McKenna charges to 200
If the race to be the first Eagles player to 200 games was equated to a 200m Olympic final Guy McKenna gave his rivals a 22m start and took the gold medal by seven metres.
He crossed the ‘finish line’ in round eight 1997, when West Coast played Richmond at the MCG, and so becomes the headline story for the ‘Best of the Eagles - round eight’ in the continuing the Coronavirus pandemic footy flashback series.
It is a shared top billing with long-time teammate Glen Jakovich who played his last game in round eight, 2004 after a surprise mid-season retirement. Such is the enormous contribution of McKenna and Jakovich to West Coast history that Jakovich’s round eight story will be covered in depth separately.
When the Eagles joined the AFL in 1987, McKenna, a product of Carine Junior Football Club and Carine High School, was in his third year of WAFL football with Claremont at 17 and playing a key role in a Tigers premiership.
He was a pre-draft priority selection to the Eagles in November 1987. Sharing his debut for the club in round one, 1988 with Karl Langdon and import Murray Rance, he is officially listed as player #35 on the all-time playing list behind #34 Langdon alphabetically.
So, in the race to 200 he already had 33 players ahead of him. John Annear, the only Eagle to play every game in 1987, led the way from Steve Malaxos (21), Dwayne Lamb (21), Ross Glendinning (21), Mark Zanotti (21), Michael Brennan (21) and Geoff Miles (20).
Significantly, younger ‘runners’ near the lead in the 200m race and set to figure in the finish were Chris Mainwaring (19), Chris Lewis (19), David Hart (17) and John Worsfold (11).
By the time McKenna played his 100th game, or reached the 100m mark, he had cut enormously the number of ‘runners’ ahead of him. But he was still well back. Lamb (129) led from Mainwaring (124), Brennan (119), Worsfold (116) and Lewis (111).
Lamb retired at the end of 1994, ‘withdrawing’ from the race at the ‘151m mark’ just before McKenna reached the 150m mark in round two, 1995. He was closing on the leaders. Only Brennan (165), Mainwaring (163), Worsfold (158) and Lewis (155) were ahead of him.
Brennan ‘withdrew’ at the end of 1995, in front at the ‘179m mark’ from Worsfold (176), Lewis (174), McKenna (171) and Mainwaring (165) after Mainwaring had played only nine games in his ninth season.
Worsfold pulled to within touching distance of Brennan in round two, reaching the 178m mark, but he stumbled badly. He didn’t play again for the year.
Lewis got to 176 in round three, three games behind Brennan and two behind Worsfold, but an eight-week lay-off put him out of contention.
With McKenna sidelined for a fortnight a resurgent Mainwaring slipped one game ahead of McKenna and in Rounds 7-9-10 he edged in front of first Lewis, then Worsfold and finally Brennan. The race had a new leader, with McKenna one back.
But with Mainwaring missing Rounds 18-19 McKenna pulled level in round 18 and in round 19 against Geelong at Kardinia Park, McKenna played his 188th game to hit the front.
In round two 1997, when Mainwaring suffered a knee injury in his 193rd game that would require a reconstruction, the race was over. McKenna could even afford to miss round five and still do it easily.
When McKenna played his 200th game in round eight he led from Mainwaring (193), Lewis (190), Worsfold (184) and the retired Brennan (179).
Interestingly, the corresponding “race” in Brisbane was well off the pace. Although the Bears turned Lions had entered the competition with the Eagles in 1987 their games record-holder at the time was Roger Merrett, who had retired at the end of 1996 with 164 games for his second club.
Marcus Ashcroft was second on 160 games, and Scott McIvor, who like McKenna and Merrett had begun their time with the expansion clubs in 1988, was third on 142 games.
And to put the McKenna ‘win’ into an even better perspective, only two Sydney-based players had reached 200 games despite a five-year head start on West Coast and Brisbane when South Melbourne moved to the Harbour City for the start of the 1982 season.
Dennis Carroll had played his 200th game as an ‘interstate’ player in 1992, and Mark Bates in 1995.
Sadly, McKenna’s 200th game wasn’t the celebration the occasion deserved. West Coast were beaten 9.13 (67) to 18.11 (119) by a Richmond side coached by Robert Walls in his second and last season with the club. Their side included ex-Eagle Trent Nichols and future Eagle Mark Merenda.
Brett Heady had a career-best 33 possessions for the Eagles and Lewis kicked three goals. The Brownlow Medal votes went to the Richmond trio of Paul Broderick, Michael Gale and Wayne Campbell.
