Analysis The 2018 premiership is the high point of WC's history

Oct 29, 2007
22,131
29,933
Perth Western Australia
AFL Club
West Coast
Peak Judd was the best player I have ever seen. I was so pissed off when he left, reeked of a captain fleeing a sinking ship, called him Judas for years, but I've mellowed somewhat over the years and I'm so glad he earned life membership this year. I love that he still sticks up for us in the Vic media too.

An absolute West Coast (and AFL) legend and I feel privileged to have seen him dominate in the blue and gold, culminating in the 2006 premiership.

In regards to Judd , Simpson mentioned how he asked Gaff why he stayed and it was along the lines of " I didnt want to be remembered for bailing when going got tough". With Judd being at the Bnf i do wonder if Gaff asked him for some advice?
 

FatPizza

Premiership Player
May 25, 2015
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In regards to Judd , Simpson mentioned how he asked Gaff why he stayed and it was along the lines of " I didnt want to be remembered for bailing when going got tough". With Judd being at the Bnf i do wonder if Gaff asked him for some advice?
Judd has been a big advocate in the media for Gaff staying so it's a possibility.
 

Candiru

Premiership Player
Jan 27, 2018
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Even better when you consider how s**t the list is. Right?
 

Bluengold91

Senior List
Aug 14, 2016
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I’ve been obsessively following the Eagles for 30 years.

I was there when we won Grand Finals in 1992 and 1994. I was there when we kicked one goal against Essendon in 1989. I’ve been around. I grew up in Melbourne and then lived in Sydney and then moved abroad. My circumstances have changed over the years. My obsession with West Coast has not.

In my reckoning, this 2018 premiership is the high point of the club’s history.

I understand that in the aftermath of any win, people get carried away and reach for superlatives. In the aftermath of a win, everything is “the best” or “the biggest” or “the most exciting”. I hear that. Nonetheless, this season is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen as a WC fan. I make no apologies for saying so. Anyone who disagrees can EAD.

I should also offer a full disclosure. I was among the doubters. I thought Simpson was limited. At different stages, I criticised Sheed, Jetta, Redden, Hutchings, Cole, Lycett, Vardy, Venables, Darling, LeCras, Masten. It’s a long list. Before the season started, I thought we could play finals but not much more than that. I thought we just had to write it off as a transition year. Play finals, blood some kids, make the eight, nothing exciting. That would have been a successful season, in my book.

Instead, this crew produced something that completely stunned me. We won 10 in a row. We smashed Richmond by 50 points. We beat Collingwood at the MCG by 6 goals. Those should have been red flags for anyone who thought we weren’t contenders. The way we played was so spirited. It caught me off-guard. We’d been flakey for years but we played this season like our nuts were on the line. It was inspirational. I’m cynical but the way we played this year hit me hard in the feels.

Of course, the problem with all of that is that we lost some guys along the way. I maintain that I felt worse after NicNat did his knee for the second time than I did after we lost the 2015 Grand Final. I was in a pit of despair for a month after that. Sure, we won a flag in 2018. But I’ll never be OK with how much footy NicNat has missed in his peak. Then Gaff got rubbed out for eight weeks. Then Sheppard popped his hammy. That’s a huge chunk of top-line quality on the sidelines. Star ruckman. #1 midfielder. Gun medium defender. If Richmond or Collingwood lost those players, they’d write an epic poem about it.

And yet we found a way.

But what’s the difference between 2018 and 1992, 1994 and 2006? Great teams. Hooray. What’s the difference?

In my opinion, the difference is definitive. The difference makes 2018 the high point in WC history.

In my opinion, the difference is about the balance between talent and game plan.

In our previous premiership seasons, we had exquisite top-end talent, and the challenge was simply to assemble a side or strategy around it that would be competitive in finals.

That’s what Malthouse did in 1992 and 1994. We had s**t-hot talent but Malthouse built a defence-first style that allowed us to strangle teams and then take them apart when we got the ball. Obviously that is a simplification but I think it’s pretty accurate.

We did something similar in 2006. We had Cox, Cousins, Judd, Kerr in the centre square. Worsfold built a team around that apex talent. We only just snuck over the line in 2006 despite having the best starting centre-square combination of the modern era. And then it went to s**t. Again, we had awesome top-shelf talent, concentrated in the midfield, and a game plan built around that.

That’s not what happened in 2018. This year, we built a game plan that could withstand devastating losses of talent. We lost Naitanui. We lost Gaff. We lost Sheppard. We won anyway. We won through system and structure and character and grit. That’s not how WC has won premierships in the past. We’ve won them because we had an edge in talent and then built a game plan around that. This year, we did the opposite. We played a brand of football that held up even when we lost our best players. That’s not how WC win flags. But we did it in 2018.

Look at all the players we had in 2018 who had been written off previously to varying degrees. And not just by dickheads in the Victorian media. These guys were whacked by us, the WC faithful. Look at the 22 who won today and at least half of them have been belted on this board at different stages. And yet we found a way.

