The West Coast Eagles have qualified for finals in 25 of their 34 years in the AFL. Their first experience came in only their second season in the competition, in 1988.
Saturday, September 3, 1988. The West Coast Eagles, two years and 44 games into their AFL existence, played their first final. It was at Waverley Park against Melbourne, foundation members of the competition 92 years earlier with 1661 games and 56 finals behind them.
Having finished eighth on a 14-team ladder in 1987 with an 11-11 win/loss split, the Eagles had won their last five home-and-away games to clinch a 1988 finals berth. They were fourth at 13-9.
In the run to September they’d beaten Melbourne by 44 points in round 18 and second-placed Collingwood by 60 points in round 21 before a good final tune-up in round 22 win at Western Oval against Footscray, who needed a win to have any chance of scraping into the top six.
Coach John Todd made three changes at selection for the Eagles’ first final. Having lost regulars John Annear and Michael Brennan to injury Todd left out seven-gamer Joe Cormack. Phil Scott and Dean Turner, fixtures through the season, returned as 19-year-old first-year player Chris Waterman was recalled.
Scott had not played since round 17, Turner had missed the last two games and after making his debut in round five, Waterman had played rounds 12-13-14-15-16-18.
In a late change Murray Wrensted, who had played 12 home-and-away games but missed the last five games, replaced Waterman.
The Eagles side had an average age of 24 years seven months, a total experience of 877 AFL games and 18 finals debutants. Only Ross Glendinning (12) and Turner (4) had tasted finals football.
For the purpose of comparisons, depending on how the Eagles side this week lands, it could have an average age of 27 years-plus, total experience of more than 3000 games, and a combined finals experience of 200-plus. And perhaps only two finals debutants.
Historically, the Eagles’ first final was a chronic mismatch. And it didn’t quite go to plan. After leading by 22 points at half-time 5.7 to 2.3 they were out-scored 6.2 to 0.2 in the third quarter to fall 14 points behind.
It was a thriller.
Andrew Lockyer kicked his second before Glendinning added two quick goals to put his side in front with 15 minutes to play.
There was a long delay as Guy McKenna was taken off on a stretcher after an accidental contest in which teammate Geoff Miles had pushed Melbourne’s Sean Wight into McKenna as he had his head down over the ball.
All the momentum was with the Eagles, but what would be the impact of the stoppage?
None. Wrensted unselfishly gave a forward handpass to Glendinning for him to kick his fifth from 25m. With 11 minutes to play the Eagles led by 10 points.
David Williams answered for the Demons before Andy Lovell, the only teenager in the Demons side, showed great composure to kick truly on the run from 30m in the pocket. Melbourne by two points with seven minutes left.
David Hart made something out of nothing at a boundary throw-in and kicked brilliantly from just outside the 50m arc to put the Eagles back in front.
Inside the last two minutes, Melbourne went forward again through 18-year-old Lovell. Later to be an Eagle, with his long blonde hair flowing, he picked out Irishman Wight, who had been thrown forward by coach John Northey at half-time in a key move.
Wight, playing on quickly, found Earl Spalding. He stopped and took a deep breath but from 35m he sliced it right. West Coast by three with 1min09sec to play.
Steve Malaxos bombed it long from half back to clear the danger zone but put it right down the throat of an unattended Alan Johnson. He took off, touching the ball on the ground once before kicking long to the goal square.
It spilled forward from a huge pack. Williams gathered for the Demons and fired a slick handball out to Garry Lyon. The 20-year-old captain in waiting snapped on his right across his body. Goal. Melbourne by three.
The Eagles had 37 seconds. Then 30 seconds after Melbourne bottled up the re-start.
There was one last chance. A long, hurried handpass forward from congestion by an obscured Eagle cleared the area. Wally Matera thumped it further forward where Malaxos gathered and screwed it back into the corridor on his left.
He picked out a loose Wrensted who ran to the 50m line and let fly. It all rested on one kick but he pulled it left. The Eagles were done. When the final siren sounded seven seconds later Wrensted grabbed his head in despair.
“The Age” reported: “If a football match can be likened to a running race Melbourne had fallen so far behind West Coast by half-time that it had almost lost sight of the Eagles. Somehow the Demons found it within themselves to come out and overtake their opponents.
“At no stage of Saturday’s match did Melbourne create a system of play that was in any way as threatening or impressive as West Coast’s.
“The Demons did it the old way, the hard way, through individuals such as Stretch and Wilson doubling their efforts. Melbourne managed six goals for the quarter, the last of them coming from Johnson, who spun blithely through a pack and scored with a towering torpedo from beyond the radius of the 50-metre line. How sweet it was.
“For the first two quarters the match was the property of West Coast. In the third quarter it was Melbourne’s. In the last quarter it was anybody’s, the final 30 minutes having more twists and turns than a snake with a tack in its tail.”
“In the end many people felt West Coast should have won but were glad it did not.”
It was the last game for Glendinning, and the last Eagles game for Matera, Wrensted and John Gastev. Matera went to Fitzroy to play a further 32 games, Wrensted moved to Collingwood for 10 more games, and Gastev headed to the Brisbane Bears, where he chalked up 113 games and twice won the best and fairest.
Four years later six members of the Eagles’ first finals side would play in the club’s first premiership in 1992 – Dwayne Lamb, McKenna, Chris Mainwaring, Karl Langdon, Chris Lewis and John Worsfold. So, too, Waterman. Hart, also a member of the first finals side, would go on to be a member of the second premiership side in 1994.
The first WC finals side was:-
B: Dwayne Lamb, Andrew Lockyer, Geoff Miles
HB: Dean Laidley, Murray Rance, Guy McKenna
C: Chris Mainwaring, Steve Malaxos, John Gastev
HF: Karl Langdon, David O’Connell, John Worsfold
F: Chris Lewis, Ross Glendinning (capt), David Hart
R: Laurie Keene, Dean Turner, Wally Matera.
INT: Phil Scott, Murray Wrensted.
1988 Elimination final
Saturday, September 3
Waverley Park
Melbourne 1.1 2.3 8.5 11.7 73
West Coast 2.4 5.7 5.9 10.11 71
Goals – West Coast Eagles: Glendinning 5, Lockyer 2, Hart, Langdon, Malaxos.
Best – West Coast Eagles: Worsfold, Malaxos, Lamb, Mainwaring, Langdon, Miles, Glendinning.
Highest possessions West Coast Eagles – Malaxos 33, Worsfold 26, Lamb 19, Mainwaring 18, Keene 17, Rance 17, Wrensted 17, Gastev 16, Langdon 16, Miles 16.
Attendance: 43,438.
Umpires: Peter Cameron, Bryan Sheehan.
It was the one and only Eagles final of the 1980s and it wasn’t the result the club was looking for but it was the beginning of a wonderful finals history!
