Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad For Eagles
West Coast reinstated themselves as the kings of the competition when they crushed Geelong by 80 points to win the 1994 Grand Final.
Two years after an historic first flag, the Eagles steamrolled the Cats to their second premiership, erasing the disappointment of a failed 1993 season.
Dean Kemp claimed the Norm Smith medal for best afield and Tony Evans repeated his 1992 haul of three goals as West Coast booted their highest score in over two years.
Traditionally recognised as a defence-oriented side, the Eagles racked up 43 shots on goal in the Grand Final, a week after they posted 37 scoring shots against Melbourne. Ten Eagles in total hit the scoreboard as West Coast recorded the fourth largest winning margin in Grand Final history.
For the Cats, the defeat was their third loss in the season decider in six seasons, having gone down to the Eagles by 28 points in 1992 and the Hawks by six in 1989.
A shattered Malcolm Blight could offer no explanation after the match, saying there was ultimately nothing his side could do. “I could say a million things about what we might have done or could have done. But at the end of the day they were 80 points better than us, which is pretty hard to cop really.”
Eagles coach Mick Malthouse admitted he sympathised with the Cats, but was equally ecstatic with his side’s performance.
“I just love seeing the day for the club and all the players… I get a bigger kick out of seeing the players enjoy themselves.”
West Coast made just one change from the preliminary final, with Ashley McIntosh coming back into the team after missing with a knee injury. Mitchell White was the player to make way, after coming into the side as McIntosh’s replacement, but remained an outside chance on the morning of the game as West Coast debated whether to remove one of their ruckman.
However, the pair of David Hynes and Ryan Turnbull was retained to tackle John Barnes who was openly struggling with a lower leg injury. Geelong remained unchanged from their last-gasp six point win over North Melbourne, with Grant Tanner ruled out earlier in the week in his bid to recover from an ankle injury.
McIntosh started in defence on Bill Brownless, with Michael Brennan tasked with minding Gary Ablett. The Cats tried to throw the Eagles defence early, starting Ablett on the wing but he quickly moved to the goal square after failing to have an impact.
In a reverse to the 1992 meeting, it was West Coast who had the fast start, booting the first three goals in the game. Tony Evans, Chris Lewis and Shane Bond all kicked majors as the Eagles jumped to a 20 point lead.
West Coast had had all of the play out of the middle of the ground but the momentum of the game soon changed when Geelong piled on four goals in eight minutes. Tim McGrath and Michael Mansfield provided the dash off half back for the Cats with Paul Couch opening the Cats account.
Three more goals followed in quick time to give Geelong a seven point lead, before Brett Heady settled the Eagles just before quarter time to reduce the Cats lead to one point at the first change.
It would prove to be the only period of ascendency Geelong would have in the game.
West Coast resumed control at the start of the second term and only poor kicking on goal prevented the Eagles from having the game won by half time. Peter Wilson kicked consecutive goals to start the quarter as West Coast camped the ball in their forward half.
The Eagles created confusion at the Geelong kick-ins when they changed tack from their usual one-on-one set up to a zone defence. The usually precise Mansfield and Ken Hinkley were undecided with their re-entries preventing clean getaways from their back half, which had been a trademark through their finals campaign.
Twice in the second quarter West Coast picked off their kick-ins. Tony Evans intercepted a Ken Hinkley pass to mark and goal, before then having an intercepting hand that rebounded to Peter Sumich allowing the Eagles full forward to send the ball back over his opponent in Stephen O’Reilly.
The Eagles continued their dominance of general play but, remarkably, when Bill Brownless booted his third goal midway through the third term, the Cats were still within touching distance trailing by just 18 points.
However, three majors to Dean Kemp, Brett Heady and Peter Sumich extended their lead to six goals by three-quarter time and Geelong’s slimmer of Hope was all but gone.
The last quarter was a celebration for West Coast, as they slammed on eight goals to one to demoralise the opposition and the majority of the pro-Geelong crowd.
Symbolic of the day for West Coast and for their Norm Smith medallist Dean Kemp, their 17th goal came about purely by accident. Kemp’s kick inside 50 was intended for Chris Lewis who was crunched out of marking the ball by Tim McGrath, only for the ball to carry on its path and bounce harmlessly through for another goal.
Kemp was sublime for the Eagles on a day when they had a healthy number of contributors. The Eagles centreman had 23 disposals and booted two goals to outpoint Geelong captain Mark Bairstow, who had a dirty day. It also meant that Bairstow finished with the inglorious honour of once again playing on the Norm Smith medal, after lining up on Peter Matera’s wing in his five goal performance of 1992.
Don Pyke collected 26 possessions through the middle and just had the edge over Geelong’s Paul Couch. One of Geelong’s prime movers was relegated into a defensive role as he tried to curb the influence of the Eagles centreline.
The Eagles defence was as impregnable as ever, led by Glen Jakovich (20 possessions) and Guy McKenna (23) across half back. Jakovich played his own game standing in the way of Geelong’s forward entries and proving too strong for both Steven Handley and David Mensch. McKenna provided the run from the backline as he outclassed Adrian Hickmott.
Michael Brennan blanketed Gary Ablett, with the Geelong superstar managing just one goal from five disposals and David Hart had the better of Leigh Tudor in the back pocket. Geelong’s only winner in their forward half was Billy Brownless, who exorcised some of his demons from the 1992 Grand Final when he was humbled by Ashley McIntosh.
Brownless kicked four goals for the Cats – he was the only Geelong player to kick a goal after quarter time – and took one of the great Grand Final marks when he soared over McIntosh and managed to hold onto the ball from a second attempt.
Michael Mansfield was arguably the Cats best player with 21 disposals out of defence and having the better of Shane Bond, while Tim McGrath also did his best to withstand the avalanche. Garry Hocking finished with 20 possessions after being forced off during the first term with a heavy cork and returning to the ground in the second half with heavy padding around his upper leg.
But it was a day that belonged to West Coast.
15 members of the 1992 triumph were now dual premiership players, while there was redemption for David Hynes and David Hart, who were the unlucky stories from two years earlier.
And even with two of the heroes from 1992, in Peter Sumich and Peter Matera, having subdued outings, there were plenty of others who stepped up. Sumich and Matera combined for 11 goals in the clubs first flag as West Coast had just four goal kickers for the day. This time around, nearly half of the team kicked goals, as the likes of Chris Lewis, Brett Heady and Jason Ball provided strong targets up forward.
Chris Waterman came onto the ground early in the second term after Chris Mainwaring was forced off with a corked hip and put in one of his finest performances with 18 disposals and two final quarter goals (to go with four behinds). Mainwaring himself was able to return to the field and pick up 18 disposals.
Mick Malthouse even broke with his own tradition in heading down to the bench with three minutes remaining. Malthouse had been reluctant to leave the box two years earlier, despite the urging of his coaching team, but with the game well in his side’s keeping, the Eagles coach revelled in the celebrations boundary side.
Malthouse admitted that he knew his side were home during the third quarter.
“We expected at some stage Geelong to give us a big quarter like they had over the last three or four weeks, so we were ready for it. We stuck to our basics, not to allow them to get that one quarter of football in.”
“At half-time I thought if we maintained our pressure, and we could hold them, we could do the job,” Malthouse said.
“So I guess three quarters of the way through the third quarter I thought we had them.”
Since taking over as senior coach at the end of 1989, Malthouse had steered the Eagles to no lower than fourth in five seasons, which now included two premierships from three Grand Final appearances.
The Eagles had massacred the Cats in one of the most emphatic premierships of the modern era and with that staked their claim as the pre-eminent club of the AFL.
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