West Coast claimed their second minor premiership with a 71 point thumping of Footscray in the final round, but the win was marred by a half-time brawl that ultimately dragged the club through a farcical AFL investigation.

The Bulldogs arrived in Perth in third position on the ladder on the back of six wins in seven games, but were no match for a West Coast side that had been given a boost by reigning premiers Essendon 24 hours earlier.

The Bombers had already been ruled out of finals action for 1994, but they doubled down on the misery of Carlton’s 1993 Grand Final defeat, with an upset 18 point win over the Blues that opened the door for West Coast to reclaim top spot.  

The bye in round 23 had allowed several Eagles to recover from minor niggles but the break wasn’t enough for John Worsfold who missed with a groin strain. Craig Turley was also out, serving the first game of a two week suspension, allowing Chris Waterman to return after several weeks in the WAFL. Brett Spinks was the other inclusion when teams were first named.

Before the bounce, the Eagles made two further changes. Ashley McIntosh, Chris Mainwaring and Glen Jakovich had all been reported as struggling heading into the game, but it was Ryan Turnbull and Dean Kemp who were given an extra week of recovery. David Hynes and Tony Godden were brought in, with Hynes grasping the late opportunity with both hands.

Hynes put in a best on ground performance, controlling the ruck against Bulldogs counterparts Ilija Grgic and Barry Standfield. Hynes had 24 hit-outs (to the Bulldogs pair of 17), to go with 23 disposals and a goal. Don Pyke proved to be the greatest beneficiary from Hynes’ dominance, picking up 24 touches and capping off a fine game with three second half goals.

Pyke was too good for Simon Atkins early, gathering eight first quarter possessions, before Bulldogs coach Alan Joyce swung seven-gamer Brad Johnson onto the Eagle ruck rover. Chris Mainwaring and David Hart topped the ball-getters for West Coast with 25 each, while there was a strong spread of goal kickers with Pyke, Jason Ball and Chris Lewis leading the way with three each.

Lewis was magical across the half forward line having a hand in several goals from his 17 disposals and eight marks, while the Eagles defence again stood strong, conceding just six goals to the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs had few winners on the day but Scott West and Tony Liberatore each finished with 18 touches through the middle, while Chris Grant had 11 disposals and seven marks roaming up the ground and also booted two goals.

West Coast jumped to a 20 point lead at quarter time, building their lead to 37 at the main break with only inaccurate kicking preventing the margin from being greater. The Eagles then booted four goals in each of the next two quarters, while the Bulldogs were held goalless in the last term. With the game in their keeping, West Coast turned their attention to the first final, resting a host of players in the final term, which saw them even finish with just 16 players on the ground.

The routine win was soon overshadowed when the focus turned onto the half-time brawl that involved most players on the ground.

The incident first began following a shirtfront on Brett Heady from Steve Wallis along the boundary line moments before the half time siren.

That caused remonstration between players, which quickly escalated as players rushed from all over the ground and even those that were on the bench.

With players tangled up, the brawl took a disturbing turn when Eagles spearhead Peter Sumich was taken into a headlock from rookie Bulldogs defender Danny Southern. Sumich blacked out on the ground and with the teams eventually dispersing and heading into the changerooms, the West Coast medical staff remained on the ground to tend to their full forward.

Eagles coach Mick Malthouse also remained on the field, opting to watch over Sumich until he was stretchered into the changerooms. Sumich would play no further part in the game, with the Eagles doctors eventually reviving the Eagles full-forward following several minutes on an oxygen tank.

Tensions remained high between the two sides through the second half, despite the one-sided scoreline. Southern – who had spent time with West Coast a couple of seasons earlier as he rehabilitated from a knee injury suffered while playing at Claremont – became the target of verbal abuse at the final siren from both Glen Jakovich and Jason Ball.

After the game, Malthouse described the brawl as a ‘blight’ on the game. “We come here to play football.”

“We can accept solid bumps and we can accept that footy is a physical game. But there were certain elements of today’s game that have surprised and disappointed us.”

No match-day reports were laid by umpires, with the clubs then the centre of an AFL investigation, led by Max Crawford. After Crawford spoke individually with both clubs, he found that no players should be charged, with AFL general manager Ian Collins supporting the findings and declaring both clubs would be fined $20,000.

However, Eagles officials were left stunned 24 hours later when the AFL overruled both Crawford and Collins to charge five West Coast players for their part in the melee. Glen Jakovich, Jason Ball, Tony Evans, Chris Lewis and Peter Sumich were all summoned to face the AFL judiciary five days after the game took place.

Jakovich copped two charges for striking Richard Osborne and Danny Southern, as did Ball who had two striking charges on Ilija Grgic and Chris Grant. Sumich was also charged for striking Grgic, while Chris Lewis and Tony Evans each received one charge for striking Doug Hawkins, who suffered a torn abdominal muscle during the fracas.

