Former Eagle and Docker Scott Watters reflects back on the first Western Derby, ahead of this weekend’s 60th edition. 

The fierce crosstown rivals will face off in Derby this weekend at Optus Stadium, 30 years after the two sides met for the first time. 

Watters is one of 18 players to have played for both clubs in his AFL career and featured in both the inaugural West Coast and Fremantle squads. 

In 1995, Watters lined up and was vice captain for Fremantle in the inaugural meeting between his current and former sides. 

The Eagles came out victorious in the first meeting, winning by 85 points before going undefeated for another eight Derbies until 1999 when the Dockers finally got their elusive first win. 

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s match, Watters reflects back on the first edition saying it stood out as a significant milestone in the Dockers’ maiden season.  

“You’re seven games into Fremantle’s history. Every game was massive,” he told SportFM.

“The first win that just occurred, the first time you’d play on the MCG. In your first season of a new club, it’s almost like every week is a different milestone or a different historic moment.

“The Derby certainly stands out as one of those, and it’s got a fabled history now. There was early domination from West Coast, which you would expect, given that they were a very established club right in one of their prime periods. 

“You look at side now, like Gold Coast and GWS they’re around for years and still haven’t really challenged if you look at Gold Coast. So it’s difficult for new clubs to get traction.

“Then you look at the key moments along the journey, and some would argue whether it was a good or a bad moment, but the Dale Kickett. Phil Read, that line in the sand game, was not something you would ever probably advocate as a coach. 

“That was a significant moment where enough was enough from a Fremantle side and I think there’s been a pretty even balance since.”

Since the Derby’s inception, Fremantle have carried the ‘little brother’ label, while West Coast adopted the ‘big brother’ title – a sign of the times in which the rivalry was forged. 

A similar sentiment has carried over to the AFLW, where the Dockers are the ‘big sisters’ with an identical Derby win record to the 1990s Eagles.

West Coast were reigning premiers heading into the inaugural Derby, coming off their second premiership in 1994. 

Watters recalls there being huge excitement but also heavy bias towards the Eagles in the build-up to the first meeting. 

“If you take your mind back to those times or those years, the sporting media in many ways, particularly the footy media was very much dominated by Ex-West Coast players. Whilst many of them, they’re good mates, would have said that they were unbiased, there was no way they were unbiased,” he said. 

“I was working alongside some of them a few years later, so there was an element in the media that I think were trying to remain unbiased but were also very keen to see West Coast get a result. There was a lot of tension. 

“Fremantle were literally just working out where their change rooms were and it was a brand-new facility down at Fremantle Oval. There were just early foundational things being put together. But then you look across at West Coast and they were very established, there were already premierships in the cabinet. 

“I know the term little brother, big brother, got bandied around a lot at the time, it was just one group was young and starting and one group was more established and a very good list at the time, they were a terrific side. 

“You think back to Dean Kemp, Mainwaring, etc. Guy McKenna was a superstar, that was a hell of time.” 

The current West Coast and Fremantle sides have plenty at stake this weekend, with one of the sides guaranteed to get their first win of the season, while the other will anchor themselves to the bottom of the ladder for another round. 

For West Coast’s Andrew McQualter, it would mark not only the first Derby win, but his first overall win since he took over as head coach. 

However, a win for Justin Longmuir’s Dockers would provide relief after a high-pressure fortnight following two losses to Geelong and Sydney. 

While players and coaches for both clubs claim it’s just another game for them, he says there’s a different kind of pressure that comes with the Derby. 

“I think the professional line is always going to be, ‘It’s just another game and it’s another four points and there’ll be another chance to win and lose the following week’ and all of that, but it’s not another game,” he said.

“There’s a different emotional attachment to it, there’s different pressure and you can say bragging rights, but you want to ultimately be the best side in the AFL in order to do that one of the steps along the journey is to be the best side in WA. 

“So, I think there is something extra to it, you’re sharing a state. Get the feel from the crowd when you’re sitting in a Derby, it’s a different feel to a normal game and the players are just an extension of that. 

“Anyone that tells you, any coach that tells you it’s just a different game or any player that says that, they’re actually lying to you, it’s not true.” 

IMAGE: AFL Photos