Hill’s moment in the sun

Sunday afternoon at Subiaco Oval, round 20, 2015. The two Western Australian sides sat on top of the AFL ladder. It was a golden moment for football in the Golden State. And an unforgettable life-time highlight for Josh Hill.

Never before had a western derby been played under such circumstances.

And while it is always a question of pride when West Coast meet Fremantle this meant even more to West Coast fans. Fremantle had won six derbies in a row. The overall record was 21-20 to West Coast. The prospect of the purple team pulling level overall didn’t sit well with the team in blue and gold.

It was a significant day, too, for Hill, a boy from Broome via Trinity College in Perth who had been drafted by the Western Bulldogs with pick #61 in the 2006 National Draft. Even if at the time he didn’t realise it.

Hill had played 66 games for the Dogs from 2007-11 before being traded to West Coast for pick #49 in the 2011 Draft.

Derby #42 was to be Hill’s 67^th game for his second club. It was like the last step in his transformation. He was now a fully-fledged Eagle. And he delivered in five-star style.

It all added up to the Round 20 headline story in the ongoing ‘Best of the Eagles’ flashback series.

It is a favorite round for Eagles fans who follow the statistics because over 33 years it has been the club’s best. They’ve had 23 wins and a draw in 33 games in Round 20 to edge out the 23 wins of Round 1 and Round 8.

Derby #42 was a beauty. At round 19, 2015 West Coast sat second on the AFL ladder two and a half wins behind Fremantle. They were coming off a 14-point loss to third-placed Hawthorn and were just half a game ahead of the Hawks on the ladder.

It wasn’t all about WA bragging rights. Homeground advantage for the finals was on the line. It was absolutely critical. Especially with Mark LeCras to miss with suspension, and Scott Selwood and a young Jeremy McGovern to miss with injury.

Hill, in and out of the Eagles top side in 2014 after being a fixture in 2012-13, had started the 2015 season in the WAFL before kicking 20 goals in his first seven games back. But after a lean spell he had been dropped again in round 19. At 26 he needed to play well.

The Eagles produced a first quarter to match the occasion. They kicked the first six goals inside 20 minutes and led 6.2 to 0.3. A 35-point lead at quarter-time became 38 points at three-quarter time before Fremantle kicked four goals in the first 12 minutes of the final term. It was back to 18 points. Game on.

Hill, already with a goal in the first and a goal in the third, positioned himself perfectly front and centre at a marking contest at full forward, gathered and snapped over his shoulder. Goal. He accepted a hurried handball from Mark Hutchings, ran to the pocket and snapped across his body. Goal.

There were still 16 minutes to play but a 30-point lead was always going to be enough.

In a low possession game Hill finished with 20 possessions and four goals, the Glendinning Medal for best afield and the only three-vote Brownlow Medal rating of his 173-game career.

Matt Rosa had 24 possessions, Andrew Gaff 23 and Matt Priddis 21, and Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling two goals apiece, but it was Hill’s day. And the Eagles’ day.              

Round 20 at a glance

The Eagles’ hugely positive round 20 record of 23-1-9 overall is built on a stunning record at home. Yet to play a round 20 game at Optus Stadium, they were 3-1 at the WACA Ground in round 20 and 13-2 at Subiaco. A 16-3 home record overall.

They had a 50% record in Victoria, going 2-2 at Docklands, 1-1 at the MCG, 1-0 at Moorabbin, 0-1 at Waverley and played a draw at Kardinia Park. They are 2-1 in Queensland, having gone 1-1 at the Gabba and 1-0 at Carrara, and are 1-1 at Football Park in their only Round 20 games in SA.

Most significantly for Eagles fans, the club is 4-0 against Fremantle in round 20. They are 3-0 against Carlton, 3-1 against Brisbane and Richmond, 2-0 against Melbourne, 2-1-1 against Geelong, 1-1 against StKilda and 1-2 against Hawthorn. They played six clubs once, going 1-0 against Adelaide, North Melbourne, Essendon and Collingwood and 0-1 against Port Adelaide. They’ve never played Sydney, Western Bulldogs, Gold Coast or GWS in round 20.

