OPINION: "Why the West Coast Eagles' initial 1987 playing squad was faulty", by Jack Frost, 13/3/2018

West Coast Eagles’ inaugural playing squad (1987)

The official WPFC historian Brian Atkinson states that West Perth sometimes did not receive its fair share of state team representatives in years when the club made the finals. Atkinson comments that: “The failure of any West Perth player to gain state selection in 1984 was a matter of great controversy within the West Perth camp”, especially as the club was in third place at the time the team was selected (only to eventually miss the finals). The West Coast Eagles’ initial 35-man squad for season 1987 was also disheartening for some West Perth supporters.

The five West Perth players chosen were: John Gastev, Sean King, Dean Laidley, Paul Mifka, and Dean Warwick with King being a later addition to the original 32-player squad which was first announced at the official launch at Perth’s Merlin (now Hyatt) Hotel. These players were bright and promising youngsters but arguably, with the exception of Laidley and perhaps Gastev, they had not yet developed the consistency or backlog of strong performances to merit selection. The five West Perth players in the initial West Coast squad were clearly chosen, if not at random, then by people largely disrespectful or apathetic towards the club.

Favourite sons of the club, such as Phil Bradmore, Les Fong, and Peter Menaglio were wilfully overlooked although their careers were still active and their playing performances were still strong. Although Brian Atkinson “did not have any strong feelings either way”[1], he states “you would have to include Fong and Menaglio” as the top two players for the club during the drought-era and prior to the formation of West Coast (i.e. 1976-86). Both Fong and Menaglio were named in the club’s “Team of the Century”, Menaglio on the left-wing and Fong as the first rover. Menaglio continued to play senior football with West Perth up until the 1989 season so he was hardly “over the hill” by late 1986. Bradmore’s birth-date is 2 April 1959; Fong’s is 24 August 1956 whilst Menaglio’s is 4 September 1958, making these three players 27, 30, and 28-years-of-age, respectively, as at October 1986. (As mentioned, Menaglio won the Breckler Medal for club fairest-and-best in 1984 whilst Bradmore won it the following year. Menaglio was also equal runner-up behind the three tied winners for the 1984 Sandover Medal. Les Fong was a close runner-up to Menaglio in the 1984 Breckler Medal count and, from 1981-84, Menaglio and Fong shared four Breckler Medals.) Fong top-scored for the club with 14 votes at the 1986 Sandover Medal count, won by Mark Bairstow of South Fremantle, although, astonishingly, there were no West Perth players in the top 24 (yes, read that again, it is not a typo).[2]

Peter Menaglio (WPFC)

Also worthy of consideration for selection by West Coast in late 1986 were Corry Bewick, Derek Kickett, and George Michalczyk. A newspaper report at the time suggested that Darren Bewick, younger brother of Corry, was not chosen because he had elected to remain in Perth for two more years to complete his teaching degree.[3] It appears that West Perth was unfashionable for the corporate set that was running West Coast, compared to players from East Fremantle and Subiaco, despite the fact that West Perth had beaten East Fremantle consistently in 1985. The disrespect shown to the club’s favourite sons, and especially to Bradmore, Fong, and Menaglio, rankled with some West Perth supporters. It would have been a mark of respect to Fong and to the club if Fong had been selected, if only for one or two seasons, in the same way that Robert Wiley of Perth Demons (formerly of Richmond) had been brought into the West Coast squad for 1987 at the twilight of that player’s esteemed career.

