Eaglehawk 86-08 Half Back Line

In the second installment of the Eaglehawk 86-08 side, MC Gregor talks us through the Half Back Line - one of the greatest groupings of players to have played the game, the West Coast Eagles half back line of the 1990's.

Half Back Flank - John Worsfold
Centre Half Back - Glen Jakovich
Half Back Flank - Guy McKenna

Individually, these men will go down as greats in the AFL. All AFL and WCE life-members. All cornerstones of the West Coast premiership sides in the 1990s. All hard men, who never gave an inch in crucial contest after crucial contest. Individually, they were superstars.

Glen Jakovich was rated by Mike Sheehan (the thinking woman's accountant) as the number one player in the AFL before being cruelly struck down by a knee injury in Subiaco's cruciate corner. A teenage prodigy as a South Freo full-forward, Jakovich and his magnificent mullet became a prominent feature in the West Coast backline while still a boy. His battles with Wayne Carey were legendary in the first half of the 1990s, and it is important to remember that Jacko won the majority of the battles convincingly. A reliable mark, smart (if somewhat awkward) kick, and always willing to put his body on the line, Jacko was an inspiration to a generation of WA kids. His only real weakness was when he replaced his mullet with a Dolf Lundgren-style haircut in the late 1990s. Terrible decision - worse than Dougie Hawkins playing for Fitzroy.

John Worsfold was hated by most AFL supporters. And for that, I will always love him. He was hard. He was tough. But, ultimately, he was fair. Unlike Ablett, there were no loose elbows. Unlike Dermie, he didn't bother with show-time. He simply smashed his tightly congested body into opponent after opponent at often terrifying speeds. He won games with his bumps (his hit on Gavin Wright quietened the Victorian Park mob, and led to a blistering period where Eagle's players prospered while Collingwood players tried to avoid being killed). His hits on Tony Modra and Dermie still makes many a grown West Aussie look wistfully into the distance and sigh, a small tear collecting in the corner of their eyes. And the way he terrified Ablett in the 1992 GF saw off any prospect for a repeat of 1989. Oh, and he actually was a pretty damn good footballer - and a true leader.

Guy McKenna, by contrast, kept a lower profile, but was just as good. 'Bluey' was struck down with gingervitis as a youth, but he overcome his debilitating inability to thrive in the sun, to become the first 'AFL quarterback'. Time and time again, he would set up plays along the half-back line. Always feeding Heady, Mainwaring, Kemp, Matera, Turley, Evans or any of the other Eagle runners. Yet, he wasn't simply a space player. He'd hit packs hard, make desperate spoils and would be, in contrast to a number of modern day backmen, accountable. Oh, and he was a nice guy. Or at least nice to a young lad with heady dreams, whom he met in the Red Rock hotel in 1997.

However, the individual stories do not equal the greater whole which was this trio. Together they changed football. Yeah right, I hear you laugh. Well, it might be best to remember that it was the Eagles in the early 90s who reinvented running football out of the backline. McKenna would spot up our mid-field, Jacko would run through opposition lines, and Woosha would just create space by being a homicidal freak. They knew instinctively where each other was, and they always helped to create space for each other. It was them who established the Eagles tradition of betting they could keep opponents below 12 goals in a game (which they did with scary regularity). It was also them who decided to not allow the Dockers any respite until the shadows of the new millenium.

History also has a habit of ignoring AFL half-backs. Not in this case. All three have gone on to display their footballs smarts. Woosha as a premiership coach. Bluey as the Gold Coast's coach and Collingwood assistant coach, and Jacko as the single worst football commentator west of Eucla (Steve Quartermain remains, of course, in a league of his own) - it takes talent to be that bad.