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West Coast Eagles Football Club is an Australian Rules Football club competing in the Australian Football League . HISTORY 1980s: The Early Years The West Coast Eagles were initially formed when the local West Australian Football League applied in 1986 to enter a West Australian team in the Victorian Football League due to concerns with the constant drain of the league's best players to Victoria. It was hoped that this would reinvigorate falling interest in the sport in Western Australia due to the fact that few of the best players in the land played in the local competition. The VFL, having its own financial problems, agreed to the proposal to gain financial relief, as well as the creation of an expansion team in Brisbane (the Brisbane Bears ), with both teams to enter the competition for the 1987 season. This provided only a six month period in which to set up the team, recruit a squad and get the club generally ready to play. Despite some hiccups along the way, the new club managed to draw a creditable squad together, mostly out of the WAFL, but also with a few players returning from Victoria to play for the new Perth based side. In a lavish function at the then Merlin Hotel (now the Hyatt Perth), in October of 1986, the club released its new colours, its inaugural squad, and announced the club's name would be the "West Coast Eagles". {Link without Title} The club's reception in West Australian football circles was mixed, with many diehard supporters of the WAFL opposed to the entry of the VFL into Perth. But with a good array of local talent on board, including the return from Melbourne of 1983 Brownlow Medallist Ross Glendinning as the club's inaugural captain, the Eagles caught the attention of a majority of the football supporters of Western Australia. West Coast's first official match of any sort was a pre-season game against Footscray (now Western Bulldogs ) on March 3 , 1987 , which the Eagles won. The club's first official home and away match at Subiaco Oval against was sacked from the position and replaced with WA coaching legend John Todd . The 1988 season saw the Eagles improve to become one of the strong teams of the competition, finishing the home and away season in fourth, before narrowly losing the Elimination Final to Melbourne by two points. Despite this loss, the mood was upbeat at the club for the future, although it was the last game of inaugural captain Glendinning. {Link without Title} However, the 1989 season put the club under a lot of pressure. Injuries and poor form led to the club only winning two matches in the first fifteen rounds of the season, culminating in the "Windy Hill Massacre", where the Eagles lost by a club record 142 points to Essendon . In the nadir of this season, with major financial problems besetting the club and a bleak outlook, there was even talk of disbanding the club and reverting back to the WAFL as the senior competition in Western Australia. However, the Eagles rallied with five wins in the last seven weeks of the season, but while it was enough to stave off the wolves, it was not enough to keep John Todd in the role of senior coach, nor allow first year captain Murray Rance to retain the role. 1990s: The Malthouse Years As the VFL made way for the new AFL the Eagles entered the 1990s with a new coach, , and despite beating Melbourne in the First Semi Final, bowed out a fortnight later to Essendon in the Preliminary Final. As by 53 points in front of a crowd of 75,230. It was the only Grand Final ever to be played at Waverley Park , and the first in the AFL to feature a non-Victorian side. The Eagles weren't as strong through the at the MCG . The Eagles struggled early in the match, trailing by as much as four goals, but ended up over-running the Cats to win by 28 points and claim the club's first ever premiership, with Peter Matera winning the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground. The 1992 premiership was the first senior AFL premiership won by a team from outside Victoria. After a 1993 season that was a washout when the Eagles just never really got going (although still making the finals), in 1994 the Eagles again won the minor premiership at the end of the home and away season, and this time managed to carry the form through the finals series, despite a scare in the opening week of the finals when Collingwood nearly snuck over the line in a close game at the WACA ground. In the end the Eagles did not lose a match in the series, culminating in an 80 point thrashing of Geelong in the Grand Final for the club's second premiership. Dean Kemp was awarded the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground on this occasion. In 1995 , a local AFL rival the Fremantle