West Coast Eagles CEO Don Pyke says win over North Melbourne one for the fans

West Coast CEO Don Pyke has described his young team’s pulsating victory over North Melbourne on Sunday as a win for the club’s loyal fans who have stuck fat throughout a tough re-build.

West Coast overcame a bad start to beat the Kangaroos by 17 points and win their first game since May 18 last year.

More than 47,000 people packed Optus Stadium and Pyke said that again showed how much West Coast fans love their club.

“It was brilliant. To have over 47,000 for the first home game of the year re-enforced the passion we have from our member base. You could feel it come across the oval. At times when we started to wobble in the last quarter, the crowd really leant into it and were willing the team on,” he told The West Australian.

“They enjoyed seeing Duursma and Duff-Tytler kick their first goals in AFL at home and the opportunities they had to see the other young guys. The team was unbelievable. It was a wonderful day.

“Our members and fans have endured a number of losses but have been incredible. Last year we set a membership record when we only won one game. They continue to come. We’ve had some great times throughout history and now it’s about what our next bit of history will be.”

It was a huge weekend for both West Coast and Fremantle as they achieved the rare feat of dual WA victories.

Fremantle beat Melbourne on Saturday to guarantee both sets of supporters would start their week on a high.

There were 44,736 Dockers fans at Optus Stadium on Saturday which meant nearly 92,000 footy fans attended the venue across the two days.

Having seen 58,141 people attend AFL Origin in February, Pyke said it would force the AFL to consider different ways to give WA’s passionate supporters more chances to watch games live.

“WA is mad about footy, so it was great to have both teams here,” he said.

“Whether that’s something we can look at going forward as an extension to Round Zero, I don’t know.

“But having been starved of footy for the start of the year, it was great to see everybody out supporting their teams.

“Any time we can bring more footy to WA the better. We have an incredible stadium and we saw that on Saturday night and Sunday. If there’s two games on a weekend, that is a win for WA footy.”