At about the time the term one-percenters entered the football vernacular, a tough young warrior from around Geraldton was taking his first steps towards an AFL career.

Daniel Chick made his way from Northampton in East Fremantle’s country zone through  to the WAFL and then to Hawthorn. He was a tenacious young man with a penchant for the contest.

Ironically it was in a game against the West Coast Eagles, when shunted off the ball a few times by bigger and stronger bodies, that he decided he needed to add some bulk to his frame if he intended playing AFL football his way.

Clearly he had no idea at the time, but that encounter against the powerful Eagles would years later prove decisive in premiership glory.

Throughout the course of an enterprising 233- game career, Chick has built his reputation as a man who gives his all for every minute of every match. Whether it be as a forward or defender, his desire to apply pressure around a contest is paramount, his will to make an opponent earn every possession the focus of his game plan.

And those one-percenters  were  instrumental in the West Coast Eagles premiership triumph against Sydney, particularly in a couple of late passages.

First, he smothered the ball deep in the West Coast attacking zone as Ryan O’Keefe attempted to clear the area. He then swooped, gathered possession, handballed off to Adam Hunter and applied a shepherd so Hunter could convert a crucial goal.

Minutes later,  with  West  Coast  clinging  to a one-point  lead,  Sydney’s  Ted  Richards had possession on the wing. Somehow, as Richards raised his eyes and assessed his options downfield, Chick appeared almost from nowhere.

How he managed to find the energy and the drive to apply the necessary pressure was amazing. But he did and he affected the Richards’ kick to such an extent that it travelled out on the full, causing another critical turnover.

Chick’s contribution was more than  those two   passages,   but   they   were   among   the most significant in the match. Earlier he had also played in a defensive role on Michael O’Loughlin, helping to shut down one of the key players in Sydney’s quest for victory.

Chick, who played 149 games with the Hawks before returning west at the end of the 2002 season, had one eye on premiership glory when he joined the Eagles.

“Definitely,” Chick said with great authority when asked whether he had recognised that opportunity when transferring one game short of life membership with Hawthorn. “With John Worsfold at the helm, I identified that, with about five years of my career to go, I could have a crack at one.

“It is just special. We have had some big performances, but once you win the grand final you realise no one can take it off you and that you are a premiership player for the rest of your life.

“I have always envied people being introduced as premiership players and I wanted to be in that group.

“I was probably just lucky, it was that time of the game and those opportunities to have an impact came along. It was close, we were up and I basically did what I try to do most weeks. I have a pretty high tackle rate.

“When I made the smother, I had already tweaked my calf and I couldn’t run, so I basically said ‘here Hunts, and I’ll take  out your bloke.’

“I base my game around that sort of thing because I thought I had to find a niche in the game. I was pretty light on when I first started and was pushed around by Woosha and Bluey McKenna.

“So I thought I would fix that up and worked on it during the 1997 pre-season. I did a lot of weights with Brendan Krummel and just thought right I need to get bigger and stronger and compete with these blokes instead of being pushed around.”

Chick now weighs in at a very solid 88kg and no one pushes him around. He is one of the crowd favourites because of the way he plays, though some Sydney fans  might  disagree given the way he dropped the shoulder into O’Loughlin a couple of times.

“He’s so slippery when they have got control of the ball… forward and back, forward and back,” Chick said of the way O’Loughlin continually   presents   to   his   midfield.   “So I decided to play him with a bit of body. He doesn’t like that. He kicked one goal after that on Hunts, but that was about it.”

The West Coast Eagles do not make a habit of getting involved in pre-draft trades, but in the case of both Chick and Tyson Stenglein were keen to do the deals.

The club assessed that they could help a young squad take the next step. And 2006 proved that judgement to be astute.