The Bassendean Junior Football Club was founded in 1930 and the man
most responsible was Mr Dick McDonald, a name well known to our town.
The club played first in the Metropolitan Juniors, and under 18s competition.
The states only junior organisation at the time.
The WA Temperance League were formed in 1937, and Bassendean joined
them in 1939, entering teams in all three grades, `Cobbers'
under 14s, Junior Temps under 17s and Senior Temps under 19s. The Metropolitan
Junior disbanding. They were an immediate success. The Cobbers winning
their Divisional Premiership and the State Championship in their first
year. The under 19s emulated this feat the following year.
Our Cobbers became our under 16s when Swan Districts Junior Council
was formed in 1950 and between 1938 and 1965 missed playing in only
3 Grand Finals, winning 15 Premierships over that period. The WA Temperance
League played a very important role in junior football, particularly
during the WWII years when the young boys were in need of social guidance,
many having fathers away on active service. The competition survived
until the mid 1950s when Swan Districts were the first league club to
form their own Junior Council and the Eastern Division withdrew from
the Temperance League.
The move closed a very memorable chapter for the club, having since
1938 won 7 State Championships and numerous premierships.
The B.I.C. had always been our clubs home ground and still holds a
very affectionate spot in the hearts of all who played there.
The only two grades sponsored by Junior Council, the under 16s and
19s, were dominated in the main by our teams during the 1950s and in
fact until we moved to Jubilee Reserve in 1967, the under 19s won outright,
two McDermott Cups, a trophy presented each year to the Premiership
Team on the perpetual basis, and retainded if won on three successive
years. Our under 16s were also outright winners of one McDermott Cup
for its grade. The under 19s also established a then Australian record
for successive games won, with a grand total of 56 wins in a row.
In 1966 our club was forced to leave our home on the B.I.C.. The Government
of the day had decreed to extend Guildford Road along the railway line
and eliminate what was a serious road hazard at the point Guildford
Road elbowed into Perth Road, the main street of Bassendean. It was
an obvious solution to a serious problem, a decision we had to accept.
The under 12s after completing on an unofficial basis for a couple
of years were introduced to Junior Council in 1966 and became our first
team on Jubilee. The under 18s, 16s, and 14s following in 1967. Conditions
initially were poor, the only change rooms, the dark chocolate brick
toilets that still exist today. It did provide small change rooms but
nowhere near adequate for a club with four grades.
The club was forced, at its own expense to purchase a portable shed
structure, which was erected on the oval end of the toilet-change rooms
to provide clubrooms and kiosk. Support from the Shire was deplorable,
for sometime they had wanted junior football off the B.I.C. in favour
of hockey, a sport played by the sons of a Council official, and while
the main road was to take a large section of the B.I.C., a hockey field
could still be sited there. Once they had us over at Jubilee it was
an "out of sight, out of mind" situation.
Junior football in the Swan Districts area was on the move and come
the 1970s exploded with record number of boys joining junior clubs.
By 1971 Junior Council were catering for 19 clubs with 1670 registration
for the year, with the Hills Association now under its umbrella the
number of registered boys totalled 2421. In all, 81 teams were in competition.
Junior Football was big and extended further with the introduction
of Freeball and Modified Rules, but Bassendean, now one of the districts
most senior groups was equal to the task of providing for its youth.
This new concept to junior football had brought with it a greater parental
interest to further increase and share the work load, and by their presence
contributed in no small way to our social atmosphere, the foundation
on which great clubs are based. It can be said with confidence and without
reflection on any other group, that the Bassendean Junior Football Club,
by its sheer numbers, and the age groups for which it provides, has
always been our Towns greatest contributor to the welfare of its youth.
A fact that was not appreciated by our local Shire, as obvious when
we moved to Jubilee Reserve 30 years ago.
It has taken many years for that negative attitude to diminish as indicated
in the Town of Bassendean social history published by our local authority
in 1986, which is most conspicuous by its oversight of acknowledgment
to our club for its contribution to the youth of our district.
There were better times, those until the early 1960s, when photos of
our State Championship Teams were displayed with pride in the olf Lesser
Town Hall. It is therefore most comforting and reassuring to observe
the foresight of our Town Council of recent years in their appointment
of Mr. Bob Evan as Recreational Manager. Theirs was a great choice and
while this article is not about people, special recognition of the effort
of Bob has applied and the results he has achieved are worthy of record.
At last a club that has a weekly obligation to the character development
of 297 of our districts physically active young people is being recognised,
for that is the number the Bassendean Junior Football Club have on their
player lists. To the army of workers who attend these needs and carry
on our clubs worthy tradition. You can walk tall in the knowledge that
those that went before you look back and admire you.
Not that those who give so readily, work for personal praise. To see
excited young six year olds come, pass through the grades and leave
the under 18s as fine young men is enough. But to then look upon the
bonus of 57 club Premierships is comforting satisfaction. Inner pride
really is the reward.
