Thirteen! Thirteen! Thirteen!

This has become something of an AFL war cry after FoxSports broadcaster Anthony Hudson used it in commentary when Lance Franklin kicked 13 goals for Sydney in 2012.

With increasing volume and inflection going from start to finish ‘Huddo’ made quite a name for himself, and it’s become a personal trademark and an identifying tag for one of the great individual performances by one of the AFL’s great individuals.

But West Coast fans could reasonably say he was 11 years late. Because back in round 13 of 1991, one of the great Eagles, Peter Sumich, kicked 13 of his own. It was at the time a club record and today ranks second on a list of eight double-figure Eagles hauls by four different players.

Sumich kicked 13.3 for the Eagles against the Western Bulldogs, or Footscray as they were known at the time, at the WACA Ground.

He more than matched the Dogs on his own, and had they not rallied in the last quarter Sumich would have doubled their score off his boot.

It was 21.10 (136) to 3.3 (21) at three-quarter time and already he had 10, having led from full forward, taken a screamer over Simon Atkins and kicked truly from 50m to become the first Eagle to double figures seven minutes before three-quarter time.

At the last change it was Sumich 10.1 to the Dogs 3.3.

The Eagles match-winner kicked three of his side’s four in the last quarter, including one after the siren that prompted an “it’s a beauty” call from commentator Drew Morphett, but the Dogs kicked four as well for a final score of 25.15 (165) to 7.5 (47).

“It was one of those nights where everything fell into place for me,” Sumich said at the time. “The ball fell in the right places, I took some good grabs and the boys were looking for me … I got a bit of a buzz out of it.”

Sumich, playing the 53^rd game of a career that stretched to 150 games and 514 goals, took 13 marks and earned the first of just two three-vote ratings in the Brownlow Medal.

It was Glen Jakovich’s second game and Ashley McIntosh’s third, and gave the soon-to-be champion defenders a first-hand look at the sort of thing they were going to face against the League’s champion full forwards of the generation.

Sumich, 23 at the time, bettered his own Eagles record of eight goals, set in 1989 and matched in 1990 and round six in 1991. He also kicked the Eagles’ second double-figure bag and the first interstate in 1991 before Scott Cummings kicked the next two and Mark LeCras the fifth and the second interstate. Josh Kennedy has kicked the last three. Details are:-

West Coast Eagles - 10 Goals in a Game
Order	Goals	Player	Rd/Yr	Opposition	Venue
1	13	Peter Sumich	13/1991	Footscray	WACA
2	11	Peter Sumich	15/1992	Essendon	MCG
3	14	Scott Cummings	4/2000	Adelaide	WACA
4	10	Scott Cummings	6/2000	Fremantle	Subiaco
5	12	Mark LeCras	16/2010	Essendon	Docklands
6	10	Josh Kennedy	9/2011	W/Bulldogs	Subiaco
7	11	Josh Kennedy	8/2014	GWS	Subiaco
8	10	Josh Kennedy	2/2015	Carlton	Subiaco

 

Sumich was a product of Cockburn Junior Football Club and later South Fremantle and, like so many before him and since him, he had to make a choice between cricket and football.

In February/March 1997 he had toured New Zealand with an Australian under-19 cricket team that was skippered by Geoff Parker, also a multi-talented teenager who played three AFL games with Essendon in 1987 and 1989 and 37 first-class cricket games for Victoria and South Australia and is now in charge of recruiting with AFL club Port Adelaide.

Sumich was a tight right-arm medium pace bowler in a side which also included Stuart Law, who went on to become a long-time Australian one-day representative and record-breaking Queensland captain, Wayne Holdsworth, later a member of an Australian Ashes touring party to England and a fearsome NSW quick, and five other soon-to-be State players – Joe Scuderi (SA), Allister deWinter (Tasmania), Adrian Tucker (NSW), Brett Williams (NSW) and Scott Prestwidge (Qld).

A look back through the scorecards for the three-match under-19 ‘Test’ series suggests Sumich may have made the right decision to focus on football.

In the first Test in Christchurch, where Law made 86, Scuderi took 5-44 and Australia won by 88 runs, he made three and 19no batting at No.9 and returned bowling figures of 0-11 off 12 overs (seven maidens) and 0-28 off 15 overs (six maidens).

