The former Bacchus Marsh junior and St Patrick’s College student played an important role as the West Coast Eagles won a thrilling decider against Collingwood on Saturday.

Duggan collected 16 possessions in defence as the Eagles clinched the grand final by five points, 11.13 (79) to 11.8 (74).

The 21-year-old said it was a “great fightback” from his side, which conceded the first five goals of the match.

“We had a lot of the momentum late, we felt. We kept coming and coming and missed a couple of shots late, but had that pressure applied,” he told the Warrnambool Standard in the rooms after the game.

“At the end of the day, we all played to our roles. Dom Sheed just iced the cake with a great kick late.”

Duggan admitted the Eagles were “shaky” in the early stages of the game.

“The most pleasing part about that is that it stopped after quarter time and the boys settled down. Even late in that first quarter, we got back to our game,” he said.

“I think we held up pretty well at the defensive end and got plenty of help from our midfield and forwards...”

Duggan spoke about his time at Bacchus Marsh, where he played in an under-16.5 Ballarat Football League premiership under coach and Western Bulldogs great Doug Hawkins.

“I only had Hawk for a year, but the best part about it is that he is still a great mate and I always get a message from him before games and stuff like that,” he said.

“I’ve got a little thing I write ‘go hard, have fun’ on my wrist and in between that I write ‘dance’… ‘go hard, have fun’ is from Dad and ‘dance’ is from Hawk. He just backed me in to play my game when I was 14 and still tells me to do that today, so not much changes really.”

Duggan said he had plenty of support at the MCG on Saturday.

“A couple of mates are in the crowd and a lot of family so it was great to have them all here,” he said.

Duggan was taken by the West Coast Eagles with pick 11 in the 2014 draft, and after making his AFL debut in round two of the following season, was sidelined for the club’s grand final appearance against Hawthorn because a knee injury he sustained late in the campaign.

The Eagles lost that decider by 46 points.

Former Ballarat boy Drew Petrie was also celebrating the Eagles’ triumph.

Petire, who played 316 games with North Melbourne and another 16 for the Eagles last year before retiring from the AFL, now works for West Coast’s Next Generation Academy program.

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