Demolition derby

Everyone associated with WA football remembers round 21, 2000. It was Western Derby #12, better known as ‘The Demolition Derby’.

They remember that Fremantle’s Dale Kickett was suspended for nine matches for striking Phillip Read twice and Andrew Embley once. That West Coast’s Michael Gardiner was suspended for two matches for striking Matthew Pavlich. And that Fremantle’s Brad Dodd was suspended for two matches for attempting to strike Read, and that Read was suspended for two matches for striking Dodd in retaliation.

And they remember that Fremantle’s Heath Black, Paul Hasleby, Shaun McManus, Clem Michael, Jason Norrish, Jess Sinclair and Andrew Shipp were reported for alleged melee involvement with West Coast’s Ben Cousins, Andrew Embley, Kane Munro, Read and Gardiner. All except Embley were found guilty and fined between $2000 and $4000.

They probably remember that Fremantle won the game by a point after having lost derby #11 by a thumping 117 points in round six, when Scott Cummings had kicked 10 goals. And that the two coaches were Ken Judge, in his first season at West Coast, and Damien Drum, in his second season at Fremantle.

And they might even remember the fashion statement the game was not. Fremantle, the home club, wore their old predominantly purple anchor jumper, with red and green chest panels, and West Coast were in an away jumper that featured red and orange on the front. 

But what about the game itself? What were the pivotal moments? Which side had the upper hand? Who won the Glendinning Medal? Who were the stars? And how did the last couple of minutes unfold?

There was an early clue that there would be fireworks when even before the first bounce a free kick was paid. It was against Gardiner, playing up forward in his return from a six-week shoulder layoff, for striking Pavlich. Steven Koop ended up with a set shot inside 50m for Fremantle. He missed.

The game was barely two minutes old when Kickett let fly at Read. It was on. The tone was set. The Eagles settled more quickly and led 5.2 to 1.3 at quarter-time. Phil Matera had three goals.

By halftime their advantage had stretched to 32 points after Matera had kicked his fourth. Mitchell White had added two of his own in the second term as the scoreboard read 9.6 to 4.4 at the long break. Fremantle full forward Tony Modra was out of the game with a broken hand.

Six minutes into the third quarter it was out to 42 points when Matera kicked his fifth.

There were a string of incidents that had field umpires Matthew James, Steven Hanley and Michael Avon working overtime, and in commentary Dennis Cometti said at one stage “Kickett is playing like a man not intending to back next year”.

Fremantle’s Troy Cook put White out of the game with a brutal bump that was described at the time as “quite legal” but today would earn a long suspension. He ran past the ball, jumped and hit White high. After a long delay the veteran Eagle’s 150^th game ended on a stretcher.

Clive Waterhouse kicked three quick goals to lead a Dockers rally, and by three-quarter time they had cut the margin to 18 points.

The final term had it all. Koops snapped accurately for Fremantle and when Andrew Shipp ran into open goal it was back to six points, but Chad Fletcher responded for West Coast with a brilliant left-foot running snap.

Kickett, villain of the moment, turned hero in the eyes of Dockers fans when he snapped truly from a boundary throw-in. Back to six points. “What an amazing game,” said Cometti as Waterhouse took a big mark and converted from the square for his sixth goal to level the scores.

Koops snapped from the pocket. “It’s close,” said Cometti as a kneeling Koops thrust his arms skyward. “No … it’s missed”. But a point was enough to give Fremantle their first lead since the Koop behind had opened the scoring.

Dodds added another when he missed a set shot from 35m, and Daniel Metropolis, pushed back to play on the dangerous Waterhouse, pinged his hamstring.

Inside the last 10 minutes umpire Hanley, running backwards and veering to his right, collided with Matera leading up at the ball. A badly shaken and bloodied Matera was assisted from the ground.

Hanley was the most experienced of the umpiring trio on a Sunday afternoon at Subiaco, officiating in his 75^th game in derby #12, while Avon was in his 17^th game and James in his 20^th.

Hanley, an Adelaide-based umpire who counts among his career resume more than 200 SANFL games, four SANFL grand finals and three interstate games, added 13 AFL games in 2001 for a career total of 88.

