Priddis enjoys a night out

To use a couple of football colloquialisms, Matt Priddis was a ball magnet. He suffered from chronic leather poisoning. Quite simply, he had an extraordinary ability to win the football.

In round 14 2008, on a Friday night against Hawthorn at the MCG, the mop-haired midfielder had a career-best 45 possessions, including a then all-time AFL record 30 handballs.

Priddis was 23 and playing just his 36^th game. And while a 57-point loss means it won’t exactly be at the top of the career highlights list the sheer statistical worth earns him headline billing in the continuing footy flashback series ‘Best of the Eagles - round 14’.

Priddis’ 45-possession haul, which came in what turned out to be Jaymie Graham’s last game for the Eagles, was at the time and still is the equal second highest in Eagles history.

The club record 48 possessions stands to the credit of inaugural Club Champion Steve Malaxos and has stood since round 22, 1987. It has endured through 758 games and withstood its strongest challenges from Chris Mainwaring in 1990 and Priddis in 2008.

At the time the all-time AFL record stood at 53 by Greg Williams when playing with Sydney in 1989. The Collingwood trio of Barry Price (52), John Greening (51) and Tony Shaw (50) had also topped 50 since the AFL first kept full records in 1965.

Priddis’ 30 handballs bettered the club record which at the time was shared by Rowan Jones and Michael Braun at 26, and the AFL record of 28 which also stood to Williams when the dual Brownlow Medallist was playing with Geelong in just his second season in 1985.

It has since been re-set by Geelong’s Gary Ablett Jnr at 33 in 2009, Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell at 34 in 2018 and Adelaide’s Matt Crouch at 35 later in the same season.

They are all just numbers but unavoidably so. Because Priddis’ career was so much about numbers. Big numbers. Often.

He certainly stands among the most prominent products of his home town Manjimup, 300km south of Perth which originally was best known for its timber, was the birth place of the pink lady apple, and at the last census in 2016 had a population of 4349.

It’s a town that also counts among its football products ex-North Melbourne and Collingwood star turned ‘lambassador’ Sam Kekovich and Richmond 2019 grand final debutant Marlion Pickett, plus 1984 Australian Olympic hockey representative Shelley Liddelow.

Having moved to Perth as a teenager, Priddis was a graduate of the Sorrento–Duncraig Junior Football Club which boasts a similarly proud alumni, including fellow Eagles Jack Darling and Adam Cockie and current Brisbane star Daniel Rich.

He was 20 when finally drafted with selection #31 in the Rookie Draft of November 2005, having been overlooked by each club in the National Draft not just of 2005 but 2004 and 2003 as well.

Even before his belated AFL call-up he had played in a Subiaco WAFL premiership side and been crowned WAFL Rising Star in 2004, and won a Simpson Medal playing for WA against Queensland and claimed the Subiaco fairest and best in 2005.

Even after he’d been drafted and played two AFL games he won a second WAFL premiership and the Sandover Medal in 2006 before consolidating himself at the elite level in 2007.

Yet when he retired at the end of 2017 after 240 AFL games Priddis had put together a career highlighted individually by the 2014 Brownlow Medal, the 2013 John Worsfold Medal as Eagles club champion and 11 consecutive top 10 finishes. From 2007 to 2017 he went 4-6-5-2-2-8-1-2-2-4-9.

He ranks 13^th on all-time AFL games by a rookie headed by the Western Bulldogs’ Matthew Boyd (292), is 2^nd in all-time possessions by a rookie at 6279, behind only Boyd’s 7313, is the only rookie to win the Brownlow Medal, and polled a rookie record 149 career votes. Boyd is next best with 108.

He finished as the Eagles’ all-time leading possession-winner, having gone past Ben Cousins in 2016, and averaged 26.2 possessions per game.

Andrew Gaff, the nearest challenger to the Priddis mark but still 963 possessions behind, is the only Eagles player with a superior game average at 26.7ppg. And he has played in a different era.

Among Eagles 100-gamers, only 13 have averaged more than 20.0ppg – Gaff, Priddis, Luke Shuey (23.9), Cousins (22.5), Chris Mainwaring (21.6), Chad Fletcher (21.6), Matt Rosa (21.2), Dom Sheed (21.2), Daniel Kerr (21.1), Chris Judd (21.0), Chris Masten (20.8), Elliot Yeo (20.5) and Dean Kemp (20.2).

