Prior to the 2018 AFL season, no-one was predicting that West Coast Eagles would claim the flag. In fact, one pundit went as far as to suggest that they would finish dead last.
That view wasn’t widely shared, in fact, according to the implied probabilities on the Bigbetbookmakers.com site, the Eagles were regarded as fourth favourites to win the tournament, behind Melbourne, Collingwood and overwhelming favourites Richmond, who went into this year’s edition as reigning champions with eleven titles to their name.
But the Eagles had other ideas. West Coast defied predictions and a series of setbacks, including the injury that ended Nic Naitanui’s season, the eight week suspension handed to Andrew Gaff for an off-the-ball punch, and the troubles of Liam Ryan, who served a two game suspension for a drink-driving incident. They finished third in the ladder but battled through a tough Finals run to beat Collingwood in the Grand Final with an epic display that will live long in the memory. Along the way they regularly attracted huge crowds of over 50,000 to the new Perth Stadium, and the passionate home support from Eagles fans played a major role in their successful campaign.
Early on in the final, it seemed as though the Eagles would fall at the final hurdle. Collingwood made a fast start, building up a 31-2 lead at the MCG, but then West Coast staged a remarkable comeback, with the resilient Jeremy McGovern one of several Eagles players to put in a heroic performance. He made a crucial intercept mark late on to set up Dom Sheed who squeezed in the winning goal from a tight angle and send West Coast supporters delirious.
But while Magpies fans were devastated at the way their team let victory slip away, there was no arguing that the Eagles deserved to come out on top. In fact, in addition to finishing four points ahead of Collingwood in the regular season, they had also beaten them in the Second Qualifying Final; the first time that a team has beaten the same opponents twice in the finals.
Collingwood also had their troubles during the season. Sam Murray tested positive to an illegal substance in August, and could face a long ban, and it was only three years ago that former Collingwood players Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas were also banned following failed drug tests, though team coach Nathan Buckley vehemently denied that the club had a drug problem.
The team to beat for most of the season was Richmond. The reigning champions topped the AFL ladder by eight points and were big favourites to defend their title, but they were trounced by Collingwood in the Preliminary Final, as their swarming style of play, which had proved to be irresistible for most of the season was finally found out.
Hawthorn, who finished fourth, were dumped out by Richmond in the First Qualifying Final, but Melbourne made a welcome return to the finals after a twelve year absence, thanks to a victory over the eventual champions West Coast in the final round of regular season games. They overcame Geelong and Hawthorn to reach the last four, but their hopes were ended by the Eagles.
