Western Derby

An infamous derby occurred in round 21, 2000. Both clubs were out of finals contention, the derby earlier in the year had recorded the biggest ever margin—(Scott Cummings' 10 goals led West Coast to a 117-point win), and in the lead-up both teams were talking down the importance of the game with the standard line of "it's only worth four points". However, Clive Waterhouse indicated that something different might happen by saying that "blood would be spilled".[3]

Before the first bounce, West Coast, through Michael Gardiner, went on the attack, pushing and shoving first-year player Matthew Pavlich. The umpires awarded a free kick to Pavlich before the ball was bounced. However, West Coast settled and led by four goals at quarter time with goals to Phillip Read, Andrew Embley and three to Phil Matera. Fremantle's forward line was struggling, with only four goals to half time, including two to Waterhouse, and singles to midfielders Heath Black and Troy Cook, while two goals to Mitchell White, a fourth goal for Matera and one to Chad Morrison in the second quarter saw West Coast go to the half-time break 32 points in front. During the break, a brawl broke out which cleared both teams' benches and resulted in one of longest tribunal records in recent times.

In the third quarter, Phil Matera kicked his fifth goal, bringing the Eagles lead to 42 points, but Fremantle surged to cut the margin to 18 points at three-quarter time with three goals to Clive Waterhouse and singles to Pavlich and Daniel Bandy.

The last quarter saw Phil Matera carried from the ground on a stretcher after a hard collision with umpire Steven Handley, and a solid but legal shirtfront by Troy Cook also saw Mitchell White carried from the ground on a stretcher. A six-goal to three final quarter, including another two to Waterhouse and singles to Koops, Shipp, and Kickett and Dodd saw Fremantle hit the lead by two points. With only seconds to spare the Eagles pushed forward and a loose ball was unable to be gathered in by makeshift forward Darren Glass, resulting in a rushed behind and a one-point victory for Fremantle, only their second ever in a Western Derby.

The following suspensions and fines were handed out as a result of the brawl:[2]

• Dale Kickett was suspended for a total of nine matches for striking Phillip Read twice and striking Andrew Embley once.
• Michael Gardiner was suspended for two matches for striking Matthew Pavlich.
• Brad Dodd was suspended for two matches for attempting to strike Phillip Read, while Read was suspended for two matches for striking Dodd in retaliation.
• Seven players from Fremantle (Heath Black, Paul Hasleby, Shaun McManus, Clem Michael, Jason Norrish, Jess Sinclair and Andrew Shipp) and five players from West Coast (Ben Cousins, Andrew Embley, Kane Munro, Michael Gardiner and Phillip Read) were reported for melee involvement. Embley was found not guilty; the remaining players were fined between $2000 and $4000.

The following week both teams were well beaten, with Fremantle beaten by Brisbane by 107 points at the Gabba and Melbourne winning by 70 points over the Eagles at Subiaco.

The only time the fixture was played outside of Perth was in October 2005 at The Oval in Kennington, South London. West Coast had narrowly finished as runner-up to Sydney the previous month but were missing their vaunted midfield of Cousins, Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr. The game included a third-quarter fight and the Dockers' Jeff Farmer and the Eagles' Adam Hunter kicking four goals each. No video footage has been shared from the game, which Fremantle won by 13.12 (90) to 11.7 (73) in front of nearly 19,000 people, which was a record crowd for an Australian rules football game in England.[4]

Shaun McManus' farewell game in Round 18 2008 Western Derby Fremantle home game

The round 3, 2007 match will be remembered as one of the most controversial and spiteful derbies ever played. Nearing three-quarter time, Fremantle's Des Headland was reported by umpire Stuart Wenn for striking and wrestling with West Coast's Adam Selwood, who made an inappropriate comment about a tattoo on Headland's arm, which depicted his then six-year-old daughter.