The Bulldogs weren’t spared with three players also called up to face the tribunal. Chris Grant was cited for striking Jakovich and Darcy  MacPherson was cited for striking Lewis, while Danny Southern faced the more serious charge of conduct unbecoming for his headlock on Sumich.

West Coast general manager Brian Cook expressed the thoughts of both clubs, whose finals preparations were now under serious threat. “We are extremely disappointed and somewhat shocked. This has thrown our finals preparations into turmoil.”

The Bulldogs dropped to fifth at the completion of the home and away season, falling behind North Melbourne and Geelong who both recorded large wins in round 24. North Melbourne moved back to third when they comfortably accounted for the Magpies in the opening game of the round. The Kangaroos controlled the game from the outset, with eight goals to John Longmire delivering a 64 point win.

That left the Magpies nervously waiting on other results to stay in the finals hunt, but their place in the top eight was confirmed the following day when Richmond were trounced by Geelong. Despite being without Gary Ablett, the Cats were never troubled, running out 76 point winners as Bill Brownless replicated Longmire’s haul of eight goals.

Having suffered horrid defeats of 113 points to the Blues and 76 points to the Cats in the final two rounds of the season, it would be Richmond who were relegated to ninth position after Melbourne won a high scoring clash against the Swans to move back into the top eight.

The Tigers finished on 12 wins – the same as Melbourne and Collingwood – but had lost nearly 10 percentage points in the previous fortnight to finish well behind the Demons and Magpies. Geelong, on the other hand, found themselves inside the top four for the first time since Round 10 on the back of a late season revival after coach Malcolm Blight was at risk of losing his job midway through the year.

With Melbourne and West Coast recording wins on the Sunday, the first week finals schedule had been set. The Demons rose to seventh to book a first week final against Carlton, with North Melbourne to host Hawthorn and the Cats and the Dogs to square off.

That left eighth-placed Collingwood with the unenviable task of travelling to Perth to tackle the Eagles in a virtual elimination final, although who West Coast would have available for the game still remained up in the air.

With Footscray due to play their qualifying final on the Saturday night, the Bulldogs immediately sought an injunction with the Victorian Supreme Court to delay the tribunal hearings for Grant, MacPherson and Southern until the following Monday.

With the Bulldogs successful, West Coast considered a similar tack.

Ultimately, the Eagles decided to push ahead with the hearings with the five players to face the AFL tribunal less than 48 hours before they were due to play Collingwood.

Eagles Chairman Dwane Buckland denied that West Coast had missed the boat in joining the Bulldogs in submitting a joint injunction, as a war of words broke out between the two clubs.

The Bulldogs had responded in the wake of Malthouse’s post-match comments, calling their former coach’s words as ‘untrue, outrageous and defamatory’.

Footscray coach Alan Joyce was particularly pointed towards his counterpart. “I have been coaching in the AFL for several years now and I just wish other coaches, particularly Malthouse in Perth, would have the same degree of professionalism.”

General manager Dennis Galimberti went even further, defending the actions of Danny Southern  and declaring it was the West Coast players who instigated the whole melee.

“The incident between Steve Wallis and Brett Heady was totally fair and within the rules of the game,” Galimberti said.

“As a result of the collision, several West Coast Eagles players ran a considerable distance to remonstrate with Wallis. That was the single thing that incited the events that followed.”

The Bulldogs were particularly critical of Malthouse speaking about the incident between Southern and Sumich, saying that it was inappropriate for comments to be made before the case was put to the tribunal.

Malthouse had stated that Sumich ‘was grabbed from behind by a bloke who came from their bench and was virtually strangled’

Malthouse retorted, saying he had never named Southern.

“You would have to be blind not to see the Channel 7 replay and determine the player responsible for Sumich’s condition,” Malthouse said. The Eagles coach also rejected suggestions he had confronted Southern at three quarter time. “I did not utter one word to Danny Southern. I can honestly say I did not utter one word to any Footscray player and I would never do that, never.”

Ultimately, West Coast decided to send their players to the tribunal, with the hearing taking place less than 48 hours before their finals match against Collingwood and the night after they had announced their squad for the game.

Buckland said that it was the view of the Board to have the matter dealt with before the clubs first final, to ensure that any potential penalties handed down could be served earlier in the finals campaign.

“If you are going to have a few players out, we’d prefer to have them out in a game we can afford to lose, rather than a game we can’t afford to lose.”

In the end, Buckland and the Eagles had nothing to worry about.

After a marathon four hour hearing, via video link up from Perth, all five West Coast players were cleared of any wrongdoing. The Eagles even called up Crawford as one of their own witnesses, to reiterate his view that no players should be charged over the melee.

The Bulldogs would subsequently front the tribunal after the weekend with Grant and MacPherson equally cleared of any wrongdoing, while Southern was hit with a $10,000 fine.

After a week of disruption, West Coast were happy to move on from the whole situation and turn their attention into their match with Collingwood.

“Where it went off the rails I don’t know. And we are not going to pursue it,” a relieved Buckland declared.