Souvenir Edition • August 6, 2011 25 YEARS STRONG
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Souvenir edition • August 6, 2011 25 YEARS STRONG 1992 1994 2006 MainMainn image:image: SteveSSteve FerrierFFerriier Happily helping the West Coast Eagles soar We’re as mad about the footy as you. Which is why we’re so happy to become a sponsor of the West Coast Eagles in their 25th year. And in 2012 as we grow in our partnership we’ll be on the guernsey. Go the Eagles! To find out what else we’re doing across our home state, visit WA4EVER.com Bank of Western Australia Ltd ABN 22 050 494 454 AFSL 236872. HOST11-K2061 The Weekend West • August 6, 2011 Know the score: In round 22 last year John Worsfold coached his 3 210th game for West Coast, which is one more than he played. 25 YEARS STRONG WORDS: MARK DUFFIELD INDEX Malthouse looks back 5 Worsfold’s vision 6 Woosha the messiah The Norm Smith club 8,9 Eagles set standard 10 f it wasn’t offi cial before, it is now. their player group lived like rock stars off it. It took Worsfold to the very edge of Priddis’ miracle game 11 West Coast coach John Worsfold The way back from those days, which coaching credibility. He kept pronouncing Our All-Star team 12,13 has usurped Mick Malthouse included two grand fi nals and a premier- that his team was on track when the 25 magic moments 14 as the most infl uential fi gure in the ship but unravelled with the sacking of rest of the football world was convinced Unsung hero 16,17 highly successful 25-year history Ben Cousins, the departure of premiership the Eagles had reversed their position The unlucky ones 19 of the football club. captain Chris Judd and a series of scandals from the success-drenched but The immortals 20 IThe clincher has been Worsfold’s that rocked one of the AFL’s most power- scandal-riddled days of 2005 successful rebuild of his team — a project ful clubs to its very foundations, was a and 2006. Cummings’ fondest game 21 three years in the making and unleashed painful exercise. The club plunged to the Worsfold was subject to Every player who’s ever played 22 on an unsuspecting AFL competition in bottom of the ladder for the fi rst time in its criticism and ridicule and his stunning fashion during the 2011 season. history and missed fi nals three years in a sacking became a matter of not THE TEAM Malthouse, who made the Eagles a row — another fi rst. if but when. Editor: Ray Wilson national powerhouse in the early 1990s, The ‘smart money’ suggested Design: Steve Penn coached their fi rst premiership team the coach would be axed early this Contributors: Mark Duffi eld, in 1992 and another in 1994 and never season when it was predicted the Steve Butler, Ray Wilson, missed a fi nals series during 10 years in Eagles would be staring down the Craig O’Donoghue, Dale Miller Perth, made for a hard target to chase barrel of a 2-6 win-loss record. Pictures: The West Australian down. Now, you can fi le those theories and Getty Images But his dual premiership captain along with Y2K doom and Bob Illustration: Don Lindsay has got him now, imposing his own Hawke’s “by 1990 no Australian child fi ngerprint on a club not just because of will be living in poverty” pronounce- attaining and regaining on-fi eld success, ments. but because of his role in reclaiming Worsfold, known for his unbend- the club’s soul. ing will during a 209-game career West Coast rarely lose their way when he never left anything on on the fi eld. They won more games in the fi eld, has now prevailed as a their debut season under Ron Alexan- coach. der in 1987 (11) than any fi rst-year team He hasn’t just remade the Eagles’ since. They made the fi nals sooner — in playing list, he also has helped their second year — than any team since. rebuild the club’s soul and restored They played in a grand fi nal in 1991 in its place in the community. their fi fth year, won a premiership in their In that context, West Coast’s 25th sixth year and only Hawthorn (four fl ags) anniversary should not just be a have bettered their three in 25 years in the celebration of what the club has been competition. but also what it has now become. West Coast have missed the fi nals just No person has had more to do with seven times in that time, that than Worsfold, the captain who another record no refused to surrender and the coach other club of their who refused to