Welcome to the third episode of Rosco's Rivalries - thanks to Hungry Jack's.
Our inaugural club captain relives some of our classic clashes with Essendon.
Watch the video, read the article take the quiz below!
https://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/rivalry
Round 8, 1991
As odd as it sounds, two men connected by the Richmond bloodline as premiership players during one of the great eras in Tigers history, were as alike as they were different.
It sounds confusing, but Kevin Sheedy, a two-time premiership hero, and Michael Malthouse, an integral part of the club’s 1980 triumph, were tough and uncompromising on the field.
As coaches they were an intriguing contrast, despite taking those traits into the second phase of their football lives. Both were astute in different ways; Sheedy loved a cause and used it to motivate his players, Malthouse, upon arrival in WA saw a need to instil a hard edge into a highly talented group.
They held mutual respect bot loathed losing to the other.
Their passion for their respective clubs produced something special, an early rivalry between Essendon and the West Coast Eagles.
In 1993 Sheedy created a lasting tradition when he emerged from the coach’s box waving his Bomber jacket over his head after a spine-tingling victory at the MCG.
He was always up to shenanigans and two years earlier when the Bombers hosted the Eagles in one of the great qualifying games at Windy Hill (Essendon’s home ground), Sheedy had club staff tie down the wind sock so Malthouse and his cohorts had no read on the fluky local breeze.
Amid that by-play unfolded a spectacularly entertaining game between two undefeated teams in round eight.
While Sheedy might have enjoyed a snigger at the wind sock stunt, it did nothing to impede the visitors who exploded out of the blocks with a five-goal opening quarter.
From there, Essendon gradually chipped away at the lead and when Simon Madden kicked his third goal in the middle of the third term, they opened up a nine point lead.
But Essendon had a few issues – Michael Long and Darren Bewick were injured and Paul Salmon was hobbling around in the forward 50.
The Eagles sensed their opponents were wounded and went in for the kill.
With Craig Turley, Chris Mainwaring and Dwayne Lamb ubiquitous through the middle, Peter Sumich a strong focal point up forward (kicking five goals) and the class of Peter Matera, the Eagles held off a fast-finishing Essendon.
Late goals from Mark Harvey and Peter Cransberg closed the gap to within a goal, before the Eagles proved resolute in the last two minutes.
Round 18, 1996
The creative juices were flowing in the respective coach’s boxes at Subiaco Oval on August 4, 1996.
The starting ruckmen were Andrew Donnelly and Scott Lucas on another riveting day. The Eagles were forced to innovate to some extent with Ryan Turnbull ruled out pre-match and Shane Bond, who had played a full WAFL game the day before, was a late inclusion.
While makeshift rucks Donnelly and Lucas went at it, Ian Downsborough lined up against Steve Alessio at centre half-back. They eventually split their time in both roles, but to add to the quirks of this game, Scott Cummings kicked two goals for Essendon in the opening quarter before spending the entire second half in defence.
Peter Sumich kicked five goals (and a poster on quarter-time) in the first half as the Eagles assumed early ascendancy.
The Bombers, however, responded with a scintillating nine-goal third term taking a 17-point lead into the last quarter on the back of some magic from James Hird, Mark Mercuri and Che Cockatoo-Collins.
The Eagles surged again, the old firm of Guy McKenna, Dean Kemp, Andy Lovell and Mitchell White were simply outstanding while young guns Ben Cousins and Chad Morrison excelled.
Shane Sikora, in his debut game, had the chance to put the result to bed when he received a free kick and 50 metres with a tick over 90s remaining. He hit the post, but the Eagles held sway in a pulsating finish to win by six points.
Round 22, 2007
It was only fitting that the West Coast Eagles should host Kevin Sheedy’s 635th and final game as coach at Essendon. And, as it should have been – on a day when champion midfielder James Hird also retired – there was a level of drama befitting of the occasion.
Leading by 51 points shortly before three quarter-time, the Eagles were in cruise control, Chad Fletcher, Rowan Jones and Dean Cox were doing their thing and life was good.
But Hird, in his 253rd game and Sheedy, at the completion of 27 seasons at Essendon, implored the Bombers to give their all and they found something extra to close within two points in the last quarter before finally West Coast put the game to rest.
The Bomber charge came on the back of a dazzling performance from Scott Lucas, who kicked seven last quarter goals to give his team the opportunity to snatch an improbably victory.
In the end, though, West Coast steadied and produced a deserved victory.
Thanks to the efforts of half-forward Jones, midfielder Fletcher, defenders Darren Glass and Adam Hunter, ruckman n Cox and young forward Mitch Morton, who bagged three goals, West Coast scored an important victory.
It carried the club to third position on the ladder and put in a strong position for finals assault.
Round 16, 2010
After seven successive losses there was a feeling within the inner sanctum that the West Coast Eagles were working towards ending the rot.
And so it transpired at Etihad Stadium on this wintry Melbourne night when the roof over the stadium shielded fans from the cold, but had Eagles fans been exposed to the elements, they would not have felt the chill.
The performance of their team would have insulated them from the icy breeze and so hot was small forward Mark LeCras running, that he alone would have radiated enough warmth to immunise the faithful from the Arctic conditions.
No one attending the game had any idea how spectacularly West Coast would terminate its own cold snap or that LeCras would produce such an amazing personal effort. He kicked all four of West Coast’s first-quarter goals, finished with an amazing 12 goal effort to guide his team to its long-awaited triumph.
His even dozen was a record for an individual in the 10-year existence of the Stadium and was the biggest haul by a West Coast player since Scott Cummings kicked 14 goals against Adelaide at Subiaco Oval in 2000.
With rookie listed players Ashton Hams, Andrew Strik and Lewis Stevenson leading the way, in conjunction with another young Eagle, Ashley Smith, in his second game, from about the 10-minute mark of the opening term the Eagles dominated.
It all added up to an emphatic 32-point victory.
Head-to-head
West Coast Eagles v Essendon
Played: 54
Won: 25
Lost: 29
Highest score: 26.19 (175) round 2, 1988
Lowest score: 1.12 (18) round 5, 1989
Greatest winning margin: 99 points – round 2, 1988
Greatest losing margin: 142 points – round 15, 1989
Longest winning sequence: 4 games – round 8, 1991 to round 1, 1993; round 19, 2008 to round 16, 2010
