Where are the West Coast Eagles at?

[Bacon Warrior]

Where are West Coast at, you say?

Well, how about rating our squad?

Forwards:

Midfield:

Rucks:

Backs:

Coaching:

Overall:


We need to be at least 4.5/5 Jubilant Mastos in all areas to contend.

 

[erbenz]

Does Wooroloo deserve an honourable mention??

Absolutely.

 

[Spooky17]

Where are West Coast at, you say?

Well, how about rating our squad?

Forwards:
View attachment 65639
Midfield:
View attachment 65640
Rucks:
View attachment 65637
Backs:
View attachment 65638
Coaching:
View attachment 65641
Overall:
View attachment 65641

We need to be at least 4.5/5 Jubilant Mastos in all areas to contend.

Hahaha nice one how do we rate for 'glue' and 'serveability'?

 

[Eaglemaniac]

We have a bunch of mids that don't work hard enough to deserve a game every week but are getting games without competition and it shows.
We have forwards who despite being 30 metres out and on a less than 45 degree angle cannot kick a set shot in the second quarter for some reason, and we have a selwood who was touted as better than his brother Joel, but has been reduced to being a tagger because he cant do anything else, and he's not even a great tagger (bar one or two good games).
We have offield officials who are too concerned with their own jobs to put the club first, losing us key personnel who have gone on to make our rivals stronger while we poonce around being the good guys club and other clubs win Premierships. We have become the Old Fremantle, the club that loves mediocrity.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

We have a bunch of mids that don't work hard enough to deserve a game every week but are getting games without competition and it shows.
We have forwards who despite being 30 metres out and on a less than 45 degree angle cannot kick a set shot in the second quarter for some reason, and we have a selwood who was touted as better than his brother Joel, but has been reduced to being a tagger because he cant do anything else, and he's not even a great tagger (bar one or two good games).
We have offield officials who are too concerned with their own jobs to put the club first, losing us key personnel who have gone on to make our rivals stronger while we poonce around being the good guys club and other clubs win Premierships. We have become the Old Fremantle, the club that loves mediocrity.

This is so spot on, we used to pride ourselves on being leaders in many area's even when we were not one of the top sides, now we are an average side and even more importantly everything we do in our club we appear to be below average other than making money.

 

[MIKE85]

This is so spot on, we used to pride ourselves on being leaders in many area's even when we were not one of the top sides, now we are an average side and even more importantly everything we do in our club we appear to be below average other than making money.

To me this is one of the big issue's. I know it's technically a business these days, but I reckon we need a few more "football people" on our boards and the big wig positions. We have great business people there, hense our never ending pursuit of wealth, at the expense of on field performance. I think's it's been said beofre, but it seems like after the 06-07 drug circus, we have over corrected to be seen as a good club with strong morals and ethics, building houses in Cambodia etc. I have nothing against the players getting out and helping in the community, far from it, but we need some mongrel back, on & off the field. Let's start by being aggressive in trades and recruiting and trying to actually solve our on field problems rather than just picking the safe option, and only trading when a player wants to come, or go home.

 

[W.C. Fry]

Simpson said when he first came over that everyone knew we were a fit side, but it was the skills that he was going to work on.
Fitness has probably suffered because the focus was taken off that.
Are we a better skilled side? I think we are getting there. Hasn't taken overnight but I would say our ball use is better than last year.
Its very much a transitional year. Sure I hoped we would do better, but consistency has plagued us this year.
Give Simpson a year to learn himself, and develop the side as he sees fit. Clean out some of the dead wood in the middle and hopefully nail a few gun mids in the draft. Trade a KPP - lets face it, we are not short of decent ones who clubs would love to have on their lists - and target a proper A grade mid.
The chassis is built. Just need an engine to run it.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

To me this is one of the big issue's. I know it's technically a business these days, but I reckon we need a few more "football people" on our boards and the big wig positions. We have great business people there, hense our never ending pursuit of wealth, at the expense of on field performance. I think's it's been said beofre, but it seems like after the 06-07 drug circus, we have over corrected to be seen as a good club with strong morals and ethics, building houses in Cambodia etc. I have nothing against the players getting out and helping in the community, far from it, but we need some mongrel back, on & off the field. Let's start by being aggressive in trades and recruiting and trying to actually solve our on field problems rather than just picking the safe option, and only trading when a player wants to come, or go home.

