WEST Coast backmen Xavier Ellis and Sharrod Wellingham are enjoying bonus time in their AFL careers.

The pair, both 27, could easily have been retired by now – Ellis because of ongoing injuries and Wellingham of his own volition after falling out of love with the game last year.

So it's ironic that these reborn rebounders have the chance to create some history in the AFL Grand Final against Hawthorn on Saturday.

Sharrod Wellingham celebrates a goal in the 2010 Grand Final. Picture: AFL Media


If the Eagles win, Ellis and Wellingham will be added to a list of 29 players who have won premierships at two clubs.

Ex-Hawk Ellis would enter even more exclusive company, becoming just the fourth player to win a premiership against a club he had already won a flag with.

The most recent example is Jason Ball, who won the 1994 premiership with West Coast and the 2005 flag with Sydney against West Coast.

The other two hark back more than a century and – remarkably, given their rare feat – were intimately linked.

Xavier Ellis with Hawthorn fans after the 2008 Grand Final. Picture AFL Media


Mick Grace and Eddie Drohan were Fitzroy teammates in three consecutive Grand Finals, winning the club's first two premierships in 1898-99 before missing out, by just four points, on claiming what would naturally have been the League's first three-peat.

The star pair shared many other striking parallels – they were both born in the late 1870s (Grace was two years older), both started with Fitzroy Juniors; they made their League debuts just a year apart; they joined bitter rivals of Fitzroy in the same season (in 1903, Grace went to Carlton while Drohan left for Collingwood); they won and lost Grand Finals against their old teammates, represented Victoria, briefly captained their second clubs, and hung up their boots the same season.

They even had single-season coaching stints at St Kilda.

However, there are a few key differences between them.

For starters, Grace was a strong-marking ruckman/forward who was 9cm and 8kg bigger than wingman Drohan.

Their personalities were apparently goalposts apart, with the jovial Drohan entertaining his teammates by reciting limericks, while Grace, although easygoing, was a quieter type.

And Grace died young – just three years after his last League game.

One of nine children, Grace was the second eldest of four brothers who played League football. 

In 1895, at 20, he made his senior debut with Fitzroy, then in the VFA, alongside his older brother Jim, a superstar forward who once bagged a competition record of 11 goals (of a team total of 15). 

The Grace boys won a premiership in their first season as teammates. There was no Grand Final but in the climactic final round Mick Grace scored the flag-winning goal after receiving a pass from his big brother.

Jim Grace, four years Mick's senior, also played a key role in Fitzroy's 1898-99 triumphs in the fledgling VFL.

The Grace brothers were revered by Fitzroy fans, who would sing: "Other clubs have their stars; But Fitzroy have their aces; Other clubs put on airs; But Fitzroy have the Graces."

Drohan also starred in 1898, his first season, and throughout his career reporters would marvel at his artistry. 

Perhaps his finest moment came in that year's Grand Final against Essendon at the Junction Oval when the 22-year-old was named best-afield, with Mick Grace next best for Fitzroy.

Grace was hailed as 'The Flying Angel' for his spectacular aerial ability, which was on full display that day as the Grace brothers matched Essendon's three goals themselves in a 15-point win. 

In that 1898 season Mick Grace won the first of his two best and fairests and was named the The Argus newspaper’s Footballer of the Year.

In the 1899 Grand Final at the Junction Oval, Drohan was named third best for the 'Roys and Mick Grace kicked one of their three goals in a one-point win over South Melbourne. (This was Jim Grace's last game.) 

In the 1900 play-off at the Lake Oval, Drohan and Grace were rated second and third-best respectively for Fitzroy in a narrow loss to Melbourne.

After claiming his second club best and fairest, 26-year-old Grace retired. However, he would make two comebacks and two more retirements. 

Early in the 1902 season Grace was coaxed back to League football by former Fitzroy champion Jack Worrall, then coaching Carlton. Grace had been won over by Worrall's offer of better lodgings.

But Grace got cold feet. In a frantic fortnight he gained a permit to play for Carlton, then requested it be withdrawn, before firing off yet another letter asking for his withdrawal to be withdrawn.

The League's permit committee, no doubt confused, ordered Grace to front a meeting to explain himself. Amazingly, Grace again back-flipped, declaring he would prefer to play for Fitzroy after all. However, Fitzroy, appalled with the superstar's conduct, refused to take him back. What's more, Grace was barred from playing for any League club for the rest of the 1902 season.

Grace mended his bridges at Carlton, where he played for the next five years and cemented his greatness.

Drohan, though, was the first of the pair to win a flag with his second club, and he did it in his first season at Collingwood in 1903, pipping Fitzroy by two points at the MCG.

But Grace would enjoy more sustained success with the previously battling Blues. He immediately helped them to their first finals series in 1903, their first Grand Final in 1904 (a loss to Fitzroy) and was then pivotal in their first two premierships in 1906-07.

In the 1906 Grand Final, Grace kicked an equal game-high three goals to take his season tally to 50 – then a League record, smashing Vin Coutie's effort of 39 two years earlier. (Collingwood champion Dick Lee would eclipse Grace's record two years later with 54.)

If Carlton had awarded a best and fairest in 1906, 32-year-old Grace would likely have won it.

Midway through the next season, Carlton was sitting atop the ladder but an out-of-form Grace retired from League footy again. He joined then metropolitan amateur club Brighton.

But Worrall, concerned after two stars copped lengthy suspensions, again persuaded Grace to return. After a seven-week absence he bagged four goals in a semi-final win over St Kilda and within a month won his fourth flag (by five points over South Melbourne).

In doing so, Grace became the first of only two players to win multiple premierships at two clubs. The other was the mercurial Brent Crosswell (Carlton 1968 and 1970, North Melbourne 1975 and 1977).

Grace then spent a season as playing coach of St Kilda in 1908, finishing third after being crushed by the Blues, who became the first team to win a hat-trick of premierships.

At 34, Grace then retired from League football for good.

He finished with 214 goals and held the League record for almost four years until overtaken by Dick Lee. 

One of the biggest stars in the League's first decade, Grace has a strong case for induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

After coaching in New South Wales, Grace contracted tuberculosis and died in 1912, aged just 37. The football community provided financial and moral support to his young family. 

Meanwhile, Drohan had led an eventful life.

He captained Collingwood for the first half of 1908 but was out of sorts and retired at almost 32.

Drohan's next three seasons were nomadic. He umpired 14 League games in 1909, coached Melbourne in 1910 and coached St Kilda in 1911 (three years after Grace had).

Drohan died in 1938, aged 62.