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The West Coast Eagles were founded in 1986 as the first Victorian Football League (VFL) club based in Western Australia. Along with the Brisbane Bears, the club was admitted into the competition for the 1987 season. An inaugural squad of 32 players was announced on 30 October 1986, with Ross Glendinning appointed captain and Ron Alexander appointed coach.

After finishing eighth in their inaugural season, the club made the finals for the first time in 1988, now under John Todd. A poor season in 1989 saw the club finish 11th, leading to the sacking of Todd and the appointment of Michael Malthouse, formerly the coach of. The competition's name was changed to the Australian Football League (AFL) for the 1990 season as a result of the impending admission of the Adelaide Football Club, making a national competition. The Eagles finished third in 1990, and had an outstanding season in 1991, winning 19 games out of 22 to finish the season as minor premiers, before losing the Grand Final to.

Background
Australian rules football had been played in Western Australia since 1881, when the Unions club adopted the Victorian Rules formulated in 1866. A number of prominent rugby football clubs switched to the code in the following years, and in 1885 the Western Australian Football Association (WAFA) was formed by four clubs: Fremantle, Rovers and Victorians

There had been several proposals for the expansion of the VFL, starting in the mid 1970s. In 1980,

Formed in 1986, the West Coast Eagles were given only 160 days to assemble a team and establish an infrastructure for its inaugural season, 1987. The club appointed Ron Alexander as its first head coach on 22 September 1986 and revealed its 32-men squad for its first season on 30 October that year. An inaugural squad of 35 players was announced on 30 October 1986 at the Merlin Hotel on St George's Terrace, Perth.

1987: Inaugural season
The club's first official home and away match at Subiaco Oval against Richmond on 29 March 1987 was played before a crowd of 23,897. The fledgling Eagles, down by 33 points at the final change, somehow managed to outscore the visiting and tiring Tigers nine goals to one in the final term to run out 14 point winners – a club record last quarter comeback that lasted until round 10 of 2006. By season's end, the club had split its games with eleven wins and eleven losses for a seventh place finish, but despite this quite respectable effort, inaugural coach Ron Alexander was sacked from the position and replaced with WA coaching legend John Todd.

1988–89: Success and failure
The 1988 season saw the Eagles improve to become one of the strongest teams of the competition, finishing the home and away season in fourth, before narrowly losing the Elimination Final to Melbourne by two points. Despite this loss, the mood was upbeat at the club for the future, although it was the last game for inaugural captain Glendinning.

However, the 1989 season put the club under a lot of pressure. Injuries and poor form led to the club only winning two matches in the first fifteen rounds of the season, culminating in the "Windy Hill Massacre", where the Eagles lost by a club record 142 points to Essendon. In the nadir of this season, with major financial problems besetting the club and a bleak outlook, there was even talk of disbanding the club and reverting back to the WAFL as the senior competition in Western Australia. However, the Eagles rallied with five wins in the last seven weeks of the season. While it was enough to stave off the wolves, it was not enough to keep John Todd in the role of senior coach, nor allow first year captain Murray Rance to retain the role.

1990: Third place
As the VFL made way for the new AFL, the Eagles entered the 1990s with a new coach, Mick Malthouse, a Victorian recruited from Footscray, and a new captain in Steve Malaxos who had won the club's first club champion award in 1987. The change in leadership, and the rise of a few younger players, led to a resurgence at the club winning sixteen games on the way to a third place finish at the end of the home and away season. This led to a berth in the Qualifying Final against Collingwood, which resulted in a famous draw, but the Eagles could not win the replay, and despite beating Melbourne in the First Semi Final, bowed out a fortnight later to Essendon in the Preliminary Final.

===1991: Grand Final loss

As 1991 started, out of favour captain Malaxos was replaced with youngster John Worsfold. That didn't seem to affect the club as the season saw what was probably the most dominant Eagles side, winning the first twelve games of the season, a club-record nineteen games in the home and away series, and the Eagles' first minor premiership. However, the young team struggled with the finals pressure exerted by such a dominant season, and while they made the 1991 AFL Grand Final, it was lost to Hawthorn by 53 points in front of a crowd of 75,230. It was the only Grand Final ever to be played at Waverley Park, and the first in the AFL to feature a non-Victorian side.

1992–94: Premiership success
The Eagles weren't as strong through the 1992 season, but managed to get a reasonable spot in the finals, winning a classic final against Hawthorn on the way to a Grand Final appearance, this time against Geelong at the MCG. The Eagles struggled early in the match, trailing by as much as four goals, but ended up over-running the Cats to win by 28 points and claim the club's first ever premiership, with Peter Matera winning the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground. The 1992 Premiership was the first senior AFL premiership won by a team from outside Victoria. The year of 1993 saw relatively little premiership points separate the finalists, and although West Coast were in the mix, the team never fully clicked across the season. In 1994 the Eagles again won the minor premiership at the end of the home and away season – the clubs second McClelland Trophy.

This time they managed to carry the form through the finals series, despite a scare in the opening week of the finals when Collingwood nearly sneaked over the line in a close game at the WACA Ground. In the end the Eagles did not lose a match in the series, culminating in an 80 point thrashing of Geelong in the Grand Final for the club's second premiership. Dean Kemp was awarded the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground on this occasion.

