The 1996 WAFL season was the 112th season of the
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...
in its various incarnations.
It saw the league at a crisis point with attendances decimated by the rise
of the Eagles and newly formed Dockers of the AFL. With serious financial problems for a number of clubs, especially Perth
[Lewis, Ross; ‘Gerreyn Refuses To Let Demons off the Hook’; in ''The Game''; p. 11; from ''The West Australian''; 29 April 1996] and Swan Districts but also Claremont, East Perth and West Perth, the league intensely debated whether to expand or contract the competition. The upshot was that 1996 would prove the final year of the eight-club competition that had been established with the admission of
in 1934.
On the field, 1996 was notable for the decline of 1995 minor premiers Subiaco, who with the decline of top goalkicker
Jason Heatley
Jason Heatley (born 21 February 1972) is a former Australian rules football full-forward, who played for and during the 1990s.
Early career
Heatley played with the Wangaratta Football Club in the Ovens & Murray Football League in 1991 and k ...
and the loss of other key players to the AFL, declined by thirteen wins, the largest in WAFL history since Claremont after the loss of
Graham Moss
Graham Frank Moss (born 14 May 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the Claremont Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).
A L ...
to fell from only three losses
in 1972 to only four wins
in 1973. In the process, the Lions suffered a number of spectacular losses. In contrast, East Perth, after eleven years in the doldrums when they had won only eighty and drawn one of 236 games, rose under the coaching of former defender
Kevin Worthington to their first minor premiership since 1976 and despite lack of experience, nearly beat Claremont in a thrilling Grand Final. The Tigers, despite being fifth in 1995, won the Emu Export Cup to be early premiership favourites
[Reid, Russell; ‘Tigers too Strong’; ''The West Australian'', 9 April 1996, p. 65] with the power of their lower grades, and despite some lapses ultimately lived up to that label.
The wettest Perth winter since 1974
[ Flannery, Tim; ''The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change''; p. 131 ] led to some notable low scoring, with Claremont kicking the second lowest score by an eventual premier team in a major Australian Rules league against Swan Districts and West Perth kicking three or fewer goals in successive games for the first time in 69 open-age seasons.
Home-and-away season
Round 1 (Easter weekend)
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4 (Anzac Day)
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9 (Foundation Day)
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 19
Round 20
Round 21
Ladder
Finals
Semi-finals
Preliminary final
Grand Final
Notes
Rushton Park, also known under a sponsorship deal as ''Bendigo Bank Stadium'', has been the home of ninth Westar Rules/WAFL club Peel Thunder
The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The ...
since it formed in 1997.
References
External links
Official WAFL websiteWest Australian Football League (WAFL), 1996
{{WAFL seasons
West Australian Football League seasons
WAFL