Unique milestone in last game

Who am I? I am the only person with my surname to have played in 124 years of the AFL. I am one of two AFL players with Anglo-Burmese heritage and one of three AFL players to have played my 250^th game in round 23.

I have played more games than any other player chosen with pick #57 in AFL National Draft (easily) and I am one of five players drafted beyond pick #50 in the National Draft to have won the Norm Smith Medal.

And, equal 252^nd in all-time AFL games, which puts me in the top 1.97%, I am one of only six players in AFL history to have played precisely 250 games.

I am, of course, Andrew Embley.

Now 39, eighth on the Eagles all-time games list and 10^th for all-time goals, Embley is the headline story as the “Best of the Eagles” Flashback series closes out home-and-away football with a combined look back at Rounds 23-24.

He shares this honour with the very last game at Subiaco in round 23, 2017.

Rounds 23-24 have a limited pool, with round 23 played only 12 times in 1991-92-94 and from 2011-2019, and round 24 only four times in 1991-92-94 and 2011.

But between them round 23 and round 24 have still tossed up a lot of memorable occasions and milestones to support Embley’s very special magic milestone moment.

It was a farewell moment he shared with Adam Selwood, who played his 187^th and last game in round 23 2013, and coach John Worsfold, who stepped aside after 12 years and 281 games at the helm.

Sadly, it was not the sort of team result the Eagles were looking for to celebrate the career of two such popular players and the man after whom the club best & fairest award is named.

Sitting 13^th on the ladder West Coast faced 12^th-placed Adelaide at Subiaco. Coming off a 62-point MCG loss to Collingwood, Worsfold made three changes, with Embley, Selwood and second-gamer Simon Tunbridge replacing the injured Jack Darling and Will Schofield and 22-year-old 45-gamer Brad Sheppard, who was omitted.

Adelaide, at the end of Brenton Sanderson’s first year as coach, led from the first bounce and prevailed 19.15 (129) to 5.13 (43) in the Eagles’ third-biggest loss at Subiaco.

Matt Priddis (35 possessions) and Scott Selwood (32 possessions) did their best to stop the rot as Patrick Dangerfield, with 29 possessions and three goals, took the three Brownlow Medal votes.

Embley hung up the boots as the Eagles’ seventh 250-gamer behind, in order, Guy McKenna, Peter Matera, Glen Jakovich, Drew Banfield, Dean  Cox and Darren Glass, and ahead of Shannon Hurn.

It was a career with a lot of quirky facts and figures.

Among 12,826 AFL players since the inception of the competition in 1897 there has never been another ‘Embley’.

There was a Ralph Empey, who played 49 games with Richmond from 1924-25 and 1928-30, including the 1928-29 grand finals, Steve Emery, who played six games for Hawthorn in 1978-79, and John Embrey, a Fitzroy one-gamer in 1960. But no other Embley.

It is a name that goes back to the Anglo-Saxon tribes who ruled over Britain. Such a name was given to a leader or ruler. It was derived from the Old English word Amalric which referred to someone who held “great power”. 

Embley’s younger brother Michael, a ruckman, spent 2004-05-06 on the Eagles rookie list without playing a senior game. Michael and James Embley, the third of the brothers, played with Swan Districts in the WAFL.

Embley’s father Maurice is of Burmese and Spanish decent. He was born in Rangoon, former capital city of Burma, and emigrated to Australia in 1964 after the Burmese coup of 1962.

Maurice Embley played reserves football for Perth, and represented Western Australia in the 1973 national junior athletic championships. His wife Anne, originally from Ballarat, is of Italian and Irish descent.

With Embley’s AFL debut in round one, 1999 in the same game in which Scott Cummings and Chad Rintoul wore blue and gold for the first time, he became the first player of Burmese decent to play in the AFL.

The second and only other one was Trent Dennis-Lane, who played 29 games with Sydney and St Kilda from 2010-14. His father moved to Australia at 13.

