West Coast's 1992 Premiership doesn't get enough Recognition

[Eagle87]

Going by the quality of West Coast posters in this thread, not too many of you were walking back then.
Let alone born.

Talk about '91, tools.

91? The year in which a very young Eagles team won their first 13 or 14 games and caused Dermie to comment on many occasions that they were the best side he had ever seen.

Then like many young sides, particularly faced with a very unfair draw, which caused the top side to play 3 weeks on the trot in Melbourne in the finals, they ran out of gas in the GF.

But they were just getting ready for 92 & 94.

I was at the 91, 92, 93 & 94 GF's walking...unaided and everything... you?

 

[TheRealComptroller]

So the 11 clubs who took a WAFL player didnt rate Kemp and the 3 clubs (Melbourne, Richmond & Geelong) that chose to not pick anyone from WA clearly didnt either. So while it is true that Kemp may have gone higher IF other clubs had more than 1 WAFL pick, the reality is he was the 20th WAFL player taken (including pre-draft picks) and that rates him pretty low given that 20 WAFL players per draft is rarely reached. Every club had a chance and every club passed.

The fact that he was the 20th WAFL player taken isn't entirely relevant because WCE figure into that process; we're discussing how the rest of the competition perceived these players. There can be enormous variation between clubs and their opinion of recruits and their AFL prospects. There have been recruiting managers who have said they would have taken Josh Kennedy and Brock McLean at #1 if they had the first pick in those drafts and there were others who say they wouldn't have taken either in the top 60!

Every club had a chance but we'll never know, for example, how the Bears felt. After taking Brad Rowe at #5 would they have used a spot on their list for Heady or Kemp? We'll never know.

The reality remains that getting Kemp was hardly a "concession" when every club in the AFL passed on him before we picked him.

"Passed" is a little bit too sneaky a way to describe what the other clubs did IMO.

I presume you take a similar view of the 1986 and 1987 drafts, since WC were excluded from them? So on your logic, those drafts were "compromised"? I mean Darren Jarman at 50, Alastair Lynch at 50, Tingay at 50....

Sure, why not?

The reality remains, that we were disadvantaged on our entry, we were restricted in our squad size (15 less than everyone else), we could only take players from a WAFL comp which had its best 40 players already playing at other teams and we had no training facilities, no training ground and no club facilities of any kind. We took kids because we had no choice and we nailed our draft picks.

Any other difficulties your club encountered may have a plenty of merit; I don't know much about it. I just believe the numerical value of the WAFL players' draft position is highly flawed.

No doubt we were assisted by abject uselessness of many Vic clubs in assessing WA talent.

I read an article a few years ago (sorry, no link available ) that said some Victorian teams didn't even bother scouting in WA during this period. I guess in the knowledge that they could only acquire one player at the most was a tremendous disincentive to outlay the enormous expenses of monitoring plenty of games every weekend. So go easy on the Victorian teams with their perceived ineptitude surrounding WA talent assessment in this period. Going hardcore in studying WAFL prospects would have been a waste of resources. It's perfectly understandable for teams to essentially "concede" the WAFL players as potential recruits when they comprise just one potential selction IMO.

FFS, the Eagles recruiters thought Dean Irving was a better prospect than Heady, Evans and Kemp!

Had that been a Victorian team with their WA selections stopping at Dean Irving they would appear to suck at talent spotting when the reality is they only had one chance and were locked out after that. We'll never know what Vic clubs thought of Heady, Evans and Kemp. We'll also never know how the WAFL would have been scouted at this time if not for the "one per team" rule.

 

[The dele larmer]

They should get plenty of praise a great team compared with this present bunch of Tankers they dirty the Eagles name!

 

[James_Best]

I dont think our 1980 premiership gets talked about as much by vic or WA media as it should.

we did thrash collingwood by 82 points a then record.

kevin bartlett also kicked 7 goals in that game also a record at the time.

and everyone likes to see collingwood get pantsed. 113,461 people at the G in fact.

go tiges.

 

[tazhawk]

We kept the wolves from the door in 1991.

Handed over the baton to Geelong in 1992 and they blew it.

Not only did the Hawks keep the wolves from the door ............... they bent the wolves over.

Spot on about Geelong though........................ just so typical of Geelong.

 

[Obeanie1]

It says that WCE achievement was nothing because you were a state team and had zone concessions and bias never seen again. It shows that the AFL/VFL which originally owned you through Indian Pacific Ltd thought nothing more of you then just a cash cow, and why wouldn't they?

Your win in 1992 and 1994 are of no value, your win was like being the richest poor person, no one cares.

Um, who made up the rules and concessions?

I didn't realise the Eagles board secretly infiltrated the VFL / AFL board and shafted the whole comp just so the Eagles could get a flag.

Grow up!!!

Obviously being a Cat supporter your still hurting from the two whoopings we gave you back in 92 + 94. Just be thankfull we didn't make the 2007 decider, I'm guessing the game would have been a tad more competitive than what Port put up.

 

[southwest bomber]

This is a great thread. It got plenty of media attention at the time (there was even a huge discussion about whether the cup should be allowed to leave Victoria ) but its been somewhat forgotten since. The Eagles almost single-handedly revolutionized the AFL and many of todays laws (interstate finals etc) were brought by actions of the West Coast Eagles but we get almost no credit for it. Regardless of whether you think the 92 Eagles team were a state team or not (personally I think not when you see guys like Fatty Lamb and Karl Langdon) the facts remains they don't get the recognition they deserve... and I don't mean for being a great team but for being the 1st non-Victorian team to win a flag and paving the way for other interstate teams to follow.

FFS!!! What the feck do you people want?? You won a flag 16 f@#kin years ago and you still want everyone to bow down and say your the greatest!!
I live in WA and i see how much media attention you actually recieve... think of the other teams supporters that have to take to the internet just to hear anything about there team.
You complain about the Vics, but in reality, your just as bad, if not worse.
If you hated the VFL so much, why did WA apply to join numerous times?

Just enjoy your flag and strive to get more, and STFU!!