The scent of nostalgia will lift heavy in the air around Bassendean Oval on Saturday, when the main heroes of Swan Districts return to their old stomping grounds.
The legends of the Swans’ first three consecutive premierships between 1982 and 1984 will reunite as the club celebrates the 40th anniversary of the start of the race.
Current Swans players will wear commemorative shirts honoring the Premiership teams when they play West Perth on Saturday.
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The first premierships of the 1980s came nearly two decades after the Swan Districts won their first three titles as they embarked on a run similar to the team that won three consecutive premierships from 1961 to 1963.
Ross Fitzgerald scored two goals in the 1982 Grand Final and said the win was the culmination of half a decade of hard work that began when John Todd took over in 1977.
Fitzgerald played in the 1980 final, which the Swans lost to Claremont, and was part of the 1981 team that fell in two sets in the final after finishing second in the standings.
“It was one of those things we had been looking for for a few years and especially when John Todd came to the club, getting the premiership we wanted after nineteen years without a flag was absolutely incredible,” he said. he – he declares.
“It was an accumulation of many failures at the start of those five years, with some success but not having finished the job in 80 and 81 to have the ultimate success.
“It was done that particular way and it probably took us to the stage where we got three wins in a row. He built trust in the club.
Swan Districts and Claremont met four times before the Grand Final in 1982 and, with the log equally split in half, the Swans made a statement by jumping 35 points clear at half-time before conceding a single point. in the third quarter to push the lead to 65 points.
A last quarter of seven goals from the Tigers narrowed the gap, but Swan Districts still ran out of winners by 49 points.
They made two at a trot in 1983 with another win over Claremont, before completing the highs the following year with a win over East Fremantle.
While Fitzgerald left for Perth and lost the subsequent titles, Don Holmes appeared in all three and is still very proud to have won the highs at a time when the WAFL was full of home-grown talent.
“In those four or five years, 16 of those players of our time went to play in the AFL or the VFL: Simon Beasley, Murray Rance, Leon Baker, Craig Holland,” he said.
“There was a lot of talent at the time and the same as Claremont, the same as South Fremantle.”
Holmes said many of the heroes of the big final wins came through the Swans development pipeline, which made the wins even sweeter, especially given the previous two years of heartbreak.
“We lost in 1980. In 1981 we were the best and we were eliminated in two games. So once we got there, I don’t think we would have missed that day; there was a lot of emotion and a lot of need to win.