Isn’t it strange how some messages are indelibly imprinted on one’s mind? How a seemingly normal conversation is permanently retained.
The utterances of a junior coach in my teenage years at Royals Football Club in Albany have stayed with me since I was a teen.
The circumstances around the conversation remain vague, but the tenor of it was that Australian football is such a great game because it offers the opportunity for players of all shapes and sizes to play.
During this week I was standing on the concourse at Mineral Resources Park admiring the banners of retiring stars Shannon Hurn, Luke Shuey and Nic Naitanui when those words again were dredged from the deep recesses of my mind.
The coach’s words were manifested before my eyes. The imposing images, 10 metres high and five metres wide, were suspended behind the goals at the southern end of the facility.
They featured in brilliant colour a once-in-a-lifetime ruckman of Fijian heritage, a knock-about country bloke from the Barossa Valley and a midfielder from Victoria with a heart as big as Optus Stadium.
I’ve always believed in fate and these three young men arrived at the West Coast Eagles for a reason. While Hurn and Shuey lived out their football purpose as key figures in the 2018 premiership, Naitanui was denied the opportunity as he recovered from his second knee reconstruction.
He didn’t get a premiership medal, but that in no way diminishes his impact in 15 years at the Eagles. It might be seen as a cliché to suggest that of a player who could not take the field in a Grand Final, but Naitanui definitely played his role. Perhaps not on that particular day, but certainly in the years leading up to it.
Nic has had a greater purpose. He has broken down barriers, showed that players from different backgrounds can excel at the game. He was a multi-cultural ambassador for the AFL. That merely formalised what he was doing naturally.
He has always had a grasp of the broader, often subliminal, message he was sending.
To see his impact, aside from what he did on-field, one on needs to merely cast an eye over junior football games in the community. And the diversity of backgrounds in the players rated as strong draft possibilities in November. He has been a trailblazer.
Hurn was the first of the trio to arrive at the club through the 2006 draft. He came as a down-to-earth country kid. He leaves as a down-to-earth country kid.
He has been true to himself and his values. Played the game because he loves it and it remains that way on the day of his 333rd and final game at the elite level.
Shuey has been a heart-and-soul player; a man who thrived on the big occasion and the big moments. That takes a special mindset.
So committed was he to the cause that sometimes it was to his own detriment. Against St Kilda in round 16 he tried to carry his teammates on his back. The weight of that burden saw him managed for the next game against Brisbane as he stayed in Perth.
He will finish on 248 games but his signature performance from so many wonderful games will be the 2018 Grand Final when he pieced together one of the great individual Norm Smith-winning performances. As good as 1992 when Peter Matera was best afield with a five-goal haul from the wing.
Our club has not seen three luminaries of such high standing exit at the same time. At the end of 2013 Andrew Embley and Daniel Kerr retired and then Darren Glass called it a day in the middle of the 2014 season.
At the end of 2014 Dean Cox called time after his illustrious 290-game career.
Their departures were staggered but today we salute three champions together. Three Eagles legends whose impact runs far, far deeper than the combined 794 games they will have played.
Their legacy will be burned on the minds of Eagles fans forever.
