Debut: Round 10, 1991 v Richmond
Games: 242
Achievements: Premiership player 1992, 1994; Club Champion 1998; All-Australian 1998; club player of the finals 1996; selected in West Coast Eagles Team of the Decade and Team 20; inducted into the WA football Hall of Fame 2012
The laconic nature of Ashley McIntosh sometimes masked his athletic attributes and competitive nature, but his capacity to dull the influence of some of the greatest forwards in history puts him in truly elite company.
Playing in defence in an era where players like Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett, Matthew Lloyd and Tony Modra were attacking focal points, it was daunting and beyond most defenders to nullify them. But McIntosh relished the challenge of combatting those big-name forwards.
When McIntosh called a halt to his career after the 2003 season, he could retire content in the knowledge that he had been an outstanding contributor over many seasons, but perhaps his best was in 1998 when he won the Club Champion Award and earned All-Australian honours.
For most of his career, he battled a degenerative knee injury, but the champion schoolboy athlete, regarded as an Olympic hurdles prospect when attending Scotch College, was rarely beaten off the mark.
Selected in the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2012, his blend of strength and speed made him difficult to combat and also saw him play successfully as a forward.