West Coast’s initial squad was chosen for the future and, in hindsight, we might fail to realize how young the players were then since now, looking back, we remember the distinguished VFL/AFL careers that many of that initial squad went on to have. Even Phil Narkle was allegedly only 24-years-old despite already having played at St Kilda for three seasons.[4] (In fact The West Australian of 31 October 1986 was in error: Narkle was actually 25-years-old as at 31 October 1986. The ninth 2011 edition of The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers at page 627 lists his birth date as being 29 January 1961.) Don Holmes (27-years-old), Glendinning (30), Turner (27), and Wiley (31) were the only inaugural West Coast players aged over 25 as at 31 October 1986 according to The West Australian.[5] It seems that the general principle which guided selection was to only select players aged over 25 if they had prior VFL/AFL experience. Bradmore’s prior VFL/AFL experience seems to have been either forgotten or discounted. In hindsight, at least, West Coast erred with its selection of the five West Perth players in 1987 or it clearly picked players that it had no real intention, in advance, of awarding game time to. King and Mifka managed only one game each for West Coast and Warwick played zero. Early Eagles squad members from Swan Districts such as Kevin Caton (1 West Coast game, 1988); Joe Cormack (10 games, 1988); Don Holmes (23 games, 1987-89); Brent Hutton (13 games, 1988-89); and Don Langsford (zero games) suffered similar fates which further soured the relationship between Swans and West Coast.

Derek Kickett, Les Fong (WP)

At the 1986 Sandover Medal count Laidley was equal second among West Perth players with 13 votes while Gastev was fourth highest with 11 votes. However, Warwick and King were way down the list, polling only two votes each and coming in at equal 15^th for the club, while Mifka polled no votes at all. West Perth supporters could be forgiven for having being somewhat mystified about the five West Perth players selected. Had they been picked with only a bare minimum of thought just to make up the numbers with the West Coast leadership having had no serious prior intention of awarding any of them serious game time? Were people like Ron Alexander and Graham Moss unduly influenced by old WAFL club rivalries which led to them give insufficient thought to the selection of West Perth players and insufficient respect to the players who had played best for West Perth in the prior three seasons? West Perth’s 1986 Sandover Medal vote-getters’ list should have been given more respect and consideration by the West Coast leaders.

Phil "Spock" Bradmore (WPFC)

Apart from Laidley, only Gastev later had anything resembling a successful VFL/AFL career and the vast majority of his games (113 out of 143) were played with the Brisbane Bears. Similarly, Laidley is better known today, as his Wikipedia page writes, for his 99 games for North Melbourne rather than for his earlier stint at West Coast. The 1994 West Coast premiership team featured zero West Perth players or ex-West Perth players. However, Craig Turley did play 115 games for West Coast between 1989 and 1995 and was a 1992 premiership player. A further reason for the my initial dislike of West Coast, which has mellowed only but slightly over the years, was the lack of West Perth players in the team. I support any club playing against West Coast as they are the temporary embodiment of my hopes and dreams.

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[1] Source: Personal conversation with the author, 8 July 2011.

[2] Source: The West Australian, 16 September 1986, pp. 87-8.

[3] Christian, “Bennett, Turner join the Eagles”, pp. 103-4.

[4] The West Australian, 31 October 1986, player profiles, p. 102.

[5] Source: Ibid., p. 102.

BOOK REVIEW: "The Death & Life of Australian Soccer (Joe Gorman)", by Billy Diakos, 6 September 2017.

A new book chronicles the rise and fall of the National Soccer League competition and highlights the journey of one of the main characters - Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou. The day after iconic SBS broadcaster Les Murray's funeral, Joe Gorman's book The Death and Life of Australian Soccer was launched at a café in Sydney's Leichhardt. The publication is an impressive look at the 1950s and 60s and beyond, when the European migrant communities inspired a football boom and the creation of what would become Australia's first national sporting competition – the NSL.

Through archival research and interviews Gorman highlights how Greek and other migrant-backed soccer clubs influenced the round ball game in Australia. 

    'The amount of money and time and energy that Greek-Australians have put into the game is unbelievably enormous and that effort will probably never be recognised and truly be appreciated as it should be," he says.

"Sydney Olympic, South Melbourne, and Heidelberg are the major ones from the NSL who produced a great number of Socceroos, and not just from a Greek background but from all walks of life. But the question is, what role will those clubs have in the future? Maybe South Melbourne Hellas will be an A-League franchise one day and I hope they are. I hope they do succeed in doing that as Greek Australians have always been a part of Australian soccer and always will be."

Postecoglou's journey from Greek migrant ball boy to Australian national team coach is examined, and one chapter features an excerpt from an article that the then South Melbourne coach wrote in a 1997 match day programme. It's a call to arms to South supporters that came during one of the most tumultuous period of the NSL, when teams like Heidelberg and Parramatta Melita had been axed in favour of non-ethnic backed teams. 

