Derek Chadwick

PLAYER: 1959-72

GAMES: 291: East Perth 269 (club record); WA 22

HONOURS: East Perth fairest and best 1963-64, captain 1969, Captain-coach 1967-68; 1961 carnival team; Simpson Medal 1964 (state game); Dailey News footballer of the year 1964; Channel 7 Footballer of the year 1964: 65 Sheffield Shield games.

A champion in an era when multi-talented players could juggle football and cricket.  One Easter Saturday Derek Chadwick played in a cricket final in the morning and then pulled on the boots for East Perth in the afternoon.  He hit nine centuries for WA and was unlucky not to play Test cricket, although he toured NZ with an Australian second XI.  He made his league debut as an 18-year-old in 1959 and two years later played for WA when it famously won the Australian carnival in Brisbane.  Cruel irony – he played in seven grand finals bud didn’t win one.  His 14 year career sandwiched between East Perth flags in 1959 and 1972.  In 1959 he couldn’t clinch a spot in the strong East Perth team and in 1972, he retired mid-seasons after suffering a serious blow to the kidneys.  One of the great wingmen to have played the game in WA, “He had wonderful ball control, could baulk, prop and blind turn around opponents,” wrote Geoff Christian in The West Australian.