Five for Fraser
Fraser Gehrig had served an outstanding apprenticeship in 1995-96, playing 40 games for 33 goals and splitting his time at both ends of the ground and on the wing. He was extremely quick and massively powerful, and according to the 1997 AFL Guide, he “would be expected to become a high quality player over the next decade”.
He’d kicked five goals in his 12th game and had three times been in the Brownlow Medal votes playing in defence, but in round seven, 1996 he planted a stake as a genuine power forward.
He took a then career-best nine marks, had 17 possessions and kicked five goals in a 69-point Gabba win over the Brisbane Lions, picking up one medal vote behind best afield Chris Lewis (31 possessions, three goals) and Peter Matera (25 possessions).
It was a year in which Gehrig would finish equal seventh in the Eagles Club Champion Award, win selection in the All-Australian team in the forward pocket and, just as the Guide had predicted, confirm he was indeed a high quality player.
Another 200-gamer
It was all set up for a monster celebration. On a 6-0 start to the 1999 season, they were heading to Waverley Park in Melbourne for the 26th and last time.
The ground where the Eagles had played their first grand final in 1991, which had hosted AFL football since 1970, was set to be shut down at the end of the season.
The club had enjoyed a 14-1-10 record at what is now the Hawthorn training and administration base, and, chasing the club’s record 12-0 start in 1991, were desperate to farewell the ground with a win to mark Dean Kemp’s 200th AFL game.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The unbeaten run was snapped and Kemp had to accept a 20-point loss.
In a tough, low-scoring slog, the Saints led all the way after jumping the Eagles in a 4.4 to 1.2 first quarter.
With a young Barry Hall collecting 20 possessions and kicking three goals to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes, his first votes in the coveted award, St Kilda won 9.14 (68) to 7.6 (48).
Kemp had become the fourth Eagles player to reach 200 games for the club behind Guy McKenna, Chris Lewis and John Worsfold, and despite his milestone loss had the best win/loss record of the four at the time at 132-2-66. A winning ratio of 66.67%.
The loss in their last game at Waverley left West Coast with an aggregate 14-1-11 record at the ground.
Always a good result
West Coast fans are like any others. They love beating Collingwood, especially when they have to come from behind, and more so when they are sitting on top of the ladder. So round seven, 2006 was one to remember.
Collingwood held top with a 5-1 record after round six, ahead of Adelaide and West Coast on percentage, when they flew west to take on the Eagles at Subiaco.
The home side were coming off a derby loss in coach John Worsfold’s 100th game, which had snapped their unbeaten run, and Worsfold had dropped Josh Wooden, effectively ending his career, plus Brett Jones and a young Shannon Hurn.
The pressure was right on, especially when they found scores level at 12.14 to 13.8 mid-way through the final term after they’d been as many as 28 points up little more than half an hour earlier.
But the home side was equal to the challenge as Chris Judd, dominant through the midfield with 32 possessions and three goals, took best afield honours and three Brownlow Medal votes.
It was Judd’s 99th game, and it could so easily have been his 100th in a row from debut. His only miss had been in 2005 when, after playing a club record 76 consecutive games from debut he copped a one-match suspension for striking St Kilda’s Steven Baker.
Quinten Lynch kicked his fifth goal to start the recovery before Ashley Hansen and then Tyson Stenglein followed. With six minutes still to play they were 19 points up and despite a late goal from Dane Swan won 16.15 (111) to 15.8 (98).
Lynch, later to finish his career at Collingwood, picked up one Brownlow vote in a season in which he went on to kick a career-best 65 goals, top the West Coast goal-kicking for the first time and finish eighth in league goal-kicking headed by Carlton’s Brendan Fevola (84).
Cricket or football
Brad Sheppard, ever-reliable 179-game Eagles defender, could easily have been a cricketer. After all, he represented WA at under-17 level as a first-change bowler in January 2008 and is the nephew of Geoff Marsh and cousin of brothers Shaun and Mitch Marsh.
Like so many, he juggled both sports as a teenager and also represented WA at under-18 level in football in 2008 and 2009, when he played 15 WAFL games with East Fremantle and won All-Australian U18 selection in the back pocket.
This was the clincher. He committed to football and was selected as the Eagles first pick at No.7 overall in the 2009 National Draft.
Still, it was reassuring to see Sheppard in an AFL jumper. And he did that for the first time in round seven, 2010 when the Eagles beat Hawthorn by eight points at Subiaco. Josh Kennedy (six goals) and Mark LeCras (four goals), took three and two Brownlow votes respectively, while Matt Priddis’ 20 possessions, nine tackles and eight clearances earned him one vote.
Sheppard had 10 possessions but was on the end of a dangerous tackle which earned the culprit a two-match suspension. Who? Chance Bateman, now on the Eagles coaching staff.
It was a pretty handy All-Australian side he was in, with no less than nine players from the WA side that won the championships, including future Eagles Jack Darling and Blayne Wilson, plus ex-Eagle and WA coach Andrew Lockyer. All 22 members of the side were drafted, and only three did not play at the elite level.
