Kings of September: West Coast spearhead Peter Sumich was all class and craft in ground-breaking Eagles’ era

Our football writers have picked their princes of the pointy end - WA’s seven best final performers across the WAFL and VFL/AFL. Today, Glen Quartermain looks at West Coast’s premiership full-forward Peter Sumich. It might have been the moment that defined Peter Sumich. A footy flashpoint of raw honesty, wedged between the 1991 season when West Coast’s hulking spearhead became the first left-footer to kick a century of goals in a VFL-AFL season, and the Eagles’ 1992 flag. It was half-time of a game in Melbourne, smack in the the guts of Victoria’s winter, and Sumich was struggling. His goal kicking wayward, his famous “hook” more pronounced than ever. MORE AFL: There had been a pile on from the media and fans in the lead-up. Teammate Glen Jakovich will never forget what happened next. “Suma had just lost a little bit of confidence ... and he’d had a bad game and someone must have written that we had to stop kicking it to him because we were too Sumich conscious,” Jakovich recalled. “Even the players were probably thinking is there a better option because Suma is missing these crucial ones. “We were leading into the finals and Suma was having a dirty day and Mick gave him a bake at half-time. “But he just stood up in front of the whole group, and said ‘Don’t worry about all the talk, all the bulls..t that is going on, you just kick it to me and I’ll do the rest. “It was a bold thing to do in front of the coach. “Suma just took ownership. And from there, well, he kicked 18 (goals) in three finals and we won the flag.” As a junior, Peter Lori Sumich dabbled with soccer and got seriously into cricket — playing three Tests and three one-dayers for the Australian national under-19 team as a left-arm orthodox spinner in 1987. He’d also shown a bit of talent in the indigenous game, playing for the State 18s in 1985 and making his WAFL debut for South Fremantle at 18 in 1986. At 190cm or (6ft 3inches in the old scale), 96kg and with a good surge of pace off the mark, he was built to be a classic full-forward in an era when he could put space on full-backs the calibre of Steve Silvagni, Chris Langford, Danny Frawley, Gary Pert and Mick Martyn. The Eagles saw it and plucked him with pick No. 3 in 1988 as a pre-draft season selection. They got instant reward when he kicked 45 goals from 22 games in his debut season and followed up with 90 in the next as Essendon, and an horrific travel schedule late in the season, conspired to end West Coast’s season in the preliminary final. He bagged 111.89 in the next, including five straight in a losing grand final. Jakovich remembers that as a mighty effort, but says Sumich’s performance the weekend prior was even better, when they knocked off Geelong at Waverley Park in the preliminary final. “That day at Waverley it was hailing and Suma wore a long sleeve jumper,” Jakovich said. “Mick (Malthouse) referred to it as a one per centre after the game because Suma took a heap of chest marks. Because it was wet he had that woollen jumper and it gave him a bit more comfort to wrap his arms around it so it wouldn’t slip out. Mick spoke about Suma and how he had focused on his craft which was true. “But Suma just said I want to be on the lead a bit and that ball is going to be heavy and I don’t want to drop a chest mark. And he kicked six and put us into a grand final.” Long before there was Denis Pagan’s paddock for Wayne Carey, there was Suma’s space. Karl Langdon played predominantly as the centre half-forward. “My role was to try and get out of Suma’s road,” Langdon said. “I would charge in to the middle and create a path for the boys who were going forward, pick off who was chasing them and they would kick it down Suma’s throat. “It was me, Peter Wilson, Chris Lewis often charging in at the same time. “The ball was coming our way, whether it was Don Pyke or Peter Matera or Dean Kemp, all very good users of the footy, and we were going against the flow. “And Suma would generally be the beneficiary of it. “He’d let us know too - ‘Get out of my way, get out of my way.” They created the space, but Langdon says Sumich’s ability to “clunk it” should never be underestimated. “What I thought was the really strong part of his armoury, was his ability to take a strong mark on the lead,” Langdon said. “He had the innate ability to be able to clunk the footy at pace.” Sumich topped the Eagles goalkicking every year from 1989 to 1994 and averaged 3.43 goals per game over his career. But the greats are measured on finals performances and his average post-season was 3.29 a game, or 62.51 from 19 games. That included 17.11 from four finals in 1991 and 18.8 from three in ‘92, including six in the grand final win over Geelong. Matera got the Norm Smith Medal that day with five goals off a wing, but it’s often forgotten the last one was from a handball over the top from Sumich. Guy McKenna was the architect of West Coast’s ball movement, the half-back for whom Malthouse worked overtime on the white board to match him on the forward who would allow him the most freedom. “The evolution of footy from the early ’90s was we were encouraged to run a little bit more off half-back as opposed to the old 6-6 and 6 days,” McKenna said. “And when you crossed the centre of the ground it was all eyes for Suma, just get it to him, just kick it to grass in front of him. Just kick it to Suma’s advantage. “He was 6.3, but he was quite powerful. He was never up the front of the 3km time-trials but with his repeat speed stuff he was obviously very good with that. He had a great set of mitts, a great set of hands obviously with his cricketing background. His hands were great.” McKenna recalled defenders used to push Sumich out beyond 40m to stretch his accuracy over the distance because of his natural hook. “I reckon that was Suma’s sweet spot. He could roost it from 40-55m. If a man was standing on the mark on 50m that wasn’t Suma exerting himself so we thought he was a better than even-money chance to kick those ones,” McKenna recalled. Langdon says Sumich deserves to be in the conversation as the greatest ever West Coast forward. But Josh Kennedy, as the Eagles’ leading goalkicker of all time, has probably edged him now. “They are different sorts of players. One played full-forward, the other has played for the most part centre half-forward (Kennedy),” Langdon said. “For his longevity and volume of goals he’s kicked I think Kennedy is probably rated ahead of him. “But Suma started later, remember JK got picked up as a 17 year old. For a career average of 3.43 (Sumich), when you consider a bloke plays 150 games and has a winning percentage of 67.33 overall, there wouldn’t be too many full-forwards with a record like that.” Peter Sumich VFL-AFL games: West Coast (1989 to 1997): 150 games, 514 goals. Career average 3.43 goals per game. Finals: 19 games, 62.51 at an average of 3.29 goals per final. AFL premierships: 1992, ’94. WAFL premiership: 1997. WAFL games: South Fremantle (1986-1998): 112 games, 178 goals