When Priddis retired in 2017 he’d had 63 games of 30 or more possessions, including his 45 plus a 43 and a 42. Next best for 30-possession games was Gaff (50), Cousins (38), Fletcher (25) and Kerr (23). Gaff now has 79.

Round 14 at a glance

Statistically round 14 has been the Eagles’ worst, with a 13-19 win/loss ratio and one bye. It is the only round in which the club has had a success rate worse than 50%.

Even the traditionally strong homeground advantage at Subiaco hasn’t been great, with the club going 3-7 in 10 games at the former home. They never played a round 14 game at the WACA and are 1-1 at Optus Stadium.

Oddly, they have had more success in Victoria, going 3-1 at Docklands, 2-0 at Waverley, 2-3 at the MCG and 1-1 at Kardinia Park to off-set an 0-2 record at Princes Park, and 0-1 at Victoria Park and Windy Hill. They are 1-0 at Marrara Stadium in Darwin, 0-2 at Football Park in Adelaide, 0-1 at the SCG.

They have a positive record against Hawthorn (3-2), Carlton (3-2), Geelong (2-1), Gold Coast (1-0) and St Kilda (1-0) and an even split against Richmond (1-1). They are 2-3 against Melbourne and have not beaten Essendon (0-4), Collingwood (0-2), Adelaide (0-2), Port Adelaide (0-1), Sydney (0-1) and Brisbane (0-1). 

Round 14, too, has not produced anything like the team and individual highlights of other rounds which have featured in the Footy Flashback series

The first win

It was 1992 before the Eagles posted their first round 14 win, coming from 24 points down at quarter-time to beat Hawthorn 11.8 (74) to 8.12 (60) at Waverley. Despite six goals from Jason Dunstall for the home side Peter Sumich’s five goals for West Coast and Chris Mainwaring’s three-vote 29-possession haul, the Eagles prevailed in Matt Clape’s debut.

A win for Mainy

Kardinia Park is a venue where the Eagles have struggled over time, but in the early years the club did very well there. They won on five of their first seven visits, including an 18-point win in round 14, 1994 to celebrate Chris Mainwaring’s 150^th game.

The ever-popular wingman was the third Eagles player to reach the mark of automatic life membership qualification behind Dwayne Lamb and Michael Brennan.

He had 22 possessions as Glen Jakovich (28 possessions) earned three votes, Dean Kemp (27 possessions) one vote, and Tony Evans kicked a career-best four goals. It was also Paul Symmons’ AFL debut.

Craig Turley had joined the Eagles as a pre-draft selection ahead of the 1994 AFL Draft with Peter Sumich, Don Pyke, Scott Watters and Stevan Jackson. A West Perth product, he’d been runner-up in the 1991 Brownlow Medal, won the 1991 Eagles fairest and best, was a 1991 All-Australian and a 1992 premiership player.

But by 1995 the end was nearing, and he finished the season back in the West Perth side that ended a 20-year premiership drought. At 30 he’d played 115 Eagles games, including his last game in a semi-final loss to North Melbourne.

But even as a senior statesman, with his best football behind him, he’d managed a special highlight in round 14, 1995 against Hawthorn at Waverley. He kicked a career-best four goals and had 21 possessions in a 41-point win as Jason Ball, Chris Lewis and Chris Waterman picked up the Brownlow votes.

Turley was later traded to Melbourne for Andy Lovell. He played 16 games for the Demons in 1996 while Lovell played 43 games for the Eagles from 1996-98.

A turning point

West Coast sat 11^th on the AFL ladder at round 13 in 2004 with a 5-8 win/loss record. But in round 14 they began a resurgence which would take them to the 2005 grand final and the 2006 flag.

They faced fifth-placed Geelong at Subiaco a week after they’d beaten 2001-02-03 premiers Brisbane in an important step in a campaign that saw them finish fourth on the home-and-away ladder.

It was a huge test as Drew Banfield played his first AFL game of the year following a knee reconstruction, but after conceding the first two goals the home side was equal to the challenge.

From seven points down at quarter time they led by five at half-time, and after a Phil Matera goal six minutes into the final stanza put them 12 points up they hung on. Just.

Chris Judd (28 possessions and 10 clearances) was best afield while Daniel Kerr (18 possessions and nine tackles) earned two votes in the 7-9 (51) to 7-7 (49) win.

