West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 18 May 1925, page 11


EAST FREMANTLE DEFEAT WEST PERTH.

The game at the West Leederville oval on Saturday was like the day; there was an early promise of brilliance but a subsequent realisation of dreariness. The

competing teams were East Fremantle and West Perth, and although the former won easily the home team should have scored much better than they did. They held their opponents up to half time, but they faded out of the picture over the concluding half of the match. Faulty position play by their forwards and wretched shooting contributed largely to their defeat. Star defenders like Craig, Boyd and Gosnell ably supported by G. and W. Taylor. Randall, Parks and Mel-bin struggled hard, to get the ball away from the East Fremantle goal and up to their forward lines only to see oppor-tunities lost because their artillery was astray or outclassed by the opposing backs. Truscott played his first game for the season and was in match winning form. During the first half he defended in goal and then was moved forward as sneak, where he booted four goals. Jar-vis played the game of the afternoon. Marking surely and relieving with long punts he broke up many West attacks in brilliant style. Sheedy stripped for Old Easts for the first time this season, but was not a shadow of his usual self. Pen-glase had charge of the game and did not display the judgment that marked his ex-hibition of umpiring on the previous Sat-urday. In particular his interpretation of the holding the ball rule reduced the

regulation to a farce. The teams were:— East Fremaratile: Dolan, Cinoris, Bu-chanan, Brown, Baird, Coffey, Dunne, Gallagher, Jennings, Jarvis, Jones, Par-sons, Richards, Roche, Ryan, Truscott, Woods and Sheedy. West Perth: Taylor, G., Gosnell, Boyd, Craig, McDiarmid, Soutar, Sinclair, Tay-lor, Parks, Melbin, Randall, Reardon, Fry, Donegan, Johnston, Moyle, Moore and Kelly. A feature of the opening half of the match was the number of goals scored by players on both sides who were freed in front of their goal. Coffey opened the scores with a major and Jennings, foul-ed, missed an easy goal. Old Easts were constantly testing the strength of the home team's backs, but Craig, Randall and Boyd defended well. Dolan, fouled in front, scored the visitors second goal but a single from Parks and a snapshot goal by Melbin raised the hopes of West Perth. A goal by Jennings from a free immediately preceded one from Richards, who also scored from a free kick, but it was a fitting reward for consistently good play. Jarvis and Truscott were proving the rocks on Old Easts' back lines. A. Moore, freed, managed the maximum, but three successive rashes by West Perth only yielded singles and at quarter time the scores were: — East Fre-mantle, 4.1; West Perth, 2.4. West Perth outplayed their opponents in the second quarter. Mainly through the ef-forts of Craig and Randall the visitors only had two scoring shots. Gallagher, freed scored the maximum early in the quarter, and a single came towards the end. A scramble in front of the goal resulted in, a major to West Perth. Mel-bin was the sharpshooter. He had been playing a sound game during the two quarters. Another single was signalled before Reardon called for the two flags and keeping up the pressure a further minor was registered. Baird and Jarvis saved many ugly situations and at half time the board read:— East Fremantle, 5.2: West Perth, 4.7. Although only a point separated the teams at half time the interest quickly diminished as East Fremantle began to forge head. The best West Perth could do in the third quarter was to score a single, while their oppon-ents added 21 points to their tally. Coffey screwed one to Truscott, now playing full forward and the old-timer converted. He repeated the performance twice before West Perth's backs decided he needed careful watching. At the other end Jar-vis continued to hold the fort and the quarter ended with the scores: — East Fremantle, 8.3; West Perth, 4.8. Play livened over the concluding quarter, when Parks played in great style. Donegan. reduced the visitors lead by six points, but Truscott cancelled the effort. Parks ended a period of good play with a goal and two singles were added before Sheedy made his presence known with a goal from a good distance out. Baird saved staunchly and Buchanan galloped around the wing and scored the goal of the day. G. Taylor kicked a major and right on the bell Coffey scored the maximum. The final scores were:— East Fremantle, 12.5 (77 points). West Perth, 7.13 (53 points). The goal kickers were:— East Freman- tle; Truscott (4), Coffey (2), Dolan, Gallagher, Jennings, Richards, Buchanan and Sheedy, 1 each. West Perth: Mel-bin (2), Parks, Reardon, Donegan, G. Taylor and Moore, 1 each.