Again, I want to emphasise that I was among the doubters. This is not a thread about how “everyone got it wrong and I was right haha hahaha”. I also got it wrong. This is a thread about how we won it. I didn’t see it coming. I don’t think many of us did. But the way we won it was spectacular. I’ve never been more proud. In my opinion, this season has been the high point of the club’s history.

I don’t no how a single person could have critised n doubted Redden. Only people that should be critised about Redden is the coaching staff, trade in a gun inside mid to play him out of position for 2 years n so many eagles fans are to quick to jump on there own players back they dont even realise. I said it this time last year best thing to happen is for Priddis n Mitchell to retire n that soon as they do Redden will be a gun again. Boy was I right
 
Sep 12, 2013
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2018 was brilliant and is right up there but 1992 meant more.

Why? I moved to Melbourne in the late 80’s and for the Eagles fan in the first few years, it was tough going in Melbourne. The suburban grounds made it even more intense. My favourites memories included:

Victoria Park - ruff as guts and standing you got nudged and beer spilt on you every time Collinwood kicked a goal.

Artic Park - it was how I discovered frost bite, muddy car parks and the Deemon three quarter time dash. I was sitting behind the shot Sumich had late to draw the game.

Windy Hill - that tied up wind sock. The rivalry really started for me in those years.

Whitten Oval - Jack Elliot was not far off it we he said that the Doggies were a club with a sad and tragic history. That wind in winter just went straight through you at the oval.

We West Coaster supporters in Melbourne were small in number and learned how to be resilient. I developed a louder clap. Used travel time to work to think up wittiest lines because sheer volume was not enough. Found the right balance of banter and going to close to being set on. Invested in gloves and understood why scarves were popular.

Let’s face it, it had been the VFL and it took a while for people to react to games where 1 team had less than 10% support. We found each other at games for moral support.

So in 1992 when 25,000 Eagles came to Melbourne as reinforcements, it was about as uplifting as it was for the Allies when USA joined in the big fight with WW1.

So sitting in the newly opened Great Southern Stand watching the boys out there do something never done before - a team outside of Victoria stole the premiership cup and the rest of Australia shouted “Good On Ya - Up the Bloody Vic’s”
 
Awesome year 2018, definitely the funnest i've had as a footy supporter and bigfooty user :D


  • Sponsoring Marsden, and having him get a premiership medal to hang in his coffee shop :heavycheck:
  • New Stadium, new logo, new brand :heavycheck:
  • Saw plenty of lives games at Optus throughout the year, including the opener and prelim. Nothing but good things to say about the venue :heavycheck:
  • FINALLY going too far the other way and handing so many debut's to new players (been waiting years for that s**t) :heavycheck:
  • McGovern humiliating Port with that after the siren kick for the win, magic :heavycheck:
  • So many players having career best seasons, just like in 2015 :heavycheck:
  • Plenty of juicy memes and new boardism's to keep us going :heavycheck:


What can i say, it was just a fun an enjoyable season.

As for the team itself, i won't bother going into details with the improvements on field, but the way the media seemed to be on our ass right from the get go just makes the flag all the more sweet. No shortage of adversity for the club this season with injuries, suspensions and bullshit incidents.



^ And all of that without Ellis Yolman. Unbelievable.
 

Candiru

Premiership Player
Jan 27, 2018
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How good was it when we teabagged Melbourne in the PF and Garry Lyon was blinking back the tears at HT?

He thought they were going to come over and beat us with their Sparkle Motion or whatever. EAD.

That was complete satisfaction. The GF was different. My nerves were too shredded. The PF was comprehensive and awesome.
 
How good was it when we teabagged Melbourne in the PF and Garry Lyon was blinking back the tears at HT?

He thought they were going to come over and beat us with their Sparkle Motion or whatever. EAD.

That was complete satisfaction. The GF was different. My nerves were too shredded. The PF was comprehensive and awesome.

The constant fapping over Melbourne (I believe it was 50:50 on the day according to the bookies even though we were playing at home and Melbourne didn't have the week off) was tiresome so to keep them goalless to half time was immensely satisfying.

Back in the box, tankers.
 

Candiru

Premiership Player
Jan 27, 2018
3,373
4,602
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West Coast
The constant fapping over Melbourne (I believe it was 50:50 on the day according to the bookies even though we were playing at home and Melbourne didn't have the week off) was tiresome so to keep them goalless to half time was immensely satisfying.

Back in the box, tankers.
We took them apart. And it was like "WTF were you dickheads talking about all week?"

The fairytale. The fairytale. Yeah nah.
 
Legit footage of the WC vs MELB prelim


vnO6DM.gif
 

woosha24

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 5, 2015
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The constant fapping over Melbourne (I believe it was 50:50 on the day according to the bookies even though we were playing at home and Melbourne didn't have the week off) was tiresome so to keep them goalless to half time was immensely satisfying.

Back in the box, tankers.

I thought that was the best game of the finals series.

