The last time I went to Charles Riley was in 1987. I scored an early goal for European Travellers Scandinavian in the Perth Amateur and Social Soccer Association against someone or other – I was useless for the rest of the game but I didn’t mind at all.

This time it was a WAAFL colts game between North Beach and Fremantle CBC (who have a few players of my acquaintance). At “my” game there was a little, cute manual scoreboard but my eye was taken by the scoreboard at the main ground. It was real scoreboard with a couple of kids operating it… both boards had those funny, hard to see from close up numbers… but they needed close-up people to run them not some kind of electronics.

Under coach Norm Smith Medallist Bill Duckworth North Beach won the WAAFL A-grade premiership in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The success shows at the magnificent facility at Charles Riley.

This year North Beach, under coach former Port Adelaide, West Coast, South Fremantle and Fremantle player David Hynes, the Tigers have finished the qualifying rounds on top of the A-grade premiership ladder.