WAFL Collectables

Of course, the best-known WAFL magazine is the Football Budget (and its predecessor WA Footballer), which has been issued every week during the football season since 1921. But both those titles have their own pages on this website, which can be found by clicking on the following links:    Football Budget        WA Footballer

This page is dedicated to the other magazines and newspapers that have been published over the years, most of which didn't last for very long.

The first real attempt at a football magazine was The West Australian Football Follower, which launched in April 1939 with the newly-arrived Haydn Bunton Senior as editor. It was released monthly and cost sixpence to buy. And just like any football memorabilia from the 1930s, these are extremely difficult to find today. Printed by Brokensha & Shaw Ltd, which was part of the firm which had the contract to print the Football Budget, it lasted at least three issues. But I've never seen a fourth, despite its original aim being to publish six editions in 1939. I would love to hear from anyone who might have any copies that could be scanned, especially given the Battye Library doesn't have any copies and I only have the first three editions.

Not to be confused with the later newspaper Westside Football, this A4 publication launched on the opening weekend of the 1969 season. Its lofty aim was to provide WA with a weekly football magazine during the season. The first edition featured Denis Marshall on the cover and the following edition carried a photo of Haydn Bunton. But it can't have been a huge success because it then went out to a monthly publication, releasing its next issue (with Tony Casserley on the cover) in May. The magazine, printed by Flett Photo-Print in Bentley, even had its own photo sales service. But editor Douglas G Sheppard only put out those three editions, at 20c apiece, before Football Westside disappeared forever.

After Football Westside failed in 1969, Pro-Sport Publishing launched the West Australian Footballer just a few weeks into the following season. From the little amount of available information, I've been able to establish that it did publish a second edition. But I've never seen a third.

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WA's best-known and longest running football newspaper, Westside Football was launched in 1979 by football journalist Alan East and publisher Peter Poat. It was a favourite of WAFL fans from day one and could be bought from newsagencies or at the footy. The last edition was published in October 1996, before new owners, Community Newspapers, turned it into a free newspaper covering all sports. It folded in November 1997, but is fondly remembered by WAFL fans as the only truly successful football periodical to have been issued in this state (the Football Budget aside). As a result, a re-launch was tried in 2004. Please see below for details. Given there were 537 editions of the original iteration published, I'm not going to list them all here. But I will list the years in which the paper was published and the number of editions published each season (along with any copies I am missing).

Published by Pop Standen and Tim Duff of West Coast Magazines, this one also seems to have failed fairly soon after launching for the 1981 WAFL season. A glossy large-format magazine, the first edition ran to 40 pages and cost $1.50. But I've never seen a second edition

A year after the Fremantle Dockers joined the AFL, Gary Bartholomeusz and the team at Jiga Publishing launched Freo Footy Focus, which was aimed only at supporters of South and East Fremantle. The glossy black-and-white magazine was first published on Easter Thursday of 1996 and came out each Friday thereafter. It was only available at the clubs and the clubs received half of the cover price. But the business model can't have worked because it folded after just eight editions. The editor lamented the lack of support he had received and noted that "WA football followers are content in a (sic) AFL monopoly".

Re-launched in 2004 by Shane Cable and Gloss Media, Westside Football Mark II was published in A3 format for the first season and then switched to A4 size for the second. In 2005, it ran to 54 pages and covered both the AFL and the WAFL.