Milestone for a WA champ
Can you name the West Australians to be named All-Australian captain?
It’s a slightly imperfect science, with a crossover of formats prompting the annual AFL Guide to list Carnival All-Australian teams at varying intervals from 1953-79 and National All-Australian teams in 1980 and from 1983-88.
It then evolves into AFL Teams of the Year from 1984-90 (excluding 1985) and AFL All-Australian teams as we know them today since 1991.
But we’re saying there have been eight, including one who was given this enormous honour twice.
In reverse chronological order through the existing system it has been Nat Fyfe (2019), Lance Franklin (2018), Darren Glass (2012) and Chris Judd (2008).
Brian Peake is next. He was named captain of the 1986 National All-Australian team even though Terry Daniher was captain of the 1986 AFL Team of the Year.
If we go now in the reverse order from the early days, Mal Brown was named All-Australian captain after the National Carnival in Perth in 1972, Peake was captain of the 1979 State of Origin Carnival team in Perth, and Stephen Michael likewise in Perth in 1983.
That leaves one. Steve Malaxos. He was named captain of the 1984 National All-Australian team after a round-robin series between Victoria, WA and SA split between Adelaide and Perth. It included WA teammates Liam Baker, Allen Daniels, Ross Glendinning, Brad Hardie, Paul Harding, Murray Rance, Maurice Rioli and Robert Wiley, plus WA coach John Todd.
In the same year Malaxos was named WA Sports Star of the Year.
This was a twin career highlight for a player who will forever be remembered as the Eagles’ their first club champion in 1987 and their third captain in 1990. And as a member of the Eagles very first AFL side in round one 1987, their first finals side in 1988 and, unless the AFL change the rules again, their first and only finals side to play a draw in 1990.
And barring something out of the box, he will continue to do as he has done since round 22, 1987 and hold the club record for most possessions in a game at 48.
Malaxos was a superstar of WA football and is enormously regarded for his contribution to the early years of the Eagles when, after nine games with Hawthorn in 1985, he became part of the first Eagles squad after resuming with Claremont in 1986.
He was going on 26 but his experience and loyalty to WA football made him a must.
Had he been born 10 years later his Eagles record might have been anything, but instead it had a sad ending that was certainly not befitting of a player of his standing.
He was dropped after the drawn qualifying final replay in 1990 and replaced by John Worsfold as captain. He never played in the AFL again, even though he was on the playing list in 1991. He finished with 66 games for the club.
So, Malaxos has only one Eagles milestone game to recall. It was round eight, 1990, when he and Phil Scott became the 11th and 12th player to reach 50 games for the club. Also, Tony Begovich debuted and Peter Sumich and Geoff Miles kicked four goals apiece in a 59-point Subiaco win over the Brisbane Bears.
A win at Windy Hill
The Eagles played five times at the old Essendon home ground at Windy Hill for just one win. It came in round eight, 1991. Peter Sumich kicked five goals, and Dwayne Lamb had 22 possessions and a goal to earn two Brownlow Medal votes.
Corey Young, a six-game Richmond player in 1989-90, played his one and only Eagles game before infamously disagreeing with feedback from coach Mick Malthouse.
Making his debut and setting out on a much better path was Mitchell White. Just 44 days beyond his 18th birthday, he had enjoyed a meteoric rise in a career which may have seen him stick with rugby league but for the intervention of a few school mates.
Seven goals on repeat
Another history question. Who are the five players to have kicked seven goals in a game for the Eagles more than once?
Clue. Four of the club’s top 10 goal-kickers all-time are not among them. So exclude Mark LeCras, Phil Matera, Jack Darling and Chris Lewis, who sit 3-4-5-7 on the goal-kicking list.
There are three easy ones. Josh Kennedy has 12 and was the fifth member of his club. Peter Sumich did so 10 times and was the first to kick seven goals more than twice, and Scott Cummings had six bags of seven-plus in his 46-game Eagles career and was third.
Quentin Lynch is another. He did so twice and was the fourth member.
The second member was Brett Heady, qualifying with seven goals in a 59-point win over Footscray, as the Western Bulldogs were then called, at Subiaco in round eight, 1992.
Heady, in his 49th game and having already kicked seven late in 1991, helped himself to 7.3 as the Eagles turned an 8.6 to 0.1 first quarter blitz into a 19.19 (133) to 11.8 (74) win.