Spot on.

 

[Chris_6678]

Wrote this on the trade thread and have added some extra thoughts as to where i think we are at.

Would love Pickett as he would add that X factor and speed we lack. Then to get Waterman with a 2nd or 3rd pick would be awesome. Would then get Harrison marsh from Swans for bugger all and he is our answer for a big bodied mid.

2015 Midfield would look like this:

Tagger - Scooter ( Wellingham and Rosa could Tag if needed)
Inside mids - Sheed, Waterman, Priddis ( will on the way out soon) & Hutchings
Big bodied mids - Marsh, Tunbridge,Yeo & College
Flankers - Wellingham & Masten
Inside outside - Shuey & Pickett
Wingers - Gaff & Rosa
Rotations - Darling, Sheppard, Ellis, Lecra & Hurn
Rucks- Nic Nat, Lycett, Sinclair and Cox as backup for injuries

Maybe go FA and get Higgins who if he got his body right he would be a very good addition and would add some class. Trade for Garlett as a replacement to Hill who is an upgrade and is more capable spending time in the midifled.

Throw in Main and Maginnnes as future mids and it doesn't look so bad.

Yeo has been tried in the midfield and was starting to look promising before his injury and he solved a few issues and that was size and speed. Darling has also been tried here and has been very so so but i did notice when he and Yeo played there at the same time Darling was a lot better. Give him time and i think Darling will do well there and maybe not as a full time gig but one that can impact if needed.

Down back we look sweet with EMAC, Brown, Hurn, Bennell, Shep, Ellis, Mcgovern ( Swing in if needed) Schofield and for depth we have Wilson & Carter with Powell and Barras coming through. Would delist Brennan and Smith though not sure they will get any better.

Up front we are good also: JK, Lecra, Darling & Mcgovern we look pretty set there for a while. I hope Karpany & Newman come along as they will be more than handy.

A lot of players would need to have a massive pre-season fitness wise for it to all click. 2012/13 pre-season i really think Woosh had the wrong idea as to where the game was going and as such a lot of our players lost a lot of bulk and didn't have the same fitness base as they did from 2011-12. Fast forward to 2013/14 i know for a fact that fitness was dialed back even further for the pre-season so Simpson could see why we were getting so many injuries and if it was attributed to the way they trained over the preason. You will notice in patches this year the game plan has been clicking but once the fatigue set in during matches a lot of players fell back to old habbits ( IE Long bombs , slamming on the boot & Handballs to no one when under pressure). We should be looking for a high performance manager like Ports ( WCE did TRY poach him last year but was unsuccessful) and get the squad into gear and i think we will see massive results and be set back on track.

 

[nameless]

Wrote this on the trade thread and have added some extra thoughts as to where i think we are at.

Would love Pickett as he would add that X factor and speed we lack. Then to get Waterman with a 2nd or 3rd pick would be awesome. Would then get Harrison marsh from Swans for bugger all and he is our answer for a big bodied mid.

2015 Midfield would look like this:

Tagger - Scooter ( Wellingham and Rosa could Tag if needed)
Inside mids - Sheed, Waterman, Priddis ( will on the way out soon) & Hutchings
Big bodied mids - Marsh, Tunbridge,Yeo & College
Flankers - Wellingham & Masten
Inside outside - Shuey & Pickett
Wingers - Gaff & Rosa
Rotations - Darling, Sheppard, Ellis, Lecra & Hurn
Rucks- Nic Nat, Lycett, Sinclair and Cox as backup for injuries

Maybe go FA and get Higgins who if he got his body right he would be a very good addition and would add some class. Trade for Garlett as a replacement to Hill who is an upgrade and is more capable spending time in the midifled.

Throw in Main and Maginnnes as future mids and it doesn't look so bad.

Yeo has been tried in the midfield and was starting to look promising before his injury and he solved a few issues and that was size and speed. Darling has also been tried here and has been very so so but i did notice when he and Yeo played there at the same time Darling was a lot better. Give him time and i think Darling will do well there and maybe not as a full time gig but one that can impact if needed.

Down back we look sweet with EMAC, Brown, Hurn, Bennell, Shep, Ellis, Mcgovern ( Swing in if needed) Schofield and for depth we have Wilson & Carter with Powell and Barras coming through. Would delist Brennan and Smith though not sure they will get any better.

