After a tumultuous 1999 season the West Coast Eagles were hoping for some clear air moving into the new millennium. It didn’t happen!

Indeed, the turbulence was every bit as severe at the turn of the century, as West Coast fans strapped themselves in for a wild, gut-churning ride.

With former East Fremantle and Hawthorn coach Ken Judge taking on the no-win challenge of succeeding Mick Malthouse as senior coach – after a decade of finals football – things started with relative calm, even a sense of euphoria.

The Judge era began with an outstanding performance against reigning premier North Melbourne under lights at the MCG. A near-perfect first quarter set the tone for a wonderful 43-point win on a night when Phil Matera kicked six goals, Scott Cummings added five and Fraser Gehrig four to provide all sorts of issues for the Kangaroos defence.

But the team’s form fluctuated violently over the coming weeks. A loss to Sydney, followed by a draw with St Kilda at Colonial Stadium – the first tie under the roof of the new stadium – in a game where the Eagles did more than enough to win, but failed to put the game away.

In the end they needed a late goal to salvage two points from the game, despite having 31 scoring shots to the Saints’ 26 in a result that read 17.14 (116) to 18.8 (116).

Then came a month of football that defined the West Coast season. Some amazing peaks, but equally deflating troughs.

The Eagles demolished Adelaide at the WACA Ground 29.13 (187) to 10.13 (73) and the Crows performance, at least aesthetically, was boosted by a four-goal last quarter.  It was the night Cummings kicked a club record 14 goals and the other 15 came from 12 different individuals.

After a relatively even first quarter, when West Coast led 4.3 to 2.4, the Eagles powered home with nine goals in the second term, nine in the third and seven in the last.

From that sublime performance, West Coast travelled to Geelong to confront the Cats at Shell Stadium. They kicked a wasteful 1.6 in the opening term and then were blown away by 81 points. The 180 degree form cycle was difficult to fathom.

If Judge and his match committee were confused by that rollercoaster form line, it got no easier to read a week later, even though it was a more palatable result as the Eagles returned to Subiaco Oval to play cross-town rival Fremantle.

Again Cummings was in remarkable touch in front of goal, kicking 10 goals as the Eagles demolished the Dockers by 117 points – which remains the highest winning margin against Fremantle in 21 years of contests between the two clubs.

Aside from Cummings, who was central to the 28.10 (178) to 9.7 (61) victory, Chad Morrison, Peter Matera and Glen Jakovich were all outstanding.

The extremes of team performance were not over, either. The following week against Melbourne at Colonial Stadium, the Dees dished out a 61-point football lesson which did nothing to help Judge and his cohorts solve the riddle of the erratic performances.

With the benefit of long-range hindsight, perhaps the best explanation can be found in the quality of the players who, in the two or three years leading into the season, had been forced into retirement.

When you’re talking about players of the calibre of Brett Heady, Guy McKenna, Chris Waterman, Tony Evans, John Worsfold and Chris Lewis, you’re talking top shelf. Lewis and McKenna both started in 2000, but neither saw the season through.

Lewis retired after playing three games while McKenna attempted to play through a debilitating back injury, but it got the better of him mid-year and although his retirement game came in round 22 against Melbourne, he was short of his brilliant best.

There was one nostalgic moment on this day when Ben Cousins hit McKenna with a lace-out pass in the final term, giving McKenna the opportunity to finish on a personal high from about 45 metres.

It was a season where nine players debuted – David Antonowicz, Scott Bennett, Callum Chambers, Darren Glass, Kasey Green, David Haynes, Adam Hunter, Kane Munro and Michael O’Brien. Obviously Glass, in particular, developed into an outstanding player and captain while Hunter was central to the success of the mid-2000s.

There were some handy players within the remainder of the group and a cluster who never quite made the grade, so when comparing the in-coming personnel to those making their exit it’s hardly a balanced scenario.

After the dramatic form swings of the early rounds, it got worse. There was no fluctuation in form at the back end, it was all downhill with the Eagles losing 10 of their last 11 games.

To emphasise the extent to which the season had unravelled when the Eagles played Adelaide and Fremantle the second time around – clubs they had dismembered by more than 100 points early in the year – they were on the opposite side of the ledger.

Adelaide, after leading by a point at three-quarter time, finished over the top of them at Football Park and won by 17 points while the Eagles had little joy against the Dockers, losing a heart-stopper by a point.

There was no sign of that adrenaline-charged finish from Fremantle when the Eagles led by 32 points at half-time, but Clive Waterhouse, in possibly the best game of his AFL career, set the Dockers in motion and kicked seven goals.

The Eagles finished 13^th on the ladder, with little reason for optimism, as the average losing margin from the 14 defeats was a tick under 44 points (43.92).

It was a tough baptism for Judge and left him with plenty to ponder as he pulled together the program for his second pre-season.

Team highlights were sparse, but individual milestones ensured some occasions to celebrate, the biggest coming when Glen Jakovich played his 200^th game in round 17 against Sydney at the SCG, while Drew Banfield and Mitchell White reached the 150-game mark to earn life membership.

In addition Gehrig, Daniel Metropolis, Morrison and Cousins passed the 100-game threshold.