Still, he had to be content with one Brownlow Medal vote. Peter Matera’s 23 possessions and two goals earned him three votes, and Ashley McIntosh, playing forward in just his 18th game in the absence of Peter Sumich, had 16 possessions and kicked four goals for two votes.
Rintoul’s Revenge
Chad Rintoul was an East Fremantle product who played 23 games with Adelaide in 1997-98. He was a member of the Crows’ 1997 premiership side and played in the 1998 preliminary final only to be dropped for the grand final.
Coach Malcolm Blight decided he needed an extra ruckman to take on the North pairing of Corey McKernan and Matthew Capuano and went with ninth-gamer Ben Marsh at Rintoul’s expense.
Marsh had only three possessions and five hit-outs but the Crows won by 35 points and Blight had back-to-back flags. Rintoul never played for the club again.
Traded to the Eagles for selection #80 in the 1998 National Draft, Rintoul faced his former club for the first time in round eight, 1999. And one suspects his treatment in Adelaide was still fresh on his mind.
Having not had more than 23 possessions in his time at Adelaide before a then career-best 27 in round one for the Eagles, Rintoul took things to the next level. He enjoyed an all-time career-best and team-high 36 as the Eagles belted the defending premiers by 54 points.
Peter Matera’s 29 possessions in the 19.12 (126) to 11.6 (72) win earned him three Brownlow votes, while Scott Cummings’ seven goals was good enough for two votes and David Wirrpanda’s 24 possessions was rewarded with one vote.
And Rintoul couldn’t care less. He had the win he wanted.
He played every game in 1999, including two finals, but after 15 more in 2000 he was delisted and traded to Collingwood, where he was reunited with Mick Malthouse. But, troubled by recurring migraines and concussions, he played only 14 games in 2001-02 before retiring.
Twin tons for Judd
Chris Judd played his 100th game and kicked his 100th goal as West Coast scored a top-class win over Essendon at Docklands in round eight, 2006, coming from 10 points down at three-quarter time.
The Eagles kicked 6.8 to 2.1 in the final quarter, including the first three goals after three-quarter time and the last three goals of the game to win 16.17 (113) to 14.8 (92) in the Judd double milestone game.
Andrew Embley was judged best afield by the umpires for his 27 possessions and a goal from Ben Cousins, who picked up 26 possessions, and Daniel Chick, who kicked a career-best five goals.
Judd, 22 years and 255 days old, was at the time and still is the fifth youngest Eagles’ 100-gamer behind Ben Cousins (22/37), Chad Morrison (22/66), Daniel Kerr (22/82) and Glen Jakovich (22/99).
And, having missed just one game from his first to his 100th, he was the equal quickest with Jakovich. While Jakovich was sidelined by injury for a week after playing 27 straight from debut, Judd’s unbroken run of 76 games from debut was spoiled by suspension.
Among 69 Eagles 100-gamers, five others have missed 10 or less games in reaching 100 – Dwayne Lamb (4), Drew Banfield (7), Morrison (8), Andrew Gaff (8) and Tyson Stenglein (10).
Tell us again – why?
What sort of crowd would you expect if you played North Melbourne and West Coast on the Gold Coast? Probably not too many, and you’d be right.
But that’s exactly what the AFL did in round eight, 2008.
It was after the Brisbane Bears had moved from Carrara to the Gabba in 1993 and before the birth of the Gold Coast Suns in 2011. Hawthorn and Melbourne hosted a game each at Carrara in 2006 and then North agreed to host three games in 2007 and another three in 2008.
It was presented as a North experiment with the backing of the AFL, who had said at the time they wanted one game a week in south-east Queensland by 2015.
Despite strong protests from elements within the North family, it prompted strong speculation North might relocate to the tourist strip as early as 2010. Especially after the club filmed a television commercial shown in the area promoting their team and the game.
There was a mixed reaction from local residents, but things rolled along smoothly enough in 2007. North beat Brisbane by 24 points and Carlton by 17 before losing to Adelaide by 46. Each time the crowd topped 11,000, which was more than the Bears had averaged through their later years at Carrara.
On December 2, 2007 The Age reported that the AFL had garnered support from 75% of the North Melbourne Board of Directors to move the club to the Gold Coast.
