Western Reds (Perth)

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

The Perth Western Reds joined the Australian Rugby League for the 1995 season. Rugby League though was not new to the people of Western Australia, as it had been played competitively in Perth since the end of World War Two.

The upheavel caused by the War had seen many servicemen from the West exposed to rugby league games while they were in army training camps (organised by Easts' Ray Stehr) in Darwin and on visits to Brisbane and Sydney.

Meanwhile, large numbers of servicemen from the eastern states had remained in Perth after marrying WA girls. The arrival of the 1946 British Lions triggered the growing movement to establish rugby league in Perth and a club competition soon commenced.

The first competition was formed from established RU clubs who crossed over to rugby league. The most significant move was by the Fremantle Club, who were the first Rugby Union club formed in Western Australia. South Perth also changed codes, while the Cottesloe and Perth (later called Belmont) clubs decided to field teams in both games. A new club was formed by ex-Fremantle players was called Applecross. The playing standard was assisted by the Balmain Tigers who toured Perth in 1949.

In 1950 the British Lions returned to Perth playing (and soundly beating) a full Western Australia team at Claremont Showground. The State also soon played against tourists from France and was a stop-over match for the Kangaroos as they sailed for England.

In 1957 the NSWRL made the first permanent steps to improve the WARL's development by sponsoring an annual visit by Sydney clubs in each of the seasons that followed. North Sydney were the first team to tour, followed by Parramatta, Newtown, Manly, St George and other clubs. Even a NSW Combined Country team were sent one season.

One Perth player, Russell Addison, was picked up by South Sydney. He played ten first grade games for the Rabbitohs in 1960 and '61. Another player to reach the top was Jon Grieve, who appeared for Manly between 1991 and '93. At the youth level, in 1965 a West Australian Colts team travelled to Sydney. Based at the Woolpack Hotel in Parramatta, 'they performed creditably against selected juinor teams'.

While rugby league never reached any great heights in the West, it was certainly well above the standard of any efforts in Melbourne or Adelaide. In the late 1980s the NSWRL began successfully playing one-off first grade games in Perth.

The NSWRL first called for submissions for a Perth team in 1991, as projections were made for the expanded 1995 competition. In November 1992, with a final decision by the NSWRL imminent, the Perth Pumas director Ralph McManis was interviewed by the Sunday Mail (Queensland) on the reasons the club should be accepted.

"We will use the WACA for the first two seasons before moving to what we have registered as the West Australian Football Stadium. Currently it is Leederville Oval, the home of the West Perth Australian rules team. The current capacity is 15,000, but we will be rebuilding a grandstand to bring it up to 20,000. It is right in the heart of the city."

"The local player base has little bearing on the Pumas side, but it is not generally realised that over the last three years nine West Australian juniors have gone on to play first or reserve grade football with clubs in NSW and Queensland. We are producing Junior Kangaroos, and we have two elite junior squads of players who will be around 19 or 20 in 1995."

"We have been allowed into secondary schools in recent years, and the result has been a bomb waiting to go off. Our biggest problem is finding enough referees and grounds to cope with the growing numbers."

"It makes little sense to us in the West if we are serious about developing a national game to continue to develop in areas where league is already strong. To give it (the 18th place) to anyone on the eastern seaboard would be playing into the hands of the other codes."

"The big fear is that if there is not a firm commitment for 1995 or 1996 at the latest, and the AFL grants a second licence to Perth, we will lose much of the corporate support that is currently committed to rugby league."

"The team has to be competitive. We are not making any grandiose claims, but we would like to think we could finish in the top seven or eight in our first year. We have an indication of intent from Peter Sterling to coach the side, and with his expertise and good back-up, we would certainly be competitive."

"The bonus of our submission is that one of our major sponsors would assist greatly with home and away travel expenses. That was an area in which we initially looked at asking for some concessions, but that is no longer a concern. We have even figured into our expenses a second team, maybe staying in the East for several weeks at a time, because we have a wealth of juniors waiting to be developed."

"The clubs which we have taken a lot of help and advice from have been Canterbury and Parramatta. We have identified a couple of senior people we have talked to and will continue to pursue one to become our General Manager. We make no pretence that we intend to reinvent the wheel over here. We will use expertise from the East to run the club and train our people at the same time."

"In the last few months the AFL and basketball have begun to realise that we are in with a serious chance of having a team here, and they are genuinely worried. The West Australian newspaper is looking at employing two fulltime league writers, and local television has decided to commit $250,000 to coverage of rugby league in 1993."

