 A long lean spell followed West Adelaide's successful early years in the national league.The club narrowly avoided relegation in the early 1980s and was eventually sent back to the state league after the 1986 season, when the league scrapped the conference system it had used for three seasons.The club spent four of the next five seasons in the relative limbo of the South Australian competition, interrupted by a brief return to the national flight in 1989-90.