WAFL Collectables

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.

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.