1995–99: Continued success
In 1995, a local AFL club rival the Fremantle Football Club was introduced to the WA football market, heightening competition for the West Australian audience and forming a fierce rivalry to become the Western Derby, a twice yearly encounter between the two clubs. The derby was for much of the 90s a West Coast affair, with the Eagles winning the first nine encounters before the Dockers finally won the later derby of 1999.

Meanwhile the club's performances on the field slipped a little from the heights of the early 90s, but never so far as to not make the finals. After bowing out quietly in 1995, the Eagles won their opening final in 1996, resulting in what would normally have been a home semi final against Essendon. However, due to what Eagles fans saw as a poorly constructed contract between the league and the MCG, the game was scheduled to be played at the MCG instead of Subiaco. In all the furore the Eagles were comprehensively thrashed. On a brighter note, young Eagle Ben Cousins won the club's first AFL Rising Star award for the best rookie in the competition for 1996.

The 1997 and 1998 seasons saw the Eagles mostly making up numbers in the finals, bowing out early both years, with the most notable incident being when captain John Worsfold was dropped for what would have been his final appearance in the 1998 Semi Final; oddly mirroring what happened to his predecessor in the role, Steve Malaxos, who was dropped for the 1990 Preliminary Final and never played for the club again. Worsfold was replaced in the captaincy by his vice captain, Guy McKenna.

In the second week of the 1999 season the Eagles again found themselves in the situation where they earned a home final (after beating the Western Bulldogs at the MCG in the first week), but once again the MCG contract denied the club the right to host the final, and the Eagles faced Carlton and lost on the road. This rule later cost the Adelaide Crows the right to host a Semi Final in 2002, and the Brisbane Lions a Preliminary Final in 2004 before it was finally abolished.

The 1999 season is probably more remembered for the continual rumours that linked coach Mick Malthouse to the senior coaching role at Collingwood; the rumours ended up being proven correct when Malthouse was released from his contract to the club for the 2000 season, to be replaced with Ken Judge. Also notable in 1999 was the first (and currently only) Eagle to top the AFL goalkicking, when Scott Cummings won the Coleman Medal with 95 goals but did not make the All Australian Team.

2000–01: Ken Judge takes over
The Eagles might have started Judge's reign as coach impressively, thrashing reigning premiers North Melbourne in the opening game of 2000, and winning two games by over 100 points in three weeks against Adelaide and Fremantle, but it was to turn sour quite quickly in the latter part of the 2000 season. Sitting at six wins and five losses at the half way point of the season, injury struck, and West Coast slumped to win only one more match for the season, and missing the finals for the first time since 1989, and another change of captaincy, as McKenna retired to be replaced with Dean Kemp and Ben Cousins as co-captains. The Eagles also introduced a much maligned ochre colour to their home and away uniforms in these years, which have since been abandoned for the more traditional uniforms worn in previous years.

However as bad as 2000 might have been, the 2001 season was the club's all time nadir. In a shocking season, crueled by injury, older players falling away, and general mutterings of dissatisfaction, the club won only five matches for the entire year, all against other bottom four sides; the fourteenth place finish was by far the lowest in the club's history until winning their inaugural wooden spoon for finishing last in the 2010 season. Against rumours of player dissatisfaction, and even revolt, Ken Judge was sacked from the coaching role, to be replaced in turn by former premiership captain John Worsfold.

2002–04: Return to finals
It appeared to be a poisoned chalice that was handed to Worsfold in his first senior coaching role: a team that was widely tipped to slump further to the bottom of the ladder. Most fans would have been satisfied with just an improvement in performance, but Worsfold and his mostly young charges surprised many, being almost unbeatable at home, and sneaking a couple of crucial away wins to make an unexpected finals appearance on the back of an eleven-win – eleven-loss home and away season in 2002. The Eagles lost first up and were eliminated, but it was a sign of improvement to come. The 2002 season saw the debut of 2001 draft pick Chris Judd in its round two match against.

The 2003 and 2004 seasons were opposites of each other. In 2003, the Eagles ran riot early, sitting in the high reaches of the ladder mid-season before injury took out the second part of the season and the club slumped to finish just inside the finals, and were bundled straight out; in 2004, the season was looking down the barrel early, but a dramatic late-season recovery saw the Eagles steal a spot in the finals in the last week of the home and away season, only to be thrashed in a thunderstorm by the Sydney Swans first up.

2004 however saw the first ever Eagle to win Australian Football's highest individual award, when Chris Judd won the Brownlow Medal in a canter. Previous best West Coast performances had been runner-up efforts from Craig Turley in 1991, Peter Matera in 1994 and 1997, and Ben Cousins in 2003.

