In Western Australia, Australian rules football (known mainly as "football") is the most popular sport. There are 29 regional club competitions, the highest profile of which is the semi-professional West Australian Football League. It is governed by WA Football. It has 108,154 adult players (around 10% of which are female) and 46,187 children, the highest participation rate per capita (8.5%) in Australia, second most players of any jurisdiction, accounts for around a fifth of all players nationally and is growing faster than any other state. It is the third most participated team sport after soccer and basketball.
Matches were played in the Colony of Western Australia from 1868, however rugby union there became more popular and Australian rules was not fully established until the 1880s when existing rugby clubs began to switch codes. Following the Federation of Australia, courtesy of pioneering junior and schools programs the sport grew faster there than any other state. For much of the 20th century the West Australian Football League (WAFL) was the third strongest state competition in the country. In 1967 the WAFL set a record season attendance of 960,169 and the 1981 WAFL Grand Final was attended by 55,517. Even with its current semi-professional status, it remains the third most popular competition in the world for the sport.
The state team (known as the "Black Swans" or "Sandgropers") competing since 1904, has defeated every state and territory, and has a strong rivalry with Victoria. It won national titles in 1921, 1961, 1979, 1983, 1984 and 1986, and with four titles was the most successful state in the State of Origin era (1977–1999). The underage men's team, competing since 1976, were champions in 1999, 2007 and 2019. The underage women's team, competing since 2010, were champions in 2014. Western Australia holds the second most national titles after Victoria across all divisions.
The state is home to two fully professional Australian Football League (AFL) clubs both based in the capital Perth and owned by WA Football: West Coast Eagles (1986) and Fremantle Football Club (1994), the former having the distinction of being the first non-Victorian team to compete in and win an AFL Grand Final in 1992. The two teams compete against each other in the Western Derby. The combined membership of the two clubs is more than 150,000, making Western Australia second only to Victoria in terms of support for the national club competition. Since 2020 West Coast has had the highest membership and fastest membership growth in the AFL and is the league's most profitable and equal highest revenue generating club. With the AFL's growth in popularity, Western Australia has oft been speculated as a candidate for a third club,"It's the obvious choice": Western Australia throw hat in ring for third AFL team by SCOTT PRYDE 22 January 2023Could we find room for a third AFL team out of WA? By Joel Saratsis 17 March 2016West Perth sound out Royals about being third AFL club by SHAYNE HOPE for The West Australian 3 April 2010 however this is not supported by the state governing body.‘Have to have it’: Momentum for NT licence builds as WA ‘put a line through’ third AFL club by Will Faulkner for Fox Sports 29 May 2024 Nevertheless a 3 year 2 game a year deal was granted to North Melbourne Football Club to play additional matches in Perth and Bunbury from 2025.Roos to play games in Bunbury WA, end Tassie relationship from Newswire 13 November 2024 WA produces the second most professional players for the AFL, with more than 100 current players, though the majority play for clubs in other states.
It is the most watched sport and has the third largest audience in the country. Its television viewership continues to grow strongly and its average AFL attendances are the second highest nationally.2022 AFL TV Ratings Both the AFL and the WAFL attract a significant television audience. Since 1991 it has attracted an average AFL premiership season attendance of 34,462, third in the country. As at 2022 this average attendance sits at 45,921 the second highest, boosted with the 2018 completion of Perth Stadium the state's flagship venue. While the AFL has far surpassed it in popularity, the WAFL also attracts around 200,000 fans through the gates each year as well as a significant television audience.
Three West Australians have been named Australian Football Hall of Fame legends: Graham 'Polly' Farmer, Barry Cable and Merv McIntosh. Lance Franklin holds the AFL games record and goals record for a Western Australian, with 354 and 1,066 respectively. Kiara Bowers is arguably the state's greatest female player being four time All-Australian and the first to win the AFL Women's best and fairest. Gemma Houghton has kicked the most goals, while Emma King has played the most games for born and raised West Australians in the AFL Women's competition.
History
Early Beginnings: 1868-1884 On 19 September 1868 a match was played under Australian rules at Bishop's Collegiate School in Perth between local civilians and the visiting 2nd Battalion of Fourteen Foot (Buckinghamshire) who were camped at Mount Eliza, with the honours going to the visiting British troops. It was the first recorded football match of any code in the colony. The Fourteenth Foot had previously played against the Melbourne Football Club in a Challenge Cup match in Melbourne in July of the previous year.G Christian, J Lee & B Messenger, The Footballers: The History of Football in Western Australia, St George's Books Perth 1985, pp 1-6. Further matches were played between the Western Australian Temperance and Recreation Society defeating the Town of Fremantle in three matches at Fremantle on 16 October. Despite the matches not being played under British rules, the Fremantle Herald cited the English team's involvement as justification for the colony to adopt a British code and Australian football would not be played again for at least a decade.
