For anyone who watched the 2006 grand final there will be at least one moment which is indelibly etched into their memory bank. One action or incident which they will forever associate with the West Coast Eagles’ third premiership.
It might be the courage of Beau Waters drifting back into the unknown to take a brilliant, defiant mark in the last term. Perhaps it was the smother and shepherd from Daniel Chick which created the team’s final goal. Maybe it was Andrew Embley taking on Adam Goodes to kick an important second term goal. Or possibly Dean Cox throwing his arms triumphantly into the air at the sound of the final siren. Whatever the moment, everyone will file away their own poignant image of the match.
For many it could even have come after the final siren. It might, for instance, be the moment when coach John Worsfold called former skipper Ben Cousins to the podium to take a handle of the premiership cup with his successor, Chris Judd.
Worsfold and Judd had just officially received the cup when Worsfold motioned for Cousins to join him and Judd on the victory dais. He then released his hold on the cup and motioned for Cousins to grab the most precious piece of silverware available in the AFL.
With that, Cousins bolted out of the pack, seized the cup and did his impersonation of a windmill.
While Cousins relinquished the captaincy during the pre-season, that gesture of inviting him to the podium was a touching tribute which recognised his contribution to the triumph. Not just on that day, but through the course of a wonderful 231-game career.
He might not have been the captain, but certainly his standing within the playing group had not diminished.
“I was just over the moon,” Cousins explained of his post-match emotions. “Before the game I thought if we’d won I may have been disappointed because I wasn’t holding the cup. To be perfectly honest it was nice to be up there, but it really didn’t matter that much to me.
“It was a nice gesture, but it didn’t make me any happier than before I was asked to come up, which I think is a really good thing, because it reinforces that all that matters is that we won.
“It was insignificant. Things like other awards really mean very little in the big scheme of things once you have won a premiership. It really reinforces what you already know, but just how much you really believe it.
“The hardest thing about winning a premiership is a few of the guys who miss out. If it wasn’t for injury or bad timing they would have been a part of it and they deserved to win one. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Cousins had said for a couple of years that the sand of his career was starting to fill the bulb of the hour-glass in terms of claiming the game’s holy grail. As he entered the twilight years he understood with every passing year that his opportunity was diminishing.
“It’s a long time coming,” he sighed. “If we had lost that one it was going to be very hard to recover. The difference between winning by a point and losing by a point is a bit of luck and I think we were due some. It’s a fine line between pleasure and pain.”
Cousins, who famously declared ‘this is not the end, it’s just the beginning,’ after the 2005 loss to Sydney obviously harbours a deep respect for the Swans.
“It doesn’t surprise me with the team we’re playing because if you win against them you’re not going to win by much,” Cousins said in explaining the fact that the last five games between the two teams had been determined by just 12 points. “The great thing about them is that they are a real even side and they work hard.
“People talk about how we have some individual great players, but I think the greatest strength of our side is that as much, if not more than any other side, we have players who are just keen to work hard. It’s a great team and the team has got even better character.”
This team will be looking to build on the achievements of 2006 and to remain in serious premiership calculations in the next few seasons.
And Cousins intends to remain an integral part of those campaigns. He missed four games three with a hamstring injury and another when he was rested because of the toll on his body – and is playing as well as ever.
In the grand final he was again a central player in the success, with 18 possessions and a couple of telling goals. When he kicked the team’s third goal of the opening quarter he helped to set the trend for the first half.
Perhaps West Coast could have made more of other opportunities before half-time, but he helped to establish the team’s superiority. He also kicked a decisive goal at the end of the second quarter when he trapped Tadhg Kennelly, as the Swans defender tried to jig his way around Cousins and was caught holding the ball.
Cousins has been one of the club’s finest players, if not its greatest, and there was no- one more deserving of premiership glory.
He was central to the club’s climb from the depths of the premiership table and was also pivotal to the ascent to football’s Everest. A premiership medal makes him the complete champion.
