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Perth big magnet for tennis legend

In 1965, Margaret Smith ruled the sporting world.

Aged just 23, she had already won 24 tennis grand slam titles - including five successive Australian Open singles crowns.

But while Smith, born and raised in Albury, NSW, was dominating the tennis world, there was only one relaxed, sunny part of it she really wanted to be in - Perth.

"You didn't have family with you and you had to play every week," the woman who later became Margaret Court said.

"It was a lonely life and I used to get very homesick. I love my nation and so that is what I thought - I have had enough play and decided that Perth was it. And 49 years later, here I still am."

In an astonishing decision, the world's best player decided to retire at the top of her game to live in WA.

But then Margaret Court was an astonishing sporting talent.

She had been told at age 13 by Australian tennis legend Frank Sedgman that she could be the first Australian woman to win Wimbledon, and eight years later she did.

In 1965, she won nine titles at grand slam events, coming within one match of the grand slam of all four singles titles in one year. She also led Australia to a Federation Cup triumph.

But wherever she went and won in the world, her time spent in Perth with friend and training partner Helen Plaisted stayed with her.

"There was something about the place. I loved the climate, the outdoor life," Mrs Court said.

"And I always thought when I came to play here as a teenager . . . if I was going to live anywhere, it would probably be Perth."

When she arrived, she found a city of space and sunshine, perfect for the outdoor life.

She also found her husband Barry, the son of Charles Court and the brother of Richard Court, who would later become premiers of WA.

It was also exactly the place the England cricket team needed when they - for the first time - flew to Australia for an Ashes tour in October that year.

In stark contrast to the modern-day comforts afforded modern international sporting arrivals, the MCC booked their team in economy class, with the players complaining on arrival of cramps, sore limbs, stomach bugs, a mystery virus and jet lag.

An unlikely date in Moora was how John Edrich, Fred Titmus and the rest began their recovery, followed by two more games against WA teams in Perth.

But while tennis and cricket were popular summer pastimes, one sport united - and divided - the city like no other. Football.

Round one of the 1965 WAFL competition attracted nearly 40,000 fans through the gates, and six months later 46,744 crammed into Subiaco Oval for the grand final. That equated to about 10 per cent of the city's population.

"Football was at least as big, if not bigger, 50 years ago than now," WAFL historian Greg Wardell-Johnson says. "If you compare Perth's population then with now, and consider that on any weekend now there might be 40,000 attend all matches, then relatively speaking the game was bigger.

"There are more diverse attractions of a weekend now and people have more advanced home viewing systems on which to enjoy footy, but certainly it was a vital aspect of Perth society back in 1965."

That grand final pitched East Fremantle, the previous season's runners-up, against Swan Districts, who had climbed from sixth in 1964 to become runaway minor premiers and hot flag favourites.

A major reason for the rise was New Zealand-born Bill Walker, who had gone from shearer to superstar in just a few years and had just been named the 1965 Sandover medallist.

A rover with a small powerful frame and an eye for goal, Walker was almost lost to football when he heeded some radio advice from legendary captain-coach Jack Sheedy that he was too small for the big time. But persistence from Swans and perseverance from Walker brought them together in 1961 for a first premiership.

"I just used to love playing the game, getting fit and being competitive - and then I'd go back to the farm and put the old hat back on," Walker says now. "The year before we had had 13 players who made the State squad and eight of them came back badly injured. In 1965, we basically had the same players and we had a pretty good year."

For Walker, it had been his best yet.

"One of my fears of being a good player was the fear of failure - and winning a Sandover makes everyone think that you are a good player," he said. "The crowd then expects you to be a good player, and my consistency in playing football over the years was brought about by that pride."

At three-quarter-time of the 1965 football finale, the perfect year looked assured for Walker. But after nine goals to two in the final term, Old Easts stole the flag - and Walker still burns over it, half a century on.