bend, winning out era has matched. over the odds on both fronts. But they lost their way off -fi eld in the late 1990s and 2000s. While still formidable on the park, a section of West Coast Eagles and Seven. A Centimetre Perfect partnership from day one. Now that’s special. CONGRATULATIONS WEST COAST EAGLES, WE ARE PROUD TO HAVE SHAREDARED IN YOUR SUCCESS. The Weekend West • August 6, 2011 Know the score: In 1991 coach Mick Malthouse’s winning percentage 5 was an incredible 81 after the Eagles won 21 games — but not the fl ag. 25 YEARS STRONG WORDS: STEVE BUTLER Eagles take giant strides after road trips from hell The making of West Coast as an AFL powerhouse came through resilience in defeat in 1990, according to dual Eagles premiership coach Mick Malthouse gruelling six-week travel “The club had never won a fi nal and was mates when he fi rst addressed them. But “And I was just astounded that players schedule, including a the absolute underdog in the semi against a new standard was soon established with had an understanding of who played in preliminary fi nal loss to Melbourne. But we beat them and I the help of Malthouse’s confi dantes Rob- the under-19s down at West Perth, but Essendon, saw West Coast thought that it was not only the guts of the bie Wiley (Richmond), Ian Miller (Fitzroy), probably couldn’t tell you who played travel to Carrara on the organisation, but the guts of those players. Tim Gepp (Richmond) and George Young centre half-forward for Essendon. Gold Coast, Kardinia Park “What a wonderful testament to courage (St Kilda), who had all played in the VFL. “But we alleviated all that very quickly. Ato play Geelong before four consecutive and sustainability, you just knew we were “There were a few hidden snags in That player group opened up and accepted fi nals at Waverley Park in Melbourne to on to something fantastic.” the stream, so to speak, that I was very what I was trying to get across. They fi nish the 1990 season. Malthouse remains West Coast’s most unaware of,” Malthouse said. “One was embraced it and in the end, they owned it. “My favourite recollection at Colling- decorated coach after guiding them the fear of and the record at the MCG. I “The more we bled for our team, the wood is a team photograph from the 2002 through a remarkable 10 seasons follow- was told at the time that there had been more we created the team.” grand fi nal, but my favourite time looking ing his move to Perth late in 1989. no West Australian side ever, whether it Malthouse was cautious about naming back at West Coast was our last six games The 1980 Richmond premiership be junior, State of Origin or West Coast or his best players during his time at West in 1990,” Malthouse said. defender initially regarded himself a anyone, who had ever won at the MCG. Coast. “That to me was the makings of our distant third to win the job behind Robert “I was also concerned when people at Leigh Matthews and Wayne Carey are football club. We had six games away and Walls and Wayne Schimmelbusch. the football club told me we needed to be the best two best players he had seen but that was absolutely the makings of our After winning the post, Malthouse fi ve or six goals better than the opposition quickly added that four-times Eagles club 1991 run (to the grand fi nal) and our 1992 was overwhelmed by the WA parochial- to be able to win away and I saw them champion Glen Jakovich had regularly premiership. ism, both in the vehement dislike for both as highly negative infl uences. conquered Carey under his watch. “There was no TV on the planes and Victorian football and in the way the “It was so wrong to even remotely have “I had a real soft spot for Glen, he is a rip- even an airline strike, but there were no Eagles players coveted their WAFL teams those things on your mind. I was told we ping bloke and I loved the way he played,” complaints. On the sixth trip of the run we more than their opportunity in the new couldn’t travel (and win), and the game he said. “If he was a centre half-back in went from Perth to Kalgoorlie, Kalgoorlie national competition. style was skewiff for AFL football as far as Melbourne, he would be voted in the best to Mildura and Mildura to Melbourne and He recalled a mad rush by players to sit I was concerned because it was very off en- 10 or 12 players who have gone around.” there was not one complaint.