Football Club was introduced to the WA football market, heightening competition for the West Australian audience and forming a fierce rivalry to become the Western Derby , a twice yearly encounter between the two clubs. The derby was for much of the 90s a West Coast affair, with the Eagles winning the first nine encounters before the Dockers finally won the later derby of 1999. Meanwhile the club's performances on the field slipped a little from the heights of the early 90s, but never so far as to not make the finals. After bowing out quietly in 1995, the Eagles won their opening final in won the club's first AFL Rising Star award for the best rookie in the competition for 1996. {Link without Title} The . In the second week of the the right to host a Semi Final in 2002, and the Brisbane Lions a Preliminary Final in 2004 before it was finally abolished. The 1999 season is probably more remembered for the continual rumours that linked coach Mick Malthouse to the senior coaching role at Collingwood; the rumours ended up being proven correct when Malthouse was released from his contract to the club for the 2000 season, to be replaced with Ken Judge . Also notable in 1999 was the first (and currently only) Eagle to top the AFL goalkicking, when Scott Cummings won the Coleman Medal with 95 goals. {Link without Title} 2000-2001: The Ken Judge Years The Eagles might have started Judge's reign as coach impressively, thrashing reigning premiers North Melbourne in the opening game of 2000, and winning two games by over 100 points in three weeks against Adelaide and Fremantle, but it was to turn sour quite quickly in the latter part of the 2000 season. Sitting at six wins and five losses at the half way point of the season, injury struck, and West Coast slumped to win only one more match for the season, and missing the finals for the first time since 1989, and another change of captaincy, as McKenna retired to be replaced with Dean Kemp and Ben Cousins as co-captains. The Eagles also introduced a much maligned ochre colour to their home and away uniforms in these years, which have since been abandoned for the more traditional uniforms worn in previous years. However bad 2000 might have been, the 2001 season was the club's all time nadir. In a shocking season, crueled by injury, older players falling away, and general mutterings of dissatisfaction, the club won only five matches for the entire year, all against other bottom four sides; the fourteenth place finish by far the lowest in the club's history. Against rumours of player dissatisfaction, and even revolt, Ken Judge was sacked from the coaching role,[17 to be replaced in turn by former premiership captain John Worsfold. 2002 - current: The John Worsfold Years It appeared to be the poisoned chalice that was handed to Worsfold in his first senior coaching role; a team that was widely tipped to slump further to the bottom of the ladder. Most fans would have been satisfied with just an improvement in performance, but Worsfold and his mostly young charges surprised many, being almost unbeatable at home, and sneaking a couple of crucial away wins to make an unexpected finals appearance on the back of an eleven win - eleven loss home and away season in 2002 . The Eagles lost first up and were eliminated, but it was a sign of improvement to come. The 2003 and 2004 seasons were opposites of each other. In 2003, the Eagles ran riot early, sitting in the high reaches of the ladder mid-season before injury took out the second part of the season and the club slumped to finish just inside the finals, and were bundled straight out; in 2004, the season was looking down the barrel early, but a dramatic late season recovery saw the Eagles steal a spot in the finals in the last week of the home and away season, only to be thrashed in a thunderstorm by the Sydney Swans first up. 2004 however saw the first ever Eagle to win Australian Football's highest individual award, when Chris Judd won the Brownlow Medal in a canter. Previous best West Coast performances had been runner up efforts from Craig Turley in 1991 and Peter Matera in 1996. Season 2005 saw the Eagles start on fire, easily accounting for all opponents in the opening eight weeks before inexplicably losing to then-bottom-placed Collingwood. The Eagles however recovered to be as much as five games clear, before a poor run home saw the club lose the final week and surrender the minor premiership to the Adelaide Crows . Despite this, the Eagles turned it around in the finals to make the Grand Final against the Sydney Swans . However in reverse of the result in the 2005 Qualifying Final between the two sides, the Swans managed to hold out the Eagles to win a low scoring encounter by just four points. There was some consolation