It is one of football’s great trivia questions. When did the West Coast Eagles host the same visiting team in Perth twice in the same home-and-away season? And what were the circumstances?

And, for double points, what else was special about the occasion that was anything but trivial?

A clue? It was a round three match and headlines the “Best of the Best – Round three”, our series to give Eagles fans a flashback football fix during these troubled times.

Answer. It was Sunday, 17 April, 1988. The West Coast Eagles played what was originally drawn as an away game against the Brisbane Bears at the WACA Ground. And the ‘hosts’ kicked a club record score that still stands 755 games and 11,674 days later.

Why? Because four weeks of heavy rain in March-April that year left the carparks at the Bears’ Carrara homeground, now the Metricon Stadium headquarters of the Gold Coast Suns, under water.

Five days before the Eagles were due to play at Carrara the VFL Commission, acting on advice from the Bears that the match presentation would be severely compromised, transferred the match to WA cricket headquarters.

It was VFL history in the making. Games had been postponed because of wet weather in 1897, 1918, 1923, 1936 and 1960. And because of the Boer War in 1900, and the death of King Edward VII in 1910. But transferred because of a flooded car park? Never.

As was later revealed the Bears had initiated the switch in the expectation that the return game of 1988, scheduled for the WACA in Round 16, would be moved to Carrara. Wrong.

The Eagles had only accepted the Round three match on the basis that it was an additional game, rather than a swap. It would cost them more than $100,000 to forgo the scheduled Round 16 game, the club had said, agreeing to a VFL order to pay the Bears 62.5% of the gate after expenses and the VFL equalization fund contribution of $3.20 per adult was taken out.

The Bears were furious and protested vigorously but there was no overturning the League decision. So the club that had joined the competition with the Eagles 12 months earlier flew 5000km across the country for a contest that was over in 30 minutes.

West Coast, under coach John Todd for the third time, kicked 10 goals in the first quarter to lead by 52 points and despite a quiet three-goal second quarter were within two straight kicks of a century before halftime.

They piled on eight goals in the third quarter to take their total to 142 and stretch the lead to 96 points, and another eight goals in the final quarter for a scoreline of 29.18 (192) to 10.14 (74).

Skipper Ross Glendinning, on his way to a career-best 73 goals from 19 games in his 11h and final season, kicked six goals to head 12 individual goal-kickers. David Hart kicked a career-best four, and Dean Laidley, John Gastev and Dwayne Lamb nailed three each.

Warwick Capper, in his third game for the Bears after his much-publicised move from the Sydney Swans, kicked six of the Bears’ 10 goals in a solo effort in what remains the third-highest score conceded by the Bears/Lions.

Chris Mainwaring received three Brownlow Medal votes for an equal team-high 28 possessions and two goals, while Glenndinning took two votes and Lamb, with 23 possessions and three goals, took one vote. Hart, with 28 possessions to go with his four goals, missed out.

The nearest West Coast have come to matching their score of 192 was in 2014 when Josh Kennedy kicked 11 and they kicked a club record 30 goals and totalled 30-8 (188) against the GWS Giants at Subiaco.

Their total of 47 scoring shots against the Bears in 1988 was also a club that record still stands. It has been equalled twice against Adelaide in 1995 and Carlton in 2013 but not bettered.

It was of little consolation to the Bears that when they returned to the WACA in Round 16 it was a more meritorious nine-point loss.

ROUND 3 HISTORY AT A GLANCE

The Eagles have played 32 round three games, for 21 wins, one draw and 10 losses, with a round three bye in 1991. They have been dominant at home, enjoying an 11-4 record at Subiaco, were 2-0 at the WACA and are 1-0 at Optus Stadium.

In a statistic that will surprise many, they are 4-0 in round three matches at the MCG, and have lost in round three at only two interstate venues – 0-1 at the SCG and 0-1 at Waverley.

They’ve never played Adelaide, Carlton, Gold Coast, Hawthorn or Port Adelaide in round three, have played seven of 50 derbies against Fremantle in round three for a 5-2 record and have never beaten Sydney (0-3) or Essendon (0-2) in round three.

MALTHOUSE GOES BACK TO THE KENNELL

Mick Malthouse transferred from Footscray, as the Western Bulldogs were then known, to coach West Coast in the 1990 season.

It was a torrid exit. After six years at the helm, he left shortly before Footscray announced their intention to merge with Fitzroy. He was given a boisterous send-off by assistant-coach Terry Wheeler, who was critical of his former boss for not sticking with the cash-strapped club.

In just his third game in charge of West Coast, in round three, 1990, Malthouse went back to Whitten Oval. And Wheeler was appointed Dogs coach after the merger was abandoned.

Having started the Malthouse era with a 46-point Subiaco win over Collingwood before a 58-point loss to St Kilda at Moorabbin, the Eagles faced a Dogs side that was coming off consecutive 10-goal wins.

But Malthouse had the last laugh. West Coast led by 50 points at halftime and won by 63.

Peter Wilson, in his third game in blue and gold after a move from Richmond, had 30 possessions and Peter Sumich, David Hart, Craig Turley and Karl Langdon kicked three goals as West Coast won by 63 points. In his 34^th game Dean Laidley picked up his first Brownlow votes. Three of them.

Malthouse went on to enjoy a 5-2 win/loss record against Wheeler, and when the last game was played at Whitten Oval in Round 21, 1997, ironically between the Dogs and the Eagles, he was still in charge.