They plummeted to their first wooden spoon since 1916 in 1937 and made an extremely ambitious recruiting coup by providing local employment for three Victorian champions in Haydn Bunton, Keith Shea and Les Hardiman.

Although Bunton lived up to his Fitzroy reputation and at times did work far beyond that expected of a rover,[2] Shea and Hardiman did not, and Subiaco in the four seasons from 1938 to 1941 won only 23 and drew one of eighty games, finishing seventh twice and sixth twice in an eight-team competition.

1968, however, saw the club achieve stability through the recruitment of Haydn Bunton junior as coach and a record season from Austin Robertson at full forward, who kicked 157 goals and in one match against East Fremantle fifteen of nineteen (along with eleven behinds!).

Worse still, unlike that earlier bleak era, Subiaco were hit by severe financial problems and only community involvement during the early 1980s managed to save the club from extinction.

However, 1986 saw them even better, beating VFL club St Kilda in the Foster's Cup and losing only four games all year - their second-best home-and-away return behind 1912 - before recovering from a thrashing from East Fremantle to demolish that team in the Grand Final by sixty-nine points.

Bunton junior's aim of a Subiaco dynasty was ended by the formation of the West Coast Eagles that summer, which quickly drained the WAFL of all its best talent.

Subiaco would endure a lull after their historic three-peat between 2006 and 2008 before returning to the WAFL Grand Final against Claremont in 2011 under the guidance of ex-West Coast Eagle Chris Waterman.

This resulted in head coach Chris Waterman being replaced by club great Jarrad Schofield who played in two premierships for the Lions on either side of a 206-game AFL career.

Schofield worked hard to instil a new system at Subiaco resulting in a low key eighth finish again in 2013 with only six wins; but it would set the building blocks for a miraculous face lift in 2014.

After recruiting heavily over the off-season and relying on a strong base of home-grown talent the Lions turned their fortunes around to finish second in 2014 and contend for their seventh grand final in eleven seasons.

On a wet and blustery day the Lions proved too determined for the West Coast Eagles affiliated Royals to record a famous 16-point Grand Final victory and the club's twelfth historically.

Subiaco used the open market to bring in a host of talent with Victorians Leigh Kitchin and Brett Robinson joining the club as well as Scott Hancock (East Fremantle), Sam Menegola (Ex-Fremantle) and Jordan Lockyer (Ex-Sydney).

Key premiership players Shane Yarran & Sam Menegola departed to the AFL and 2016 proved to be the biggest challenge for Jarrad Schofield and his men.

In 2019, Beau Wardman replaced Jarrad Schofield as senior coach and Leigh Kitchin took over the reins from Kyal Horsley as club captain.

Sandover Medal Winners: (10 total) 1921: Tom Outridge, 1935: Lou Daily, 1938: Haydn Bunton Sr, 1939: Haydn Bunton Sr, 1941: Haydn Bunton Sr, 1991: Ian Dargie, 1994: Ian Dargie, 2000: Richard Ambrose, 2002/2004: Allistair Pickett, 2006: Matthew Priddis, 2019: Lachlan Delahunty Simpson Medalists: (9 total) 1973: Dennis Blair, 1985: Brian Taylor, 1986: Mark Zanotti, 1988: Mick Lee, 2004: Paul Vines, 2006: Marc Webb, 2007: Brad Smith, 2008: Chris Hall, 2014: Jason Bristow, 2015: Matt Boland Bernie Naylor Medalists: (22 total) 1913: H. Limb (40), 1915: H. Limb (46), 1920: Pat Rodriguez (36), 1957: Don Glass (83), 1962: Austin Robertson Jr. (89), 1964: Austin Robertson Jr. (96), 1968: Austin Robertson Jr. (162), 1969: Austin Robertson Jr. (114), 1970: Austin Robertson Jr. (116), 1971: Austin Robertson Jr. (111), 1972: Austin Robertson Jr. (98), 1987: Todd Breman (111), 1988: Todd Breman (75), 1993: Jason Heatley (111), 1995: Jason Heatley (123), 1998: Todd Ridley (77), 2003: Brad Smith (84), 2004: Brad Smith (109), 2005: Lachlan Oakley (83), 2007: Brad Smith (126), 2008: Brad Smith (104), 2011: Blake Broadhurst (68), 2015: Shane Yarran (46) JJ Leonard Medalists: 2002: Kevan Sparks, 2004: Peter German, 2015: Jarrad Schofield, 2018: Jarrad Schofield, 2019: Beau Wardman Tassie Medal Winners: (1 total) 1969: Peter Eakins All Australians: 1966: Brian Sarre, 1969: Peter Eakins, 1972: George Young, 1986: Laurie Keene, 1986: Andrew MacNish Record Home Attendance: 21 088 v. Claremont on 2 June 1986 Highest Score: 29.33 (207) v. Peel Thunder on 3 May 2008 and 33.9 (207) v South Fremantle on 28 August 2010 Lowest Score: 0.0 (0) v. South Fremantle on 4 August 1906 Lowest Scores since 1919: 1.2 (8) vs. East Perth on 7 August 1920 and 1.5 (11) v. East Fremantle on 24 July 1954 Longest Winning Streak: 25 games from Grand Final, 2017 to Round 6, 2019 (including 2018 premiership) Longest Losing Streak: 24 games from Round 1, 1902 to Round 9, 1903 Subiaco's Team of the Century was selected in 2008.

Data for goalkickers are sketchy before the late 1920s[8] Subiaco has a relationship with the VFL/AFL dating back to the start of the 20th century, with numerous players moving in both directions to and from Victoria and Western Australia.