West Coast FC (AFL)

West Coast is an existing club that plays in the Australian Football League, and has previously played in the Victorian FL. The club was formed in 1986 and has won four premierships.
== Formation ==
The club was formed as a representative team from Western Australia that was included in the original expansion of the VFL in 1987 alongside the Brisbane Bears. The exact date of formation in 1986 is not known.
== First season ==
The Eagles played it's first game for premiership points against Richmond at Subiaco. Trailing at three quarter time by 33 points, the home side turned in a nine goal final term to win the game by 14 points. This was an achievement with a team that only had five players with previous VFL experience (captain Ross Glendinning, John Annear, Phil Narkle, Geoff Miles and Steve Malaxos). By the end of the season the Eagles had won eleven games and lost eleven. Nine of the eleven wins were at home with the only losses being to Sydney and North Melbourne. It's two away wins were against Hawthorn at Princes Park and fellow debutantes the Brisbane Bears at Carrara. This was an eighth place finish.
== 1988-1989 ==
The Eagles looked to build on it's first season, and won the first three games of the 1988 season under new coach John Todd who had replaced first season coach Ron Alexander. But they had a rough patch only winning two games and losing seven including five on the trot leading into round 13. But they came back losing only two more games and winning eight including the last five in row. The biggest of these was a 60 point beating of Collingwood in the second last round. The Magpies were above them on the ladder at the time. The roll had the Eagles finishing the season with a record of thirteen wins and nine losses and a fourth place finish to enter the finals for the first time. But they would be defeated in the elimination final by Melbourne at Waverley Park by a heartbreaking 2 points. Melbourne would go on to make the grand final.
The heartbreak would appear to hurt the Eagles as 1989 was a season to forget. They slid down the ladder to finish eleventh with just seven wins with only five wins at home. They hit rock bottom in round 15 at Windy when Essendon smashed them by 142 points scoring only 1.12 (18). This was the lowest score to date in the history of the club.
== 1990's ==
With the name change from the VFL to the AFL, John Todd had been replaced by Mick Malthouse. The Eagles improved instantly finishing the 1990 season in third place, and played the Qualifying final against Collingwood. This match would end in West Coast's first ever draw with a replay required. It would be this draw that would cause the AFL to change the finals to requiring extra time in the future. The Eagles lost the replay and had to face the first semi final against the side they met in their first final in 1988 - Melbourne. This time West Coast got the win for their first finals victory. But four weeks in a row in Melbourne took it's toll and the Eagles succumbed to Essendon in the preliminary final. In 1991 the Eagles made the finals against finishing on top of the ladder for their first minor premiership. The AFL expanded the finals to a final six, and West Coast by finishing on top hosted the first ever AFL final outside Victoria at Subiaco. Hawthorn though spoiled the party and again the Eagles had a first semi final appointment with Melbourne. Another win and another preliminary final, but this time West Coast got past Geelong to enter their first ever grand final against Hawthorn. The Hawks won well.
In 1992 the Eagles refused to be bowed as they had after their first final. But it was a battle with West Coast finishing fourth half a game behind all the teams above them. It got them a home elimination final, against Hawthorn again. Lightning would not strike twice with the Eagles winning and earning a place in the second semi final where they scored a big win over Geelong to get the week off into their second grand final. Geelong won the preliminary final, but the Eagles were too good on the day and won their first ever premiership by 27 points.
A minor premiership hangover in 1993 had West Coast finishing sixth just making the finals. The Eagles managed to topple North Melbourne in the first elimination final but Essendon put the brakes on their season on their way to the flag. In 1994 though West Coast were back winning their second minor premiership. The finals were now a final eight, and the Eagles faced Collingwood in the first final at the WACA Ground winning by just 2 points for the week off. In their preliminary final West Coast came across Melbourne and dealt with them comfortably before being faced again with Geelong in the grand final. This time it was even easier than 1992 with the 80 point victory and their second flag in three years.
