Having won a club-record seven Charlie Sutton Medals, West is recognised as one of the Bulldogs' greatest-ever players.

A tough "in-and-under" midfielder who was hard at the ball, especially around the stoppages, West was regularly among the league's most prolific ballwinners during his playing career.

Ironically, his childhood neighbour and future Essendon footballer Rick Olarenshaw was a Footscray supporter.

[1] His older brother Troy initially trained at Essendon until told the West family residence actually belonged to Footscray's recruiting zone.

West finished runner-up in the Brownlow Medal count twice: in 2000 and in 2006; in the former year, he was particularly unlucky: going into the final round, he was level with Melbourne's Shane Woewodin on 22 votes.

In 2006, he won the Sunday Footy Show's Lou Richards award for best player as voted by Channel 9's football commentators.

His stint was short but reasonably successful, leading Werribee to consecutive Preliminary Finals before quitting after the 2013 season in the hope of landing a coaching role in the AFL.

[6] In October 2014, West was among the candidates considered to replace Brendan McCartney as senior coach of the Bulldogs,[5] but the position eventually was given to Luke Beveridge.