THERE have been eight hat-tricks of goals in the 35-year history of the finals of WA's one-time premier knockout competition, the D'Orsogna Cup - but probably none more remarkable than that achieved by Steve Duckworth in 1990.
Rockingham City striker Steve bagged three goals in a thrilling final showdown with Perth Italia at Bayswater Oval on October 21, 1990 - but ended up on the losing side.
Italia twice came from behind to win 4-3 and spoil what would have been a fairytale come true for Duckworth, at 34 the oldest man on the pitch.
He twice beat Italia keeper Chris Barbas with superb chipped efforts, and then with a header which gave lower-league Rocky a 3-2 advantage over their Super League opponents deep into the second half.
An upset looked on the cards when Italia defender Shaun Murphy was red-carded, but Peter Murphy equalised for the Cup favourites a few minutes later and Gerry Christie, who had earlier scored from the penalty spot, got the winner in the 81st minute. Lou Collova had bagged Italia's first goal.
Duckworth's only consolation was that he became the first player to get a hat-trick in a losing D'Orsogna Cup final side. It will never be bettered, for D'Orsogna terminated its sponsorship of the competition in 1995, having begun in 1960.
Perth Azzurri striker Nino Segon was the first player with a hat-trick (in fact he got four goals) in the 7-3 win over East Fremantle Tricolore in 1960 - but Tricolore's goal machine Johnny McInroy went one better with five goals in the 9-0 win over Fremantle City in 1962. It's the most any individual player has scored in a cup final.
Another Tricolore player, Graham Oughton, was the next hat-trick man with a triple in the 4-1 win over Cracovia in 1966, while McInroy hogged the spotlight in 1968 with four in the 6-0 win over Cracovia.
Robert Earl got three for Inglewood in the 5-1 win over Spearwood Dalmatinac in 1977, while the next hat-trick hero was Frank Smerilli in Dalmatinac's 4-1 triumph over Tricolore in 1983.
The only other player to enjoy a triple treat in a D'Orsogna Cup final was Keven Elliott, whose hat-trick sealed a 3-2 win for Dalies over Stirling Macedonia in 1994.
Elliott can also lay claim to another D'Orsogna Cup record. He is the only player to have scored in four cup finals.
Apart from his hat-trick in 1994, he scored one goal in the 1983 final, two in the 1985 final (Dalies beat Azzurri 3-1) and one in the last D'Orsogna-sponsored event in 1995 as Dalies beat Inglewood 3-2.
FOOTNOTE: Hat-tricks in cup finals are hard to come by.
Geoff Hurst is the only player to get three in a World Cup final (for England against Germany in 1966) and there have been only three hat-tricks in the long history of finals of the English FA Cup - in 1890, 1894 and the most famous, Stan Mortensen's treble in Blackpools's 4-3 win over Bolton in 1953.
There have been four hat-tricks in Scottish Cup finals - Dr John Smith for Queens Park in 1881; Jimmy Quinn for Celtic in 1904; Dixie Deans for Celtic in 1972; and Gordon Durie for Rangers in 1996.
Dixie Deans, incidentally, went on to play for Adelaide City for three seasons in the NSL, scoring 30 goals in 57 games.

PIC ONE: Steve Duckworth. PIC TWO: Nino Segon. PIC THREE: Johnny McInroy. PIC FOUR: Keven Elliott