goal
Winston was awarded a free from which he levelled the scores. Much
of the remainder of the term saw East Fremantle attacking strongly, but the |
Jack Leckie |
|
|
Perth
dominated the majority of the second quarter, but found goals hard to come by.
They managed just two, off the boots of Edmonson and Orr, but they should
really have capitalised more on their superiority.
During the last ten minutes or so of the quarter |
|
The
third term produced arguably the best football seen in the competition all
season. On the whole, the teams
appeared evenly matched, but superior teamwork and more efficient finishing
enabled Old Easts gradually to grind out an advantage.
Some of the high marking shown by players of both teams was exceptional,
as was the ferocious, but usually fair, tackling. |
Dave 'Dolly' Christy |
|
Reg Cherry |
There
were still some ten minutes remaining in the match and |
However, soon after the match it emerged that Perth’s officials were not content to let the matter of East Fremantle’s goal late in the second term lie, claiming that it ought not to have been allowed as, in their view, it had occurred after the sounding of the bell for half time. Accordingly, they asked that the matter be considered by the League’s Appeal Board. Moreover, they also contended that East Fremantle’s fourth goal, kicked in the third term, had in actual fact been a behind, and were considering protesting about that as well (although press reports of the meeting of the Appeals Board which was convened to examine Perth’s concerns contain no mention of this second controversy).
|
The
Western Australian Football League Appeals Board met at the United Service Hotel
on Tuesday to consider 'The
West Australian' reported that “The central umpire, Ivo Crapp, stated that
when the incident occurred, out of which the dispute had arisen, the boundary
umpire had thrown the ball in, and as C.Doig was picking it up another player
caught him by the neck. He (witness)
blew the whistle, and just at that time the bell sounded.
He thought the whistle had beaten the bell, and for that reason he
decided that Doig was entitled to a free kick.
The barrackers were causing a great noise at this time and he did not,
perhaps, hear the first sound of the bell.” Mr.
F. Kennedy ( |
Jim 'Scotty' Doig |
Mr.
R. Salter (East Fremantle timekeeper) “was certain that the whistle was blown
five seconds before the bell rang". When
cross-examined, he admitted to having taken a bet on the outcome of the match,
but insisted that this had in no way influenced him or undermined his
impartiality.
Numerous
other witnesses were called and then the Board spent time carefully considering
the evidence. The Board Chairman,
R.A. Sholl, eventually declared that the Board “had unanimously decided that
the weight of evidence bore out the contention of the protesting club – that
the timekeeper had rung the bell before the central umpire’s whistle was
sounded. Therefore the ball was dead
when the free kick was given, from which the goal in dispute was scored.
The appeal would therefore be upheld.”
At
a full meeting of the League the following night the matter of a re-match
between
|
Alex 'Squeaker' Clarke |
Mr.
Cookson of As
regards the matter of a ‘re-match’ to decide the premiership, the Chairman
of the League ruled that the 1907 premiers had already been determined as a
result of the decision of the Appeal Board.
Any match arranged privately by the two teams could in no way alter the
decision of the Board. Perth secretary Mr. Kennedy then offered to play East Fremantle in a ’friendly’ in order to find out “which was the better team”, but East Fremantle’s Mr. Fanning replied “I do not think we will again have the pleasure of meeting Perth this season.” |
Tom
Wilson (Old Easts captain) confessed to having been “very surprised” by the
Appeal Board’s decision, and added, “There is one thing that strikes me as
extraordinary....... and that is the allowing of outside witnesses to give
evidence. The evidence of the
officials is, in my opinion, all that should have been taken..... The central
umpire’s version was sufficient for the Board to come to a decision on, and I
feel confident that, had the Board abided by his evidence alone the decision
would have been in our favour.”
Jack
Leckie (
The
whole matter continued to simmer for several more days, occasionally threatening
to boil over. For a while it looked likely that East Fremantle would
appeal to the Australasian Football Council, but this never eventuated.
Tom Wilson, Old Easts captain, even suggested referring the matter to the VFL
for a 'neutral' adjudication. The incident went on to be a source of real
bitterness between the two clubs for many years; in 1908, when the sides again
contested the grand final, the memory of the recent controversy was a major
motivating factor for Old Easts as they 'evened the score' with a 5.7 (37) to
0.8 (8) win. After that, the sides would not again meet on grand final day
for almost half a century, but when they did there were many who saw fit to hark
back to the events of 1907 as a means of exacerbating the already intense
natural rivalry which existed between the teams (you can read a review of the
1955 WANFL grand final between Old Easts and Perth here).
With Chas Doig's controversial second term goal erased from the score, the quarter by quarter summary for the 1907 grand final reads thus:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Pts | |
| Perth | 1.1 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 6.6 | 42 |
| East Fremantle | 1.4 | 2.4 | 5.8 | 5.11 | 41 |
BEST
- Perth:
GOALS - Perth: Edmonson 2; Nankervis, Orr, Wilson, Winton East Fremantle: Brown, Christy, Heinrichs, McIntyre, Sharpe
ATTENDANCE: 10,000 approximately at the Claremont Showgrounds
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