"Reminiscing about the 1961 Swan Districts Football Club Premiership"
Syd K
Reminiscing about the 1961 Swan Districts Football Club Premiership
Swan Districts Football Club had never won a Premiership in the WAFL League Competition. We languished at the bottom end, you could have called us cellar dwellers. However in 1957 the WAFL introduced an extra competitive team into the structure. So now all clubs had a League, Reserves and Thirds team, the last being in the 18-20 years bracket. This enabled the clubs to have access to nurture and improve the football ability of up-and-coming players. Swans were the Thirds competition inaugural Premiers in 1957 and again in 1958 which gave the club a little hope for the future.
In 1960, Haydn Bunton, a South Australian, was elected League Coach. From the outset it was obvious that there would be a massive shake up. The placid Black Swan club emblem was ditched, and replaced by the fierce, black fighting one. Training began in the hot summer months at weekends as well as mid-week. Weekends were up and down sand hills at Scarborough through to Trigg and mid-week around the Swan River, swimming across it, and of course, on the oval. Blood, sweat and plenty of tears!