Newspaper report

Source:The West Australian 9 September 1935 - via Trove

The Swan Districts team was hard pressed to beat Victoria Park by seven points at Bassendean on Saturday. The standard of football was as low as one could fear to find in a league match, but the players were so keen, the scores so even, and hard knocks exchanged so freely that the barrackers had plenty to exercise their lungs over, and it was left to the impartial observer, detached from the smell of battle, to brood over the finer points of the game.

Victoria Park did well to run Swan Districts as close as it did, only 15 of the regular players being available. A tooth-comb run over the ground for recruits yielded two volunteers - J. Elliott, the secretary, and J. Keightley, who played in the association last year, and 17 men took the field, without a reserve. Then, placing service above self, S.French, a committee man, who last graced the arena in 1928, in the WAFA, dashed on to the field in the second quarter. Thus Victoria Park had an eighteen before the match was half over.

The teams were:

SWAN DISTRICTS:

VICTORIA PARK (PERTH):

UMPIRE: L. McComish

In the first quarter the football was fast and willing, but very crude. Both sides badly misjudged the flight of the ball and kicked poorly, so that the play lacked positiveness and had only vigour to recommend it. There was this difference between the teams, that Victoria Park, when it got the ball, kicked it well down the field, tearing through with it and playing straight down the centre, whereas Swan Districts, with an absurd conception of teamwork, ran around in circles and seemed to regard a shot for goal as a very dubious experiment, to be resorted to only when every other possibility had been exhausted. Victoria Park made better use of its opportunities and finished the quarter with a lead of 3.4 to 2.2.

The play was still scrambling and clumsy in the second quarter, but both sides improved, to the extent that Victoria Park was marking better and the Swan Districts side was making a better impression through lengthening its kicking. Swan Districts owed a lot to Holdsworth, who, one of the few placed men on the field to show any idea of position play, put some sting into the forward lines and kicked four goals. Chiefly through his good work, and the efforts of Krepp, Swan Districts led at half-time by 8.10 to 7.6.

Both teams kept up their speed and vigour in the third quarter, so that the game, while depressing from the viewpoint of the stylist, was full of incident as a rough-and-tumble. Maintaining its direct methods, Victoria Park was in attack most of the time, but the tenacity of Swan Districts' backs, notably Zilko, and its own forward weaknesses prevented it from building up a good lead. When Swan Districts did break through, the better marking of the Victoria Park backs was a barrier to scoring, and Holdsworth was again the saving grace. The three-quarter scores were: Swan Districts, 10.10; Victoria Park, 11.11.

When the last quarter began, each side goaled, and Swan Districts maintained a determined offensive which in 12 minutes gave it a 2.2 lead. Victoria Park was fighting strenuously and after C. Keightley had goaled O'Callaghan had the misfortune to hit a goal-post with one kick and just miss a goal with another. The difference was six points with nine minutes to go and bodies bounced as often as the ball did. The scratch Victoria Park team was feeling the strain and its hopes faded when Swan Districts scored a behind. Final scores:

Goal-kickers: Swan Districts: Holdsworth (8), Murray (3), Grieve, Forward, and Forbes.

Victoria Park: Hetherington (4), C. Keightley (3), Elliott (3), Wormald (2) and Crooks.

Holdsworth must be a very welcome find for Swan Districts. Playing on a half-forward wing, and at centre half forward at one stage, he had a heavy burden to carry and acquitted himself well, showing a good sense of forward play and anticipation and marking and kicking well. Krepp made a dashing centre man and it was not his fault that the teamwork was not up to standard. Mosey was prominent on a wing, Penberthy was in good form in the second half, Zilko was consistently strong in a back pocket and Murray, Forbes, Randall and Hunt were the best of the others.

In the weakened Victoria Park side, a big responsibility was thrown on the followers and C. Keightley (rover) worked tirelessly and well. Gook was another who did more than his share. He took a turn in the ruck and seemed to be in all parts of the field. Hetherington stood out at centre-half-forward and Ransom battled hard in the centre. Wormald, White and Love were sources of strength on the back lines. Puddey and Warner and G. Davey also were prominent.