In the second Test in New Plymouth where Australia won by an innings and 19 runs, Sumich did not bowl in NZ’s first innings as Prestwidge took 7-30 and did not bat in Australia’s first innings as Law made 61no and Parker 56no. He took 2-25 from 24 overs (11 maidens), picking up two top-order wickets in the NZ second innings.

And in the drawn third Test in Auckland he returned 1-87 off 45.1 overs (15 maidens) in the NZ innings of 4/358 (dec), picking up the fourth wicket, and, again batting at No.9, he went in at 7-601 after Parker had made 140 and was out LBW first ball. He did not bowl in NZ’s second innings.

Three matches for 22 runs at 11.0 and three wickets at 50.3, conceding just 1.6 runs per over.

Sumich, who had made his WAFL debut for South Fremantle in 1986, returned from his international cricket sojourn in March 1987, played with South Fremantle in 1987-88, and joined the Eagles as one of five pre-draft WAFL selections in 1988. The others were Don Pyke, Stevan Jackson, Craig Turley and Scott Watters.

He was goalless in his first game against Essendon at the WACA in round one. 1989, and again in his third, fifth, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th games. And then only six times in his next 138 games.

Only seven clubs were able to hold him goalless – Essendon (4 times), Hawthorn (2), Melbourne (2), Adelaide (1), Carlton (1), Fremantle (1) and Sydney (1).

He was goalless four times at Subiaco, three times at the WACA Ground, twice at Princes Park in consecutive weeks, and once at the SCG, Windy Hill and in a semi-final at the MCG – the only time he failed to hit the scoreboard in 19 finals.

In addition to his 13-goal haul, he kicked 11 in round 15 ,1992 against Essendon at the MCG in a 75-point win.

He kicked 11.8 to set an Eagles record for scoring shots in a game that has never been beaten.

The player who came closest to Sumich’s 19 scoring shots was Sumich himself with 15. He’d already kicked 7.8 in round one, 1993 and followed his 11.8 in 1992 with an 8.7 against Geelong at Waverley in round six, 1991.

The most scoring shots by another Eagles player was Quinten Lynch’s 12 against Melbourne at Subiaco in round eight, 2007. He kicked 5.7.

Sumich’s three games of eight behinds in 1991-92-93 is a club record he shares with Ross Glendinning, who kicked 2.8 in round one, 1998 against Geelong at Kardinia Park.

Sumich equalled Glendinning’s’ aggregate club goal-kicking record of 111 goals in round 16, 1990 and after missing the next three matches bettered the record in round 20 against Melbourne at Subiaco.

He held the record for 648 matches and going on 28 years until round six, 2018, when Josh Kennedy kicked the first goal of derby #47 at Perth Stadium. It was the first derby at the club’s new home.

Sumich was the Eagles leading goal-kicker six years in a row from 1989-94, with a best of 111 when he finished second to Tony Lockett in the Coleman Medal in 1991 and became the first left-footer in AFL history to kick the ton.

During his peak from 1990-93, when he kicked 309 goals, only three players kicked more – Jason Dunstall (433), Lockett (377) and John Longmire (328).

Sumich also kicked 89 behinds in 1991 to better the then AFL record of 81 set by Essendon’s Alan Noonan in 1974. Noonan kicked 77.81. Since then Jason Dunstall kicked 84 behinds in 1992, Gary Ablett Snr kicked 85 in 1995 and Lance Franklin kicked 88 behinds in 2008.

In addition to his 111-goal season in 1991 Sumich kicked 90 goals in 1990 when third in League goal-kicking behind Longmire (98) and Peter Daicos (97), 82 in 1992 to rank fourth behind Dunstall (145), Lockett (132) and Stephen Kernahan (83), and 76 in 1993 when fourth behind Tony Modra (129), Ablett Snr (124) and Dunstall (123).

He topped the Eagles goal-kicking again in his last season in 1997 with 33.

He was a multiple goal-kicker in 118 of his 150 games and 66 times he kicked four goals or more.

