[2] Consequently, East Perth and West Perth were forced to play home games at either the WACA or Subiaco Oval; however this did not affect their performance and the Cardinals, with young players like Bill Baker, “Spike” Pola and “Pops” Heal coming of age, improved from one win in 1939 to eleven this season – and would have done better but for appendicitis ending Ted Tyson’s football after June.
More surprisingly Perth – who had looked the previous season to be emerging from twenty years in the doldrums – could not replace captain-coach Austin Robertson and lost all but one of its final thirteen games for its worst record since 1923.
Despite losing Reid and having key strongman Compton carrying an injury, Claremont produce a superlative display against South Fremantle, with Heusler and Sutherland detracting the play and O‘Neill dominant at centre half-back.
In a battle of defences affected by rain after quarter-time, East Perth spend the last three minutes deep in attack but fail to kick the winning goal.
[96] Remarkably pacy and precise play in the second quarter, scoring 9.7 (61) to 1.3 (9), puts South Fremantle into its first Grand Final since 1930 and makes it favourite for its first premiership in twenty-three seasons.