Fremantle Football Club (1882–1899)

A few months after the football season had begun that year, an editorial in The West Australian captured the unfamiliarity of Western Australians with Australian rules football at the time.It seems a pity however that the Perth players do not all play the same game; while three of the clubs are governed by the rules known as those of the Rugby Union, the fourth (which goes by the name of the Union Club) plays the Victorian game; and there is every reason to believe that the latter club is in the right.

The Victorian or "Bouncing" rules are those which are universally adopted in the other Australian colonies; why then should West {sic} Australia be the exception?

It is needless here to enter into an argument as to which is the better of the two games, but supposing West {sic} Australia were to receive a challenge at football from one of the sister colonies, what must; be our reply?

[n 1] As was the norm of the time, the club also occasionally played matches under the rugby union rules.

[5] The original Fremantle Football Club disbanded at the end of the season, and many of its players transferred to Unions.

Due to his previous decisions, Fremantle refused to play in any match umpired by him for the remainder of the season, which resulted in them forfeiting their last three fixtures, and thus losing the premiership to Rovers.

Nicknamed "The Great", he was inducted into the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2004 as an inaugural inductee.