Interestingly, in a comparison which probably says more about the era they have played in than the players individually, Sumich had 30 games of six goals or more in his 150 games (20%) and Kennedy has had 20 games of six goals or more in 222 Eagles games (9%).

 

Sumich & Kennedy - Goals by the Numbers
Goals	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Games
Sumich	12	22	24	26	17	19	20	3	5	0	0	1	0	1	150
Kennedy	18	50	49	45	27	13	8	7	2	0	2	1	0	0	222

FLASHBACK TRIVIA QUESTION

Eagles Josh Kennedy, Peter Sumich, Scott Cummings and Mark LeCras are among 31 players to have kicked 10 or more goals in an AFL game since 1987. Fraser Gehrig, too, although he did so playing with StKilda. Who are the other 26? And who has kicked the really big bags? Like 14-15-16-17?

TEN GOALS IN A GAME SINCE 1987
Total	Players	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
22	Tony Lockett *	7	5	7	1		1	1
16	Jason Dunstall	5	5	4		1			1
12	Gary Ablett Snr	5	2	2		3
5	Tony Modra *	3			2
5	Sav Rocca	4	1
3	Jack Riewoldt	2	1
3	Josh Kennedy (WC)	2	1
3	Matthew Lloyd	1	1		1
2	Wayne Carey	1	1
2	Paul Salmon	1	1
2	Peter Sumich		1		1
2	Scott Cummings	1				1
2	Stephen Kernahan	2
2	Fraser Gehrig	1	1
1	Allen Jakovich		1
1	Jonathan Brown	1
1	Billy Brownless		1
1	Dermott Brereton		1
1	Garry Lyon	1
1	Jeff Hogg	1
1	Lance Franklin				1
1	Mark LeCras			1
1	Matthew Richardson	1
1	Peter Daicos				1
1	Richard Osborne	1
1	Shane Hodges		1
1	Simon Beasley	1
1	Stephen Milne		1
1	Stephen Silvagni	1
1	Tom Lynch (Adel)	1
1	Ben Brown	1
98		44	25	14	7	5	1	1	1

 

A McGovern match winner

West Coast looked set for a comfortable win over Gold Coast at Subiaco in round 13, 2014 despite the fact that going into the game they sat 11^th on the ladder and the Suns were eighth on percentage, equal sixth with a 7-4 record and one win off second.

The home side was 39 points up early in the third quarter and 35 up at the last change time before the Gold Coast kicked six unanswered goals in 15 minutes. It started with Harley Bennell and Jarrod Harbrow, included Michael Rischitelli, Dion Prestia and Jaeger O’Meara, and when Tom Lynch pulled down a screamer in a huge pack and kicked truly from 30m at the 19-minute mark it was Gold Coast by a point.

Not for the last time, Jeremy McGovern was the late hero. After a hurried Andrew Gaff snap in the pocket fell short Nic Naitanui provided a contest which saw the ball land in the hands of McGovern virtually on the goal-line. Eagles back in front.

Bennell kicked a behind for the Suns and then Gary Ablett had an impossible set shot from deep in the right forward pocket. He went the inside-out banana but it just missed. The Eagles hung on 15.13 (103) to 15.10 (100) as Josh Kennedy’s seven goals earned him three votes

Staggeringly, although it was only six years ago, only six members of the Suns side that day are still at the club. And that includes Zac Smith who is back this year to rejoin Harbrow, David Swallow, Sam Day, Alex Sexton and Rory Thompson after four years at Geelong.

No less than 11 players are now with opposition clubs – Ablett (Geelong), Lynch and Prestia (Richmond), Steven May, Kade Kolodjashnij and Bennell (Melbourne), Charlie Dixon and Trent McKenzie (Port Adelaide), Jaeger O’Meara (Hawthorn), Aaron Hall (North Melbourne), Brandon Matera (Fremantle).

Only 11 members of the Eagles side are still wearing blue and gold, but only Scott Lycett at Port Adelaide is playing elsewhere.

Round 13 by the numbers

West Coast have an 18-13 record in round 13 matches, with two byes. They were 2-0 at the WACA Ground and 9-5 at Subiaco, and have had a 5-5 split in round 13 matches in Victoria – 2-2 at the MCG, 1-0 at Victoria Park and Whitten Oval, 1-1 at Kardinia Park and 0-1 at Princes Park and Docklands.