By 1876 British expatriates in Perth had formed the first (rugby) football clubs and introduced it into the schools in 1879 after which it became the most popular football code, with several clubs playing in organised competitions by 1880.
It was mainly cricketers who agitated for the formation of more football clubs for Perth and Geraldton from 1880 to keep them fit in the off-season however rugby was still seen as the default choice.
Despite this the first Australian rules club, Unions Football Club formed by former Victorians, emerged in Perth between 1881 and 1882. At the time there were already 3 rugby clubs in Perth and the code was still growing rapidly in the colony, though details of the Unions club's activity in this early period are scant. On 30 March 1883, N. A. ("Bill") Bateman and H. Herbert formed a second Australian rules club, The Swans Football Club in Fremantle, commencing a long inter-city football rivalry.
Perth clubs switch from rugby: 1885 By the mid-1880s the Western Australian media reported a growing dissatisfaction with rugby as a spectacle, particularly its emphasis on playing the body over playing the ball.
In 1885 one of the leading rugby clubs, Fremantle, after a meeting at the Cleopatra Hotel, decided to change to Australian Rules. It was quickly joined by three other clubs - , Victorians, and a team of schoolboys from The High School. The schoolboy side lasted just two matches, but the three other sides went on to contest what in retrospect was viewed as the first ever official Western Australian Football Association (WAFA) premiership, won by Rovers.
However, in those days many young men of Perth's wealthier families were educated in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. On returning home from there they naturally wished to play the sport they'd grown up with and no doubt exerted some influence on their less affluent peers as to such.
Football spreads to the goldfields 1886-1890s From 1886 Western Australia was swept up by discoveries of gold, firstly in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Murchison regions, led to a dramatic increase in WA's population, including many players and supporters of Australian Rules from the eastern colonies.
Progress of Australian Rules in Western Australia still lagged behind the big football cities of Melbourne, Adelaide and Geelong however and is evidenced by the unstable nature of the clubs that participated in the early years.
In 1886 a new Fremantle based club Union joined. Unions would later rename themselves Fremantle as those involved in the game saw the need to identify themselves with the region they were located in.
In 1887 Fremantle left the WAFA and the West Australian Football Club joined but they would only play two seasons before they disappeared.
Australian rules booms: 1890s and 1900s
1891 saw two new clubs arrive, Centrals and East Perth, but they would be gone after one and two seasons respectively.
The Western Australian gold rushes began in the 1880s but accelerated in 1892 with major gold discoveries at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Coupled with a major international economic depression, caused increased immigration from the eastern colonies. These migrants included a large number of footballers including some celebrated players, and the Goldfields competition (later known as the Goldfields Football League) which began in 1896 was comparable in status and standard to the Perth competition for many years. (This was shown by the fact that it had a separate seat on the Australian National Football Council until 1919.) The higher standard of play that naturally followed, helped to increase the game's popularity and increased the professionalism of the WAFA.
1899 would be the last season Fremantle would take part in the WAFA. Despite Unions/Fremantle being the most dominant club in the WAFA up to this point winning the competition 10 times in its 13 years of existence, problems with debt saw the club disappear and some people involved with the old entity formed South Fremantle Football Club in its place. Despite the fact that many involved with Fremantle moved onto South Fremantle the new club is not seen as a continuation of the old and did not lay claim to its proud records to that date.
1899 was also the last time Rovers would take part. The move to regionalisation which saw Unions take on the old Fremantle's name and colours made it difficult for this club that didn't represent a particular area to attract players. They folded and were immediately replaced by Perth Football Club who were promoted from the Perth First Rate Association.
By 1901, the WAFA had grown to have six teams. Up to this point, five sides at most had been in the competition, and this number had invariably changed from year to year, as clubs came and went. And by 1906 there were eight teams — being West Perth, East Perth, East Fremantle, South Fremantle, North Fremantle, Subiaco, Perth and Midland Junction.
In 1908 the WAFA was renamed the West Australian Football League (WAFL). West Australia sent a team to the 1908 Melbourne Carnival, over half of the team was from the goldfields league. Its success at the tournament including its defeat of South Australia and appearance in the final against Victoria captured the West Australian public and ushered in an era of immense growth for the code.
World War I and the WAFL's Youth Policy