Up front we are good also: JK, Lecra, Darling & Mcgovern we look pretty set there for a while. I hope Karpany & Newman come along as they will be more than handy.

A lot of players would need to have a massive pre-season fitness wise for it to all click. 2012/13 pre-season i really think Woosh had the wrong idea as to where the game was going and as such a lot of our players lost a lot of bulk and didn't have the same fitness base as they did from 2011-12. Fast forward to 2013/14 i know for a fact that fitness was dialed back even further for the pre-season so Simpson could see why we were getting so many injuries and if it was attributed to the way they trained over the preason. You will notice in patches this year the game plan has been clicking but once the fatigue set in during matches a lot of players fell back to old habbits ( IE Long bombs , slamming on the boot & Handballs to no one when under pressure). We should be looking for a high performance manager like Ports ( WCE did TRY poach him last year but was unsuccessful) and get the squad into gear and i think we will see massive results and be set back on track.

Glitch in the Matrix...

 

[nameless]

This may be a very unpopular opinion, but I think our forwards and backs are quite overrated (and maybe even the rucks).

YES the midfield has A LOT to do with how poorly we do in all areas of the ground - don't push back hard enough, poor delivery up forward etc. I accept this!

On paper our fwd line looks very good with Kennedy, Darling, Gov, Lecca and a resting ruckman. But I don't feel they actually coordinate well enough, too often we see multiple players going for the same ball. Hell Buddy used to be used as a decoy for Roughead, they played around each other, not into each other.
It's no longer possible to have 6 one on one's as it's printed in the papers. Our forwards are often contending with multiple defenders/midfielders etc (YES THIS HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THE SLOW MIDFIELD). But there is still improvement to be made to the structure, Darling needs to play the Lynch role moving up to win the ball on the wing more often, he needs to be taking 6-8 marks a game as we move from defence to attack.
Our forward line also lacks a small forward, premierships are made from these players - Rioli, Puopolo, Motlop, Christensen etc. Cripps does a decent enough job defensively, but offensively he's a long way off it.

Our backs again look decent enough on paper (they also need more support from the mids), but there are countless times when the opposition scores easy goals or suddenly has this amazing accuracy against us. It's because they are given easy shots, marking within a 45 degree angle, or allowed an easy ball over the top or a 1 on 1 from a fast break (yes midfielders need to be better to stop this). We are generally quite good at stopping big forwards kick a bag, but when the ball hits the ground, we're often too weak, too slow or fumble the ball and the opposition scores.

I know you can't expect a perfect game, everyone makes mistakes, but to say we're just a good midfield a way from a premiership is not highlighting that we have deficiencies in other areas of the ground. Kennedy doesn't stand up when playing big teams (midfield's fault or not), our resting ruckman don't take contested marks or provide a lot of defensive ability. We have no smalls and Darling needs to be given a more defined role.

Brown has only just found his feet as a 2nd tall and while he's been good, he's not A-grade, Hurn doesn't have enough influence for the talent and experience that he has, he needs to do more (may be harsh). Ellis, Bennell, Shep, Schoey are solid, but injury and form are question marks that hang over them.

So while we need MASSIVE improvement in the midfield, a turnover of perhaps 3-5 players, we still need to add 1 or 2 decent smalls forward and back to ensure we have all areas covered.

 

[MIKE85]

This may be a very unpopular opinion, but I think our forwards and backs are quite overrated (and maybe even the rucks).

YES the midfield has A LOT to do with how poorly we do in all areas of the ground - don't push back hard enough, poor delivery up forward etc. I accept this!

On paper our fwd line looks very good with Kennedy, Darling, Gov, Lecca and a resting ruckman. But I don't feel they actually coordinate well enough, too often we see multiple players going for the same ball. Hell Buddy used to be used as a decoy for Roughead, they played around each other, not into each other.
It's no longer possible to have 6 one on one's as it's printed in the papers. Our forwards are often contending with multiple defenders/midfielders etc (YES THIS HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THE SLOW MIDFIELD). But there is still improvement to be made to the structure, Darling needs to play the Lynch role moving up to win the ball on the wing more often, he needs to be taking 6-8 marks a game as we move from defence to attack.
Our forward line also lacks a small forward, premierships are made from these players - Rioli, Puopolo, Motlop, Christensen etc. Cripps does a decent enough job defensively, but offensively he's a long way off it.

