1974 WANFL season

• Perth newcomer Robert Wiley kicks 1.8 (14) and combined with Ross Smith’s outstanding form allows Subiaco to overcome major pre-season injury and training problems[2] notably the departure of Keith Watt.
• West Perth equal a club record from 1932 by winning with eleven fewer scoring shots,[3] though falling one short of the current league record.

• Austin Robertson was goalless in a match for the first time since Round 15, 1965 (he left the field with an underestimated groin injury at three-quarter time),[4] as Swan Districts celebrate the fortieth anniversary with an impressive win in very wet conditions.[5]
• With rovers Jenzen and Wiley (thirteen goals and seven behinds between them) dominant, Perth overrun Claremont in the last quarter. Wiley amazingly leads the goalkicking for a week after his second WANFL game.[6]

• The draw at East Fremantle Oval was the last for 888 WA(N)FL games until the sixth round of 1984 at Leederville Oval,[7] the second-longest non-occurrence of draws in a major Australian Rules league.[8][9]
• As of 2014, it is Old Easts’ most recent drawn home-and-away game, with their sole subsequent tie in the 1989 First Semi-Final.[10]
• In contrast to their opening-round accuracy, West Perth’s score against Claremont is their second most surplus of behinds over goals on record.[11]

Peter Featherby produces an amazing 46 kicks and nine handballs to win Subiaco a game it was originally thought they would forfeit as they did not want to play on Anzac Day.[12]

• The roving of Graham Melrose and Tony Buhagiar in wet conditions establish East Fremantle as the team to beat for the premiership as they win their fifth straight against the reigning champions.[13]
• Coach Verdun Howell’s experiment with half-back Mick Elphick and winger Garry Caporn as ruck-rovers drive Claremont to bounce back after a disastrous month of losses.[14]

With Blethyn kicking eight goals and giving away another three, and their rovers demolishing a Lions team who had Austin Robertson in the reserves after his groin injury, Claremont record the biggest win in the WANFL for two years and their biggest since 1964.[15]

• South Fremantle win their sixth consecutive match to take top place with a speedy young centreline on another wet May afternoon.[16]
• Eight goals and five behinds from Austin Robertson in his third senior game for the season, along with Swans’ sluggish play, sees Subiaco rebound from the Claremont debacle.[17]

The return of captain-coach Smith provides the impetus for the finest team display of the season as Subiaco end South Fremantle’s seven-game winning streak with Mike Fitzpatrick unstoppable and half-forward Neil Randall gaining thirty kicks.[18]

• Max George kicks fourteen goals for Swan Districts, the most by any Swan in a match and the most at Bassendean Oval.[19]
• East Perth move within half a game of the four in a match where Claremont not only lost the game by half time when they remained goalless but also lost A$1119 in property and $458 in cash due to negligence. Archie Duda kicked eight goals to secure his spot from returning forward Phil Haughan, who kicked fifteen in the reserves.[20]

The return of eighteen-year-old prodigy Peter Spencer from a broken jaw gives East Perth ascendancy over the powerful East Fremantle centreline and an unexpected victory to enter the four.[21]

As a percentage, East Perth’s score was their most accurate until 1980.[22] Archie Duda kicked nine goals.

• Subiaco fail to land a decisive thrust after fighting from thirty points behind against Swans.[23]
• East Perth junior Stuart Hillier leads tailender West Perth to a surprise win by forming a winning centreline with Ian Logan and veteran Mel Whinnen, moved after half-time to the unfamiliar position of wingman and collaring young champion Spencer for the first time.[24]

East Fremantle’s small-man strength wins decisively over a bigger and taller Swan Districts outfit to leave that club needing three wins from four games for a finals berth.[25]

Despite kicking only 3.4 (22) to 9.7 (61) between half-time and time-on in the last quarter, East Fremantle get a critical victory because during the second quarter David Hollins kicks a goal simultaneously with forward Kerry Williams being interfered with off the ball, so Old Easts got another kick and two goals without a centre bounce.[26]

East Fremantle gain a second successive lucky win, coming back from 23 points down with seven goals, including one where Perth fullback John Quartermaine was disallowed an apparently fair mark.[27]

Mel Whinnen becomes the first to play 300 WANFL matches as his Cardinals drive South Fremantle, at one point the pacesetters, out of the top four.

This was the last match for record-setting goalkicker Austin Robertson, Jr. and Subiaco’s last final until 1985.

A strong first half with a 37-point lead is enough to see a jaded and sore Perth team make its first Grand Final for four seasons.[28]

East Fremantle win their first flag for nine years after a period in the doldrums, more convicingly than the scores indicated due to inaccuracy and a let-up in the final few minutes.[30]