Avon added 162 games over the next 10 years for a total of 179, including one final. And James umpired for a further nine years and 185 games before an injury-forced retirement. He did a total of 206 games, including 16 finals and the 2001-03-04 grand finals and the 2005 International Rules series. Of the three only James umpired at AFL level the following week and none of the three umpired in the finals.

After Hanley ran to the boundary line to change his shirt, much to the delight of the crowd of 37,710, Eagles fifth-gamer Kasey Green made a magnificent smother on Brad Bootsma and found Banfield for a goal to put the Eagles four points up. Seven and a half minutes to play.

Jakovich dropped an overhead mark he would normally swallow, allowing Waterhouse out the back to run into open goal before a long snap from Cook put Fremantle three points up.

Dodd snapped from 30m to make it nine points but Kemp gave his side a chance when he gathered inside 50m, took two bounces and handballed over the top to an unattended Darren Glass to kick his first AFL goal.

Ex-Eagle Adrian Barich, the Channel Seven boundary commentator, interjected: “This is amazing … everyone on the bench is injured,” he said after David Haynes joined White, Metropolis and Phil Matera in the Eagles’ casualty ward, with Modra, Pavlich, Heath Black and Paul Hasleby out of action for the Dockers a few metres away.

Glass, in his 13^th game, marked and had a set shot from 35m straight in front. The occasion was too much even for the great Cometti. “He’s kicked a goal … or has he? No, he’s missed,” said the recent AFL Hall of Fame inductee.

In a frantic final two minutes, Shaun McManus received a free kick for a push in the back against Cousins. He went backwards to Brendon Fewster. The big ex-Eagle went short down the line where debutant Eagle Kane Munro took an intercept mark. With 1min9sec on the clock there was a stoppage inside the West Coast forward 50m.

Fewster received from James Walker and sent a long forward handpass down the line to Dodd. He kicked inside the Fremantle forward 50m. Morrison gathered for West Coast and was pinged for a one-handed handball in a perfect Koops tackle. But play was taken back. The ball was out of bounds.

From the throw-in Dodd gathered again and kicked down the line. It was deliberate, said the umpire. Free kick to Andrew Williams on the wing.

Williams kicked long to a pack where Ashley McIntosh was an unlikely crumber. His long handball found the running Rowan Jones on the outside. He kicked to a contest between Gardiner and Leigh Brown. It spilled off hands to Peter Matera and quickly he snapped across his body on his right.

It landed just short of Glass on the edge of the square. He couldn’t trap it. Whether he even touched it was unclear but it didn’t matter. The ball hit the post. Fremantle won 15.10 (100) to 15.11 (101).

The Glendinning Medal? It was a trick question. They were not awarded until 2001.

The umpires awarded three votes to Waterhouse for his career-best seven goals. He was Fremantle’s only multiple goa-kicker. Phil Matera, with five goals from seven kicks, received two votes, and McManus, Fremantle leading possession-winner with 25, got one vote.

On the stats sheet, Williams was West Coast’s leading possession-winner with 25 from Fletcher (23), Banfield (21), Jones (21) and Kemp (21). White and Embley kicked two goals.

It was an unbelievable game and took its toll. West Coast lost by 70 points to third-placed Melbourne in round 22 to finish 13^th, and Fremantle were obliterated by Brisbane by 107 points to finish 12^th.

Jakovich v Carey

Through the 1990s one of the real highlights in football was watching Glen Jakovich play against Wayne Carey. The best centre half-back in the game against the best centre half forward.

They met 16 times when West Coast met North Melbourne from 1992-2001. While the pair were not always directly opposed, Jakovich averaged 20.0 possessions and Carey 16.0 possessions and 2.4 goals, with three bags of five while being held goalless four times. They polled six Brownlow Medal votes each in games between them.

West Coast, premiers in 1992-94, won five of the first six meetings between the superstar pair and North, premiers in 1996-99, seven of the last eight.

In round 21 1994, when Jakovich was 21 and Carey 23 and both were at their peak, the West Coast powerhouse had one to remember when they met on a big Friday night at the WACA.

It was the Eagles on top of the ladder against the third-placed Roos in the lead-up to the finals. The home side, 40 points up at three-quarter time, won by nine points after being out-scored 1-1 to 6-2 in the final stanza.