The case was heard on 18 April, with Selwood cleared of using abusive language towards Headland. Headland was found guilty of both striking and wrestling with Selwood, but was not suspended because of "exceptional and compelling circumstances by way of provocation".[5]

West Coast won this match by 31 points, and Michael Braun was awarded the Ross Glendinning Medal, ending his acceptance speech with "Let's have a fucking good year"[6] which was broadcast to 550,000 viewers on live television and to the 42,551 in attendance.[7] Braun was fined $500 by the Eagles, but the AFL intervened, severely reprimanded the Eagles and fined Braun an additional $5000.[8][9]

Several weeks after the match, Selwood officially apologised to women, and claimed that he did not mean what he had said to Headland four weeks earlier. Paradoxically, he also claimed that he was badly treated by the media because he was innocent of the charges in the Headland saga and he should have just been allowed to prove his innocence.[10]

Source: AFL Tables

The closest finish to a derby occurred in Round 18, 2011 when Eagles midfielder Matt Rosa was penalised by umpire Dean Margetts in a deliberate out of bounds decision with West Coast leading by two points in the dying seconds. Having earned a free kick from the decision, Hayden Ballantyne had a chance to win the game for Fremantle with a shot after the siren from 50m out on a tight angle and while his drop punt looked a goal for much of its journey, it hit the padding on the right hand goalpost[11] amid a sea of hands from both sides, leaving the Eagles the winners by a single point, 8.17 (65) to Fremantle's 9.10 (64).[12] Ballantyne prematurely celebrated, believing that the kick was a goal and had won the match.[13]

This proved to be the catalyst for both sides as the season wound down. Fremantle slid down the ladder, losing the next six matches in succession to end a disappointing season, while West Coast went on to win their remaining regular season matches.

Nearly two decades after the most violent derby in its history, another infamous contest occurred in Round 20, 2018. During the third quarter, West Coast midfielder Andrew Gaff struck Fremantle first-year player Andrew Brayshaw in the face in an incident which occurred off the ball and resulted in Brayshaw suffering a broken jaw. Gaff was targeted by Fremantle players for the remainder of the game, until his coach decided to bench him after suffering from a double-team shoulder hit from two Fremantle players. Gaff was sent straight to the AFL Tribunal the following day,[14] where he pleaded guilty to intentionally striking Brayshaw, and subsequently suspended for eight AFL matches, thus missing the AFL finals where West Coast would go on to win the Premiership.[15]

In this Derby Fremantle registered the lowest score in Derby history scoring 2.19 to cap off a disappointing day, where they lost by over 90 points. Fremantle also registered the worst goal conversion in an AFL premiership game.

For the first time, due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic reducing the season to 17 games, only a single derby was played in 2020. The ground capacity was restricted to half of the maximum to allow for social distancing. The crowd of 25,306 people was the highest for the AFL since the pandemic started due to the Western Australian Governments successful handling of the Pandemic, but the lowest ever for a derby. West Coast won by 30 points, setting a new record of ten consecutive derby wins dating back to August 2015.

Brownlow Votes through the end of the 2016 AFL season.

Player	Club	Votes	Games	Average
Daniel Kerr	West Coast Eagles	15	17	0.88
Guy McKenna	West Coast Eagles	13	11	1.18
Stephen Hill	Fremantle Football Club	12	15	0.80
Chris Judd	West Coast Eagles	11	11	1.00
Ben Cousins	West Coast Eagles	11	20	0.55
Paul Hasleby	Fremantle Football Club	11	20	0.55
Aaron Sandilands	Fremantle Football Club	11	24	0.45
Matthew Pavlich	Fremantle Football Club	11	34	0.32
Peter Bell	Fremantle Football Club	10	15	0.66
Matthew Priddis	West Coast Eagles	9	21	0.42

In preparation for the 2017 launch of the AFL women's league competition, the AFL held 10 Exhibition Series matches during 2016. The only match held in Perth featured both a women's side from the Fremantle Football Club & the West Coast Eagles, played as a curtain-raiser for the men's Western Derby, won by the West Coast Eagles. The First Western Derby in the AFLW took place on 15 February 2020, when the West Coast Eagles lost to the Fremantle Dockers at Optus Stadium.