I recently found myself in a paddock that was once a sports ground near Wickepin. During conversation my companion said, “I’d love to know what places had footy and cricket teams around here.”
“Well, have I got news for you,” I replied.
Derek Mott’s latest work Western Australian Football: The Clubs, Competitions and Premiers (1885-1945) has it all. The product of extraordinary research the book has 470-plus pages of priceless information about the 1616 clubs (7917 teams) in 236 competitions of the first 60 years of Australian Football in WA.
Apart from lists of premiers and clubs and results of finals matches the book contains neat summaries of the various competitions, some photographs and a collection of amusing and unusual footy snippets Mott collected along his research journey – like the day in 1910 in Meekatharra when players for the Fire Brigade team started deliberately kicking behinds for their opponents Mines: “… if this is a sample of Meekatharra football, the sooner the odoriferous corpse of football is buried the better,” local newspaper The Miner reported. (The goal posts at the old recreation ground in Meekatharra are pictured below. Photo by Les Everett)
This is an incredible piece of work. It deserves a place in the homes of footy fans with an eye for the past and should be in every library in Western Australia.
Western Australian Football: The Clubs, Competitions and Premiers (1885-1945) is $50 a copy and Derek will, where possible, hand deliver them. Or he can post for $66.50 including postage via express post. You can contact the author via email at admin@footybooks.net
• The goal posts at Moulyinning. The team won premierships in the Dumbleyung Football Association (1919-1924; Dumbleyung-Kukerin Football Association (1925-1928 & 1930-32) and Dumbleyung-Lake Grace Football Association (1935-1940 & 1945). Photo by Les Everett
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