West Coast, its premiership aspirations on the brink just three weeks ago, stood firm under a ferocious Sydney onslaught yesterday to claim a stunning Grand Final that had everything of last year’s and a little bit more, ultimately triumphing by one point infront of a 97,431-strong crowd.

The Eagles squandered opportunities to ice the absorbing contest in the third quarter and found themselves in the spotlight of the Swans, who rallied and threatened to steal an unlikely victory.

But some desperate acts in the final quarter by Andrew Embley, Daniel Chick and Beau Waters ensured the premiership cup headed west for the third time.

Chick’s pressure on Ted Richards in the dying moments led to the Swan kicking the ball out of bounds.

The game, the fourth one-point margin in a grand final, ended with the ball hovering around Sydney’s 50m area, with the Swans launching another attacking raid that may have levelled the match.

Embley was a worthy winner of the Norm Smith Medal, tallying 26 possessions, six marks and kicking 2.2, with a wonderful saving mark close to the goal line as the game entered its dying stages.

Sydney, behind 27 points midway through the third quarter, kicked a goal in the opening 14 seconds of the final term when Adam Goodes streamed past Barry Hall, who fed off a quick handball and the Brownlow medallist did not miss.

Both teams, justifiably showing signs of fatigue, were unable to land the next goal for more than 16 minutes, with the Eagles attacking relentlessly and being way ward in front of goal, until Adam Schneider’s right-foot finish from 40m cut the deficit to one point.

It appeared the Eagles would be given a dose of their own medicine and be overrun in a tense last term until Steven Armstrong, a rookie listed player at the start of the year, snapped cleverly from 25m.

But that major was cancelled out by a freakish left-foot goal from 48m by Ryan O’Keefe that went through several sets of hands to bounce over in amazing fashion.

O’Keefe then had his defensive kick smothered by Chick, who put on a special shepherd to allow Adam Hunter to run into an open goal and again push the margin out to seven points after 23 minutes.

Nick Malceski cut it back to a point after an Amon Buchanan handball and the match hung in the balance before the Eagles threw their arms up in jubilation with a final siren that they must surely have been sweating on.

Eleven points had separated the two teams in their past four meetings and while there was talk of a blowout, a sighting of Elvis was more likely.

The Swans were relaxed all week, the Eagles seemingly more uptight, albeit bullish about their chances. If their start was any indication, it was understandable.

David Wirrpanda, included after missing the preliminary final with hamstring tightness, began in attack, but soon found himself playing in defence to fill the hole in front of Barry Hall. This decision by John Worsfold was a deviation from the game plan he implemented in the qualifying final defeat over Sydney and ensured that Swans coach Paul Roos was required to use Malceski as an opponent for Wirrpanda.

Surprisingly also, Worsfold decided to start with Hunter on Hall, rather than his All-Australian defender Darren Glass, who was opposed initially to Michael O’Loughlin. That match-up did not last long, with Glass going to Hall.

But it was at the other end of the ground where all the action was, with the Eagles kicking more goals in the opening 12 minutes than they did in the first half in last year’s decider.

Ashley Hansen presented up the ground, testing the aerobic capacity and footy smarts of Lewis Roberts-Thomson, but it was when he found himself in the attacking 50m and on the end of a hurried Chick kick that he did the most damage. Hansen converted from 40m and 90 seconds later Buchanan’s inability to handle a loose footy allowed Chris Judd to swoop and soccer through the Eagles’ second.

West Coast was up and about, Sydney jittery and making uncustomary ball-handling errors and mental mistakes that could be attributed to the Eagles’ pressure.

West Coast’s dominance in the opening stages was confirmed when Hunter, positioned in the goal square, led opponent Craig Bolton to the footy and dished off a handball to Ben Cousins, who ran around the outstretched arms of the Swans’ defender and kicked accurately from just 30m.

On the verge of being too far in arrears, Sydney steadied and held sway for almost 10 minutes, but only got one goal from the boot of O‘Loughlin for its efforts.

Jude Bolton missed two set shots, the second being punished when Hansen was on the end of a Chad Fletcher pass and snared his second at the 30-minute mark.

By quarter-time, the Eagles had 45 more possessions and 29 more handball receives. It was not a shock that West Coast was so heavily in control when you consider the influence of ruckman Dean Cox in his battle against Darren Jolly and Stephen Doyle, enabling Judd to comfortably win his battle with Goodes.

The Eagles continued to ram home the advantage, with two goals to Quinten Lynch and one to Embley cancelling out Ben Mathews’ eighth-minute goal and giving last year’s runners-up a 28-point buffer.