"If there is no commitment it would place a huge burden on us to continue the development of the last few years. We have a wonderful stable of junior league players with nowhere to go except East, and we cannot continue to have the scouts coming across to rip players out of the West."

"Pumas players not required for the first team each week would be released to play in the local competition. Having 15 or 20 top players available would lift the standard of rugby league in Perth to a new high. Our bid has the wholehearted support of the 10 clubs in Perth."

The NSWRL announced in December 1992 that the WARL's submission was successful and the Perth Pumas (later changed to Western Reds) would debut in 1995.

The club's initial playing roster was built around Michael Potter, Brad Mackay (capt.), Mark Geyer, Craig Innes, Jon Grieve (returning home), Jeff Doyle, Matt Fuller, Chris Ryan, Peter Sheils, Rodney Howe, Brendon Tuuta, Greg Fleming and Matthew Rodwell, under the coaching of Peter Mulholland.

After defeating St. George at the WACA (25,000) by 28-16, the Western Reds went on to establish a formidable home ground record - ultimately winning 8 of 11 games in Perth. Their season ended in a very respectable 11th position (one win away from a semi-final place) out of the 20 clubs competing.

The arrival of the 1996 season saw the game in the midst of the Super League battle and the Western Reds were not unaffected. The club gained Robbie Kearns (Cronulla) and Julian O'Neill (Brisbane), but lost ARL-aligned Craig Innes (Manly) and Brad Mackay (Illawarra). The Western Reds were amongst the clubs to forfeit their opening game (v St George) of the season as the court battles continued.

Their on field performances were diabolical in the first half of the season. The Reds were in financial crisis and their crowds regularly dropped below 8,000 to make the situation worse.

Of their first 12 games they won only once, leaving them at the bottom of the ladder. However, a late season rally began after a boil-over defeat of Grand Final bound Manly by 11-8 at the WACA. The Reds lost only four games in the remaining part of the season and managed to drag themselves up to 16th place.

Super League finally started in 1997 and the Western Reds, now known as Perth Super League, were one of the clubs in the 10 team competition. Under the coaching of Dean Lance the club produced another inconsistent season finishing in 8th position in the Telstra Cup and losing World Club Challenge away matches to lowly Paris and Sheffield. The season highlight was a crushing 34-6 win over Canterbury at Perth Oval in Round 4, but ever growing speculation that the club would be closed at season's end or moved to Melbourne increasingly lead to poor results.

The rumours were soon proved to be well founded and the Perth side was closed down at the completion of the 1997 season. The bulk of the side signed on with Melbourne including Kearns, Howe, John Wilshire, Matt Geyer, Paul Bell, Tristan Brady-Smith and Wayne Evans.

The loss of Perth ended premiership rugby league's all too brief flirtation with the people of Western Australia. While undoubtedly the game's administrators saw the Victorian market as much larger, it is a state that has no rugby league base.

While the Storm would soon achieve Grand Final success with a completely imported team, they are still decades away from having a Victorian rugby league player in their club. The ARL and Super League had a long established local rugby league community to build upon and to nuture with the Western Reds.

The greatest achievement of the club is largely ignored and a tragic legacy to rugby league administration. Buried deep in their 1997 player roster is a small group of home-grown players. Led by Jared Millar with 7 games, half-a-dozen local juniors earned first grade honours during the club's third season.

After struggling for existence for fifty years, rugby league in Western Australia had finally emerged. On the brink of producing a team of its own local players, it had the door to the "national" competition shut in its face.

Reds' lower graders Matthew Petersen, Shannon Hegarty (from Queensland) and Semi Tadulala (a Fijian) all moved east to continue their careers. Daniel Holdsworth is the most recent Perth junior to play in the NRL.

In April 2000 the President of the WARL called on the NRL to stick to its goal of a truly national competition, predicting a Perth team would return by 2007.

The decision of the ARU in late 2004 to add a Perth team to the Super 12 competition brought the Reds' story back into the limelight. On reflection, it is hard not to think of the Reds as being a missed opportunity for rugby league.

Whether the Perth and Fremantle sporting fans would be willing to embrace rugby league again in the future is another question. The local competition remains the strongest in Australia outside of NSW and Queensland.

With the aim of gaining admittance to the NRL premiership, the WARL re-formed the Western Reds, entering a team in the NSWRL competition in 2008.