In 1995 Fremantle arrived in the competition. The Eagles didn't drop their bundle but another grand final appearance would elude them for the rest of the decade. However they didn't miss the finals either. That year they finished fifth but lost their first final to Essendon. Under that system with the other results the Eagles got another chance but were beaten by North Melbourne. In 1996 West Coast finished fourth and won their first final against Carlton, but didn't get the week off and were thrashed in the semi final by the Brisbane Bears. In 1997 they finished fifth but lost their first final to eventual premiers Adelaide. They got another chance but were beaten again this time by North Melbourne. In 1998 they finished seventh in the worst result under Malthouse and exited in the first week courtesy of the Western Bulldogs. Finally in 1999 the Eagles finished fifth and defeated the Bulldogs to avenge the previous year's result. But their season ended at the hands of Carlton. 1999 was also notable for West Coast's first loss to Fremantle in the Western Derby.
== 2000's ==
The new century began badly for the Eagles, missing the finals for the first time since 1989 finishing thirteenth in 2000. In 2001 it got worse finishing fourteenth. But in 2002 West Coast had a chance to get back into calculation with a round to go. They had to beat the finals bound North Melbourne and hope that Hawthorn defeated Geelong, and not by enough to steal eighth spot. It all fell into place with the Eagles with the 17 point victory, and Hawthorn doing the job by only 18 points. But it ended in the first week at the hands of Essendon.
In 2003 West Coast made the finals again finishing seventh, despite final round Western Derby loss to the Dockers. But another first week exit followed at the hands of Adelaide. It was seventh again in 2004, and another first week exit - this time at the hands of Sydney and in rather convincing fashion.
But this would lead to a couple of years of massive rivalry with the Swans. In 2005, the Eagles were on top with a round to go, but lost it to the Crows in the final round and they finished second. They met the Swans in the qualifying final, and they won - but only by 4 points. That led to the week off and a preliminary final against Adelaide. West Coast won this time to avenge the 2003 exit, and enter the grand final for the first time since the 1994 flag. Their opponents would be Sydney and in another close game, the Eagles fell short by 4 points.
The two narrow results weren't the end of it. In 2006 the two teams met in round 15 and West Coast got up by just two points. The Eagles finished on top this time, and again met the Swans in the qualifying final. Another close result went Sydney's way this time - 1 point. West Coast had to bounce back against the Western Bulldogs and did so easily and ran into Adelaide again in the preliminary final. A 10 point win had the Eagles in the grand final again, and another date with Sydney. And another close game - this with West Coast prevailing reversing the qualifying final result by the same margin - 1 point. The Eagles nailed their first premiership since 1994.
West Coast finished third in 2007 and were beaten by Port Adelaide in the qualifying final. A shock loss to Collingwood followed and the Eagles were out in straight sets. That seemed to hurt the clubs as a crash to fifteenth followed in 2008. In 2009 a small fightback had West Coast finishing eleventh in 2009.
== 2010's ==
The new decade began in the worst possible way for the Eagles - their first ever wooden spoon. But the recovery was almost instantaneous as in 2011 the club leapt back into the top four finishing fourth in 2011. They lost the qualifying final to Collingwood by 20 points but they bounced back in the semi final knocking off Carlton by just 3 points. However their season ended in convincing fashion at the hands of Geelong by 48 points. A slight slip to fifth followed in 2012 but West Coast started their finals campaign with a bang crushing North Melbourne by 96 points in the elimination final. But it ended the next week with a 13 point loss to Collingwood in the semi final. This was followed by a drop back to thirteenth in 2013.
In 2014 the Eagles were ninth with a round to go and poised to sneak into the eight on the back of a big win over Gold Coast. But the win was for nothing as the previous night Richmond caused a major upset defeating Sydney to deny West Coast access to the eight. But the Eagles came back snarling in 2015 with a strong jump to second on the ladder and then a good 32 point win over reigning premiers Hawthorn in the qualifying final hardened their credentials with the week off. The preliminary final was against North Melbourne and West Coast won that comfortably by 25 points to make the grand final for the first time since 2006. But Hawthorn were on a tear and the Eagles were belted by 46 points.