A product of Bassendean Junior Football Club via Trinity College and WAFL club East Perth, Andrew Embley was drafted with pick #57 by the Eagles in the 1998 AFL National Draft after they had claimed Brandon Hill at #10, Michael O’Brien at #26 and ahead of Scott Bennett at #69 and Joel Duckworth at #89. O’Brien played two games and Bennett one game.

The 250-game career total of the one-time seafood restaurant owner and occasional celebrity chef and cooking instructor is easily the most by a player drafted for the first time to the AFL at #57.

The Western Bulldogs’ Troy Dickson, yet to play in 2020 and stuck on 113 career games, is the only other pick #57 100-gamer.

Alex Johnson, a 47-game Sydney Swans premiership player and six-time knee reconstruction victim, was pick #57 with five other current players – Melbourne’s Jayden Hunt, Collingwood father/son pick Josh Daicos, Geelong’s Gryan Miers, Fremantle’s Lachie Schultz and Hawthorn’s Josh Morris.

Oddly, West Coast have quite a connection with pick #57. It brought Mark Hepburn from Sydney in 1993 and Trent Cummings from Fitzroy in 1996 and was used by the club to draft Paul Whitelaw in 1995, Brad Smith in 2004 and Kurt Mutimer in 2015.

Undoubtedly the biggest personal highlight of Embley’s career was in 2006 when he had 26 possessions and kicked two goals to win the Norm Smith Medal in the one-point grand final win over Sydney.

At the time he was the third-highest draft pick to win the medal, awarded since 1979 and won by a lot of players from the pre-draft era. James Hird, pick #79 in the AFL’s fifth draft in 1990, had won it in 2000, and Byron Pickett, pick #67 in 1996, did so in 2004.

Since Embley’s medal win, Hawthorn’s Brian Lake, pick #71 in 2001, won the medal in 2013, before the Western Bulldogs’ Jason Johanissen re-wrote the record books in 2016. He was passed over in the National Draft of 2010 and drafted by the Dogs with pick 39 in the 2011 Rookie Draft a few weeks later.

Who are the other five players who played exactly 250 games? It’s a five-star class. Peter Daicos, Greg Williams, Allan Davis, Lou Richards and Adam Cooney.

And the others to post their 250^th in Round 23. Dale Weightman was the first in 1991 and, remarkably, Daniel Giansiracusa did so the day after Embley’s 250^th in 2013.

ROUND 23 AT A GLANCE

West Coast have enjoyed a 7-4 win/loss record in Round 23 matches. They went 3-1 at Subiaco but are 0-1 at Optus Stadium. They’ve gone 0-1 at the MCG, Whitten Oval and Princes Park to be winless in Round 23 in Victoria, but, 2-0 at the Gabba, 1-0 at Carrara and 1-0 at Adelaide Oval, are unbeaten elsewhere. They are 2-1 v Adelaide, 2-0 v Brisbane, 0-2 v Hawthorn, 1-0  Essendon, Gold Coast and StKilda, and 0-1 v Western Bulldogs.

ROUND 24 AT A GLANCE

West Coast are 3-1 in Round 24 games, are 3-0 at Subiaco and 0-1 at Princes Park, have beaten Carlton, Western Bulldogs and Adelaide and lost to Fitzroy.

THE FIRST ROUND 23 GAME

The Eagles’ first Round 23 game came in 1991 after the addition of the Adelaide Crows to the competition. Already assured of the minor premiership with two games to play, they hosted fourth-placed Essendon at Subiaco.

With Peter Sumich kicking six goals, Paul Peos topping the possession count with 25 and the Brownlow Medal votes going to Peter Matera, Ashley McIntosh and Dean Irving, the Eagles won by 63 points.

A round 23 disaster

The less said about the Eagles’ second round 23 game in 1993 the better. Playing Footscray at Whitten Oval, they were goalless to three-quarter time and lost 3.5 (23) to 7.11 (53). A sad 50^th game for Peter Matera.

