The first round four derby

West Coast and Fremantle met for the first time in round four of 2001, and it was a game to remember. Scores were level at three-quarter time in derby #13 after Fremantle had pulled back from a 15-point half-time deficit.

Michael Gardiner and Ben Cousins quickly put the issue beyond doubt when they kicked two goals each in the first 15 minutes of the final period. The Eagles were 23 points up before Fremantle replied.

And after Troy Wilson goaled for the Eagles to answer a couple more from Fremantle, Gardiner kicked two more in time-on for four in the quarter, a career-best five overall and three Brownlow Medal votes.

West Coast won 16.16 (102) to 13.10 (88) as Drew Banfield’s 30 possessions earned him two Brownlow votes and Peter Matera one vote.

A one-off for Don Pyke

Don Pyke, dual Eagles premiership player and more recently Adelaide Crows coach, had a one-off career moment in round four, 1993 when the Eagles beat the Brisbane Bears by 52 points at Subiaco. Peter Sumich kicked six goals and Pyke picked up three Brownlow votes for his 24 possessions. It was the only  three-vote rating of his 132-game career.

A six-day record for Ben

Ben Cousins became the youngest Eagles player on record when he debuted in round four, 1996, picking up 14 possessions and kicking two goals in an 18-point loss to Geelong at Subiaco in which Phil Matera also played his first game.

Cousins was 296 days beyond his 17^th birthday and the first 17-year-old to play for the club.

Until then Chris Lewis had held the honour of being the youngest Eagle, having debuted at 18 years 12 days in the club’s first game in 1987. John Worsfold, Guy McKenna, Ashley McIntosh, Jarrad Schofield, Shane Bond and Chad Morrison had followed as 18-year-olds until Cousins took the bar to a lower level still.

But Cousins, wearing #35, wouldn’t hold the club record for long. Just six days. In round five, David Wirrpanda would play his first game at 16 years, 268 days to set a record that under current AFL regulations will never be broken.

Cousins and Matera would go on to play a combined 417 games for the club and kick a combined 594 goals.

Double century for Mick

Twenty-nine people in football history have coached the same club 200 times. But only three of them have coached two different clubs 200 times. In round four, 1998, when West Coast hosted Sydney at the WACA Ground, Mick Malthouse completed the first half of this very special double.

Despite a 19-point loss in his double century game the Eagles 1992-94 premiership coach had a 67.2% win ratio from 133 wins, two draws and 65 losses. He’d had 69 wins and two draws in his first 100 games in charge, and 64 wins in his second 100.

At the time Allan Jeans was the only two-time 200-game coach. He’d coached St Kilda 333 times and Hawthorn 221 times. But Malthouse’s 153-game coaching stint at the Western Bulldogs had given Leigh Matthews a big start on the double they would both eventually achieve.

Malthouse’s 200^th game with the Eagles was also Ryan Turnbull’s 100th. Fraser Gehrig kicked six goals and Dean Kemp had 30 possessions, but Sydney won by 19 points.

De-throwning the kings

The Brisbane Lions had been the kings of the competition through the early 2000s, winning the flag in 2001-02-03, but through this period had had to be content with a 2-2 head-to-head record against West Coast.

And in round four 2004, in John Worsfold’s 50^th game as coach and Mark Seaby’s debut, the Eagles officially de-throned the kings in a thrilling contest at Subiaco.

Brisbane had won their first three games of the season while West Coast had started 1-2 in three close ones. They beat the Dogs by seven points but had lost to Port by three and Essendon by six and could not afford to slip to 1-3.

West Coast had led by five points at the first change and 12 at the second, and were 15 points up 25 minutes into the third quarter before Brisbane kicked the last three goals of the term through Tim Notting, Simon Black and Dylan McLaren to lead by four.

A dour struggle followed. After 10 goalless minutes West Coast struck through Andrew Embley. They were up by one. Three minutes later Andrew McDougall kicked his third and they were seven up.