Our backs again look decent enough on paper (they also need more support from the mids), but there are countless times when the opposition scores easy goals or suddenly has this amazing accuracy against us. It's because they are given easy shots, marking within a 45 degree angle, or allowed an easy ball over the top or a 1 on 1 from a fast break (yes midfielders need to be better to stop this). We are generally quite good at stopping big forwards kick a bag, but when the ball hits the ground, we're often too weak, too slow or fumble the ball and the opposition scores.

I know you can't expect a perfect game, everyone makes mistakes, but to say we're just a good midfield a way from a premiership is not highlighting that we have deficiencies in other areas of the ground. Kennedy doesn't stand up when playing big teams (midfield's fault or not), our resting ruckman don't take contested marks or provide a lot of defensive ability. We have no smalls and Darling needs to be given a more defined role.

Brown has only just found his feet as a 2nd tall and while he's been good, he's not A-grade, Hurn doesn't have enough influence for the talent and experience that he has, he needs to do more (may be harsh). Ellis, Bennell, Shep, Schoey are solid, but injury and form are question marks that hang over them.

So while we need MASSIVE improvement in the midfield, a turnover of perhaps 3-5 players, we still need to add 1 or 2 decent smalls forward and back to ensure we have all areas covered.

Well said. Darling for mine is the one that seems to be a little lost. He had his best year when he played as the third tall. Ever since Lynch bailed he has been played at CHF, where he is not suited, or deep forward, where he also isn't great. He's not taking many contested marks, neither are any of the others, but at his size 191cm, his best position has to be a flank with spurts in the middle, that's it. He will not become a mid. I was all for trying him, but what we gain from him in the middle is far out weighed by what we lose from him up forward.

 

[LordHaart]

Well said. Darling for mine is the one that seems to be a little lost. He had his best year when he played as the third tall. Ever since Lynch bailed he has been played at CHF, where he is not suited, or deep forward, where he also isn't great. He's not taking many contested marks, neither are any of the others, but at his size 191cm, his best position has to be a flank with spurts in the middle, that's it. He will not become a mid. I was all for trying him, but what we gain from him in the middle is far out weighed by what we lose from him up forward.

Hopefully Gov can be that CHF we've been lacking.

 

[lmach]

we have a selwood who was touted as better than his brother Joel, but has been reduced to being a tagger because he cant do anything else, and he's not even a great tagger (bar one or two good games).

Far from the truth; he was never touted as being better than Joel. A lot of people at the time thought we only drafted him because of his surname.

 

[SpaceClef]

This may be a very unpopular opinion, but I think our forwards and backs are quite overrated (and maybe even the rucks).

YES the midfield has A LOT to do with how poorly we do in all areas of the ground - don't push back hard enough, poor delivery up forward etc. I accept this!

On paper our fwd line looks very good with Kennedy, Darling, Gov, Lecca and a resting ruckman. But I don't feel they actually coordinate well enough, too often we see multiple players going for the same ball. Hell Buddy used to be used as a decoy for Roughead, they played around each other, not into each other.
It's no longer possible to have 6 one on one's as it's printed in the papers. Our forwards are often contending with multiple defenders/midfielders etc (YES THIS HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THE SLOW MIDFIELD). But there is still improvement to be made to the structure, Darling needs to play the Lynch role moving up to win the ball on the wing more often, he needs to be taking 6-8 marks a game as we move from defence to attack.
Our forward line also lacks a small forward, premierships are made from these players - Rioli, Puopolo, Motlop, Christensen etc. Cripps does a decent enough job defensively, but offensively he's a long way off it.

Our backs again look decent enough on paper (they also need more support from the mids), but there are countless times when the opposition scores easy goals or suddenly has this amazing accuracy against us. It's because they are given easy shots, marking within a 45 degree angle, or allowed an easy ball over the top or a 1 on 1 from a fast break (yes midfielders need to be better to stop this). We are generally quite good at stopping big forwards kick a bag, but when the ball hits the ground, we're often too weak, too slow or fumble the ball and the opposition scores.

I know you can't expect a perfect game, everyone makes mistakes, but to say we're just a good midfield a way from a premiership is not highlighting that we have deficiencies in other areas of the ground. Kennedy doesn't stand up when playing big teams (midfield's fault or not), our resting ruckman don't take contested marks or provide a lot of defensive ability. We have no smalls and Darling needs to be given a more defined role.