In 2016 the club slipped a little to sixth and suffered an immediate exit at the hands of the premiership bound Western Bulldogs by 47 points. In 2017 West Coast were ninth with a round to go and had to beat Adelaide while hoping that Melbourne lost to Collingwood by a big margin. Collingwood won, but only by 16 points meaning that the Eagles had to beat the Crows by at least 20 points to get past the Demons on percentage and take eighth spot - and they did it with nine points to spare, winning by 29 points. The elimination final against Port Adelaide ended in a draw requiring extra time that West Coast won by 2 points with a kick after the siren. The euphoria of that victory was dulled quickly the next week when West Sydney sent them packing in the semi final by 67 points.
The Eagles came back again in 2018 and finished second. They opened the finals with a 16 point victory over Collingwood to get the week off, before absolutely thrashing Melbourne in the preliminary final by 66 points to get to the grand final against the Magpies. This wasn't a good sign as no team in the history of the 21st version of the final eight had beaten the same team twice in the finals series - indeed the Eagles had faced this twice against Sydney in 2005 and 2006 with both sides splitting the results. Collingwood got out to an early lead but West Coast pegged them back and scores were level at the last change. Collingwood tried to get away again but the Eagles pegged them back and took the lead late and kept it for a 5 point victory and their first flag since 2006 - and destroying the voodoo against teams winning a same year finals contest both times.
In 2019 West Coast finished fifth and defeated Essendon in the elimination final by 55 points in a fine display. But Geelong would knock the Eagles off by 20 points to end that campaign.
== 2020 ==
West Coast played the last game of round one of the 2020 season already knowing that the season was being curtailed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They defeated Melbourne in that game. When the season resumed in June the Eagles suffered a shock loss to Gold Coast and this was followed by two more leaving the club reeling. But they recovered with eight straight wins and leapt into the top four. Richmond put the brakes on the run and West Coast slipped to fifth where they stayed, mainly because of one more loss - to the Western Bulldogs.
In the same spot as 2019, the Eagles set for an elimination final against Collingwood. But despite having more scoring shots West Coast were beaten by a point and their season ended.
== 2021 ==
The Eagles had a spasmodic start to the 2021 season, having three wins and three losses in the first six rounds alternating between a win and loss per week. They got on track with three wins on the trot to be seventh where they would stay for a number of weeks. After the bye, three losses in a row would have the Eagles on the edge of losing their spot in the eight before wins over Adelaide and St Kilda would rescue them. However the St Kilda win would be their last for the season as West Coast crashed to four losses on the trot. This would include their first Western Derby loss since 2015 and the Eagles missed the finals finishing ninth.
== 2022 ==
The 2022 season was a season to forget for West Coast. With their playing stocks depleted by COVID isolation they had trouble getting a competitive team on the park. The win over Collingwood in round four was out of the box but with just three of exceptions they didn't get any closer than seven goals before the bye. Things got better in the second half of the season with more competitive games and a win over Essendon getting them off the bottom of the ladder. There were no more wins, but the performances kept them ahead of North Melbourne on percentage and they finished seventeenth.
== 2023 ==
If possible, the 2023 season was even worse for the Eagles. After a round 2 win over West Sydney, the losses mounted up again with nothing narrower than 40 points and three thrashings over 100 points before the bye. West Coast were now on the bottom of the ladder and worse was to come straight after when Sydney smashed them by 171 points. Massive media attacks in the following week had an effect however as the loss the next weekend was only by 8 points to St Kilda. There was more misery before finally a 5 point win over North Melbourne. In the second last round the Eagles got off the bottom of the ladder when they defeated the Western Bulldogs, but a loss in the last round to Adelaide and North Melbourne winning put West Coast back on the bottom to win the wooden spoon for only the second time ever after 2010.
== Reserves ==
When the side first formed, the players that didn't make the senior team were spread over the clubs in the WAFL. This lasted until 1999 when the Eagles affiliated with Claremont. This only lasted a season before they affiliated with East Perth instead. That only lasted two seasons, when the WAFL clubs voted to end such affiliations. This forced a resumption of the first arrangement. But in 2014 the affiliation with East Perth was resumed, lasting until 2018. In 2019 the Eagles fielded a stand alone team in the WAFL, but dropped it in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Category:Australian FL clubs