Seven for Holmes

At 28 Don Holmes was the second-oldest member of the very first West Coast AFL team in 1987, younger only than captain Ross Glendinning. He’d played in WAFL premierships with Swan Districts in 1982-83-84, kicking five goals as they completed the hat-trick in 1984. Enough for him to earn a contract with the new AFL club.

In round 20 1987, in his 13^th AFL game, Holmes was the first Eagles player to kick seven goals in a game as they beat the Brisbane Bears by 31 points at Carrara. He also picked up 21 possessions and two Brownlow Medal votes as the umpires awarded three votes to Bears’ centreman Geoff Raines.

Holmes’ seven-goal bag was the best of an AFL career that reached 23 games over three years before he returned to Swan Districts to pick up a fourth WAFL flag. Andrew Lockyer, too, posted a career-best with his four goals.

Another veteran makes good

The Laurie Keene story is strikingly similar to that of Don Holmes. He was the third-oldest member of the first Eagles side at 26 after a stellar career with Subiaco in the WAFL. He’d played in premiership sides in 1986-88, been a regular WA State representative and won All-Australian selection at the 1986 State of Origin carnival.

He will always be remembered as the player who kicked the very first Eagles goal, but privately he might consider his best AFL game was in round 20 1988 against St Kilda at Moorabbin.

The 202cm ruck/forward was a standout as West Coast withstood a late fightback from the Saints to win by nine points. He had a career-best 28 possessions and collected the only three-vote Brownlow Medal rating of his 36-game AFL career.

Steve Malaxos had 32 possessions and Wally Matera 31 possessions and two votes, and Chris Lewis kicked four goals.

A rare high point

After playing finals in 1988 the 1989 season was desperately disappointing for West Coast. They finished 11^th on the 14-team ladder with a 7-15 record. And in round 20 they gave Eagles fans a taste of what could have been.

Hosting eventual grand finalists Geelong at Subiaco on a Friday night they led at every change and won 18.18 (126) to 12.10 (82) on the back of five goals apiece from two young forwards.

Peter Sumich was 21 and picked up one Brownlow Medal vote in his 17^th game, but was upstaged by 19-year-old Stevan Jackson, who earned three Brownlow Medal votes in his 14^th game as John Worsfold and Andrew Lockyer posted their 50^th AFL game.

The forgotten Eagle

Darren Bennett will always be best remembered as an NFL punt-kicker. He was a pioneer for American Football Down Under, is a San Diego Chargers Hall of Famer, was named in the All-Decade NFL Team of the 1990s and the Chargers’ 50^th Anniversary Team.

Second on his recognition radar is his time at Melbourne in the AFL. He was a two-time leading goal-kicker in a 74-game stint with the Demons from 1989-1993.

But not to be forgotten is the fact that before all that he was an Eagle. A product of WAFL club East Fremantle, he is officially player #3 on the all-time Eagles playing list behind John Annear and Adrian Barich after playing in the first four Eagles games. He kicked seven goals.

Sadly, a serious knee injury cut short his time with the club, and he was de-listed at the end of 1988.

But in round 20, 1990 he gave Eagles fans an insight of what might have been when he kicked six goals for Melbourne in a 36-point Subiaco win over his original club.

It was a season in which Bennett kicked 87 goals to rank fourth in the League behind North Melbourne’s John Longmire (98), Collingwood’s Peter Daicos (97) and West Coast’s Peter Sumich (90) after an unlikely re-entry to the AFL.

Having sat out the entire 1988 season Bennett was drafted at 23 by Melbourne with pick #13 in the 1988 AFL National Draft. Not something likely to happen in the modern game.

It was the last Eagles game for foundation player Geoff Miles, who played 71 games for West Coast after 31 for Collingwood and before he was traded to play 20 games at Geelong in 1992. It was the last game, too, for Peter Melesso.

