As the West Coast Eagles prepared for their ninth season in the AFL – and the first where they would share the football spotlight with a home-town rival – there was good news early in the new year when Glen Jakovich signed a contract extension.

The star centre half-back had already won two Club Champion Awards – he would make it three at the end of the 1995 season – and was one of the outstanding key position players in the AFL. To have him commit to a four-year deal before the new season had even sprung into life was a great fillip for the club.

While Jakovich’s signature was an important development the club, which had predicted a 10 percent down turn in membership and sponsorship revenue with the arrival of Fremantle on the scene, saw its financial position flourish rather than flounder.

Membership grew by 15 percent to 27,000 while the sponsorship return exceeded $12m.

It provided a solid base for both the on and off-field operations and gave rise to optimism that the club could make a serious defence of the premiership it won in 1994.

When the club opened with victories against St Kilda, Collingwood and North Melbourne there was genuine early season momentum.

In round one against St Kilda the Eagles endured by 46 points, with 19 of the selected having played in 1994 premiership – the exceptions being injured midfielder Don Pyke and key forward Jason Ball, who played at Swan Districts.

While West Coast produced a dominant performance, it also came at a price with champion forward Peter Sumich injuring his ankle in the third quarter and being forced from the field. It would prove to be a challenging year for the Eagles star, who would play only five games for the season as a result of a frustrating injury run.

The following week Ball, who kicked nine goals for Swan Districts, was recalled for the game against Collingwood at the MCG. The Eagles produced a memorable comeback against the Pies, recovering from 20 points down 13 minutes into the last term to win by four points.

Ball kicked four goals while Dean Kemp, Peter Matera and Don Pyke were exceptional and Guy McKenna and David Hart, each of whom played their 150^th games, were also in good touch.

The third leg of the blemish-free start to the season came when the Eagles produced a sublime performance against North Melbourne, in Brett Heady’s 100^th game. Peter Matera, John Worsfold and Michael Brennan might have been absent through injury, but the Eagles still carried too much class for the Roos,

Glen Jakovich again proved the master of Wayne Carey, while Ryan Turnbull was in good form in the ruck, nullifying the impact of talented big man Corey McKernan.

The sublime start to the season was interrupted by a disappointing fade-out against Adelaide, losing to the Crows after taking a 10-point lead into the final term. Worse than the result, though, was another serious injury this time to hard working wingman Chris Mainwaring.

Some of the Eagles senior players were being struck down and Mainwaring would miss the next 13 weeks after having shoulder surgery.

West Coast responded to that loss with a return to the winners’ list against Melbourne at the WACA Ground, but then confronted Carlton at the re-named Optus Oval (Princes Park). The venue might have changed its identity, but the result was similar in a game that marked the return to senior action of Craig Turley, while Ball kicked four goals.

That was the lead in to the historic first Western Derby at Subiaco Oval.

Amid much fanfare, the build-up was finals-like as West Coast prepared to play the Fremantle for the first time. The attention of the football world focused on the match, with Prime Minister Paul Keating and AFL Commission Chairman John Kennedy on hand to open the Town and Country (now ANZ) Stand on the southern side of the ground.

They officially opened the John Worsfold Room, testimony to the impact that the West Coast Eagles skipper had enjoyed on the game in the club’s brief history. To have a room named in his honour and to be in the middle of his playing career was unprecedented.

As if to put the punctuation mark on that distinction, Worsfold ensured he had an impact on both sides of the fence leading an aggressive, ruthless and single-minded attack on both the ball and the opposition as the Eagles scored an emphatic 85-point victory.

He collected young Docker Winston Abraham with a bone-jarring hip and shoulder early in the game to announce the Eagles’ intent.

Brett Heady was the star of the game, played in front of 40,356 fans, kicking five goals and taking the mark of the match in the opening term. The Eagles, boasting 18 players with an AFL premiership, dominated the match and were relentless from start to finish.

Perhaps the strong focus from the Eagles on the derby contributed to the being slightly off their game against Essendon the following week as the Bombers pushed home harder than the hosts and won by 18 points.

Chris Lewis was also reported for striking Gavin Wanganeen and was subsequently suspended for two weeks.

The Eagles won against Fitzroy, in a game transferred from Optus Oval to Bruce Stadium in Canberra, on a day when Heady again dislocated a shoulder and were then too good for the Bears at Subiaco Oval.

The round 11 confrontation with Richmond saw the Eagles lose to the Tigers for the first time on Malthouse’s watch, again at Optus Oval, but they rebounded against Sydney at home. The final margin was a solitary behind, but the game was made to look tighter than actuality after Swans champion Tony Lockett kicked the last goal after the siren.

A heavy defeat at the hands of Geelong at Kardinia Park was followed by a stirring victory against Hawthorn at Waverley. Ashley McIntosh, in his first game for 12 weeks, was outstanding while Turley kicked four goals and Brayden Lyle showed his growing competency as a run-with player, impeding the impact of accomplished Hawk John Platten.

The Eagles, with Ball and McIntosh igniting them up forward, kicked six goals in 20 minutes to put St Kilda out of play in the opening term, and then Lewis kicked six goals to sink Collingwood at Subiaco Oval.

In the last five weeks there were losses to North Melbourne and Carlton, the benchmark of the season, by just a point at Subiaco, and the qualifying rounds were completed with another emphatic win over Fremantle.

The Eagles finished fifth and played Essendon in a qualifying final, but faded in the second half as the Bombers carved out an important 19-point win. Fraser Gehrig, who had made a good start in senior football, kicked three goals.

The next assignment was a show-down with North Melbourne in the first semi-final at the MCG. The Eagles were always in trouble and the curtain fell on their season courtesy of a 58-point defeat.