1992 AFL Grand Final West Coast vs Geelong
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Channel: WCEagleRock
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Keywords: west, coast, eagles, AFL, grand, final, MCG, 1992, premiership, Melbourne, football, aussie, geelong, cats, west coast eagles, grand final, rules, Perth
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Length: 158min 4sec (9484 seconds)
Published: Mon Feb 18 2013
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Reported.
Norm Smith, All Australian and AFL Hall of Fame.
It's not really accurate to describe West Coast by 1992 as containing mostly/entirely players nobody thought were up to Victorian standards. The Eagles retained substantial first dibs access to WA players right up until the first "real" draft in 1993. This is because the draft in that era was barely a draft - most of the country was exclusively zoned.
Starting in 1986 there were restrictions on other clubs accessing WA players. The Eagles were excluded from the 1986 draft and instead given complete access to WA players. Vic clubs at the same time retained their metropolitan zones and NSW/QLD was locked up to a large extent by the Bears and Swans. The early drafts were basically SA players, Tassie players and country Vic players.
Starting in 1988, other clubs could draft one WA player each but the Eagles had two pre-draft selections first. Also around then, the Bears and Swans were given exclusive access to their state until players turned 19 (ie, they had first dibs).
Certainly the foundation players the Eagles had would have been previously available to other clubs in the VFL before 1986 and can be described as overlooked (except for any kids amongst them). However as there was no draft prior to 1986, recruitment was still a matter of bilateral case-by-case contracting by VFL clubs. No doubt plenty of talent was overlooked by VFL recruiters in the pre-1986 era, but similarly I'm sure some very talented players just didn't want to permanently relocate.
damn eagles and their early success can u not mate
How good was the year before though?
This is the first time I've ever heard anyone consider the early West Coast Eagles underdogs. In fact I'm certain the sentiment was that they were basically the WA State side taking on the Suburban footy teams in Victoria.