West Coast defender Will Schofield says winning a number of home-and-away matches over the last four years laid the foundations towards the club achieving premiership success in 2018.
The Eagles claimed this year’s flag after defating Collingwood by five points thanks to a last-gasp Dom Sheed goal from the boundary line.
After their horror Grand Final display against Hawthorn three years earlier, Schofield says the group felt like they were a genuine chance of winning rather than just making up the numbers.
“It felt like a completely different feeling,” Schofield told SEN Afternoons.
“In 2015 it felt like we were happy to be there, and we were.
“It was a little bit of a fairytale that we made it in 2015, we sort of came from nowhere and to be there was a great effort.
“Whereas this year we really felt like we were a chance and we deserved to be there and that we wanted to prove something.
SIGN UP FOR NBA TIPPING - Tip Friday to Sunday each week and set up a league with your mates! Win NBL Courtside seats every week and Boomers v USA tickets. https://tipping.nba.sen.com.au/
“The group was ready, we’ve been a successful group over the last three-to-four years - we have won the most amount of games out of any AFL team over that period.
“I think we’ve been building to it.”
Schofield, 29 was one of the West Coast's best against the Magpies after coming into the side for the Preliminary Final against Melbourne to replace the injured Brad Sheppard.
Listen to Will Schofield’s chat on SEN Afternoons with Andy Maher in the player below