West Coast's good times have spoiled us | Opinion

I have bled blue and gold from that heady day in October of 1986 when it was announced that WA was getting it’s first AFL (VFL) side.

That next winter, my dad and I sat together and watched every single West Coast Eagles game.

The first just happened to be on my mum’s birthday and there was not much focus on poor Pat that day.

Who would have thought that they could claim the win in their first outing?

They went on to win 11 games that year and made it to the elimination finals the next year.

And so it was that our unrealistic footy expectations started to set in.

My love of footy, as with a lot of the things I enjoy in life, came from my dad.

We spent many a winter weekend shouting profanities (dad swearing, me wishing I could get away with it) at the TV and willing our team on to win.

But with the early, and then subsequent, success of the Eagles, did we set up ourselves up to be a spoiled supporter base?

I mean, we won our first flag just 5 years in, in 1992 and then followed up with another in 1994. Not bad for a team of misfits that couldn’t get picked up by anyone else.

We’ve had four premierships in less than 40 years, a record a lot of other clubs would be envious of (where my Freo, Port and St Kilda fans at?) so why are supporters crying foul when we have to have the inevitable, and dreaded, rebuild?

Next time you’re calling for Adam Simpson’s head on a pike or lamenting that Andrew Gaff “isn’t what he used to be”, go back and watch the last two minutes of the 2018 grand final and thank the footy gods for the kid from Kal, or Cousins, Judd and Kerr carving up the midfield and maintaining possession in the dying minutes of the 2006 clash to hold off Sydney by just one point.

As an Eagles fan, the good far outweighs the bad, so put on your scarf, enjoy the green shoots and look forward to the days where the likes of Reuben Ginbey (already a gun) and Elijah Hewett have another 50 games under their belts.

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