Stephen Bilcich, Tony Micale reflect on East Fremantle’s 1998 premiership as the Sharks prepare to end drought

Stephen Bilcich is hoping after 25 long years that by Sunday night he will no longer be East Fremantle’s last premiership captain. Bilcich led the Sharks to the 1998 grand final victory over West Perth at Subiaco Oval – his third flag in seven seasons. It has been years of heartbreak ever since, with East Fremantle playing in only two grand finals in the past quarter of a decade (2000 and 2012) – both defeats. Bilcich, who kicked three goals in the 1998 premiership victory, recalls that the driving factor behind the premiership came from 12 months earlier, when they lost the grand final by a goal to arch-rivals South Fremantle. “It was the single mindedness not to let each other down, to let the club down – that was the thing that stands out to me,” Bilcich told The West Australian. “Everyone was that determined and it didn’t what happened, we weren’t going to let anything get in the way. “We won ’98 because of the disappointment of the centenary year when we got done.” It is this attitude that Bilcich believes the new-age Sharks lead by full-back and highly-respected captain Matt Jupp should take when they battle Peel Thunder at Optus Stadium on Sunday. “Expect everything and accept nothing that gets in the way of a win,” Bilcich said when asked what advice he’d give to the group. “I’ve been up to a couple of games and they’ve been pretty impressive. They have good balance with experience, youth, speed and height. “I reckon they’re going alright and the best thing about it is they’ve got good depth as well. And that’s what promotes success.” For Tony Micale it would be the first of four WAFL premierships as a coach. He can still recall that there was a sense throughout the entirety of 1998 that the Sharks were going to go all the way. “We had an extremely painful, hurtful end of the 1997 season and we lost the derby by a goal in a game when we almost had it parcelled up in our centenary year,” Micale said. “That was a major driving factor in our successes in 1998. It all happened straight after the game. “We were going to lose a few of players that were going to travel, but I remember they lined up after the grand final loss and said that they were going to cancel those plans to right the wrongs of what happened. “It was an amazing year in 1998 because I’ve never been an optimist, but we went through the year on being optimistic on what we could achieve and what we were going to achieve – there was a feeling within the club that we were never going to lose.” Micale said the composure of his team was on show early when they held their nerve despite being hit with three injuries in the first term. The Sharks lost Steven O’Brien (knee), Leigh Willison (ankle) and Wayne Roser (thigh) and compounding the issue was that Micale took the brave move to play an injured Rhett Bowden – who remarkably played the entire game with a broken leg. Then in the last quarter, Greg Madigan came off late with an ankle injury. But Micale’s faith in the team never wavered. “It was amazing just how unfazed the team was and I was really,” Micale said. “It was remarkable that despite losing all of those players we finished to go on and win by 43 points. “West Perth were more than gallant, it was a terrific game and is one well worth watching. It was amazing the fact that in the last quarter, we lost Greg Madigan to injury and stood Leigh Willison in the goalsquare just to make 18.” Micale paid tribute to Bilcich for his third-quarter performance, kicking two goals which inspired the Sharks to run away with the game. “I’ve never seen a bigger game player than Damien Condon, we started him forward and he kicked four goals,” Micale said. “We were forced because of an injury to Madigan to shift him back and he was filthy because he wanted to dominate the game up forward and he would’ve. “And then we had Adrian Bromage who did the double – winning the Simpson and Sandover Medals. Jud Sanders was an incredible competitor and we recruited over Greg Egan who kicked three goals late and Chris Pobjoy who had a massive impact on the game. “Then there was the silk and the polish of Gary Dhurrkay who we unfortunately in tragic circumstances. “It was such a positive year coming off the one before.” Bilcich unfortunately won’t be at the game, instead, he will be coaching Bunbury in the South West Football League women’s grand final when they take on Busselton earlier that day. But he will have one eye on the Sharks’ quest to win a 30th league premiership, hoping Jupp takes his moniker as the last East Fremantle premiership captain. SCOREBOARD EAST FREMANTLE 4.1, 7.4, 14.7, 20.10 (130) WEST PERTH 2.3, 5.5, 8.5, 13.9 (87) Goals - EAST FREMANTLE: D Condon 4 S Bilcich 3 G Egan 3 G Dhurrkay 2 M Clucas C Kirey W Roser E Spalding S O’Brien L Willison A Bromage C Pobjoy. WEST PERTH: D Brunton 5 B Logan 4 A Williams 2 C Johnson D O’Brien. Best - EAST FREMANTLE: S Bilcich D Condon A Bromage J Sanders M Collica J Stagg. WEST PERTH: B Barrows D Brunton L Rayner R Skender B Logan T Wilson. Injuries - EAST FREMANTLE: L Willison (ankle) W Roser (thigh) S O’Brien (knee) G Madigan (ankle) R Bowden (ankle). Umpires: A Binks W French S Gill. Crowd: 23,258 at Subiaco Oval.