McKenna reached 200 games eight days after his 28th birthday, and 23 years later he remains third-youngest among the club’s 23 200-gamers behind only Ben Cousins and Glen Jakovich.
McKenna missed 25 games from his first game to his 200th – less than all except Cousins (10) and Jakovich (24), and just ahead of Dean Kemp (26), Drew Banfield (27) and Dean Cox (29).
And in his 200 games McKenna had enjoyed 130 wins – behind only Kemp (132) and Peter Matera (132).
It was all part of the decorated career of the 1992-94 premiership player who captained the Eagles in 1999-2000 and in 2009 was the club’s fourth AFL Hall of Fame inductee behind Peter Matera (2006), Kemp (2007) and Glen Jakovich (2008).
Winner of the Club Champion Award in 1989 and 1999, McKenna also finished second in 1988-91 and third in 1994-96. He was a member of the VFL Team of the Year in 1989 before the introduction of the AFL All-Australian team in which he was selected in 1991-93-94.
Fifth on the Eagles’ all-time games list 19 years (and one round) after his retirement, he famously kicked a goal with his final kick in AFL football in round 22, 2000 against Melbourne at Subiaco, and twice claimed a novel placing in football history.
In round 22, 1994 he was the first AFL player ordered from the ground under the blood rule, and in round 22, 1999, in a match against St Kilda at the WACA Ground, he was the third captain in League history to call for a head count. Teams were found to be level.
The other two captains to call for a headcount have been St Kilda’s Wes Eicke in 1924, and Essendon’s Jack Clarke in 1958. Both, too, were unsuccessful.
Round eight at a glance
West Coast have enjoyed a 22-10 win/loss record in round eight, with one bye. So, as we count through the rounds, round eight now ranks second only to round one, which has given the Eagles 23 wins.
But the big message to come out of the round eight review is clear … if they could have found a way (and they were really superstitious), Eagles officials might still like to be playing all round eight games at Subiaco. Because the club didn’t lose at the venue after 1995. They were 13-3 in round eight matches at Subiaco overall, and won their last 11 at their former home.
Having not yet played a round eight game at Optus Stadium and going 2-1 at the WACA Ground, the Eagles have gone 15-4 in round eight games in WA. They’ve gone 6-4 in Victoria, including 4-0 at Docklands, 0-1 in Queensland, 0-1 in SA and 1-0 in NSW.
Having played every opposition except Geelong and Port Adelaide in round eight, they’ve gone 5-1 against St Kilda after losing to the Saints in round eight, 1987. They are undefeated against the Western Bulldogs (3-0), GWS (2-0), Adelaide (1-0), Brisbane (1-0), Carlton (1-0), Collingwood (1-0) and Fremantle (1-0), have a positive record against Melbourne (2-1), Essendon (2-1) and Sydney (2-1), and an even split against North Melbourne (1-1). But they have never beaten Hawthorn (0-2), Richmond (0-2) and the now defunct Fitzroy (0-1) in round eight.
A bad start
The Eagles had a rough introduction to round eight football in 1987, leading St Kilda by 16 points at quarter-time at Moorabbin before kicking just one goal in the final three quarters and going down by 48 points.
Tony Lockett kicked seven goals for the home side and Glenn O’Loughlin, player #31 on the all-time list, played his one and only game. Originally from Boulder City in the goldfields, O’Loughlin had played in three consecutive WAFL grand finals with Subiaco and their 1987 premiership side before getting a call-up to the Eagles, and later was a three-time best and fairesrt winner at Kalgoorlie and twice winner of the League medal, which he had also won in 1982.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN
John Todd has been the oldest first-game coach with the Eagles and the oldest coach overall. And he was twice an unlucky round 8 coach at birthday time.
In 1988, one day after Todd’s 50th birthday, the Eagles lost by 53 points to Hawthorn at Subiaco. And in 1989, when they played Melbourne on the day of his 51st birthday, they led at every change and by 14 points at three-quarter time before losing 12.21 (93) to 13.17 (95).
Todd, a legend of WA football inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2003 and the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2004, had been 49 years and 317 days old when he coached the Eagles for the first time.
This put him older than John Worsfold (33/187), one-gamer caretaker coach Jaymie Graham (25/34), Ron Alexander (36/109), Mick Malthouse (36/227) and Adam Simpson (38/35).
Todd was 51 years 104 days old in last game – older than Malthouse (46/25), Worsfold (44/340) and Alexander (36/263) in their last game at the helm.
