It’s a terrible name for the BOG in a Derby. He won a Brownlow with North, captained the Eagles and is still on their payroll. He has nothing to do with Freo, other than popping in for a few weeks back in 2001 to collect a paycheck, act as a WAFC narc, and smugly tell us how rubbish we were.
Add to that the apparent veto power he assumes he has over the medal (a blatant conflict, given his role at West Coast), and the enmity he seems to have for Freo fans, and it’s a dead-set disgrace the Derby medal is named after him.
When we get a more Freo-friendly CEO at the Dockers, one of the first things they should do is lobby to have this stain on the Derby removed. But, if you are going to lobby for the removal of the Rosco, you need to come armed with a better alternative. Thankfully, the alternative is obvious: The Stephen Michael Medal.
It makes total sense. He’s a Freo great that everyone loves, plus he was a parochial Western Australian who resisted overtures to play in the VFL, and was WA State of Origin Captain, which taps into that whole West Coast ‘for years you took the best of us, you wise men from the East’ nonsense that feeds their general feeling that they are actually a state team. Being a well-liked Noongar bloke, the Eagles fans can all clap him and claim it as evidence that they aren’t racist (even though they are kinda racist).
It’s a win for everyone (except Rosco himself, but I’m fine with that).