So good, in fact, that 10 years (and one round) on Shepherd, despite playing 120 of the last 120 games, tragically missing the 2018 preliminary final and grand final with a hamstring, only rates sixth on the AFL games list for the group.
He is behind Dustin Martin (225), Ben Cunnington (210), Mitch Duncan (204), Darling (197) and Daniel Talia (187), and ahead of Tom Scully (174), David Swallow (140), Brandon Matera (139), Gary Rohan (126), Travis Colyer (98), Jack Trengove (89), Ryan Harwood (81), Luke Tapscott (48), Kane Lucas (42), Wilson (9), Anthony Morabito (26), Josh Toy (13) and Andrew Hooper (7).
And what order were these players drafted? It was 1 Scully, 2 Trengove, 3 Martin, 4 Morabito, 5 Cunnington, 6 Rohan, 7 Sheppard, 12 Lucas, 13 Talia, 18 Tapscott, 26 Colyer, 28 Duncan and 47 Harwood.
Hooper was a rookie pick soon after with the three who did not play – James Craig, Matthew Panos and Dylan McNeill.
Swallow went to the Gold Coast at #1 in the 2010 National Draft 12 months later after Matera and Toy had been taken as a 17-year-old priority selection and before Darling joined West Coast at #26 and Wilson did likewise via the 2011 Pre-Season Draft.
And the post script?
The Brad Sheppard story had a wonderful post script three years later when, in round seven, 2013, Mark Hutchings made his debut for the Eagles in a 26-point win over Brisbane at the Gabba. And Sheppard, in his 35th game, was delighted to be in the side with him.
Why? Because Hutchings had captained the aforementioned 2009 WA Under-18 side which led Sheppard to the AFL. The East Perth product had spent 2010 at St Kilda as a rookie but was de-listed without getting a chance at senior level.
He had to do it the hard way, and he did just that. After switching to West Perth upon his return he re-established his credentials in a brilliant start to the WAFL season, leading the West Australian’s Footballer of the Year award after nine games.
He was included in the WA State squad for the upcoming game against Queensland but was not considered due to an untimely hamstring injury. Still, he played 21 WAFL games and polled 21 votes to finish 14th in the Sandover Medal but was overlooked in the draft.
In 2012 he was even better. Much better. He represented WA, won the West Perth best and fairest and polled 51 votes to finish second in the Sandover Medal.
It was enough to earn him a second chance in the AFL. He was taken by the Eagles at No.60 in the 2012 National Draft – the club’s free agency compensation pick following Quinten Lynch’s defection to Collingwood.
Hutchings was the Eagles’ fourth round seven debutant in as many years, following Sheppard in 2010, Gerrick Weedon in 2011 and Ryan Neates in 2012, and after Weedon and Neates failed to play another game he was not about to waste his chance.
He acquitted himself well, picking up 15 possessions and making seven tackles as West Coast, one point up 20 minutes into the fourth quarter, kicked the last four goals via ex-Lion Bradd Dalziell, Matt Rosa, Josh Hill and Jack Darling to win 17.6 (108) to 12.10 (82). Darren Glass was best afield.
A McGovern match-winner
The Gold Coast Suns had given the Eagles an almighty fright at Subiaco in round 13 2014, when, in what turned out to be Guy McKenna’s last trip “home” as Suns coach, they came from 35 points down at three-quarter time to hit the front 10 minutes from full-time.
Only a late Jeremy McGovern match-winner for the home side and then two missed chances by Harley Bennell and Gary Ablett for the Suns saw the Eagles escape 15.13 (103) to 15.10 (100).
So, when next the Suns came to town in round seven, 2015 West Coast had a point to prove it. And did so by 92 points.
It was an astonishing scoreline. The home side led 1.2 to 1.1 after 15 minutes, 10.6 to 1.4 five minutes into the third quarter and 20.6 to 2.6 four minutes into the last quarter. They kicked 10 goals straight in the third quarter and had added 19.4 to 1.5 in 82 minutes.
Four late goals to the Suns added a little respectability but still the 21.9 (135) to 6.7 (43) win was a handy percentage booster in a season in which the two WA sides would finish 1-2 on the home-and-away ladder.
Chris Masten had a career-best 43 possessions but was pipped for the three Brownlow votes by Matt Priddis’ 39 possessions and two goals. Elliot Yeo’s outstanding double of 29 possessions and a career-best four goals earned him one vote.
A ton for Simmo
Adam Simpson coached West Coast for the 100th time in round seven, 2018 and celebrated with a 42-point win over Port Adelaide at Optus Stadium.
Jack Redden had 32 possessions and was judged best afield, while Josh Kennedy picked up two votes for four goals and Shannon Hurn one vote in what was a pretty straight-forward afternoon at the office for the coach.
Simpson had become the Eagles’ third 100-game coach after Mick Malthouse and John Worsfold. He had 63-1-36 win/loss record at the time, behind Malthouse’s 69-2-29 equivalent mark in 1994 but just ahead of Worsfold’s 60-2-38 record in 2006.
