despite being held to the lowest WAFL score between 1946 and 2002 by Perth in torrential rain and genuine darkness at the WACA, the Royals won fourteen of their nineteen games and beat South Fremantle twice in the finals. Under the coaching of Jack Sheedy, and aided by becoming the first WAFL club to play players formally, the club contested the following five grand finals for further premierships in 1958 and 1959 and a huge upset loss to Swan Districts in 1961. The loss of Farmer, however, saw a decline in fortunes: in 1964 the club won only one of its first eighteen games and finished with its first wooden spoon since 1929, but with the recruitment of Kevin Murray the club returned to the top quickly. It returned to the finals in 1966 and played therein during every one of the next seventeen seasons except 1974. During these years East Perth won 246 and drew one of 388 games for a success rate of 63.5 percent: clearly the highest in a competition that – at least during the first half of this period – was extremely even and characterised by very rapid fluctuations in teams’ fortunes. By 1980, the club had made a submission to enter the VFL/AFL, however this was withdrawn, and from 1983 their fortunes declined abruptly: between 1985 and 1995 East Perth won only eighty and draw one of 235 games for a success rate of 34.26%. Indeed, between 1985 and 1989, the Royals actually won just 24 of 105 games for a success rate of 22.8% and did not finish above sixth, with a lowlight being the sacking of coach Greg Brehaut on 13 May 1986 that was followed by a walk-out of three managers from a reserves team that had won five matches out of seven. In 1996 the Royals returned to prominence and took the minor premiership before losing narrowly to Claremont in its first grand final since 1978. However, the club returned to the lower reaches of the ladder in 1999, winning only five of twenty games. East Perth later acted as the host club for West Coast Eagles players recruited from interstate from 2000 to 2001 until the host club arrangement was abolished. This made them favoured for high honours in 2000 - which was achieved with five Eagles in the grand final side, though the Royals’ “old guard” made a