If senior coach Mick Malthouse considered that his squad’s demographic was changing 12 months earlier, his opinion was fortified in 1997.

While senior players Peter Matera and Dean Kemp filled the top two positions in the Club Champion Award, the group behind was filled with the next generation.

In third position was Paul Symmons, a hard-running wingman who made the most of his opportunities, and on his tail was another emerging midfielder Chad Morrison.

It was just as well those players pushed up as required, because the 1997 campaign was another that was compromised by a heavy injury toll.

The season started reasonably well, with West Coast and Sydney playing the first game under lights at Subiaco Oval. While night football had been played in Perth at the WACA Ground previously the opportunity to play at the illuminated home of football was a highlight.

And so was the performance of Ilija Grgic, the big ruckman who had joined the Eagles from the Western Bulldogs, who made an auspicious start to his career in Perth.

Indeed Grgic was one of the success stories of the season, finishing ninth in Club Champion voting and quickly slotting into the mix of the playing group, earning immediate respect.

While the opening game was a roaring success, the round two game was in stark contrast. The Eagles travelled to Kardinia Park to play arch rivals Geelong and although they kept the Cats goalless in the opening term, the hosts prevailed and won by six points.

But the major concern out of the game was a serious knee injury to champion wingman Chris Mainwaring. In the middle of the first quarter the courageous Mainwaring backed into a pack of on-coming traffic as he tracked the flight of a high ball.

He was collected by the full force of several bodies and collapsed clutching at his knee. When club doctors assessed the injury they knew immediately it was serious. That ‘gut’ feel was confirmed when Mainwaring was assessed upon his return to Perth, specialists suggesting the internal damage was more like the aftermath of a car crash than a football collision.

For Mainwaring it proved to be a career crippling injury. It would be almost two years before he would return, a bulky, heavily padded brace on his injured joint when he eventually resumed.

The loss of Mainwaring, one of the most popular and respected players in the squad, was a devastating blow, but it did open the door for Symmons to play and he relished the opportunity to produce his best season in senior football.

Unfortunately, the injury to Mainwaring was not the last of the bad news for the season. Young stars Mitchell White, who also suffered a serious knee injury, did not play after round five and Andrew Donnelly was limited to 10 games. Another emerging key forward Brendon Fewster played only three games because of a knee issue.

Daniel Metropolis was also restricted three games, defender David Hart played only seven and young gun Ben Cousins who suffered a fractured leg missed seven games in the middle of the season.

Only three players – Symmons, Morrison and ruckman Ryan Turnbull – managed to play all 24 games in the campaign.

Naturally, the season continued to roll amid the mounting injury toll and a week later the Eagles confronted Fremantle in another Western Derby. Again they made good on a pledge to maintain their dominance over the Dockers, with Phil Matera bagging four goals and Cousins and David Wirrpanda were highly effective.

Next came Hawthorn, and champion forward Peter Sumich rewound the clock with a seven-goal performance which propelled the Eagles to a solid four-goal win. Andy Lovell, in his second year at the club, Phil Matera (four goals), Fraser Gehrig, Symmons and Kemp were all responsible for strong outputs.

That was the lead-up to a clash with the Bulldogs at the WACA Ground and the Dogs were keen to put a physical stamp on the game, particularly when it came to closing down 1996 Rising Star Cousins.

He was opposed to Tony Liberatore who tagged him closely, giving him no respite whatsoever and Cousins wore some physical signs of his evening’s work on a night the Bulldogs endured by 14 points.

Later in the season, when West Coast ventured to the Whitten Oval, the Dogs again targeted another of the Eagles emerging stars. Before the ball was bounced a pack of Bulldogs charged at young ruckman Michael Gardiner, singling him out for a physical workout.

Among that group was Danny Southern, already unpopular with the Eagles who recalled the incident at Subiaco Oval when he put Peter Sumich to sleep, in the last game of 1994. Three Bulldogs players, including Southern, were fined for their part in this pre-determined attack, but Jason Ball copped a two week suspension for going to Gardiner’s aid.

In round eight the AFL experimented with Monday night football at the MCG as the Eagles tackled Richmond in Guy McKenna’s 200^th game – the first player in West Coast history to bring up the double ton.

Unfortunately the game was not commensurate with the occasion as the Tigers put the game away early on their way to 52-point victory.

The following week, when Peter Matera chalked up his 150^th game, it was a more fitting result with the Eagles posting a solid 24-point victory.

From that moment forward the Eagles slipped into dangerous territory, losing five of their next six games and looking a possibility of missing finals action for the first time in Malthouse’s tenure.

The exceptional performance in that period came against Collingwood at Victoria Park when Peter Matera had 27 possessions off half-back, Gehrig kicked four goals and Morrison played an effective tagging role on Nathan Buckley.

A 37-point loss to Sydney in round 16 saw West Coast slip outside the eight, but then beat Geelong, Fremantle, Hawthorn and Melbourne – before the physical confrontation and defeat against the Bulldogs. A place in September was cemented with a closing home-and-away victory against Brisbane.

The Eagles travelled to Adelaide for a qualifying final without Ashley McIntosh and were soundly beaten by 33 points. The cause was not assisted in Sumich’s 150^th game when McKenna suffered a hamstring strain and Heady hurt his knee early in the contest.

Neither played in the semi-final against North Melbourne at the MCG and that situation was compounded by the absence of ruckman Ilija Grgic, who had a back injury, and Gehrig, who was suspended. 

Despite that impediment, they led by 32 points in the second term, but could not sustain the energy and their season was terminated by a 13-point loss.