for Eagles fans with Chris Judd being awarded the Norm Smith medal, and with captain Ben Cousins already winning the Brownlow Medal, which highlighted the quality of the West Coast midfield. Despite promises to turn it around in . Despite all this, the Eagles started the season in fairly good form, winning eleven of the opening twelve matches, including a couple of massive comebacks particularly a club record recovery against Geelong from 54 points down in the third quarter. The Eagles then struggled for a few weeks, slipping off the pace, before good late season form enabled them to win the minor premiership at the end of the season over a slipping Adelaide Crows. In the 2006 finals, the Eagles were favourites in every game and lost the opening match at Subiaco to Sydney by 1 point, but came back strong to thrash the Bulldogs in the Semi Final, and come from behind (again) against the Crows in the Preliminary Final to book a berth in the Grand Final, once again against the Swans. Like in 2005, the Grand Final ended up with a mirror of the earlier Qualifying Final clash between these two teams, the Eagles winning one of the great Grand Finals of recent years by a solitary point - the only AFL Grand Final decided by this margin, and the first in AFL/VFL history since 1966. {Link without Title} Andrew Embley was awarded the Norm Smith medal for best on ground. See Also: 2006 AFL Finals Series The Eagles 2007 pre-season was the most turbulent in the club's history, with midfielder Daniel Kerr charged with assault for two separate incidents, and former captain (and 2005 Brownlow Medallist) Ben Cousins suspended from the club indefinitely after continued breaches of team rules, most notably not turning up to training, leading to massive amounts of speculative reporting in the media. Despite this, the Eagles started the season in good form, winning their opening 6 matches, including another one point victory over the Sydney Swans. However, the Eagles of 2007 were nowhere near as dominant as those of 05 and 06, as the Geelong Cats enjoyed a 12-game winning streak. Instead, the Eagles spent much of the year in the bottom part of the top-4, even slipping out of the top-4 at times. An adductor injury to Chris Judd hampered his second half of 07, but this was somewhat offset by the return of Ben Cousins from his club suspension in Round 16, ironically against the Sydney Swans. Nonetheless, the Eagles managed to finish third on the ladder with 14 wins and 8 losses. They could, though, have easily finished second when, in Round 22, they lead the Essendon Bombers by as much as 51 points late in the third term. Spurred on by the retiring James Hird and the resignation of Kevin Sheedy , the Bombers fought hard, losing by only 8 points. The Eagles would come to rue the lost opportunity to gain a boost in their percentage, losing second spot on the ladder to the Port Adelaide Power . Finishing third meant that the Eagles were forced to travel to Adelaide in the first round of the finals to play the Power. Despite a clearly injured Chris Judd, and no Ashley Hansen , without whom the Eagles struggle, West Coast took a 4 goal lead early in the third quarter. However, a serious hamstring injury to Ben Cousins depleted the Eagles' running ability, and the Power, though they kicked inaccurately, beat the Eagles by 3 points. It means West Coast will play a sem-final for the second year running, but many journalists have written them off for the premiership due to their injuries. CLUB AWARDS AFL Premiers 1992,1994,2006 McClelland Trophy ''(Awarded for finishing the home and away season on top of the ladder)'' 1991,1994,2006 CLUB HONOUR BOARD INDIVIDUAL AWARDS AFL Hall of Fame Members
Brownlow Medal winners (Awarded to the player rated best in the competition during the home and away series by the umpires)
Runner up Brownlow Medal
Leigh Matthews Trophy winners (Awarded to the player rated best in the competition during the home and away series by the players association)
Sandover Medal winners ''(Awarded to the player rated best in the WAFL competition)''
Norm Smith Medal winners ''(Awarded to the player rated best on ground in the AFL Grand Final)''
Coleman Medal winners ''(Awarded to the player who kicks the most goals in the AFL competition during the home and away series)''
AFL Rising Star winners ''(Awarded to the best rookie player in the competition)''
See the AFL Rising Star Award page for the full criteria Goal of the Year winners
Mark of the Year winners
All Australian selection CURRENT SQUAD ''As of February 28 , 2006 :'' MEMBERSHIP AND ATTENDANCE In 2006, the Eagles had 44,138 members ( Seating Capacity ), a waiting list and an average home ground attendance of 40,243.
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