The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football team based in Perth, Western Australia. Their 2018 season was their 32nd season in the Australian Football League (AFL), their fifth season under coach Adam Simpson, and their fourth season with Shannon Hurn as captain. The West Coast Eagles finished the season with 16 wins and 6 losses, placing them second on the ladder, qualifying for the 2018 AFL finals series. They would go on to win the Grand Final by 5 points against .
Background
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football team based in Perth, Western Australia, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). They finished the 2017 home-and-away season eighth on the ladder. They were eliminated in the semi-finals.
Shannon Hurn was the team's captain in 2018 for a fourth consecutive year. Adam Simpson was the team's senior coach.
West Coast had 80,290 members in 2018, a 23.40% increase on 2017 numbers.
Playing list 2017 off-season changes
Statistics + Playing list and statisticsPlayerGamesGoalsBehindsKicksHandballsDisposalsMarksTacklesNotes/Milestone(s) 1 13 20 15 113 37 150 37 25 AFL debut (round 1) 2 23 32 21 230 101 331 89 70 3 19 12 4 339 244 583 100 56 4 18 8 7 231 182 413 72 33 5 23 0 1 253 120 373 148 53 6 25 14 15 390 225 615 129 167 7 24 7 5 274 190 464 140 42 8 25 10 4 351 277 628 140 118 9 15 6 5 82 81 163 25 64 10 1 0 1 5 0 5 3 1 AFL debut (round 13) 12 2 0 1 13 8 21 8 5 AFL debut (round 16) 13 20 6 7 257 219 476 63 97 14 24 2 2 291 116 407 115 49 15 25 38 18 249 149 398 122 97 16 0 17 14 43 20 117 38 155 68 28 18 15 9 9 75 69 144 42 38 19 10 7 4 37 44 81 26 29 20 24 6 2 259 97 356 169 31 21 3 2 0 7 9 16 3 3 AFL debut (round 6) 22 0 23 20 1 1 227 101 328 91 32 24 0 25 25 1 2 430 101 531 196 44 26 0 Rookie 27 21 48 27 188 88 276 129 50 28 21 0 1 151 124 275 73 51 29 25 10 10 167 145 312 69 83 30 10 0 2 79 21 100 36 8 31 12 0 0 64 28 92 40 16 32 0 Rookie 33 3 1 0 27 14 41 10 13 AFL debut (round 8) 34 20 9 5 212 130 342 69 87 35 0 36 3 1 3 15 10 25 9 8 Rookie 37 19 0 0 193 49 242 124 15 38 0 39 0 40 0 Rookie 41 8 2 5 54 55 109 30 25 West Coast debut (round 8) 42 0 Rookie 43 0 44 24 28 14 182 90 272 77 63 AFL debut (round 2) 45 16 13 12 118 60 178 75 23 AFL debut (round 1) 46 0 Rookie
Season summary West Coast started the 2018 season by facing in the first AFL match at the newly opened Perth Stadium (known under sponsorship as Optus Stadium). The Eagles lost that match by 29 points. West Coast would then go on to win their next 10 matches, the most notable of which was against at Optus Stadium in round 9. Richmond were the reigning premiers, and ladder leaders at the time, having lost just one game, and were ahead of West Coast on the ladder by percentage only. The Eagles managed to win that game by 47 points, putting West Coast first on the ladder and in serious contention for the premiership.
After their round 12 bye, West Coast lost the next three matches against , and . West Coast broke their streak of bad games by beating in round 16. This was followed by wins against , , a loss against in Hobart, and a win against in the season's second Western Derby. During the Derby, Eagles midfielder Andrew Gaff made an unprovoked and off-the-ball punch on Fremantle's Andrew Brayshaw, breaking his jaw. Gaff was criticised for this on social media and figures in the AFL world. Gaff received an eight match suspension for this punch.
The following week after the Western Derby, West Coast beat after Jeremy McGovern kicked a goal after the siren. West Coast did not have the lead at any point during the match, and came from four goals down to win the game. This was the second time in a year within a year that West Coast beat Port Adelaide with a goal after the siren, the first being an elimination final in 2017. West Coast would then lose the second last match of the season to , and win the last match against . At the end of the season, West Coast were second on the ladder, only behind Richmond. This qualified West Coast to have two home finals.
Their first final was a qualifying final against Collingwood. The Eagles came from 10 points down at three quarter time to win by 16 points. This sent West Coast into a preliminary final two weeks later against Melbourne. In the match, West Coast thrashed Melbourne by 66 points. In the first half, Melbourne scored no goals, the first time this happened in a final since 1927. This win sent West Coast into the 2018 AFL Grand Final against Collingwood at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
In the first quarter of the grand final, West Coast trailed by as much as 29 points, as Collingwood kicked the opening five goals. From there, the Eagles clawed back the margin back to zero by three quarter time. In the final quarter, the Magpies kicked two early goals, leaving much of the rest of the quarter for the Eagles to be trailing. With two minutes remaining, and West Coast two points down, Dom Sheed kicked the winning goal from the boundary. The Grand Final finished with West Coast winning their fourth AFL premiership.
Results + Regular season results Round Day Date Result Score Opponent Score Ground Attendance 1 Sunday 13 8 86 18 7 115 Optus Stadium H 53,553 2 Sunday 18 13 121 9 16 70 Etihad Stadium A 22,868 3 Sunday 14 11 95 11 14 80 Optus Stadium H 54,535 4 Saturday 21 13 139 9 5 59 Optus Stadium H 51,774 5 Saturday 10 19 79 10 9 69 Melbourne Cricket Ground A 27,900 6 Sunday 13 11 89 12 9 81 Optus Stadium A 56,521 7 Saturday 16 6 102 9 6 60 Optus Stadium H 50,516 8 Saturday 12 14 86 8 13 61 Spotless Stadium A 9,253 9 Sunday 20 10 130 12 11 83 Optus Stadium H 57,616 10 Sunday 11 9 75 9 6 60 Etihad Stadium A 28,077 11 Saturday 16 5 101 14 4 88 Optus Stadium H 54,188 12 Bye 13 Friday 7 15 57 10 12 72 Sydney Cricket Ground A 36,402 14 Thursday 6 16 52 12 8 80 Optus Stadium H 51,409 15 Saturday 12 6 78 12 16 88 Adelaide Oval A 44,771 16 Sunday 13 8 86 10 15 75 Optus Stadium H 52,105 17 Sunday 15 12 102 9 13 67 Melbourne Cricket Ground A 53,439 18 Sunday 14 16 100 6 10 46 Optus Stadium H 46,854 19 Sunday 6 5 41 12 9 81 Blundstone Arena A 11,176 20 Sunday 21 16 142 13 6 84 Optus Stadium H 57,375 21 Saturday 9 8 62 9 4 58 Adelaide Oval A 32,534 22 Sunday 14 7 91 16 12 108 Optus Stadium H 55,824 23 Sunday 14 14 98 11 6 72 The Gabba A 16,367 QF Saturday 12 14 86 10 10 70 Optus Stadium H 59,585 rowspan="3" PF Saturday 18 13 121 7 13 55 Optus Stadium H 59,608GF Saturday 11 13 79 11 8 74 Melbourne Cricket Ground H 100,022
Ladder
Awards West Coast had four players in the 2018 All-Australian team. They were Andrew Gaff, Shannon Hurn, Jeremy McGovern and Elliot Yeo.
References