Eagles Greatest Players

[Exeter]

Reading the thread about Embley as our most important player I've long wondered who our greatest players have been. It came down to:

Dean Kemp and Peter Matera as our best players i.e. technical skills

Bluey McKenna as our greatest, most influential player i.e. the rebounding backline was built around him and his ability to read the play was magnificent - rarely beaten - a great player.

What do you think?

Also, which players in our current squad may in future years rank as enduring champions or great players?

I think of champions as specific to clubs. Truly great players like Voss, Leigh Matthews, Lockett, Dunstall, Ablett, Carey (at his peak), Buckley(?) transcend clubs and can be considered great in any era. I reckon there's only a handful of these players in the comp running around at any one time.

 

[Voice of Reason]

Jako - as measured by club's Best & Fairests

 

[Juddyzthebest]

Peter Matera- champ

 

[Sera]

Matera

 

[Mr Q]

My vote always goes to McKenna for exactly the reasons Exeter outlined.

Out of our current squad, Jako is already a champion albeit in decline, while Cousins will obviously get there. Judd has all the potential in the world, and if Gardiner or Embley have a few more seasons like this year they'd be right up there. I think Wirrpunda has probably had too many injuries to ever get there.

Can't see anyone else that could make the champion tag, but you never know. Kerr and Fletcher should be good players, but probably not champions, while guys like McDougall and Sampi haven't really played enough to judge their standing at all.

 

[noodle]

McKenna

 

[llosis]

Matera - matchwinning brilliance.

Having said that it's a pretty tight field behind him:
McKenna
Jako
Kemp

 

[llosis]

Actually, I reckon we can add Milli to the list of club legends.

Past it now but for ten years was almost unbeatable at FB. Without being silly must have been close to AFL team of the century at FB.

 

[RooMatera]

This article should put your questions to rest.

Matera: a force from the west
Barry Levinson


In the early 1990’s Peter Matera was Victorian public enemy number one.

He was the face of a new force in football and for the first time in AFL/VFL history, the force came from Western Australia.

While Victorians have had to become well and truly used to it now, the West Coast Eagles were the first non-Victorian team to take the premiership cup away from the home of football.

And as the star of the West Coast side that won the 1992 premiership, Matera was seen as the chief villain.

He was so good, that if you weren’t a West Coast supporter, you couldn’t like him. He was annoyingly great.

Too many times his leopard-like speed and long kicking into the forward line would set up a West Coast victory. At his best, he was impossible to catch.

Geelong supporters will never be able to forget Peter Matera. The 1992 grand final was the day that Matera left a huge mark on football.

After the Cats went into the half-time break with a two-goal lead, Matera played one of the most awesome third quarters by an individual in recent memory, with a blistering performance on the wing.

His goal on the run from 55 metres out, in front of the MCC smokers’ stand, is the passage of play which always comes to mind when you think of Matera. It was typical Matera. It was also one of five majors he kicked for the afternoon and he was a unanimous choice for the Norm Smith medal.

As a West Coast Eagle, Matera followed in the footsteps of older brother Wally, who was a member of the club’s inaugural team in 1987. But he wasn’t known as Wally’s brother for long.

Peter Matera was a five-time All Australian (in 1991, ’93, ’94, ’96 and ’97), two-time premiership player (1992 and 1994), once a club best and fairest (1997) and finished runner-up in the Brownlow medal in 1994 and equal third in 1997.

The year he finished runner-up in the Brownlow, Matera polled a staggering 28 votes, only to be pipped by Carlton’s Greg Williams on 30. Matera polled enough votes to win the medal in any other year, since both field umpires last awarded separate votes in 1977.

Matera was almost lured east by the Demons prior to the 1998 season. With the number one choice in the pre-season draft and a huge offer on the table, Melbourne thought it had convinced the speedster to join the club over a barbecue with (captain) Garry Lyon and (coach) Neil Balme. But at the last minute, West Coast convinced him to stay.

Matera’s outstanding career began to get the staggers in 1999. As he has aged, soft tissue injuries have frustrated the wingman, particularly in the hamstrings and calves. He played 16 of a possible 24 games that year.

And in a team that struggled under Ken Judge in 2000 and 2001, Matera’s form dropped away. After years of success in strong sides under Michael Malthouse, Matera appeared to struggle with the concept of playing in a battling side.

He was reportedly considering retirement at the end of 2001, but was talked into saddling up for another season by his new coach and former premiership captain, John Worsfold.

At 33, Matera was given a second wind under Worsfold and was a great asset to the improved Eagles with his run off half-back in 17 matches. But he still missed six matches with knee and calf injuries.