Media tugging the Demons all week. Numpty Melbourne fans on BigFooty going on about "no fears", "we beat them over there before", "our groundball game beats theirs", "we love to travel", etc. Any mention of the fact that we were missing both Kennedy and Darling in the last meeting between the teams was viciously howled down as irrelevant and "we had injuries too!". Melbourne had the game in the bag and an eye on the big dance. The prelim was merely a formality.

Then the first bounce happened, and West Coast absolutely flattened the cheese-board toting tankers into the West Aussie turf. Look up "shellshocked" in the dictionary and its just a picture of the Melbourne midfield circa 2018.

The highlights for me were Schoey laying Oliver out at the end of the first and the little ginger crying to the umpire for a free kick after the siren, and my boy Duggo laying that epic tackle on Max Gawn that felled him like a tree (made all the sweeter by him doing that "Gilmore Girls" ad a month prior - a few Demon fans didnt like that particular ammo thrown their way after the day :D).

Winning premierships is great and all, but we're West Coast and its just expected that we do that. Give me a good old-fashioned, pants-pulled-down humiliation of a Victorian team any day of the week.
 
Oct 29, 2007
22,131
29,933
Perth Western Australia
AFL Club
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I thought that was the best game of the finals series.

Media tugging the Demons all week. Numpty Melbourne fans on BigFooty going on about "no fears", "we beat them over there before", "our groundball game beats theirs", "we love to travel", etc. Any mention of the fact that we were missing both Kennedy and Darling in the last meeting between the teams was viciously howled down as irrelevant and "we had injuries too!". Melbourne had the game in the bag and an eye on the big dance. The prelim was merely a formality.

Then the first bounce happened, and West Coast absolutely flattened the cheese-board toting tankers into the West Aussie turf. Look up "shellshocked" in the dictionary and its just a picture of the Melbourne midfield circa 2018.

The highlights for me were Schoey laying Oliver out at the end of the first and the little ginger crying to the umpire for a free kick after the siren, and my boy Duggo laying that epic tackle on Max Gawn that felled him like a tree (made all the sweeter by him doing that "Gilmore Girls" ad a month prior - a few Demon fans didnt like that particular ammo thrown their way after the day :D).

Winning premierships is great and all, but we're West Coast and its just expected that we do that. Give me a good old-fashioned, pants-pulled-down humiliation of a Victorian team any day of the week.

We need a gif of that Duggan Tackle. From memory Cripps and Duggan were going after him but Duggan was like yeah nah his mine!
 
Feb 9, 2012
7,589
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PERTH
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Ha, agree about the prelim. Was an awesome game to be at and not being able to go to the GF that was all I had. Heaps of Melbourne supporters around me, went very quiet, very early. I was disappointed that we didn’t see any shots from Fed Sqaure beemed into Optus like they said they would, that would’ve been gold!! I didn’t believe the Melbourne hype all year and refused to believe they were any good, and it was even better they lead everyone one on until the second last game of the season amd then let their true colours come out.
 

woosha24

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 5, 2015
6,715
11,183
AFL Club
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Ah forgot about the Fed square crowd that meant to combat our rabid crowd.

Yeah me too. Just adds that extra bit of sweetness to the win. It was touted as this massive coup by the vics, designed to undercut the only major advantage we had (which we were entitled to, having finished higher on the ladder), and if the situation was reversed you just know they would have cut up sick about it.

Then we just came out and blitzkreig'd them off the park in the opening 10 minutes. Absolutely glorious. Made them look like u12 boys amongst men, and hopefully inflicted some Vietnam-style flashbacks for future meetings ala Port. Of course it meant we then had to put up with the commentators death-riding Collingwood all day during the GF, but thems the breaks I guess.
 
Sep 8, 2011
10,963
10,890
AFL Club
West Coast
I thought that was the best game of the finals series.

Media tugging the Demons all week. Numpty Melbourne fans on BigFooty going on about "no fears", "we beat them over there before", "our groundball game beats theirs", "we love to travel", etc. Any mention of the fact that we were missing both Kennedy and Darling in the last meeting between the teams was viciously howled down as irrelevant and "we had injuries too!". Melbourne had the game in the bag and an eye on the big dance. The prelim was merely a formality.

Then the first bounce happened, and West Coast absolutely flattened the cheese-board toting tankers into the West Aussie turf. Look up "shellshocked" in the dictionary and its just a picture of the Melbourne midfield circa 2018.

The highlights for me were Schoey laying Oliver out at the end of the first and the little ginger crying to the umpire for a free kick after the siren, and my boy Duggo laying that epic tackle on Max Gawn that felled him like a tree (made all the sweeter by him doing that "Gilmore Girls" ad a month prior - a few Demon fans didnt like that particular ammo thrown their way after the day :D).

Winning premierships is great and all, but we're West Coast and its just expected that we do that. Give me a good old-fashioned, pants-pulled-down humiliation of a Victorian team any day of the week.

That bit was so good. You just knew that Schofield wanted to get him. Can anyone gif that for me
 
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