Round six recalled

If West Coast Eagles fans were asked to nominate their favourite days in the club’s 33-year history, excluding finals, Saturday April 15, 2000 would certainly rate among them.

It was the day West Coast beat Fremantle 28.10 (178) to 9.7 (61) at Subiaco.

As the man in the outer might say …. It doesn’t get any better than that!!

Besides the very obvious, it was a special day for two reasons more significant than just getting one over the cross-town rivals.

It was and still is the biggest derby win, and was the biggest positive form reversal in club history.

So, as we continue the coronavirus pandemic footy flashback series, it is the headline story in the “best of round six”.

The Eagles had lost by 81 points to Geelong in round five, 2000 at Kardinia Park, when David Mensch kicked a career-best six goals and Brad Sholl, David Clarke and Peter Riccardi split the Brownlow Medal votes.

It had been a topsy-turvy start to the season, with a 43-point win over North and a 12-point loss to Sydney followed by a round three draw with St Kilda and a 114-point win over Adelaide before the bad loss to Geelong.

Coach Ken Judge, in his first season with the Eagles, made a tough decision to drop Chris Lewis and Andrew Donnelly to recall Laurie Bellotti and welcome Guy McKenna back from suspension.

It was a decision which effectively ended the career of the brilliant Lewis. He was a round six emergency, played in the WAFL in round seven and promptly retired.

But Judge, coaching his first derby after West Coast’s 9-0 record against Fremantle had been broken late in 1999, was vindicated when the club rewrote the record books in derby #11.

With Darren Glass and Chad Fletcher playing their first derby and Phil Read his 50^th AFL game, the Eagles blitzed the Dockers after a reasonably even first quarter.

It was 23.7 to 6.7 after quarter-time when West Coast had led 5.3 to 3.0 at the first change. And the Eagles’ second half of 17.6 (108) was and still is the highest-scoring half by either side in a derby.

Scott Cummings, in his second season with the Eagles, kicked a derby record 10 goals to win the Glendinning Medal and picked up three Brownlow Medal votes.

His powerhouse performance bettered the previous derby best of six goals, set by Fremantle’s Tony Modra in 1999 and 20 years on stands above all other individual goal-kicking feats in WA football’s battle of battles.

David Wirrpanda (26 possessions) and Ben Cousins (24 possessions) shared the minor Brownlow votes while Chad Morrison kicked an equal career-best four goals in a brilliant team performance.

The 117-point margin bettered West Coast’s 85-point win over Fremantle in derby #1 and is still the biggest win in a derby history that now stretches to 50 meetings between the WA clubs.

Moreover, the 198-point turnaround from an 81-point loss to a 117-point win was and still is the biggest in the Eagles’ 779-game AFL history.

It surpassed by a solitary point the 197-point turnaround from round 18 to round 19 in 1995, when the Eagles followed a 62-point loss to North Melbourne with a club record 135-point win over Adelaide.

What is the biggest turnaround in AFL history?

That is 235 points to the credit of the 1992 Hawthorn side which, after losing by 75 points to St Kilda in round 19, beat Essendon by 160 points when Jason Dunstall kicked 12.8 and was beaten by teammate Tony Hall (34 possessions and three goals) for the three Brownlow votes.

Round six at a glance

West Coast, 22-11 in round one matches, 17-16 in round two, 21-1-10 in round three, 21-2 in round four and 16-1-14 in round five, have enjoyed a 19-14 win/loss record in round six matches. That despite a 4-6 run through the decade of the 2000s.

They’ve never played Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, GWS or Hawthorn in round six, and have played more than half their round six matches against three sides – they are 4-2 against the Western Bulldogs, 3-4 against Fremantle and 3-1 against North.

They are unbeaten against Melbourne (3-0), Richmond (2-0), Collingwood (1-0) and Sydney (1-0), have split results with Geelong (1-1) and Port Adelaide (1-1), and on the wrong side of the ledger against Carlton (0-2), Essendon (0-1), Fitzroy (0-1) and St Kilda (0-1).

Having played 19 of 33 round six games in Perth, they are 11-5 at Subiaco, 0-2 at the WACA and  1-0 at Optus Stadium. And interstate they are 4-1 at the MCG, 1-0 at Waverley and Adelaide Oval, 1-1 at Princes Park, 0-1 at Kardinia Park and Football Park, and 0-3 at Docklands.

A great Eagle

Rob Wiley, born in Kalgoorlie and educated at Scotch College in Perth, was a 1980 Richmond premiership player and an eight-time fairest and best winner, dual premiership player and coach with Perth in the WAFL. He once had 42 possessions and kicked 10.4 in a WAFL game against West Perth.

From an Eagles perspective, he was simply born at the wrong time. Ten years later and he’d be one of the Eagles’ club’s all-time greats.

Yet still, despite playing only 18 games with the club in 1987, he has been a great Eagles man.

Assistant-coach under Mick Malthouse of the 1992-94 premiership sides, he had earlier made a comeback at 32 after three years out of the AFL to aid the club’s introduction to the AFL in 1987.

He played only 18 games in blue and gold before focussing on his off-field expertise, but counts  among them the club’s first game at the MCG, when, by chance, he lined up against Richmond and 1980 premiership teammates Jimmy Jess, Mark Lee, Michael Roach and Dale Weightman.

He played in the first ever game at the WACA, when West Coast beat the Brisbane Bears in 1987.

He played in West Coast’s first game at Princes Park, Moorabbin, the SCG and Carrara.

And, as much as he’d like to forget it, he played in the club’s first 100-point loss – by 130 points to Sydney at the SCG in Round 16.

But despite all the historic moments and his emotional catch-up with Richmond, there is one game he will always remember very fondly. It was his best in blue and gold.

It was in round six 1987, in his 99^th AFL game overall, and West Coast’s first “big” win … if 74 points is considered “big” and 14 points, the club’s biggest win in the first five rounds, is not.

It was against North Melbourne at Subiaco in a game in which Wiley, Ross Glendinning and John Annear provided 408 of the Eagles’ total AFL experience of 525 games.

He had 28 possessions and kicked three goals as West Coast won 24.18 (162) to 13.10 (88).

Despite Annear’s extraordinary game of 34 possessions and five goals, Wiley picked up the club’s first round six three-vote rating in the Brownlow Medal. Dwayne Lamb (31 possessions) received two votes and Murray Wrensted (30 possessions) received one vote.