After 253 games and 217 goals, he has finally succumbed to the knee injury which had restricted him to just one match over the pre-season.

He leaves the games as the Eagles’ second longest-serving player (behind Guy McKenna on 267) and as one of the modern greats of the game.

Eleven years after the pain of seeing the cup go west, even Victorians can admit that.




Doesn't that send a chill down your spine reading it ?

 

[Exeter]

Great article RooMatera, no argument from me as to Matera's profile as a great player in a great side.

Bluey's still my favourite, arguably the best backman of the last two decades - reckon he ranks with Bruce Doull as the best backman I've ever seen.

Jako too has been a great player, but he was enabled by Bluey and Woosha either side of him and a fullback line that at various times included McIntosh, Monkey Brennan (Lockett rated him as just about the hardest fullback he played against), Muddy Waterman and David Hart.

Christ I wish we had them now.

 

[steve_rat]

im always a matera man! my fave player. definitely

in his prime ooooh mate...

steve rat

 

[Replay]

Worsfold.

His player never got a touch and he instilled fear into anyone around him. This helped all the others look good.

 

[Thrawn666]

Peter Matera

 

[drexel]

When you think St Kilda had a chance to pick up Matera in the draft, as well as having Winmar.... it makes it a joke how people say we were gifted a state team.

Peter Matera was a player of a generation, never seen a more impressive sight on a football field. ..

There's just an aura about certain players in the way they can lift the team by doing something that shouldn't be done.
Mcleod was the late 90's version, and Chris Judd will be the modern version.

 

[The Passenger]

Peter Matera is our best ever player IMO and by quite a distance....


One of the best footballers of the 90's with only Carey, Harvey and Lockett clearly in front of him and perhaps Ablett (although he only played a few years).


Anyone else think we should do a Big Footy West Coast Hall of Fame ?? or would that just be too much effort....

 

[masai]

Originally posted by Black Thunder


Anyone else think we should do a Big Footy West Coast Hall of Fame ?? or would that just be too much effort....

Would you have anyone walk out if they didn't get selected, ala Capper?.

 

[ozzult]

Greg Harding .... and by a very hefty margin mind you as well.

 

[Sera]

Originally posted by ozzult
Greg Harding .... and by a very hefty margin mind you as well.

Please.

 

[GoEagles]

Gregory Harding oozed with talent but I would have to say the greatest ever Eagle was... Jay Burton. Lap after lap he walked the training track - he would have to go down as one of the missing legends of the 90s.

Back to reality, Peter Matera was pure class, Jakovich was pure skill, Guy McKenna was levelheaded, Woosha was pure toughness, Kemp and Mainwaring were the fabric of our midfield.

 

[carlyp]

Our greatest player could come from any of these guys:

Peter Matera
Glen Jakovich
John Worsfold
Guy Mckenna
Dean Kemp
Chris Mainwaring


If Sumich had been a more reliable kick I would have him somewhere in that list but his kicking was attrocius so he just misses out imo!

 

[thegur]

Ashley Blurton, it was such a shame to see him end his career at Richmond, if only he was a one club player ... closely followed by Cory Young.

But Jako, come on, could you imagine if CHB had the glory of CHF? He would be a living legend, more so ... and imagine if he actually played CHF, which I think he could of .... and don't get me started on his pre-knee days.

He is the complete package of a footballer.

rant over

thegur

 

[Mr Q]

Originally posted by GoEagles
Gregory Harding oozed with talent but I would have to say the greatest ever Eagle was... Jay Burton. Lap after lap he walked the training track - he would have to go down as one of the missing legends of the 90s.

Pretty sure Jay was the Burton brother who was never on our list - we had Matthew and Travis, but I think Jay was only ever on the list at Richmond. Since I went to school with Jay at one stage I think I'd have noticed his name had it shown up on our list.

 

[dasler]

Jakovich...then closely followed by Roo

 

[larrikin]

Commetti did this on A Current Affair last week, and I think his top 5 went like this

1. Jakovich
2. Kemp
3. Mainwaring
4. Matera
=5. McKenna
=5. Heady

I think that was the order he put them in, but he may have had Matera and Kemp the other way around.

Personally I'd have McKenna or Matera at 1.

 

[carlyp]

Originally posted by larrikin
Commetti did this on A Current Affair last week, and I think his top 5 went like this

1. Jakovich
2. Kemp
3. Mainwaring
4. Matera
=5. McKenna
=5. Heady

I think that was the order he put them in, but he may have had Matera and Kemp the other way around.

Personally I'd have McKenna or Matera at 1.

No no no no. Matera maybe but not Bluey. Jako has to go ahead of Bluey imo!