West Australian Football

Subiaco has won a hat-trick of premierships for the first time in club history after accounting for Swan Districts by 57 points at Subiaco Oval this afternoon.

Played in front of 23,199 fans at the home of football, Swans started the game in superb style, but couldn’t keep up with the might, run and skill of the Lions, going down 22.16 (148) to 14.7 (91).

It was a fitting win for the Lions as Subiaco Oval celebrates its 100th birthday in season 2008.

Subiaco’s unsettling tactics started from the first bounce when they started three players on the ground who they had named as starting on the bench.

But it didn’t have much effect on the Black Ducks as they had the run of the game early, starting with West Coast-listed player Tony Notte kicking the first goal in the opening minute of the game.

Swans, who were playing in their first grand final since 1990 and full of enthusiastic youngsters, seemed unfazed by the heavy favouritism that had been placed on the Lions coming into the clash. With more than half the crowd behind them and with those supporters cheering everytime hot draft prospect Nicholas Naitanui went near the ball, they led the Lions by 16 points at the first change.

A chase by the up-and-coming excitement machine Naitanui on Lions veteran Phil Read who was running into an open forward 50 was one of the highlights of the opening term and kept the crowd on the edge of their seats as they prayed for a close contest.

In the gusty conditions Swans weren’t allowing Subiaco any clean possession or free run – that was until the Lions turned the tide of the game into their favour thanks to three David Mapleston goals in the second term. The Lions outscored the gutsy Swans by six goals to three in that term to lead by four points at half-time.

As the game progressed Swans were breaking down across half forward and couldn’t find their way to goal enough times to counteract a potent Lions forward set up where WAFL leading goalkicker Brad Smith kicked six goals, Mapleston four and Phil Read and Shaun Hildebrandt three each.

With their rebounding out of defence and the run of the likes of Chris Hall, the retiring Jarrad Schofield and Hildebrandt, the Lions restricted the Swans to one goal in the third term and gathered all the raging momentum they needed to pile on seven goals to four in the final term to win their third flag in a row.

For Swans, who will lose many of their classy youngsters in the November AFL draft, Notte and Josh Roberst each finished with two goals and were also their team’s most influential and hardest running players. Roberts laid a bone-crunching tackle Jordan Adamson-Holmes in the first term and his hardness at the ball was typical of what the Swans are renowned for. 

Read, Schofield and Wayde Twomey were all reported.

In the reserves it was a win to East Fremantle who beat Claremont 6.6 (42) to 3.12 (30) in wet and windy conditions with Tiger Kane Mitchell winning the Merv McIntosh Medal as the best player on the ground.

Swan Districts had some glory on grand final day, winning the colts grand final by beating Perth 15.13 (103) to 9.5 (59). Swan Neville Jetta won the Mel Whinnen Medal as the best player on the ground.