Stephen Michael was Goodes before Goodes was even a twinkle in an eye.
He was only 188 cm tall, but he played the roving ruck role that Goodes played, just decades earlier. Everything about the guy was freakish. He was fast, agile, strong as a bull, massive leap, awesome contested mark, durable (played 217 games in succession in the WAFL) and a very good kick and handball. Above all else, he was an extreme competitor and ultra consistent, and was reknowned in WA footy circles for never playing poorly.
During his career he was All-Australian captain in 1983 after winning a Tassie medal and Simpson Medal during that year's State of Origin series. He won two Sandover medals and a heap of best and fairests at South Fremantle. In 1981 he did a Dusty, winning the Sandover under a 3-2-1 voting system by polling BOG in half the games he played. I think he polled votes in 75% of the games he played that year.
I saw him play a number of times as a kid, and two things really stick out for me. He was exceptionally good at winning contested footy. He would contest the ruck, but he was very dangerous if a pack formed after the knock, because he would turn into another midfielder, a bit like what Grigg did in 2017. But unlike Grigg, he was a dominant ruckman. He also seemed to be everywhere at once, always in the play all game. He must have had massive endurance, but I think he could also read the play like few could.
One of my childhood memories is from Bassendean Oval (home of Swan Districts) in the early 80's. I played little league for Swans that day. Every time the ball was bounced in the league game, it seemed Michael was winning it and kicking it forward, then he seemed to be superman stopping it coming back the other way. The Swans fullback was a guy called Nowotny, who was no slouch. You could tell that every time Nowotny kicked the footy out of defence, he was looking for Michael then kicking as far away as possible from him. It didn't help. Michael just kept patrolling the half forward line for Souths and winning the ball every time it came out of Swans defence. I was sitting in the members grandstand watching the game due to having played little league, and at the end of the game, the Swans members stood and clapped Michael off the ground.
I seem to recall Ted Whitten, in an interview in the old Westside Footy, talking about State of Origin and playing WA, and saying that Michael was the player that the Victorian team management used to worry about because you couldn't match up on him. They felt they could cover anyone else except him. Serious praise from a bloke who'd know.
I also have it from a very reliable source, although I have never been able to confirm this, that Michael had even signed to join Richmond at the same time Maurice Rioli came over. If that had happened, no doubt we would not have lost the 1982 GF. Apparently he pulled out and the Tigers did no pursue it. Geelong were a team that tried to get him to the VFL a number of times but couldn't.
It is a great shame he never went to the VFL, because I am firmly in the camp that to be the best you have to play the best. So you can't really compare guys like Michael and Robran to the VFL players because they never played there. But he is as good a player as WA has ever produced, no doubt about that.