Brown has only just found his feet as a 2nd tall and while he's been good, he's not A-grade, Hurn doesn't have enough influence for the talent and experience that he has, he needs to do more (may be harsh). Ellis, Bennell, Shep, Schoey are solid, but injury and form are question marks that hang over them.

So while we need MASSIVE improvement in the midfield, a turnover of perhaps 3-5 players, we still need to add 1 or 2 decent smalls forward and back to ensure we have all areas covered.

Re: our backs, it's disappointing that our key backmen all have such poor disposal. Mackenzie and Brown (and Glass before him) are all liabilities by foot and marginally better by hand. They are too dependent on finding Hurn which makes our rebounds predictable.

What's Barrass's kicking like? You really see the difference in a side where the KPDs are confident disposers. Mackenzie and Brown together is nerve wracking.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Far from the truth; he was never touted as being better than Joel. A lot of people at the time thought we only drafted him because of his surname.

That may be what you remember, but I remember hearing how great he was and that he was supposed to be the best Selwood, and he's been underwhelming to say the least.

 

[dajesmac]

That may be what you remember, but I remember hearing how great he was and that he was supposed to be the best Selwood, and he's been underwhelming to say the least.

Someone did say that I remember too.

I think Selwood is a fair bit under-rated on this board.

 

[lewigie]

Far from the truth; he was never touted as being better than Joel. A lot of people at the time thought we only drafted him because of his surname.

I think Joel said he would be better than Joel

 

[tesseract]

Does Wooroloo deserve an honourable mention??

I'm qualified to answer such a question, for I've spent part of my childhood years living in that sleepy hollow. The answer is no, it doesn't really deserve an honorable mention.

 

[SpaceClef]

Someone did say that I remember too.

I think Selwood is a fair bit under-rated on this board.

Only this year because he was awful.

I don't rate him. Panics too much with the ball and bombs it as a result of not trusting his passing by foot.

Average overhead/plays smaller than his height suggests, yet his hands are not clean when the ball is on the deck. Bit like Shep in this regard.

Hopefully this time off changes something for him. Our mids have had two head and midfield coaches now so we'll start to see whether it was Burns/Worsfold's poor coaching that caused our midfield to be so average, or just that the players themselves are.

I would like to see Selwood tried elsewhere. All other Selwoods played multiple positions - let's see how he goes with some stints as a defensive forward or hbf? Otherwise he becomes Priddis Mk2

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Someone did say that I remember too.

I think Selwood is a fair bit under-rated on this board.

Glad someone else remembers.

I actually i think its the opposite, I think he and a few others are over rated on this board, but that's the beauty of forums, there's always someone who's opinion makes you nod your head and another that makes you want to pull your hair out or say WTF? (No i'm not shouting).

 

[Masto]

It's funny how half our board are like: trade Shuey, trade Selwood, trade Masten, trade Naitanui... THESE ARE OUR BEST PLAYERS, or at least our most talented players. The idea is to add talent, not trade out talent.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

It's funny how half our board are like: trade Shuey, trade Selwood, trade Masten, trade Naitanui... THESE ARE OUR BEST PLAYERS, or at least our most talented players. The idea is to add talent, not trade out talent.

Its great to have talent, but when the player only selectively uses it and has little or no workrate its no good for the team. You need the correct mix of both, and unfortunately a lot of those guys you mentioned fluctuate greatly from one week to the other as to what they put in.
Potential is great for a while, but when you show potential and don't do whats required to achieve it fully, it just becomes wasted opportunity.
We have a few guys like the above who have shown great potential, but for some reason appear to be content just running out each week and going through the motions. You don't win flags with a team full of guys like that.

 

[lmach]

That may be what you remember, but I remember hearing how great he was and that he was supposed to be the best Selwood, and he's been underwhelming to say the least.

Can't remember anyone saying that, but the majority were questioning the decision to draft him.

 

[Eagle87]

That may be what you remember, but I remember hearing how great he was and that he was supposed to be the best Selwood, and he's been underwhelming to say the least.

He was never rated higher than Joel.

Their relative ratings are easily seen by their draft status. Joel was always the gun and only dropped to 7 because of concerns about his knees.

Scooter was rated ahead of the twins but behind Joel.


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