[3] As small compensation, Claremont under captain-coach Gerard Neesham developed an innovation possession-oriented “chip and draw” style of football that allowed the Tigers to achieve the best record of any WA(N)FL team since East Fremantle's unbeaten season of 1946.
[4] Claremont lost only its second game,[a] finishing the season with twenty-one consecutive undefeated matches – Peter Melesso getting the Tigers out of its only two possible defeats by after-the siren kicks.
An outstanding defence led by future Eagle champion Guy McKenna permitted the fewest points against any WA(N)FL team since the wet 1973 season,[5] whilst utility Derek Kickett polled 46 Sandover Medal votes but was ineligible due to suspension[6] and the return of Warren Ralph made the attack the best in the league.
Perth, league finalists in 1986 for the first time since 1978, fell from twelve wins to six as the Demons were severely affected by the loss of key players Wiley and Yorgey to the VFL, and dynamic forward Wayne Ryder with a series of knee injuries that never allowed him two games in succession.
Improved drainage and a drier climate in Perth[14] completely eliminated problems experienced at the WACA in the 1940s and 1950s; nonetheless the move was not regarded as a success and the Demons returned to Lathlain in 1989.