A Masten moment

The Eagles had a Round 23 bye in 1994 so it was 18 years before they played another Round 23 game. It was against Brisbane at the Gabba in 2011 and was a game Chris Masten will remember fondly. Playing his 50th AFL game Masten had 31 possessions and kicked three goals to collect three Brownlow Medal votes in an eight-point win after they had trailed by 13 points at halftime.

Another 50 gamer

The round 23 half centuries continued in 2012, when Luke Shuey posted his 50^th against Hawthorn at the MCG. It was the fourth-placed Eagles against the ladder leaders and after being down 1.3 to 7.1 at quarter-time they fought bravely but went down by 25 points. Scott Selwood had 35 possessions for two votes.

A welcome win

Adam Simpson coached at Carrara on the Gold Coast for the first time as he closed out his first season at the Eagles’ helm against the Suns in round 23, 2014. Sitting 10^th on the ladder and out of finals contention, they moved up one spot when Josh Kennedy kicked four goals in the third quarter and his side added 11.2 to 2.2 to win 23.13 (151) to 15.9 (99). Kennedy finished with eight goals and three Brownlow Medal votes.

A record win  

West Coast posted their biggest round 23 win in 2015, when they kicked the last eight goals of a game against St Kilda at Subiaco to prevail by 95 points. Four players topped 30 possessions – Andrew Gaff (36), Matt Priddis (35), Dom Sheed (33) and Luke Shuey (30) – as Nic Naitanui was judged best afield by the umpires and Mark LeCras kicked four goals.

A blow to the Crows

West Coast went into round 23, 2016 sitting sixth on the ladder and came out sixth on the ladder. Their opponents didn’t fare so well. Adelaide fell from second to fifth after a 29-point loss at Adelaide Oval. Josh Kennedy kicked five goals for two Brownlow Medal votes but it was the Andrew Gaff show. He topped 40 possessions for the first time in his career with 41 and earned three Brownlow votes.

Normal transmission resumed

After the extraordinary scenes of round 23, 2017, when West Coast bid farewell to Subiaco with a win over Adelaide that put them into the finals by the smallest of margins, things were relatively calm 12 months later.

Jeremy McGovern played his 100^th game as the Eagles, second on the ladder going into the last game of the 2018 home-and-away season, posted a predictable 26-point win over 15^th-placed Brisbane at the Gabba.

McGovern became the seventh Eagles rookie to play 100 games for the club behind Chad Fletcher (2005), Dean Cox (2005), Quinten Lynch (2007), Brett Jones (2010), Mark Nicoski (2011) and Matt Priddis (2011).

Oscar Allen played his second AFL game as Dom Sheed had 30 possessions, Jamie Cripps picked up three Brownlow Medal votes for 23 possessions and three goals, and Jack Darling two votes for four goals.

Twelve months ago

Twelve months ago West Coast closed out the 2019 home-and-away season with a 38-point loss to Hawthorn at Optus Stadium which cost the Eagles dearly.

They were third going into round 23 on 60 points, level with Geelong and Richmond a game behind Brisbane and a game ahead of fifth-placed Collingwood.

Ninth-placed Hawthorn were one of three sides on 40 points, a game behind the eighth-placed Western Bulldogs but with a percentage good enough to scrape in if the results fell the right way. GWS and Essendon had 48 points.

By the time it got to the Eagles-Hawks game Geelong were safe in the top two after a win over Carlton, and Collingwood’s win over Essendon gave them a chance to displace West coast from the top four. GWS’ win over Gold Coast made them safe in the top six.

In the late game on the Saturday night West Coast needed to beat Hawthorn to ensure a top four finish, and Hawthorn needed to win and see the Western Bulldogs lose to Adelaide in Ballarat on the Sunday.

West Coast could still finish top four if they lost narrowly to Hawthorn and Richmond were to knock off Brisbane at the Gabba on the Sunday.