Jakovich had a game-high 29 possessions and picked up three Brownlow votes while Carey finished with 14 possessions and one goal in what was Peter Wilson’s 150^th AFL game.

Only one vote?

It’s fraught with danger looking back at statistics from games long ago and try to equate them with Brownlow Medal votes, but in round 21, 1996 Jarrad Schofield might just have had a reasonable case to question things.

West Coast beat Melbourne by 73 points at Subiaco. Schofield, 21 and playing just his 26^th game, had a game-high 27 possessions and kicked four goals and received one vote.

It was his first vote but from a statistical sense it looked a little light on when Guy McKenna picked up three votes for his 21 possessions  and Fraser Gehrig two votes for 13 possessions and one goal. Peter Sumich kicked six goals.

Still, Schofield, drafted by West Coast with pick #49 in the 1992 AFL National Draft, went on to register 47 career votes in a career as both a player and coach in which he has flip-flopped between WA and SA.

Originally from Subiaco, he played 63 games with the Eagles (1993-98), 131 games with Port Adelaide (1997-04) and 12 games with Fremantle (2005-06). A Port premiership player in 2004, he also played 100+ WAFL games with Subiaco before and after his AFL career, and collected three flags in 2006-07-08.

After starting his coaching career with the Subiaco colts he went on to coach their WAFL side from 2013-18 for premierships in 2014-15-18, plus two grand final losses as minor premiers in 2016-17.

Having crossed the Nullabor again after Subiaco’s phenomenal unbeaten flag in 2018 he is now in his second season as the midfield coach at Port Adelaide.

Farewell E.J.

West Coast played the 665^th and last AFL game at the Whitten Oval in round 21, 1997.

Home of the Western Bulldogs, formerly Western Oval in the days when the club was known as Footscray, it was renamed in 1995 in honour of long-time Dogs favorite Ted ‘E.J’ Whitten.

Despite an 18-point loss in their final visit, the Eagles finished with a 6-4 overall record at the ground, which had been the home of the Dogs since their entry to the competition in 1929.

The Eagles had played their first game at Whitten Oval in 1987 in Ross Glendinnings’ 200^th AFL game, losing by 22 points to a Footscray side coached by future Eagles premiership coach Mick Malthouse which included future Eagle Murray Vance.

Three members of the Eagles from that day were still at the club when they made their last visit 10 years later, but none played in the farewell game. David Hart had played his last game three weeks earlier, while Chris Mainwaring and Chris Lewis were injured.

With Malthouse now in charge of the Eagles, the last game started with colorful Dogs defender Danny Southern giving Eagles ruckman Michael Gardiner a ‘warm’ welcome to his eighth game.

The home side were up 4.3 to 1.1 at quarter-time, led at every change and won 12.14 (86) to 10.8 (68) despite a five-goal final quarter from the Eagles.

And for the historians, Chris Grant kicked the last Whitten Oval goal, and Brownlow Medal votes in the last game there went to the Dogs trio of Grant, Luke Darcy and Scott West, who played a combined 891 games for the club.

Phil Matera (22 possessions) and Jarrad Schofield (21 possessions) were the only Eagles to top 20, while 10 Eagles kicked one goal before the final siren signalled a massive ground invasion of emotional Dogs fans.

Eagles revenge

It was four years before another derby was played in round 21. Head-to-head results had favored the Eagles 4-3 before they won derby #20 in 2004. The two sides were among four locked on 44 premiership points and chasing three finals spots. Fremantle were sixth and West Coast ninth.

West Coast led at every change and won 13.15 (93) to 6.9 (45). David Wirrpanda took maximum Brownlow votes from Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr while Chad Fletcher had 38 possessions.

West Coast beat Melbourne in round 22 to qualify for the eight but Fremantle, needing a miracle in the final round, lost to StKilda in the last game to miss the finals.

Two years later, in round 21, 2006, it was derby #24. The ladder-leading Eagles lost to the fourth-placed Fremantle by 57 points despite 31 possessions and three goals from Ben Cousins.

