WAFL Grand Final 2007

I'd been promising to take the boy to the footy for some time and had been disappointed at not being able to get tickets to an AFL match when my team, the Bombers, had been in town recently on two occasions. I've never been to a local match, the WAFL (Western Australian Football League), but the grand final seemed like the ideal opportunity to break that duck.

I bought tickets online, so that we would be assured of seats and because it was the last game of football in Perth this year, and we sat behind the goals at the city end. Not a bad spot. Only place better would be on the side of the ground. It meant that jobs around the house had to be done early so there was a bit of blue-arsed fly action happening. Had to go to Subiaco for the fruit and veg shopping before the match, and to pick up the tickets, when I saw Scott Watters, the Subiaco coach, at an ATM that was closed. I thought to myself, "Is that an omen?" Was going to say, "Good luck today Scotty," but I never thought much of him as a player for the Eagles or the Dockers. And he's a bit of a drip on the TV.

As the tickets included public transport the boy and I took the train. This allowed us to stop off in the city and buy something for lunch before getting on the train again to go to Subiaco. Managed to catch the last ten minutes of the reserves grand final and that was a draw! Quite exciting. They played extra time and Subiaco beat East Fremantle by 15 pts. I'd say there were only 2-3000 spectators to see the end of that match.

It was a beautiful day, in the sun. The boy didn't bring his jacket and so I had to give him mine. That left me with only a t-shirt and it was freezing.

By the start of the WAFL grand final there were more than 10000 spectators. I chose Subiaco Lions by 8 pts and the boy chose Claremont Tigers by 9 pts. It wasn't a good start for his as Subi kicked four goals and four behinds in the first quarter and Claremont didn't even score. He resorted to hiding his head inside my jacket after that.

Half decent crowd


Claremont kicked five goals in the second quarter but Subi kicked another four. It wasn't a bad game but Subiaco played much better as a team and ran out the game. They ended up winning by 41 points. And I tell you, it was lovely when the sun finally reached us in the grandstand somewhere towards the end of the third quarter.

Action in the middle of the ground

Go the punch

Good mark by David Mapleston from Subiaco

It wasn't a level playing field

Our view


After the match we went down to ground level to watch the presentation and get a photo of the premiership cup being carried around the ground. And guess when the battery of my camera decided to go flat? You guessed it, just as the cup was coming towards us. I managed to change batteries but not before the damage was done.

The premiership cup