This sparked a strong reaction from passionate North factions. One group calling themselves “We Are North Melbourne” launched a public campaign, calling for the Club's shareholder structure to be wound-up and for ordinary members to be given the final say on the relocation issue.
Another group staged a "Roosistence" rock concert, headed by “You Am I” frontman Tim Rogers to raise funds for the club to remain in Melbourne.
Things moved quickly. On December 6 the North Melbourne Board officially rejected the AFL proposal to relocate to the Gold Coast and media identity James Brayshaw, originally from WA, was appointed Chairman.
On December 7, after the club had gone by the name ‘Kangaroos’ for marketing purposes from 1999-2007, Brayshaw announced their intention to return to the name ‘North Melbourne’.
They announced a major upgrade to their Arden Street facilities as CEO Rick Aylett quit, citing an inability to work with a board split over the Gold Coast issue. And on December 8 news broke of a rich new major sponsorship.
It was a clear message that North weren’t going anywhere.
But the 2008 fixture was already in pace. And the Eagles’ scheduled visit in round eight was to be the first of the three North games played at Carrara.
By the time the game came around it was seventh-placed North Melbourne, coached by Dean Laidley, against a West Coast side struggling at 1-6 after the off-season exit of Chris Judd and Ben Cousins. They were second last on the ladder.
But worse than that, there were fears of a hostile reaction from rejected Gold Coast people.
Caught in the middle of it all was a gentleman who eight years later would become an Eagles favorite. Adam Simpson.
In his fifth and ultimately his last year as North captain and his second-last season as an AFL player, Simpson was called to front the Melbourne media in the lead-up to the game as a would-be peacemaker.
He said he hoped the North Melbourne bond with the area had not been lost completely, and accepted they would have to cop whatever they got. "If they boo us, they boo us. If they don't, they don't. We're not too worried about it.
"We took on a contract and we're seeing it through. I don't think we ever took on that contract with the assumption we were going to move up there. We definitely put a bit of work into it."
Regardless of the reception his team might receive, Simpson said it was in the best interests of all footy fans on the Gold Coast to get along to the game.
"I just hope that people who follow footy and Aussie Rules and want a new team up there – obviously it's a game of footy – get up and enjoy the spectacle," he added.
It was Simpson at his pragmatic best. But he need not have worried. There was nothing untoward from a crowd officially listed at 6354 which locals thought may have been a little generous.
Those who did turn out were treated to a clinker. Even if it wasn’t the result the Eagles craved.
When Brent Staker kicked the first goal after halftime the Eagles led by 21 points before North got the next four. Just before three-quarter time Simpson, in his 275th game, kicked his 77th goal to put the travelling home side in front by seven at the last change.
In the final term Daniel Wells stretched the North lead to 11 before Josh Kennedy cut it to four. And when seventh-gamer Ben McKinley goaled for West Coast 12 minutes into the final term scores were level.
There was still 15 minutes to play but North kicked the only goal thereafter via Matt Campbell and won 13.11 (89) to 12.11 (83).
And who got the three Brownlow Medal votes after collecting 26 possessions? Simpson, of course.
It was his 18th game against West Coast, and his last. By the time the clubs met the next time in round 20, 2009 Simpson was two weeks into retirement.
His 306th and last game, which sees the 1996-99 premiership player equal forth on North’s all-time games list, had been in round 18 as ended his career in the same round he had started it in 1995.
Chris Masten, in his sixth game for West Coast at 19, had 21 possessions to earn his first two Brownlow votes, and Matt Priddis, returning from injury, received one vote for 22 possessions.
Making his debut for West Coast at 18 was NSW/ACT Rams product Ryan Davis, who would go on to play 14 games over two years in blue and gold before returning to Carrara to play 21 games with the Gold Coast Suns in 2016-17.
The crowd was the sixth lowest in Eagles history, not counting the zero attendance for the Round 1 match this year.
Smaller still was 6324 against GWS at Sydney Showgrounds in 2013, 6025 against Richmond at Princes Park in 1993, 5728 against the Brisbane Bears at Carrara in 1991, 5334 against Fitzroy at Whitten Oval in 1994 and, smallest of all, 4859 against the Bears at Carrara in 1987.
