West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 24 April 1939, page 17


STRONG FINISHING EFFORT. East Perth Outstays Perth. East Perth finished much too strongly for Perth on Saturday at the W.A.C.A. ground, where a strong crosswind confined most of the scoring to one end. Perth was fast in the early stages, but had not the balance of East Perth, and the latter team bullt up a handy lead by half-time. Perth played its best football in the third quarter, but did not make full use of the wind in the last term and faded out in the last minutes of the game to be beaten by almost five -goals. The teams were as follows:EAST PERTH.--Backs: Ward. Crow, Lock. Tye. Half-backs: Graham. Starr, Thomas. Centres: Miller, Smlth. Sweet. Half-forwards: Cronin. Rowland. J. Campbell Forwards: Broom. Gardiner. P. Patterson. Buck: B. Ryan, Pogarty, B. Screalgh (rover). Ntin.. teenth man: Skahlil (replaced Starr. cramps In last quarter). PRT.--Backs: PFitzgerald. RobertA Hetherington. Half-backs: Hlss, Bailey, Hatton. Centrea: Davey. Puddy., Rundell. H!afforwards: Ransom. Henfry. Trainor. Forwards: Burton. Gook. Grigg. Ruck: Oliphant. Haddleton. Kelghtley (rover). Nineteenth man: Dewar (replaced Hetherinston, twisted knee, in last quarter). UMPIRE.-J. Chapman. Showing a great deal of pace, Perth started brilliantly against the wind and scored a goal a few seconds from the

start, but achieved no further success it the quarter. After a few minutes' play East Perth settled down, and winning decisively across the centre, kept up a constant attack. There was a good deal of kicking along the ground, with consequent scrambles, and a great deal of work consequently developed on the rackmen. In this department East Perth were well served, Haddleton being the only Perth player to hold his own. At quarter-time the scores were:--East Perthb 6.1; Perth, An injury to Smith, who had been playing brilliantly, necessitated a rearrangement of East Perth's placings. He went into a forward pocket, Rowland went to the centre, and Cronin to centre half-forward. Perth, overshadowed at the centre, changed Davey and Rundell to opposite wings, and brought Fitzgerald into the ruck. East Perth seemed temnporarily unbalanced by the changes and Perth's pace seemed to increase. With Gook marking and leading well, Perth scored three goals quickly, but East Perth rallied and developed good handball to prevent further scoring. At half-time the scores were:-East Perth. 7.2; Perth. 4.4. In an endeavour to check Gook, East Perth sent Crow into a back pocket and put Ward in goals, while Smith returned to the centre. East Perth was now back into its original balance, and played attractive football Bailey and Hilsz, on Perth's half-back line, and Robertson, in goals, however, were playing well and restricted scoring. Perth, despite a tendency to extremely short passing, scored three goals against the wind, Gook still maintaining his ascendancy. At threequarter time Perth was only four goals behind and East Perth did not look safe. The scores were:-East Perth. 11i; Perth. 7.5. Perth started the last quarter dashingly, and, exploiting the long kick more than previously, attacked constantly. Hurried kicking caused several possible goals to be missed, but the score gradually crept up to within two goals of East Perth's. A timely goal by Screalgh, who had been indefatigable, made East Perth safer, and another by Rowland put the issue beyond doubt. Perth faded out and East Perth won comfortably. Final scores:EAST PERTH .. .. 14.9 (93ptsa). PERTH .. .. .. .. 9.11 (5Spta.). Scorers:-East Perth: Gardiner, -4.0; Screigh, 4.2; Paterson, 3.0; Rowland, 2.1; Broom, 1.1: Campbell, 0.: Smith, 0.1; one behind forced through. Perth: Gook, 6.6; Trainor, 2.0; Grigg, II; Ransom, 0.1; Henfry, 0.1; Oltphant, 0.1; one behind rushed through. For East Perth, Miller was the best player. In the first quarter he beat his marksman pointless, and had the edge on Davey when that player was opposed to him for the rest of the game. Screaigb was little behind him in usefulness. He roved cleverly, gave away no frees under the new rule, and snapped, valuable goals when in a forward pocket Rowland did well as centre half-forward, and H. Smith won in the centre. Starr was a little slow in finding his touch, but subsequently played well as centre half-back, and Lockyer carried most of the burden of the ruck work. Sweet performed well on a wing, and Patterson played cool and intellikent fotball Gardiner, although overshadowed by Robertson, made a promising debut. L. Graham gave a pronjasing display.Robertson, Robertson, in goals for Perth, played a faultless game. His anticipation was good, his marking sure if not brilliant, and his kicking an object lesson. One spectacular dash which sent the ball right up to his full forwards was loudly applauded. Although inclined to work too far out and crowd his centre half-forward, Gook gave a fine display. He marked and led bril.llantly and had he kicked accurately in the beginning of the last quarter Perth might have won. Haddleton played strongly in the ruck for three quarters, but faded out in the last term. Hilsz and Bailey did well at half-back, Risz being brilliant in the third quarter, and Ransom and Hen?ry did fairly well on the half-forward line.