If winning premierships was easy it wouldn’t be as satisfying to win one. Nor would it be quite so heart-breaking in defeat.

So, it was with a mix of pride and soul-destroying pain, that the West Coast Eagles played in the 2015 Grand Final against Hawthorn. They were within arm’s reach of the club’s forth premiership, but ultimately it slipped through their fingers.

In Adam Simpson’s second season the Eagles had a look at the view from the top of the mountain, but didn’t quite get to the peak. It was an extraordinary climb, but they lost their footing before being able to plant the Eagles flag on the summit.

A season that started badly when Eric Mackenzie’s campaign ended in the NAB Challenge in Mandurah and then Mitch Brown lasted just 15 minutes into the round one game against the Bulldogs, was, in the end, memorable.

Devoid of key defensive personnel, the Eagles defence adjusted and despite being constantly out-sized, met most challenges and finished second on the ladder, with 16 wins and a draw. They played Hawthorn in the second qualifying final and fuelled the dream with a remarkable performance.

Brownlow medallist Matt Priddis was ruled out on game day, but the Eagles started well against the breeze, Shannon Hurn collecting 10 possessions off half-back. When they pumped the ball forward Josh Kennedy was sublime. The Coleman medallist took four contested marks in the first six minutes and had the Hawks’ defence quaking with his attack on the footy.

With those experienced Eagles leading the way, the seven players in the 22-man team who had not played finals football, were surely put at ease and each of them grew with confidence as the game progressed.

The domination of the Eagles was visible all over the ground and they deserved to lead it by 32 points at the long break. At that stage, with a boisterous home crowd urging them, it was going to be tough for the Hawks to reverse that trend.

If the Eagles’ second quarter was irresistible, the third term was simply sublime. Against the breeze, West Coast kicked another five goals, with Kennedy, Josh Hill and Mark LeCras all wielding a strong influence in the forward half.

Nic Naitanui was outstanding in the ruck and two young men who had taken their football to another level throughout 2015, Luke Shuey and Andrew Gaff, were dynamic. The Eagles won by 32 points.

A fortnight later, the Eagles hosted North Melbourne in a preliminary final and the Roos started strongly.

About seven minutes into the second quarter, after North had kicked the first three goals and were looking for their fourth, Brad Sheppard won a contested ball against a bigger, stronger Drew Petrie.

He took Petrie and the ball to the ground, then prevented the Roos’ star from knocking the ball loose, until the cavalry arrived and the Eagles cleared the danger zone. The slingshot attack saw Josh Kennedy mark about 40 metres from goal.

He survived a late assault from Scott Thompson, who threw his body at the Coleman medallist’s torso. Kennedy absorbed that brutal contact, Thompson sucked in some deep breaths and with the North defender still on his haunches, Kennedy galloped away and kicked the Eagles’ first goal.

Inspiration had come at both ends of the ground.

From there West Coast slowly assumed the ascendancy in a classic finals encounter where contested footy was king. It was tough to find any combination of time or space, but by half-time West Coast trailed by just five points.

The Eagles rattled on five goals in the third term which secured the club’s first Grand Final appearance in a decade.

West Coast knew that if they played at their best it would be good enough to win, but Hawthorn was not allowing them to play at their optimum. The pressure of the occasion, as well as that applied around the contest, saw the Eagles butcher the ball going forward.

The connection between the midfield and the forwards was non-existent, making life difficult for a forward line that was finding it difficult to mark within kicking range.

The result was that Hawthorn had created a handy break at the first change. They led by 19 points with an unblemished record in front of goal (5.0) as opposed to the wasteful 1.5 that the Eagles had managed.

The Hawks were in control until the Eagles breathed some hope into the game, twice cutting it back to 25 points, but in the end opened the door once again for Hawthorn through errors and they took the opportunity to seal the fate.

By three-quarter time the margin was 50 points and Hawthorn was in a familiar position, looking to play out the last 30 minutes before being presented to almost 100,000 fans as the champions of the game for the third successive year.

It was a good year, not a great year, and individual honours went to Andrew Gaff, Matt Priddis and Josh Kennedy who earned all-Australian honours.

They also filled the top-three placings in the John Worsfold Medal, with Gaff winning the award ahead of Priddis and Kennedy. Priddis backed up from his 2013 Brownlow Medal by being runner-up to Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe, while Kennedy became the second Eagle behind Scott Cummings in 1999 to win the Coleman Medal.

Luke Shuey (fourth) and Mark LeCras (fifth) in the Club Champion Award were also pivotal to the broader team performance.

Additionally, Sheppard finished sixth in the Club Champion Award but won the player of the finals, emphasising his development.

For the first time in history West Coast cracked the 60,000 membership barrier, finishing at the remarkable figure of 61,039.