1. Home-and-away Season
    Round 1 (Easter Weekend)  Round 2  Round 3  Round 4 (Anzac Day)  Round 5  Round 6  Round 7  Round 8  Round 9 (Foundation Day)  Round 10  Round 11  Round 12  Round 13  Round 14  Round 15  Round 16  Round 17  Round 18  Round 19  Round 20  Round 21 

2. Ladder

3. Finals
    Semi Finals  Preliminary Final  Grand Final 

4. Notes

5. References

6. External links

The 1996 WAFL season was the 112th season of the West Australian Football League in its various incarnations.

It saw the league at a crisis point with attendances decimated by the rise of the Eagles and newly formed Dockers of the AFL. With serious financial problems for a number of clubs, especially Perth^[1] and Swan Districts but also Claremont, East Perth and West Perth,^[2] the league intensely debated whether to expand or contract the competition.^[3] The upshot was that 1996 would prove the final year of the eight-club competition that had been established with the admission of {{WAFL SD}} in 1934.

On the field, 1996 was notable for the decline of 1995 minor premiers Subiaco, who with the decline of top goalkicker Jason Heatley and the loss of other key players to the AFL,^[4] declined by thirteen wins, the largest in WAFL history since Claremont after the loss of Graham Moss to {{AFL Ess}} fell from only three losses in 1972 to only four wins in 1973. In the process, the Lions suffered a number of spectacular losses. In contrast, East Perth, after eleven years in the doldrums when they had won only eighty and drawn one of 236 games, rose under the coaching of former {{AFL Col}} defender Kevin Worthington to their first minor premiership since 1976 and despite lack of experience, nearly beat Claremont in a thrilling Grand Final. The Tigers, despite being fifth in 1995, won the Emu Export Cup to be early premiership favourites^[5] with the power of their lower grades,^[6][7] and despite some lapses ultimately lived up to that label.

The wettest Perth winter since 1974^[8] led to some notable low scoring, with Claremont kicking the second lowest score by an eventual premier team in a major Australian Rules league against Swan Districts and West Perth kicking three or fewer goals in successive games for the first time in 69 open-age seasons.

Home-and-away Season

Round 1 (Easter Weekend)

Round 2

Round 3

• Perth half-forward Joe Proctor returns after five seasons of repeated foot fractures to kick six goals and beat four opponents in a major upset over a Shark team that lacked its normal commitment at the ball.^[15]}}

Round 4 (Anzac Day)

• The game between East Fremantle and West Perth sees the smallest total of margins at each change since Round 3 of 1956,^[17] with the first three quarters totalling only five points and overall only eleven.^[18]
• With the league considering expansion to the Perth satellite city of Mandurah,^[19] a game between 1995 wooden spooner Swan Districts and Claremont is played at the main football ground of Rushton Park.{{ref label|Thunder|a|a}}
• Yet again a South Fremantle match yields a late comeback as Subiaco, led by 22 kicks and thirteen marks from half-forward Andrew Donnelly, are behind almost all match but show traces of their 1995 form in coming back to win at the finish.^[20]}}

Round 5

• Perth lead 8.3 (51) to 3.2 (20) before being overwhelmed.^[22]
• Chris Peel’s hard work in damp and windswept conditions allows swan districts to hold off South Fremantle, who failed to use the wind during the second quarter when the ground was dry.^[23]}}

Round 6

• After having to change his jersey due to bleeding following a cut in his knee, Swan Districts’ Rod O‘Neill wears Tony Nesbit’s old number the week after Nesbit died, and his toughness in defence is lavishly praised and a critical part of Swans’ fourth win for 1996.^[26]}}

Round 7

• Sumich and Dorotich score only 0.5 (5) from seven early shots and with Shane Cable scoring seven as a stand-in full-forward, Perth seize the chance resulted as South score an amazing 1.15 (21) to half-time (their first goal was at the eighteen-minute mark of the second quarter) and never come back.^[28]}}

Round 8

Round 9 (Foundation Day)

• One brilliant burst by Troy Wilson where he kicks four goals in ten minutes during the final quarter saves West Perth from a major upset against the tenacious Demons, who previously held an eleven-point lead.^[34]}}

Round 10

Round 11

• Two teams – Perth and East Fremantle – fail to goal after half-time, but Troy Wilson kicks seven including four in ten minutes on a day where winds blew rain horizontally.^[41]}}

Round 12

• Clive Waterhouse kicks nine goals, seven behinds in Swan Districts’ second successive spectacular win, their biggest over South Fremantle beating a 108-point win from 1964.^[45]}}

Round 13

• With nine AFL-listed players, Claremont recover from two bad defeats to push the Bulldogs to two wins from the four, as South Fremantle lack forward support for the well-held Dorotich.^[47]
• 1995 Simpson Medallist Darren Harris bounces back to his best after a serious concussion in the previous match with the Lions, as West Perth kick thirteen of the last seventeen goals to be back in the four.^[48]}}

Round 14

• Subiaco kicks eight of their eleven goals in the second quarter.^[51]}}

Round 15

Round 16

• The Demons’ skill in gale-force winds and mud via a three-man attack to keep the goals open gives them a 6.1 (37) to 0.2 (2) lead at quarter-time, which West Perth can never claw back.^[58]
• East Perth take advantage of Swan Districts’ early wastefulness with the wind to soundly defeat the black and whites, whose forwards score only 2.4 (16) after quarter-time.^[59]}}

Round 17

• In contrast, despite the windy and damp conditions, Swan Districts annihilate Subiaco with thirteen different goalkickers and two ten-goal quarters.^[62]}}

Round 18

• West Perth rebound from two previous disasters, adapting well to “arctic” conditions and moving to within percentage of fourth-placed Swan Districts.^[66]}}

Round 19

Round 20

• 6.0 (36) to 2.5 (17) against a strong wind effectively seals Perth’s fourth victory in seven matches and leaves Swans needing a win over the in-form Cardinals to make the four.^[71]}}

Round 21

• West Perth comfortably secure a semi-final berth despite inaccuracy over lethargic Swan Districts, whilst in a preview of the Grand Final, Claremont hold East Perth to 0.1 (1) into the wind to claim the double chance.
• Jon Dorotich breaks Jason Heatley’s 1993 record for the most goals without a behind, as he scores thirteen straight goals from fourteen kicks, capitalising perfectly on ex-Demon Stephen Pears’ dominance of the ruck despite crowd taunts.^[75]}}

Ladder

Finals

Semi Finals

• Jeff White’s ruck power wins for East Perth via an explosive burst of 4.1 (25) unanswered in fifteen minutes against the inaccurate Tigers.^[77]}}

Preliminary Final

Grand Final

• In a spiteful game , both clubs were reported for “bringing the game into disrepute”.}}

Notes

References

External links

• Official WAFL website
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225813/http://australianfootball.com/seasons/season/WAFL/1996 West Australian Football League (WAFL), 1996]

• KLFC
• KLF Communications discography
• KLF discography
• KLFE
• KLFF
• KLFF (FM)
• KL FM
• KLFO
• KLF Publications
• KLFR
• KLFS
• KLFV
• KLFY
• KLFY-TV
• KLG
• KLGA-FM
• KLG Albersdorf
• K&L Gates
• KL Gateway–Universiti LRT station
• KLGB
• KLGD
• KLGE
• KLGO-FM
• KL Going
• KLGQ