There were still 14 minutes to play. West Coast would not score again, but with the aid of some poor Brisbane kicking for goal somehow the home side found a way to hang on.  Four Brisbane behinds, which gave them 0-7 for the quarter, saw the Eagles win 12.7 (79) to 10.16 (76).

Chris Judd had 30 possessions and kicked a goal to pick up three Brownlow votes, while Black, the East Fremantle junior who wanted to be an Eagle, earned two votes for 27 possessions and a goal plus seven tackles and eight clearances.

They were two of 11 Brownlow votes Black would eventually get in 20 games against West Coast, and despite the inevitable ‘what if …?’ questions among Eagles fans the club overall got the better of the 322-game Brownlow Medallist.

Black, taken by Brisbane at #32 in 1997 National Draft after West Coast took Jaxon Crabb at #12, Callum Chambers at #13 and Rowan Jones at #28, had a negative win/loss record against only two clubs in his career – he was 7-1-10 against Richmond and 7-13 against West Coast.

Eagles in national capital

West Coast played their third and currently their last game in Canberra in round four, 2006, beating North Melbourne by 24 points in Darren Glass’ 100^th game after the teams had shared the spoils at the same venue in 2002 and 2004.

Coming off a heart-breaking 2005 grand final loss and in a season in which they would ultimately win the flag and North would finish 14^th, West Coast didn’t have things all their own way in what was also Brent Staker’s 50^th game.

North led by 10 points at quarter time and seven at half time, and after West Coast were eight points up at three-quarter the nominal home side came again when Sav Rocca kicked the opening goal of the final quarter.

But after Andrew Embley, Dean Cox and then David Wirrpanda goaled for the Eagles they were 24 up with four minutes to play and safe before Adam Hunter kicked his fourth for an equal career-best.

In a measure of how times have changed, Chris Judd led the West Coast possession count with 21. He was the only Eagle to top 20 in a team possession count of 298. The Brownlow votes went to Dean Cox, Judd and Rowan Jones.

Four out of five ain't bad

The Eagles’ round four visit to Stadium Australia in Sydney in 2008 won’t be memorable for too many players, but Ben McKinley will remember it as if it was yesterday.

In just his third game, the 21-year-old forward kicked four of the Eagles’ five goals in a 5.15 (45) to 16.11 (107) loss to the Swans in Matt Spangher’s AFL debut and the second game for Chris Masten and Scott Selwood.

He kicked the Eagles’ first goal in the first quarter, their second goal in the second quarter, and after Steven Armstrong chipped in with their third early in the third quarter, McKinley kicked their fourth and, in the final quarter, added their fifth.

McKinley, drafted by West Coast from the Northern Knights in the TAC Cup with selection #29 in the 2005 National Draft, had debuted in round 15, 2007. His second game had been as a late inclusion the week before his solo heroics and set him on a path to a memorable second season.

He picked up a Rising Star nomination for his round four efforts in Sydney, and in Round 19 kicked a career-best seven goals to single-handedly destroy Essendon at Subiaco.

He finished the season with 42 goals in 18 games to be the Eagles leading goal-kicker, and was named Rookie of the Year at the club championship dinner.

McKinley’s standout effort to kick 80 percent of the Eagles goals ranks second on the club’s list of solo goal-kicking performances. Only when Chris Lewis kicked the Eagles’ only goal against Essendon at Windy Hill in 1989 has any one player been responsible for a higher percentage of the goals.

Next best on this list is Brett Heady’s 75 percent effort against Adelaide at Football Park in 1997, when he kicked three of the Eagles’ four goals, and Peter Sumich’s 75 percent effort against Hawthorn at Subiaco in 1994, when he kicked six of the Eagles’ eight goals.

Among others to kick more than 50 percent of Eagles goals in a game, Jack Petruccelle kicked five of eight (62.5 percent) against Port at Optus Stadium last year, and Andrew Lockyer kicked three of five (60 percent) against Carlton at Princes Park in 1989.

McKinley went on to play 46 games for the club from 2007-10 and two games for North in 2011. 

The Eagles’ round four visit to Stadium Australia in Sydney in 2008 won’t be memorable for too many players, but