So, how did it get to this?

Roughly two months into the 1999 season the West Coast Eagles were sitting at 8-1, staring at a top four finish and the opportunity to host a couple of finals at Subiaco Oval.

It was a near perfect start and put the club in position A to resume as a powerful force in the AFL and strive for its third premiership.

But when the qualifying season ended, the Eagles were in fifth place and trying to manufacture some form of recovery. And the answer to the question of why, was obvious. The Eagles had imploded. Someone hit the self-destruct button.

Take the most senior off-field authorities away from any organisation and they are going to struggle. The Eagles lost their chairman, chief executive and senior coach. That will derail any campaign and it certainly destroyed this opportunity.

It started when long-serving administrator Brian Cook resigned and as he headed back to his home State of Victoria to assume a similar with Geelong, cub chairman Murray McHenry followed suit. Both had been integral parts of the organisation for a decade or more – in the case of McHenry 12 ½ years as a director and the last couple as chairman.

While those off-field ructions might be dealt with and have minimal impact on team performance the imminent departure of Mick Malthouse was an entirely different story. It completed tipped the balance.

Through the course of the year Malthouse, who had another year to run on his contract, was rumoured to be heading back to Melbourne to coach one of his home State’s ‘big’ clubs.

It started when Malthouse was spotted mid-season having a coffee with Channel 9 personality and Collingwood president Eddie McGuire. ‘Nothin in it’ was the chorused response, but the rumours on Malthouse going home gathered momentum every week, with the strong pull of family at the core of the reason.

Eventually Malthouse declared his intent to return to Melbourne to be closer to his ageing parents, that situation formally revealed on the eve of the club’s qualifying final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG.

While there is no doubt that entire situation deflated the Eagles season, the air was further taken out of the campaign with Chris Waterman forced to retire on the eve of the season with a serious neck injury. He and former skipper John Worsfold rode in the back of convertibles for a pre-game lap of honour ahead of the round two clash against Brisbane at Subiaco Oval.

In addition, the curtain fell on the careers of Andy Lovell (at the end of the 1998 campaign), star half-forward Brett Heady, who played just one game during the year, and Chris Mainwaring also called time on his career.

There has never been a more definitive changing of the guard. A clearer end of an era.

The loss of Mainwaring might not have been as impactful as it once would have been because in effect he had had little influence on the squad since seriously injuring his knee three years earlier. He played just five games in this season, but managed to reach the 200-game milestone along the way.

Dean Kemp and Peter Matera also racked up double centuries while another of the club’s luminaries, Guy McKenna, became the first Eagle to the 250-game milestone.

With those senior players closer to the end of their careers than the beginning, this was seen as the last opportunity for another flag. Since 1994 the club had maintained its place in the top half of the table without seriously challenging for a premiership.

There was also a group of exciting players coming beneath that group who were establishing themselves as class players in the competition, with Jason Ball notching up 100 games, Phil Matera, Andrew Donnelly and Michael Braun clocking up 50 games.

While the season – and an era – finished anti-climatically, there were some great highlights.

Scott Cummings became the first player in club history to win the Coleman Medal and that explosive start to the season provided some captivating moments.

In round one against Fremantle, for instance, the Eagles hung on for a pulsating four-point win. Malthouse and his players might not have enjoyed the tight finish, given they led by 40 points at the last change, but it was thrilling for the fans.

A week later they trailed at every change – not by much, just a few points at the end of each quarter  against Brisbane – but steered their way through the maze to victory on the back of a match-winning five-goal performance from Fraser Gehrig.

Then there was the round three performance against Collingwood at Victoria Park, built around a seven-goal haul from Cummings who proved tough to tie down. He was also dextrous – and he needed to be – to avoid the missiles, full cans of beer, being lobbed in his direction by unfriendly Pies fans.

Next was an 11-goal win over Essendon at Subiaco Oval. The Bombers were held to just three goals for the match, two of them kicked in the first quarter, on a day when the Eagles were at their ruthless best.

They scored a similarly authoritative victory against the Western Bulldogs, too, but it all unravelled.

The Eagles managed only win in the last eight and among the losses was the painful first defeat by cross-town rivals Fremantle in the Western Derby. The Eagles had won nine domestic clashes in a row. But in round 16 the Dockers held sway throughout and won by 47 points. It was an emphatic way to break the big brother domination.

Two of the losses in the last three rounds were by just two points – against Hawthorn and the Bulldogs – and it consigned the Eagles to finish outside the top four.

They did find one last burst of energy though and when they travelled to the MCG to confront the Bulldogs in a qualifying final they gave rise that there could be a fairytale end to the Malthouse era – which was announced in the lead-up – by scoring a telling five-point win.

Unfortunately, a week later the relationship between Malthouse and West Coast was severed unspectacularly with a 54-point loss to Carlton.

It was time to hand over the baton to Michael Smith (chairman), Trevor Nisbett (CEO) and Ken Judge (coach).