MONAGHAN PROUD TO LEAD FALCONS TO PREMIERSHIP

BILL Monaghan is now a league premiership coach having previously experienced WAFL flags as a player, reserves coach and league assistant but the highlight for him from guiding West Perth to the ultimate prize in 2013 was to see the players enjoy their success.

When Monaghan arrived to coach West Perth in 2009 he had behind him 204 WAFL games at both Subiaco and Peel Thunder, including the Lions' premiership of 1988, and then was reserves premiership coach at Subiaco in 2003 and 2005, and league assistant to Peter German in the premiership-winning years of 2004 and 2006.

Two years in a development role in the AFL with Fremantle then was his last role before being appointed West Perth coach in 2009 and now after just signing a three-year extension tying him to the Falcons until the end of 2016, he took the club to its first premiership in a decade.

The overwhelming feeling that Monaghan felt after West Perth's 49-point grand final win over East Perth was pride in seeing his playing group get to enjoy winning a premiership, and knowing that he had played a part in them achieving what for most will be the highlights of their football careers. 

"I'm really calm about it all actually and I'm just sitting back and enjoying the moment. Whether I'm getting older and wiser or not I don’t know, but I've been here in the past," Monaghan said.

"Just to see the joy on the faces of the players and then the supporters and all the families makes this an outstanding achievement.

"I've heard other coaches say how hard it is to make a grand final and how it's even harder to win one, but my players have just been outstanding and in the grand final they kept cracking in there.

"I sit back as a proud coach and it's more like sitting back and basking in your achievement in a playing group who almost become like your children. I'm rapt for them."

Coming into the finals series of 2013, West Perth had not won a final of any type since the 2003 grand final in six attempts since.

That meant that the Falcons were heavy underdogs heading to Claremont Oval for the second semi-final against the two-time defending premiers Claremont, but West Perth's pressure was simply too much for the Tigers and the Falcons were straight into the grand final of 2013.

That gave West Perth a week off while Claremont and East Perth did battle in the preliminary final, and Monaghan has no doubt that break gave the Falcons an edge over the Royals to run right over the top of them in the last quarter of the grand final and eventually win by 49 points.

"Having the week off at this time of year is really important," he said.

"We think we nailed down our rotations over the last couple of weeks, we had a full complement of our midfielders to pick from even though we had a couple of others who ordinarily would have played, but we were at our best in the midfield and we thought that could get us over the line.

"We also kicked with a strengthening gale in the last quarter so that probably helped as well."

Over his five years as coach, Monaghan has formed a strong bond with his senior players Jason Salecic, Matt Guadagnin, Ray Bartholomew, Dan Hunt, Chris Keunen, Andrew Strijk, Steven Browne and Luke Tedesco, but he knows the Falcons couldn’t have won the premiership without young players coming through.

Shane Nelson and Aaron Black have rightfully received plenty of acknowledgement for their role in the premiership, but Monaghan feels that Kody Manning and Nick Rodda deserve just as much credit and have plenty more improvement left in them as well.

"We are proud of all our young players. Not just Shane Nelson but Aaron Black, Kody Manning, Nick Rodda so we have some really good young kids and have another five or six others who played the reserves grand final who can become solid league footballers," he said.

"Kody's pressure skills and his want for the contest is outstanding. What we are trying to work with Kody on is that some of his finishing skills needs to improve, but he went back and kicked a goal from 45 or 50 out so he is starting to get a lot cleaner with his hands.

"There is a huge upside to Kody Manning and hopefully he will continue to improve as well. He doesn’t need to improve much in the pressure stakes, but we think he can in other areas."

The West Perth forward-line might not have a gun full-forward like a Bernie Naylor Medallist Josh Smith or Ben Saunders, but was successful all year in racking up enough goals and that continued in the grand final with Rohan Kerr booting five, and Rodda, Josh Mellington and Matt Fowler two each.

"He is a very confident young player Kerry and he likes the attention, and he does use the ball," Monaghan said

"I thought a couple of his goals and Matt Fowler's from outside the boundary were outstanding kicks. Coming off kicking 11.21 in the second semi-final I thought we turned that around so that was really good from the boys."

West Perth made just the one change coming into the grand final from the second semi-final win with vice-captain Luke Tedesco returning from a calf injury to replace the unlucky Trent Manzone.

While Monaghan certainly feels for the likes of Manzone and injured experienced pair Anthony Tsalikis and Michael Pettigrew, he is also confident that by them missing out on a premiership will only make them and others in the same boat hungrier to be part of something special in 2014.

"Teddy declared himself fit and the physios and doctors declared him fit, and really the conditions suited his bullocking style," he said.

"He was another player who played his part but unfortunately in grand finals there's always an unlucky person and Trent has been very good for us all year, and we think he will continue to develop as well.

"With Michael and Anthony there's a couple of hard luck stories there as well, but we hope they continue to want to play and can make us better next year."

Monaghan is also hopeful of keeping the majority of his premiership playing group together despite the obvious of Fremantle's Josh Mellington being forced to play with Peel Thunder and Simpson Medallist Mark Hutchings to play with East Perth.

"We want the whole group to keep pushing each other to keep getting better and we think that a lot of our young players have huge upsides. That's the guys who played both league and reserves grand finals, and we have some good colts coming through," Monaghan said.

"We just need to keep developing players and it's going to be tough with the landscape changing a little bit, and we just have to make sure we give everyone the opportunity to play good league footy.

"Mellington will be aligned to Peel and Hutchings to East Perth, but I would expect most of the other guys will be back. What a premiership will do to guys right at the end I'm not sure.

"They might want to stick around to see if there's another one there or they might want to bow out, but we will let the dust settle and we won't push anyone in either direction. For now we will sit back and enjoy what we've achieved, and then start looking at our list."

BY CHRIS PIKE