1989 WAFL season

1989 WAFL season
Teams	8
Premiers	Claremont (7th premiership)
Minor premiers	Claremont (8th minor premiership)
Matches played	89
Bernie Naylor Medallist	Neil Lester-Smith (East Fremantle)
Sandover Medallist	Craig Edwards (South Fremantle)
← 1988 1990 (WASFL) →

The 1989 WAFL season was the 105th season of senior football in Perth. It saw Claremont continue its dominance of the competition with a third successive minor premiership under Gerard Neesham, despite having lost most of their top players of previous seasons to the VFL, and their 1988 conquerors Subiaco fall to third last with a mere six wins – their worst performance since the dark days of 1983 when the club had not played in the finals for nine years and had been wooden spooners four times in eight seasons. Coach Bunton had to promote many young players and knew 1989 was to be a year of rebuilding, though only a second (and last as of 2014) Colts premiership under Eddie Pitter showed Subiaco did possess much resilience.

Perth, who in 1988 had had their best record since 1978 and returned to Lathlain Park after the experiment of playing at their pre-1959 home of the WACA Ground was regarded as a financial failure, were also severely disappointing. Swan Districts, who in 1988 had become the first club to suffer the ignominy of being last in all three grades, rebounded so well despite the absence of Narkle that after thirteen rounds they were certainties for the four before a run of wins by West Perth coincided with a Swan slump and allowed the Falcons to reach the finals for only the third time in eleven seasons.

The season saw two experimental matches played in outer suburbs so that the WAFL could assess the possibility of relocating financially crippled Perth and West Perth to the Perth Hills and the growing northwestern corridor respectively. The former move never occurred due to dissent within the committee, the latter did however five years subsequently.

Another first was the semi-finals double-header that was to become standard in the league during the 1990s, instigated due to the only senior finals tie since the 1938 Grand Final and the refusal of Claremont and South Fremantle to accept two weekends without a match. Although a game on Saturday and one on Sunday was proposed, the first semi-final replay was ultimately played before the second semi on the Saturday. There were also suggestions for the first time of the WAFL expanding beyond Perth to such rural centres as Bunbury and Geraldton and that established Perth clubs merge in order to adapt to the new realities of a national VFL/AFL competition.

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