Fremantle champion Paul Hasleby has listed his best eight West Coast players of all time.
One Eagles champion who features in Hasleby’s list is retiring veteran forward Josh Kennedy.
Kennedy, a two-time Coleman Medallist, triple All-Australian and 2018 premiership player, will play his final game against Adelaide at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
The 34-year-old is West Coast’s all-time leading goalkicker with 704 goals across 270 AFL games.
“I’m taking out longevity in the game, it’s purely when that player was at the club, how good they were and how much impact they had on the result of the game,” Hasleby told SEN WA’s The Run Home.
See Paul Hasleby’s best eight Eagles player of all-time below:
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1. Chris Judd
“His ability to win the ball in traffic and explode out of the front of the stoppage was first class.”
2. Peter Matera
“You could almost say the same about number two, and that’s Peter Matera.
“Played a bit differently on the wing, but through that period of 1991 to 1995 he was so dominant for the West Coast Eagles and a great finisher.”
3. Glen Jakovich
“The battles with Wayne Carey were fantastic.
“But he was more than that. He read the ball so well … he was very hard to beat.”
4. Ben Cousins
“Brownlow Medal. Again, similar to Judd and Matera with his ability to impact the contest from stoppage with ball in hand.”
5. Josh Kennedy
“700 goals, very rare. Tough in this era to kick that number of goals.”
6. Guy McKenna
“Defensively he was brilliant.
“There was no better player that you wanted the ball in their hand coming out of the back half.
“He set up so many good forays into the forward line for the West Coast Eagles.”
7. Dean Cox
“For a ruckman to revolutionise the art of rucking, to get around the ground like did, as part of a midfield group that’s going to go down all time as one of the very best and the accolades that he had in that time were just sensational.”
8. Peter Sumich
“Like Kennedy, his ability to get on the end of some work through the midfield and finish, even though he left a few out there because he wasn’t the straightest kick.”