They won eight of their last nine to finish seventh at 13-9, losing only to eventual premiers Port Adelaide, and although they were eliminated by Sydney in week one of the finals a solid base had been build for the success that was to follow.

Ton up for Hunter

Adam Hunter played his 100^th AFL game for the Eagles in round 14, 2006 as the Eagles posted an excellent come-from-behind win over Hawthorn at the MCG.

After trailing at each change they hit the front via Ben Cousins early in the final stanza. Mark Williams, of bow and arrow fame, answered for the Hawks but Quinten Lynch kicked his fifth for the visitors. Two up.

Williams goaled again for Hawthorn and with six minutes play they led by four.

Andrew Embley put West Coast back in front before Michael Gardiner kicked what turned out to be the clincher with three minutes to play.

Lynch, who added two later behinds to ice the job, took three Brownlow Medal votes while Chris Judd, with 33 possessions, picked up two votes.

A double ton for Braun

Michael Braun became the 14^th Eagles player to reach 200 games when the club hosted Brisbane at Subiaco in round 14, 2007. But after leading at halftime and despite 100 possessions between Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr and Matthew Priddis and four goals from Mark LeCras, they could only manage 3.2 to 8.6 in the second half and lost by 27 points.

Small consolation

Mark Nicoski shaped as another rookie made good when he played with the Eagles in the 2005 AFL grand final. He was only 21 in just his 32^nd AFL game. Sadly, things didn’t go to plan. A fractured leg in round 14, 2006 cost him a place in the club’s third premiership side later that year.

At least five years later, in round 14 2011, there was some sort of consolation when Nicoski played his 100^th game for the Eagles against Carlton at Docklands. They won by 36 points, with Matt Priddis picking up three Brownlow Medal votes for his 30 possessions.

Battle of the Coasters

West Coast had been pretty kind to competition newcomers Gold Coast in their first season in 2011, winning their first encounter by 18 points at Subiaco. But the battle between the coast teams was anything but gentle in round 14, 2012.

They obliterated the young Suns, coached by ex-Eagle Guy McKenna, by 126 points.

It was 14.11 to 1.2 in the second half as Quinten Lynch (4), Jack Darling (3) and Luke Shuey (3) led the goal-kicking to set up a commanding 25.16 (166) to 5.10 (40) win that remains the third biggest win in Eagles history and the third-worst loss in Suns history.

Luke Shuey (32 possessions) took three Brownlow Medal votes from Nic Naitanui and Chris Masten (32 possessions), while Matt Priddis (32) and Daniel Kerr (30) also saw plenty of the ball.

Even 18-year-old debutant Murray Newman, who played only 38% game time, had 13 possessions and kicked 2-2 as the Eagles had their first meeting with Tom Hickey, a then 21-year-old playing his eighth game for the Suns.

A sad end for Kerr

The brilliant and blistering Daniel Kerr played his 220^th AFL game with the Eagles in round 14, 2013. And his last. A sad and unfair end for a player who had been a star from the moment he joined the Eagles via selection #18 in the 2000 AFL National Draft.

A member of the 2006 premiership side and a 2007 All-Australian, Kerr suffered a major hamstring injury in a seven-point loss to Essendon at Subiaco which prompted him to announce his retirement at the end of the season.

First game in Darwin     

West Coast played their first and only game at Marrara Stadium in Darwin in round 14 2015, blowing Melbourne away by 54 points after a 6-4 to 1-0 final term. Jack Darling kicked an equal ground record five goals to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes.

A bright debut

Jarrod Cameron made his AFL debut in round 14 last year, kicking two goals in a bright introduction as the Eagles beat Essendon by 35 points at Optus Stadium to celebrate Jack Redden’s 200^th AFL game in style.

Younger brother of Brisbane’s Charlie Cameron, he spent his early years playing rugby league and baseball on Mornington Island in Queensland but after moving to Newman in WA aged 11 he was drafted by the Eagles in 2018 as a Next Generation Academy player.

Dom Sheed (36), Andrew Gaff (31) and Redden (30) topped the possession count as Sheed, Elliot Yeo and Gaff took the Brownlow Medal votes.

Cameron, who got his chance via Willie Rioli’s one-match rough conduct suspension, played seven games in a row from debut and was an emergency in the last four games of the season.