They’ve gone 1-1 at the Gabba, 1-0 at Football Park and 0-1 at the SCG in their only round 13 games in South Australia and New South Wales, and were 0-1 at Manuka in Canberra.

They went 3-0 against Fitzroy in round 13 matches, are 2-0 against Melbourne and Adelaide, and 1-0 against Essendon, Port Adelaide and Gold Coast. They have a 2-2 split against the Western Bulldogs and Geelong, a 1-1 split against Brisbane, North Melbourne and Hawthorn. Their worst round 13 record is against Collingwood (1-3), they’ve never beaten Carlton (0-2) or Sydney (0-1) in round 13 and have never played Fremantle, GWS, Richmond or StKilda.

A Fitzroy hat-trick

West Coast played Fitzroy in three of the first four round 13 games in 1987-88-90 for three wins.

In 1987 John Annear had 30 possessions and was best afield in a 72-point win at the WACA Ground, while Wally Matera had 32 possessions and kicked three goals for three votes in a 34-point win at Subiaco in 1988, when Ross Glendinning had 20 possessions and kicked 6.4 winning attracting a vote. And in 1990 Dean Kemp had 35 possessions as Peter Sumich kicked six goals in a 37-point win at Subiaco.

A win at Victoria Park

It took him seven years and three clubs, but Paul Harding finally posted his 100^th AFL game as West Coast enjoyed a 23-point win over Collingwood at Victoria Park in round 13, 1993. And he did it in style, with the last Brownlow Medal votes of his career. Three of them.

The Eagles were 26 points down at quarter-time and 11 points down at half-time, and added 7.7 to 2.3 in the second half as Peter Sumich kicked six goals. Brendon Retzlaff made his Eagles debut.

Twelve months later, in round 13, 1994, Harding played his 116^th and last AFL game as West Coast lost to Collingwood by 37 points at the MCG. Brett Heady kicked six goals.

A McIntosh ton

Ashley McIntosh played his 100^th game in round 13, 1996 as the Eagles beat the Western Bulldogs by 12 points. He was the 17^th Eagle to triple figures and the fifth-youngest at the time at 23 years 254 days. Chris Mainwaring was best afield with 31 possessions and a goal, and Mitchell White kicked four goals.

A twin celebration

Peter Matera and Glen Jakovich shared 11 years in the Eagles locker room from Jakovich’s first season in 1992 to Matera’s last in 2002. And with jumper numbers 30 and 27 they were never too far apart.

In round 13, 1998 both had a day to remember fondly as West Coast beat Essendon at the MCG by 11 points. Matera kicked a career-best seven goals to ensure Jakovich enjoyed a win in his 150^th game to qualify for life membership.

It was a great win on a Friday night at ‘headquarters’ against an Essendon side that had won he flag in 2000 and were still among the League’s best. The Eagles were 10 points down at three-quarter time in a low-scoring slog but added 4.10 to 2.1 in the final quarter to win 11.17 (83) to 11.6 (72).  

Matera’s seven-goal bag earned him three votes while Ben Cousins’ 30 possessions earned him two votes and Chris Waterman’s 24 possessions saw him pick up one.

Biggest win at the Cattery

The Eagles have only won eight times in 24 visits to Geelong’s Kardinia Park so each is special, but none more so than in round 13, 1999. It was the biggest in club history at the “Cattery” by 44 points.

The visitors kicked 6.6 to 1.3 in the first quarter and led all the way. Scott Cummings kicked four goals, Ben Cousins had 30 possessions and David Wirrpanda picked up the first of his five three-vote hauls in the Brownlow Medal.

A milestone feast, but …

The Eagles visited the Gabba in round 13, 2000 and despite a very disappointing scoreline it was a day six players will remember vividly.

Daniel Metropolis and Chad Morrison played their 100^th game, David Haynes and David Antonowicz made their AFL debut, and Todd Holmes played what turned out to be his last game in an 84-point loss. And in the 117^th game of his 129-game career, Ryan Turnbull kicked a career-best four goals – twice his next best haul.