2005–06:
Season 2005 saw the Eagles start by accounting for all opponents in the opening eight weeks before losing to then-bottom-placed Collingwood. The Eagles, however, recovered to be as much as five games clear, before a poor run home saw the club lose the final week and surrender the minor premiership to the Adelaide Crows. Despite this, the Eagles turned it around in the finals to make the Grand Final against the Sydney Swans. However, in reverse of the result in the 2005 Qualifying Final which the Eagles won by 4 points, the Swans managed to hold out the Eagles to win the low scoring encounter by four points. There was some consolation for Eagles fans with Chris Judd being awarded the Norm Smith medal in a losing side which, with captain Ben Cousins having already won the Brownlow Medal, highlighted the quality of the West Coast midfield.

Despite promises to turn it around in 2006, the season looked set to start badly, with Cousins stripped of his captaincy, former All-Australian ruckman Michael Gardiner relegated to play at Claremont in the WAFL for continued indiscretions including drinking the night before a practise match and Ashley Sampi having some domestic trouble. Chris Judd was appointed to replace Cousins as expected, while Gardiner did make it back to the club to play a couple of games, before crashing his car whilst under the influence of alcohol – which saw him made persona non grata at the club, and traded to St Kilda.

Despite all this, the Eagles started the season in fairly good form, winning eleven of the opening twelve matches, including a couple of notable comebacks; particularly a club record recovery against Geelong from 54 points down in the third quarter. The Eagles then struggled for a few weeks, slipping off the pace, before good late season form enabled them to win the minor premiership at the end of the season over a slipping Adelaide Crows, the clubs third McClelland Trophy. In the 2006 finals, the Eagles were favourites in every game and lost the opening match at Subiaco to Sydney by 1 point, but came back strong to thrash the Bulldogs in the Semi Final, and come from behind against the Crows in the Preliminary Final to book a berth in the Grand Final, once again against the Swans. The Grand Final ended up with a mirror of the 2006 Qualifying Final result between these two teams, the Eagles winning one of the great Grand Finals of recent years by a solitary point. The first Grand Final decided by this margin since 1966. Andrew Embley was awarded the Norm Smith medal for best on ground.

2007–10: Off-field issues and on-field failure
The Eagles 2007 pre-season was the most turbulent in the club's history, with midfielder Daniel Kerr charged with assault for two separate incidents, and former captain (and 2005 Brownlow Medallist) Ben Cousins suspended from the club indefinitely after continued breaches of team rules, most notably not turning up to training, leading to massive amounts of speculative reporting in the media. Despite this, the Eagles started the season in good form, winning their opening 6 matches, including another one point victory over the Sydney Swans. However the Eagles of 2007 were nowhere near as dominant as those of 2005 or 2006. Instead, the Eagles spent much of the year in the bottom part of the top four, even slipping out of the top four at times. At the end of the season, the Eagles finished third on the ladder, drawing an away final at Port Adelaide in the opening week of the finals.

The Eagles finals series was cruelled by injuries to key players, something that had been quite common in the latter half of the season, exacerbated by a hamstring injury to Ben Cousins when leading Port Adelaide in the first week. Ultimately West Coast crashed out of the finals in straight sets, losing to Port by three points in the opening week before losing to Collingwood by 19 points in a highly exciting final that went into extra time for only the second time since the extra time rule had been implemented.

In a blow to the club, premiership captain Chris Judd declared his intention to move back to his home city of Melbourne for the 2008 season, prompting much speculation over his final destination.

Capping off an annus horribilis for the club, former Eagles champion Chris Mainwaring died on 1 October 2007, at his home, and his death was widely reported to be the result of drug-taking. This became a major issue in the media, when it was revealed that Cousins had visited Mainwaring at his home the same night, just prior to his death. Cousins volunteered for a drug test following the event. This – on top of Cousins' banishment, Chris Judd's departure and a string of minor incidents (such as Michael Braun's Western Derby speech stunt and the Adam Selwood incident involving Des Headland, all in the Western Derby) – contributed to an impression that 2007 was a disaster for the Eagles, despite a relatively successful year on the field. The horror season continued for West Coast Eagles when Ben Cousins was sacked by the club on the 17 October 2007 after being arrested for drug possession and other offences the previous day.

2011: Re-emergence
After finishing last in 2010, West Coast were widely predicted to finish in the bottom four in 2011. After reaching the semi-finals of the pre-season competition, the Eagles won their first two games to reach the top eight for the first time since round two of the 2009 season. The club defeated Fremantle in round eight by 33 points to win their first Western Derby since round three, 2007, and following this with a 123-point win over the Western Bulldogs, the Eagles' largest win over the club. West Coast won 12 of their last 13 home-and-away games to reach the finals series for the first time since 2007, which included a defeat of eventual premier. The club lost their Qualifying Final at the MCG against by 20 points, but defeated  in the Semi-Final at Patersons Stadium by three points, before losing their Preliminary Final against Geelong by 48 points.

As well as team success, 2011 saw a number of players achieve individual success, with Darren Glass and Dean Cox named in the All-Australian team, and Luke Shuey, Jack Darling and Andrew Gaff nominated for the Rising Star award. John Worsfold was named Coach of the Year at the 2011 AFLCA Awards. The Club Champion Award was won by Glass, who tied with Matt Priddis on votes but was given the award on countback.

It was announced on 12 April 2011 that West Coast would be dropping Hungry Jacks as a sponsor, ending a 25-year partnership. Bankwest was announced as the club's new jumper sponsor.