The Russian Wiggle?
If you could think of two things less likely to be mentioned in the same sentence it might well be foundation Eagles ruckman Alex Ishchenko and the “Wiggles”.
The rugged 201cm enforcer known as ‘Russian” and the popular children’s entertainment group? It just doesn’t work.
But it does.
Ishchenko, actually of Ukrainian ancestry despite his nickname, was a member of the Eagles’ very first side and played 30 games for the club in 1987-88 before 42 games with the Brisbane Bears from 1989-91 and 70 games with North Melbourne 1992-95.
A long-time part-time ruck coach at North, he is also in charge of licensing and merchandise for the Wiggles after a stint as Licensing and Retail Manager at the AFL.
Ishchenko received six Brownlow Medal votes with the Eagles – the last in round seven, 1988 in a 76-point WACA Ground win over St Kilda in which John Annear had a career-best 37 possessions and Joe Cormack played the first of 10 games for the club.
West Coast held St Kilda to one goal in the first three quarters – 1.11 and they finished with 3-18 (36) – the fifth worst goal-kicking in club history and the second-worst by any club against West Coast behind Fremantle’s 2-19 (31) last year.
Record win against Hawthorn
West Coast enjoyed their biggest win in 52 games against Hawthorn in round seven, 1991 at Princes Park, scoring 21.18 (144) to 8.14 (62) to triumph by 82 points.
Chris Mainwaring had 31 possessions and kicked two goals to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes, and Chris Lewis had 31 possessions and one goal. Craig Turley earned two Brownlow votes and 25 possessions and Dean Irving, with 10 possessions, picked up his first Brownlow vote as Ryan Turnbull made his AFL debut.
One and only visit
West Coast played their first and only game at North Hobart Oval in round seven, 1992, going down to host club Fitzroy 11.16 (82) to 15.12 (102) in front of a crowd of 8819 in what turned out to be Trent Nicholls’ last game for the club.
It is a ground that hosted the Tasmanian Football League grand final from 1922-1999 and two track and field world records posted by Betty Cuthbert over 220 yards in 1960 and Ron Clarke over 5000m in 1965.
Once a convict women's housing site, an immigration depot and an invalid persons' depot and later a rubbish dump, it also hosted three Australian Football Carnivals in 1924, 1947 and 1966, and five AFL games.
The first between Fitzroy and Melbourne in 1952 was part of a ‘national’ round in which the League played at the SCG, the Brisbane Exhibition Ground, Albury in southern NSW and the Victorian country centres of Euroa and Yallourn. Then Fitzroy played two games there in 1991 and ’92.
So when Troy Ugle kicked four goals against Fitzroy in 1992, second best in his career, and Dwayne Lamb had 28 possessions both went into the ground record books. Ugle is equal eighth for most goals in a game behind Tony Lockett’s eight, and Lamb equal sixth for most possessions behind Paul Roos and Dean Anderson (33).
Oddly, Joe Cormack, who played 26 games for Fitzroy from 1991-92 after his 1988-89 stint at West Coast, shares the AFL games record at North Hobart Oval with four.
A special win
Kardinia Park at Geelong hasn’t always been the most hospitable venue for the Eagles, with eight wins and a draw from 24 visits. But in round seven, 1993 they enjoyed one of their very best wins.
It was a rematch of the 1992 grand final, and after trailing by 12 points at quarter-time and six points at half-time the Eagles found themselves 30 points down in the third quarter.
They cut the deficit to 11 points at three-quarter time and kicked 4.5 to 1.4 in the final quarter to pull off a terrific 16.17 (113) to 15.15 (105) victory.
Peter Sumich, Brett Heady and Ashley McIntosh each kicked three goals to lead the way while Dean Kemp (28), Tony Evans (23) and Don Pyke (22) were the major ball-winners.
Matt Clape, in his 13th AFL game, had 14 possessions and kicked two goals to pick up the only two Brownlow Medal votes of his 29-game career with West Coast before 58 games at Carlton.
The first RAC Derby
A new feature on the AFL calendar came to Subiaco in round seven, 1995 when West Coast hosted Fremantle in the first derby – and won by 85 points, 23.13 (151) to 9.12 (66).
West Coast were sitting fifth on the ladder at 4-2, with Fremantle seventh at 3-3,, but it quickly became one-way traffic after the Eagles led 10.7 to 3.5 at halftime.
Brett Heady kicked five goals to go with 19 possessions and earned three Brownlow Medal votes, while Craig Turley picked up two votes with 19 possessions and two goals, and Paul Symmons one vote from 17 possessions and one goal. Jason Ball and Tony Evans also kicked three goals.
The first Eagles derby side, in notional positions, with their career derby count in brackets, was:
B: David Hart (3), Mitchell White (9), Chris Waterman (6)
HB: John Worsold (5), Glen Jakovich (16), Guy McKenna (11)
C: Peter Matera (14), Dean Kemp (12), Don Pyke (3)
HF: Brett Heady (6), Jason Ball (9), Peter Wilson (2)
F: Chris Lewis (6), Fraser Gehrig(10), Tony Evans (6)
R: Ryan Turnbull (9), Craig Turley (2), Drew Banfield (21)
INT: Paul Symmons (6), David Hynes (2*), Daniel Metropolis (11*).
Hynes and Metropolis went on to be two of four players to represent West Coast and Fremantle in a derby.
Of this side, Banfield played most derbies at 21. He is equal fifth on the derby games list among Eagles players, level with Andrew Embley, Chris Masten and David Wirrpanda. Dean Cox (27) heads the list from Shannon Hurn (24) and Darren Glass (24) and Matt Priddis (22), with Ben Cousins (20), Michael Braun (19) and Quinten Lynch (19) rounding out the top 10.
Six for Ball
Eagles fans could be excused for having slightly mixed feelings towards Jason Ball.
They’ll love him because in his 18th game he was a member of the club’s 1994 premiership team, kicking two goals in the grand final win over Geelong, but won’t be quite so fond of the fact that, in his 193rd and last game, he was a member of the Sydney side that beat the Eagles in the 2005 grand final.
Ironically, the now 48-year-old ruckman/forward, a member of the AFL Commission since 2015, played his first game for West Coast against Sydney and his last game for Sydney against West Coast.
He split his playing career fairly evenly between the two, playing more as a forward with West Coast and more as a ruckman at Sydney, but statistically at least was a slightly better Eagle.
In eight seasons in Perth, which began with one game each in 1992 and 1993 and then six consecutive finals campaigns, he played 103 games for 63 wins (61.6%), played nine finals, kicked 114 goals (1.1 goals per game) and earned 17 Brownlow Medal votes.
In five seasons in Sydney he had three finals campaigns, played 90 games for 55 wins (61.1%), played six finals, kicked 45 goals (0.8gpg) and earned 10 Brownlow votes.
At West Coast he ranks second for games in jumper #26, behind Sam Butler’s 166 after playing his first two games in #29, and at Sydney is fourth for games in #27 behind 1970s half back flanker Reg Gleeson.
But there was no doubting what the Eagles fans thought of him in round seven, 1996, when he kicked a career-best six goals in a 67-point win over North Melbourne at Subiaco.
He also had 20 possessions in one of the best games of his career against the eventual premiers yet was edged out by Chris Mainwaring (27 possessions) for the three Brownlow Medal votes. He got two.
