WALA History 2 In the period 1925 to 1939 a representative Western Australian team competed (unsuccessfully) in national championships. Senior fixtures were again abandoned in 1942 by which time most of the players had answered to the call of service. A junior competition for 8-a-side teams continued and it was players from this era who made a significant contribution to the game in the post-war period. Full competition recommenced in 1946 with 9 clubs participating in both senior and junior grades. Western Australian teams have competed in the Australian Championships since their inception but winning at this level did not come easily. The Western Australian team won their first Championship, which it hosted, in 1947 then had to wait another 25 years to win again in 1972. At that 1947 championship six WA players were selected in the Australian All Stars team. Since annual championships commenced in 1981 Western Australia has won 10 of the 15 Australian Championships held. By 1949 the competition had its highest ever number of registered players - 50. One reason that the numbers stayed high during the second World War was that teams were reduced from 12 down to 8 and could have unlimited reserves. After World War 2 the game was upset in an unexpected quarter. Dollar restrictions were imposed on luxury and sporting goods, which caused a drastic shortage in available sticks. A cry went up from the WA Lacrosse Association to past players to donate their old sticks to juniors instead of having them lay idle in some back shed. Even with these donations nowhere near enough sticks could be supplied so juniors turned away from the sport, leaving numbers to dwindle from 500 in 1949 to 350 by 1950 and the future of the sport was in doubt. A large consignment of sticks was ordered from Pakistan in 1951 and with the introduction of English sticks the following year the sport was able to continue. Australia's entry into international lacrosse was precipitated by a visit in 1959 of a combined US team from Virginia and Washington Lee Universities. Again it was evident that Australia was lagging in all aspects of the game. An Australian team which toured the US in 1962 contained 3 players and an official from WA who were to make very significant contributions to the game and Australia's international competition - Laurie Turnbull, who negotiated for Australia's entry into international competition; Robert (Bob) Ramsay a veteran player, who became State and National Coach and Brian Griffin who was later acclaimed as one of the greatest ever exponents of the game. Brian is the only lacrosse player to be named the Western Australian Sportsman of the Year (1967) and is included in the WA Sports Hall of Fame. In the same year (1967) Brian was one of eight players from Western Australia in an Australian team which performed creditably in a four nation tournament in Toronto, Canada. |
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