After Hawthorn kicked the first three goals the Eagles steadied via goals from big forwards Josh Kennedy and John Darling and high-flying ground level forwards Liam Ryan and Willie Rioli. It was 4-3 to 3-3 at quarter time.

But the last three goals of the second term gave the Hawks a 16-point edge at halftime and they were never headed. The visitors won 16.9 (105) to 9,13 (67).

When the Dogs beat the Crows in the early game on the Sunday it meant the top eight was decided, with Essendon and the Bulldogs taking the last two spots from Hawthorn and Adelaide.

All of a sudden Eagles fans became short-term Lions fans, needing the Lions to beat the Tigers for West Coast to finish fourth and Richmond fifth. But Richmond won by 27 points to see the Eagles slide to fifth 5.2% behind Collingwood.

It put the Eagles into an elimination final against Essendon at Optus Stadium in week one of the finals, and although they survived that a semi-final appointment with Geelong at the MCG proved too much.

An unhappy 100

West Coast’s first round 24 match was in 1991. It was at Princes Park where the ladder-leading Eagles, already with the minor premiership locked up, faced bottom side Fitzroy, desperately fighting to avoid the wooden-spoon.

With club stalwart Michael Brennan becoming the second player behind Dwayne Lamb to play 100 AFL games for the club, it really should have been a straightforward victory.

It started well enough. The visitors led 5.11 to 1.9 at halftime, prompting commentator Drew Morphett to effectively call it. “Fitzroy were 17.1 before the start of the game … they’d been 117-1,” he said.

But things turned quickly. Fitzroy added 6.5 to West Coast’s 0.3 in the third quarter to lead by 12 points at the final change.

The Lions had motivation of them own. Not only would a win give them a chance of getting of the bottom of the ladder, but it would send club stalwart Matt Rendell into retirement on a high.

The 32-year-old ex-Fitzroy captain, twice winner of the B&F, hadn’t played in the senior since round six and had announced his retirement mid-week. Coach Robert Shaw recalled him for his 164^th and last game.

Still, when Eagles debutant Robert West took a juggling mark to kick his first goal inside the first 60 seconds of the final term and cut the margin to six points there was an inevitability in the air. Expectations among the small crowd of 7308 were that the Eagles would run over the top of the young Lions.

Not so, as U-tube footage of the full last quarter shows.

Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN3DcFNc8no it’s not pleasant viewing for Eagles fans but it is a great flashback to that era and a reminder that there are no certainties in football.

After the West goal Paul Broderick, Darren Kappler and Dean Harding kicked the next three goals for Fitzroy and it was back out to 24 points. Then 25.

A big fella wearing jumper #48 for the Eagles turned an exquisite piece of play from Peter Matera into a goal to make it 17. It was the fifth career goal of an 18-year-old Glen Jakovich in his 12^th game.

Harding, playing his 12^th game for Fitzroy, kicked his fourth and when Kappler added another for Fitzroy the commentators pretty much called it. Again. “It’s going to take something very special to win from here,” said Gerard Healy.

Dean Kemp pulled it back to 23 points before Matera spoon-fed Jakovich in the goal square for his second, and when David Hart landed a 55m running bomb to make it just 11 points the Eagles had a chance.

Brett Stephens, later to become fitness coach for Pete Sampras and Mark Philippoussis, kicked his fourth for Fitzroy but the Eagles refused to lie down.

This time the goal-kicker was another big fella wearing jumper #53. In his 13^th game, an 18-year-old Ashley McIntosh floated across the face of a pack to pull in a beauty and kick his second of the game and his 10^th overall.

After Stephens sealed it with his fifth a brilliant 50m boundary line set shot from Peter Sumich for his third of the afternoon meant only that the final score was West Coast 12.17 (89) to Fitzroy 14.15 (99) and that Sumich had taken his home-and-away goal tally to 94.