"When I watch the (Victorian) Premier League and see Heidelberg and Preston play in front of 500 supporters, it makes me sick to my stomach," Postecoglou wrote at the time. "It is then I realise that I don't want one day to be talking to my children about a club that no longer exists, or is a pale shadow of its former self. I remember those clubs that no longer exist and they were all great clubs. I'm sure they felt as indestructible as we do now. Yes, we've managed to survive whilst others have fallen, but survival is no longer enough. We must prosper and stay ahead of everyone else in order to ensure our future."

Postecoglou left South Melbourne in 2000 but not before he guided the club to two successive NSL championships. His subsequent coaching career in the A-League and for the Socceroos also yielded silverware. 

However, Gorman believes that despite all that success, Postecoglou has suffered an existential crisis caused by the demise of the NSL in 2004, which saw his beloved South Melbourne consigned to the Victorian State League.

"So, in the space of 20 years after he wrote that article in the match programme and, I'm not having a go at him here, he has essentially given up the fight for his club and I think part of the reason was because times had changed around him," Gorman says.

"He had to change with the times. He had to move, he won't say it publicly but I think the demise of South Melbourne has hurt Ange and I think it has hurt him in a place he won't talk about publicly. 

"He has seen the NSL and the journey of soccer as a supporter, as a ball boy, as a player, as a captain of a NSL club, as a Socceroo, as an A-League coach and as a Socceroos coach."

In writing the book, Gorman feels that Postecoglou's story also is also the story of the first ten years of the A-League; the message the competition sends is that as an ethnic person you can succeed but your community will no longer come with you.

"When Ange had success in the 80s and 90s, South Melbourne rode his coat-tails and came along with him," he says. "The same happened with Mark Viduka and the Croatians. Mark Viduka succeeded and the entire Croatian community rode that success with him. In the A-League now the individual person can succeed but their community no longer goes on the ride with them and that I think is a real shame but it's also the inevitable result of a highly corporatized, privatised sport.

"So, Ange's story embodies the modern era of the A-League in a lot of ways. The A-League is just not a positive story, it's also quite heartbreaking as you realise what we've lost, we've lost that community spirit and that real ethnic community spirit which we all love, we've lost that now and it's became much more mainstream if you want to use that word."

Gorman added," So, Ange has literally seen everything. He has been at the coalface of the game since he got here in 1971. That is why he is important. He articulates the journey of the game better than anyone else. He talks about the game so beautifully and the reason he's so good at that is because he has lived and worked in Australia football almost the whole of his life."

Also featured in Gorman's book is Peter Filopoulos who was only 25 when he became the club's first general manager. In 1996, he appointed Postecoglou as senior coach, and Gorman highlights how as general manager he attempted to broaden South Melbourne's supporter base. Filopoulos left the club in 1999 to pursue opportunities at various sporting organisations and like Postecoglou, South provided a springboard to future success. Looking back on the demise of the NSL, Filopoulos believes the formation of the A-League was inevitable.

"The game had to be corporatised," he tells Neos Kosmos. "We didn't have big sponsors in the NSL; we didn't have a Hyundai that is pouring in millions and millions of dollars like we do today. We didn't have a broadcast deal that was pouring in tens of millions of dollars, and in order for that to happen the game had to be corporatised."

After 10 years away from football, Filopoulos returned to his main passion when he joined Perth Glory in 2015 as its CEO and he feels it's time that some aspects of the NSL be adopted by the A-League.

"Football's shopfront window is much glossier than it has ever been," he says. "But as part of that corporatisation, yes, we have lost that bit of community feel as a collective that the NSL clubs had with that deep rich connection with their community.

"The other thing we don't see as much as we did back then is Ange Postecoglou played under-8s for South Melbourne and he played right up and represented the senior teams and then the country. It was a different era.

"When the A-League was formed we really didn't worry about any of that; it was more about corporatising the game and making it a glossy league attracting the corporate and TV dollars and building a product. I think we have managed to do that quite well but now is the time to build those other elements that the NSL had and have it come across to the A-League."