West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 13 July 1925, page 9


EAST FREMANTLE WIN.

By the decisive margin of 39 points, East Fremantle administered defeat to East Perth on Saturday afternoon on the Fremantle Oval. The match, which was

anticipated to be a close, hard fought game, attracted a tremendous crowd, the gate receipts amounting to £210. But the majority of the crowd must have been very disappointed in the game they wit-nessed. Instead of a fast brilliant game with beautiful patches of open concerted play such as the perfect weather war-ranted, the display of football was a medicore one. The game certainly was fast enough but it would have even been faster had it not been, for the tendency of the umpire, Mitchell, who was being tried out, to slow it down. A feature of the day was the kicking of both sides. Long, skim-ming drop kicks were frequently seen and, in this department, Sheedy, of East Fremantle, delighted the crowd time and again. His drop kicking, except in a few instances when he kicked too close to the player on his mark, was masterful in its perfect timing and distance. From the second quarter, when the seasiders passed their opponents, they never look-ed like losing. Their team work was bet-ter than that of their opponents and they relied more on the long kick than the short pass. Getting into their stride in the second quarter, they played consist-ently for the remainder of the game. East Perth, on the other hand, played patchy football, each player coming into pro-minence at different times. Their passing, too, was faulty. From an umpiring point of view, the game was very unsatisfac-tory. It was a pity that Mitchell could not have had an easier match to open with. From the beginning it could be seen that hard knocks were to be given and received and that the game, would be rough. Mitchell was certainly not the man to handle the match and his exhibi-tion was a feeble one. Towards the end, the players were doing practically what they liked and Mitchell's decisions at times appeared so faulty that the crowd, instead of reviling, fell to laughing and the umpire was subjected to a great deal of good humoured banter. At times a full 50 yards behind the game, Mitchell ap-peared to rarely move from the middle of the field and he was terribly slow with his whistle when most glaring offences were made. At the conclusion, one could not help but think that a good match would have been witnessed if the whistle had been in other, and better hands. Probably the best player for the winners was Baird, who was exceptionally re-liable in the back lines. Time and again he turned dangerous East Perth attacks and his marking and kicking was at all times good. Sheedy, with his wonderful kicking and fast ground play, was always in the picture and his team mates gave

him plenty of opportunities. He bagged four goals with four perfect drop kicks from long distances. Jarvis, usually so clever in the back lines, was played in front of goal because of a slight indispo-sition. His display on Saturday was so good that it is doubtful whether he is a better back man than a forward. His four goals were the result of good kick-ing and clever position work. Williams, a junior, was given his first game and showed great promise and Dolan, Woods and Roche were others who stood out in a team which carried no passengers. Gepp played a cool and clever game throughout for East Perth and Fletcher, in the forward lines was hard to beat. Campbel, playing well in patches scored three nice goals and Duffy's work on the fringes was at all times useful. Sparrow, Burgess. Markham and Dobson were other good players in the team. The visitors were without the services of Sharp, Gaynor, Hebbard and C. Western and H. Clark and "Nipper" Truscott did not strip for the seasiders. The teams were:— East Fremantle: Dolan, Cinoris, Bu-chanan, Brown, Baird, Gibson, Coffey, Dunne, Gallagher, Jarvis, Jones, Mudie, Richards, Roche, Ryan, Woods, Sheedy and Williams. East Perth: Burgess, Dobson, West-ern, Mitchell, Duffy, Sparrow, Wood-thorpe, Guhl, Owens, Campbell, Clune, Brentnall, Gepp, Sherlock, O'Meara, Fletcher. Walsh and Markham. East Perth dominated the first quarter and the seasiders' backs were hard pressed. Campbell and Clune goaled and then Coffey scored the maximum. Fletcher, with a good kick notched No. 3 for his team and Jarvis replied with an-other at the other end. Fletcher added another just before the bell and at the first bell, the scores read:— East Perth, 4.0; East Fremantle, 2.1. From the bounce, the home team took charge. It was their quarter all the way and the visitors failed to score during the period. The seasiders registered five goals. Jarvis scored three of these and Sheedy, with two kicks which drew yells of apprecia-tion from the supporters of both sides, scored the other two. At half time the scores were: — East Fremantle, 6.6; East Perth, 4.0. Scoring was even during the third quarter. Another fine kick gave Sheedy his third goat and Woods scored the maximum. It was estimated that Woods kicked a distance of over 60 yards to score this goal Fletcher and Campbell goaled for the visitors and the three-quar-ter time scores were: — East Fremantle, 8.9; East. Perth. 6.3. The final quarter was a runaway. The home team piled on five goals, the last being kicked just as the bell went. East Perth battled hard but were being badly beaten all along the line. The final scores were:— East Fremantle: 13.13 (91 points). East Perth: 8.4 (52 points). The goal-kickers were: — East Fre-mantle: Sheedy (4), Jarvis (4), Gallager (2), Coffey, Woods and Cinoris. East Perth: Campbell (3), Fletcher (3), Clune and Owens.