West Coast confirmed its greatness on Saturday as the Eagles and Sydney Swans reaffirmed they have one of the AFL's all-time great rivalries.

The Eagles secured their third premiership with an epic one-point win over the Swans in front of 97,431 fans at the redeveloped MCG, 12.13 (85) to 12.12 (84).

West Coast onballer Andrew Embley continues to suffer from a paralysed vocal chord, but he let his football do the talking and won the Norm Smith Medal as best afield.

The result continued a remarkable 11-game streak between these two teams, where neither has won two in a row.

The thriller also meant the combined margins of the last five games between West Coast and Sydney is just 12 points.

"It was just a battle of wills and we were on the right end of it," Eagles captain Chris Judd said.

Sydney was also magnificent, recovering from a 29-point deficit in the second term and also trailling by 27 points during the third to almost win back-to-back flags.

Last year, the Swans beat West Coast by four points in the grand final for their first premiership in 72 years.

West Coast coach John Worsfold was a key member of the club's previous two premierships in 1992 and '94 and said post-match on Saturday that his overriding emotion was satisfaction.

He was particularly pleased that a side boasting several modern-day greats, such as Judd, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr, had finally confirmed its potential.

The Eagles were minor premiers this season and there was a sense of destiny about their year.

"(There's) just a satisfaction for the work we know we've put in and for whatever reasons, we're the premiership team of 2006," Worsfold said.

"There's nothing better than to see champion players like Chris and Ben become premiership players - they deserve that opportunity," Worsfold said.

"The satisfaction I have is the medal Chris wears around his neck this year compared to the one last year."

Worsfold was referring to Judd's Norm Smith medal in the grand final last year.

The premiership was also vindication for Worsfold and his club, which have endured much scrutiny, particularly this season.

Cousins lost the captaincy at the start of the season after his much-publicised "runner" from a booze bus in Perth and the Eagles sacked ruckman Michael Gardiner mid-season after a drunken car crash.

Worsfold's tactics, particularly his one-on-one game style, also came in for plenty of attention earlier this month after the qualifying final loss to Sydney.

Sydney trailled by 11 points at the start of the last term and Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes goalled within 12 seconds to reduce the margin to less than a straight kick.

After 17 minutes of stalemate, the two sides exchanged a series of goals, featuring a miraculous snap from Swan Ryan O'Keefe.

Eagles Daniel Chick also laid a great smother and shepherd to allow Adam Hunter to kick their side's last goal of the match.

Chick continued his heroics a few minutes later, running down Ted Richards.

While Sydney kicked the last goal of the match through Nick Malceski at 26 minutes, it was never able to hit the lead.

Throughout those manic last few minutes, the Eagles led by either one point or seven.

Swans coach Paul Roos was philosophical post-match, saying he was disappointed but also expressing great pride in his team.

"I couldn't be prouder of the team," he said.

"Based on the two games, they probably deserved one and we deserved one - or we deserved two and they deserved two.

"It would have been devastating for them to go down today.

"I'm philosophical - if we had lost last year and this year I probably wouldn't be sitting here, I probably would have hung myself in the rooms.

"It's just footy, that's life."

Goodes and co-captain Brett Kirk led the Swans' fightback with awesome games, but Barry Hall had a game to forget.

The Swans co-skipper, who has enjoyed an outstanding season, did not kick a goal.

But generally Sydney has nothing to be ashamed of, with the club given little chance at the start of the season of making this grand final.

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