Knockout blow for Saints

West Coast were guaranteed a finals berth heading into round 21, 2007 when they travelled to Docklands to play eighth-placed StKilda in a Friday night thriller. The Saints were just two points ahead of Brisbane, Adelaide and Essendon. They had bottom side Richmond in round 22 but needed a win over the Eagles to be safe. They didn’t get it.

With Jamie McNamara making his debut, West Coast came from 28 points down at quarter-time and 22 points at halftime to win 16.10 (106) to 14.14 (98). But it went right down to the wire. Three times in the final stanza the Saints pulled to within a kick.

In a gripping last 15 minutes Rowan Jones, a late inclusion, kicked a crucial running goal to give the visitors a nine-point buffer before Nick Riewoldt answered for the Saints.

Quinten Lynch snapped his fifth goal on his left to make it nine again before Justin Koschitzke marked in the goal square for the home side and cut it to three.

There were just 28 seconds to play. Both sides could still win.

Matthew Priddis, flat on his back, found Ben Cousins with a handball. Cousins went wide by hand to the running Mark LeCras. He who took a bounce, stepped inside St Kilda ruckman Matthew Clarke in what was to be Clarke’s last involvement in his 258^th and last AFL game, ran to 50m and slotted it. Game over. And despite beating the Tigers the following week the Saints missed the finals.

Priddis’ 36 possessions earned him three Brownlow votes.

A ton for Jack

Jack Darling registered his 100^th game for West Coast in round 21, 2015. It was the second-placed Eagles against the fourth-placed Dogs at Subiaco but the home side had it all over the visitors and won by 77 points.

Josh Kennedy kicked seven goals and collected three Brownlow votes, while Matthew Priddis (37), Andrew Gaff (35) and Luke Shuey (31) topped 30 possessions. Josh Hill kicked four goals against his former side.

Darling was the 62^nd Eagles 100-gamer but at 23 years and 73 days he was eighth youngest. Only Ben Cousins (22/37), Chad Morrison (22/66), Daniel Kerr (22/82), Glen Jakovich (22/99), Chris Judd (22/255), Gaff (23/32) and Scott Selwood (23/51) had been younger at the same mark.

A late Nic Nat special

It’s a long quarter that runs 39min 27sec, especially in the days of shortened games during the Covid-19 era. But the Eagles were very pleased the clock ran for so long in their heavyweight round 21 clash of 2016 with the GWS Giants at the Sydney Showgrounds.

It was the sixth-placed Eagles, safe in the eight but playing for the double-chance, against the fourth-placed Giants, set for their first finals appearance.

The clock showed 39min12sec had elapsed when Nic Naitanui snapped on his left from 15m to give the Eagles a sensational one-point win after they’d trailed at every change.

In the final term Josh Kennedy and Matt Priddis goaled to keep the visitors in it, but Rory Lobb replied for the Giants. Dom Sheed cut it to 12 points before two Luke Shuey goals evened it up.

With 1min17sec to play Jeremy Cameron missed everything for the Giants with a long left-foot snap but made amends immediately when he dished off a handpass for an unattended Rory Lobb to run into an open goal.

Josh Hill had a long running snap but kicked a point. GWS by five.

When the Giants went forward from a boundary throw-in it looked like they had done enough but Sam Butler won a crucial one-on-two contest to keep it alive. Jamie Cripps had a long-range shot but missed everything. It bounced out next to the pocket.

Eight seconds. One play. It was Naitanui against Shane Mumford at the boundary throw-in. Mumford pushed and the ball went to ground but Naitanui bent his huge frame to grab the ball off the ground in the pocket and throw it on his left boot. Goal. West Coast 14.13 (97) to GWS 14.12 (96).

“Oh my God,” said Dwayne Russell in commentary. “This is one to remember”.

Shuey had 38 possessions to go with two goals and three Brownlow votes.

Out go the Crows

West Coast had made it a habit of tipping opposition clubs out of the finals late in the season, and they did it again in round 21 last year when, sitting second on the ladder, they hosted the Adelaide Crows at Optus Stadium.

Needing to win to push for a home final, the Eagles led by 22 points at three-quarter time and survived a mini Adelaide rally to win 13.12 (90) to 12.8 (80) and tip the Crows out of the eight in what was Don Pyke’s third-last game as Adelaide coach.