But the Eagles had the last laugh later in the 1990 season – they beat the Demons by 30 points in the semi-finals to put them and Bennett out of the premiership race.

Turley’s special year

Craig Turley had a special year in 1991. He was West Coast club champion, won All-Australian selection and was runner-up to Melbourne’s Jim Stynes in the Brownlow Medal. And in round 20 against Adelaide at Football Park he celebrated his 50^th game for the Eagles.

Turley had 29 possessions to collect two votes in a 15-point Eagles win. At the time he was just three votes behind Stynes with four rounds remaining. With Melbourne having a bye in Round 24 Turley was right in the mix but he didn’t poll again.

Biggest WACA win

West Coast posted their biggest win at the WACA Ground in round 20, 1992 when they blitzed the Brisbane Bears by 131 points. It was 29.12 (186) to 8.7 (55), with Ashley McIntosh and Peter Sumich kicking six goals each.

It wasn’t anything too special for Sumich. He kicked six or more 30 times.

But for McIntosh it was a career-best. In his 27^th game at 19, he kicked six straight to collect two Brownlow Medal votes. Glen Jakovich (24 possessions) was judged best afield.

It was Dean Laidley’s 52^nd and final game for West Coast. After watching the club win their first premiership he was traded to North Melbourne.

A special legacy

Tony Godden will forever be the person who inadvertently delivered David Wirrpanda to the Eagles. He came via the compensation pick the club received when Gooden left as an uncontracted player at the end of 1995 to join Fremantle.

But although Godden played only 13 games for the Eagles after being picked up with pick #64 in the 1992 National Draft from Subiaco, he was on track for something pretty special in 1993.

He made his debut in round 20, 1993 breaking into the side of the defending premiers at 21.

It was a high stakes time. West Coast were third on the ladder as they were hosted fifth-placed Hawthron at Waverley. Godden had 15 possessions and kicked a goal in a most respectable beginning as the home side led at every change and won by 22 points.

He held his spot in the side for the last two games of the home and away season and although they lost to Footscray and Geelong Godden did enough to win selection for the first final against North Melbourne. And the second final against Essendon.

Five games into his career he’d played two finals. Had the Eagles not lost to the Bombers Godden may have found himself in a grand final and even a premiership as seven Essendon players did before they turned 21.

First five for Fraser

Fraser Gehrig had played mainly on the wing and pretty much anywhere except forward in his introduction to the AFL in 1995 and kicked only one goal in his first eight games. He followed with two goals, two goals and one goal in his next three before a breakout game in round 20.

Drafted from the Murray Bushrangers in the TAC Cup with pick #6 in the 1993 National Draft and later to be a leading goal-kicker with West Coast and St Kilda and a dual Coleman Medallist, he booted five goals in a 29-point win over Melbourne at the MCG.

It was the fifth-placed Eagles against the eighth-placed Demons and ultimately cost the Demons a place in the finals.

Gehrig kicked another five goals in Round 20 1997 against Melbourne at the WACA, when the Eagles won by 38 points.

Life membership for McIntosh

Ashley McIntosh qualified for West Coast life membership with his 150^th game against Richmond at Subiaco in round 20 1998. It was the seventh-placed Eagles against the eighth-placed Tigers in a season in which two games separated the top nine sides at Round 19. The Eagles posted a 39-point win which ultimately cost the Tigers a finals spot.

250 for Roo

Peter Matera became the second West Coast player to reach 250 games against Brisbane at the Gabba in round 20, 2002. It is a milestone reached by only 254 of 12,806 players all-time since the inception of the competition in 1897. Or 1.98%.

Matera, in his fourth-last game, played his 250^th three years after Guy McKenna and at 33 years and 136 days he was more than three years older than McKenna. Eighteen years on, with now eight 250 gamers at the club, Matera remains the oldest.

Sadly, it was an occasion on which one of the Eagles’ all-time greats deserved better. Playing the defending premiers away as they chased back-to-back flags, the Eagles trailed at every change and lost by 47 points.  Matera, with 22 possessions and a goal, was the only Eagle to top 20 possessions.