[1] The club enjoyed success in the latter part of the 1900s, winning its first premiership in controversial circumstances in 1907: the club originally lost the grand final against East Fremantle by five points, but this was amended to a one-point victory after Perth successfully protested that the free kick from which one of East Fremantle's goals was scored was awarded after the half time bell.

Despite the team's lack of collective success, Perth in the inter-war years was home to a number of outstanding players, including ruckman/forward Doug Oliphant, pacy centreman Cyril Hoft and full-forwards Alan Evans (who against East Fremantle in 1921 kicked thirteen of fourteen goals[2]) and Albert Gook.

However, with champion ruckman Merv McIntosh desperate to see his team with a premiership, Perth under experienced former Carlton centreman Ern Henfry and captain Keith Harper, improved in 1955 to win fourteen of twenty minor round games and defeat the Cardinals in the first semi-final.

In order to draw closer to their metropolitan recruiting zone on the southern side of the Swan River, the club moved in 1959 to a new home at Lathlain Park.

The Demons thrashed South Fremantle by 143 points in the opening game and from then on were always the team to beat, scoring a 16-point win over East Perth in the 1966 Grand Final.

However, despite not being perfectly consistent during the home-and-away round, the Demons under new captain Colin Lofts clicked when it counted, taking out the 1976 Grand Final by 23 points, again at the expense of East Perth.

Except when affected by a major injury to star rover Robert Wiley, the Demons dominated in 1977, capping the season off with a record 26.13 (169) Grand Final winning score against East Fremantle.

The departure of Armstrong to Subiaco in 1980 only made things worse: despite the presence of a fine coach in Alan Joyce for two seasons, Perth never improved upon 1979's sixth place between 1980 and 1985 and won only 28 of its 126 games.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the club also had severe financial problems, so bad that in 1990 after losing revenue from gate pooling and the WAFC being forced to pay the West Coast Eagles' licence fee as its holder, the Demons had to raise $100,000 to avoid folding at the close of the season.

Despite an inglorious start with its lowest score since 1952 against Swan Districts, 1997 saw the Demons play consistently enough to record their best home-and-away performance for nineteen years, missing out on the double chance by only five percent from East Fremantle.

In 1998 with the loss of key players Brett Spinks, Winston Abraham, Shane Cable, Matthew McMurray, Dean Bertram and Darren Rigby,[11] the Demons won a mere four games and in 2000 were very lucky not to have their first winless season, beating Swan Districts in the final round.

Recent AFL players who originated from the Perth Football Club include Lance Franklin, Chance Bateman, Troy Cook, Leon Davis, Darren Glass, Steven Armstrong, Scott Stevens, Damon White, Brennan Stack, Mark Coughlan, Ryan Hargrave, Michael Johnson, Sharrod Wellingham, Chris Mayne and David Myers.

a During the period between 1946 and 1954, Perth's zone had over twice as many residents as the zones of East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Subiaco and Swan Districtsb from 1925c from 1957d 21 games without win from Round 7, 1922 to Round 13, 1923e Awarded retrospectively by Westar Rules in 1997f Moriarty's Sandover was won in a competition restricted to players under nineteen as of 1 October 1943 owing to the loss of players to World War II