Later to add 17 goals in four finals to take his 1991 total to 111 goals, Sumich had finished second in the Coleman Medal to St Kilda’s Tony Lockett (118).

Rendell, later to make a comeback with the Brisbane Bears in 1992 at the special request of Bears coach Robert Walls before going into recruiting, was chaired from the ground.

The umpires gave the Brownlow Medal votes to the Fitzroy trio of Ross Lyon (15 possessions), Paul Roos (20 possessions) and Alastair Lynch (6 possessions). Stephens’ 19 possessions and five goals went unrewarded along with Hart’s 25 possessions and a goal for West Coast.

When Footscray beat the Brisbane Bears at Carrara later that night it meant that Fitzroy had avoided the spoon, while West Coast, despite their unlikely loss, won the minor premiership by three games and percentage.

No slip up second time around

West Coast were fourth on the ladder as they prepared to play fifth-placed Carlton in round 24 in 1992, and this time, much to Carlton’s disappointment, there were no slip-ups.

After leading 7.2 to 0.4 at quarter-time the Eagles won 18.12 (120) to 12.15 (87) on the back of 28 possessions and a goal from Tony Evans and 23 possessions and a goal from Dwayne Lamb. They earned three and two Brownlow Medal votes respectively, but Peter Sumich’s eight goals from nine kicks went unrewarded with the umpires.

All this meant that West Coast finished with 15 wins and a draw and placed fourth on the home-and-away ladder a half a game behind Geelong, Footscray and Collingwood, all with 16 wins. Carlton crashed from fifth to seventh as Hawthorn jumped into the top six.

It perhaps wasn’t the perfect launching pad for a finals campaign, but the Eagles went on to beat Hawthorn and then Geelong twice to claim their first AFL premiership.

Or third time out …

After the 1993 season had been cut to 20 games over 22 rounds the League returned to a 24-round 22-match home-and away season in 1994, and in Round 24 it was second-placed West Coast against third-placed Footscray at Subiaco. And again, with the lessons of 1991 still front of mind, they were right on the job.

There was plenty to play for. Chris Lewis was playing his 150^th AFL game and Don Pyke his 100^th, and the Eagles were an outside chance of grabbing top spot.

They were level on wins with Carlton after 21 games but well behind on percentage and needed not only to beat Footscray but had to rely on 10^th-placed Essendon to upset the Blues.

Essendon, out of finals contention, did their bit on the Saturday when Peter Cransberg kicked an equal career-best four goals in an all-the-way Bombers win by 18 points.

So it all came down to the Sunday at Subiaco. And as it turned out, it was never in doubt. The Eagles won 17.15 (117) to 6.10 (46). And again the Brownlow Medal votes didn’t seem to correlate with the statistics.

Peter Matera (14 possessions, 1 goal), Guy McKenna (13 possessions) and Chris Mainwaring (25 possessions) picked up 3-2-1 votes respectively to the detriment of the milestone men. Pyke had 24 possessions and kicked three goals and Lewis 17 possessions and three goals.

Still, just as Embley would do in round 23, 2013, they had made their historical mark. Pyke was the second Eagles player behind Michael Brennan to chalk up his 100^th game in a Round 24 match, and Lewis the first and only 150^th-gamer in Round 24.

A warm-up for Embley

Two years before Andrew Embley would play his 250^th and last game in round 23 he had a day out in the Eagles’ fourth and last round 24 game. He had a team-high 33 possessions and kicked a goal to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes against Adelaide at Subiaco.

This time there was nothing riding on the game. West Coast were fourth going into the final round and were going to finish the home and away season fourth regardless.  And Adelaide were 14^th and playing out time.

But, almost as if the lessons of 1993 were still on the players’ mind, they blitzed the Crows 22.13 (145) to 7.8 (50). Luke Shuey, with 25 possessions and two goals, and Dean Cox, with 15 possessions, two goals and 35 hit-outs, claimed the minor votes.