West Coast - When will the AFL step in?

[THE_GUN]

Okay but you’ve stated numbers that are very far from being accurate, I’m telling you what has actually occurred.

Where did your numbers come from?

I stated numbers directly from the AFL website about the ages of lists. How are they far from accurate ?

The oldest and youngest teams of 2025 revealed

Collingwood was two years older than the second-oldest team on average each week in 2025

www.afl.com.au

 

[Spook]

Was second youngest at the start of the year - but that included Dom Sheed who was never going to play again once he did his ACL and Jeremy McGovern.

Probably youngest now (and least experienced)

Just wondering, Did you also adjust other clubs average for retirements and ACLs?

 

[Shueygod]

I stated numbers directly from the AFL website about the ages of lists. How are they far from accurate ?

The oldest and youngest teams of 2025 revealed

Collingwood was two years older than the second-oldest team on average each week in 2025

www.afl.com.au

That’s the average of best 23s for the first 12 rounds, neither list nor up to date average age for best 23s.

An up to date look has the eagles last at 24.6 and Richmond 5th last at 25.

Stop embarrassing yourself with these posts and learn to read.

 

[kranky al]

Weird when your best players this century are mostly VIC metro Judd, Shuey, Gaff etc, perhaps you need to go back to creating an environment where the kids want to stay

we’ve lost very few players. Judd is the only big name player we’ve lost.

So I don’t know what on earth you are talking about.

If a kid (such as sheezel for instance) tells us he’s going to piss off home very first chance he gets, we take that seriously and look to draft elsewhere.

We have found over time that kids that come from vic country move to Perth and love it, most stay after footy.

So if there are two players around the same pick - ones from melbs and ones from country vic we are likely to take the country kid.

If there’s a melbs kid and a wa kid around the same mark and the Melbourne kid has intimated that he doesn’t want to leave. Melbourne we will pick the W.A. kid.

If there’s a Melbourne kid and he has intimated that he wants to stay in Victoria and there’s no W.A./ vic country or South Australian kid in that pic Area we tend to split the pick.

That’s the reality of it.

We haven’t had a problem retaining players because we play the game according to the paradigm that exists where Vic kids openly say they don’t want to leave home and the VFL media says sfa or if an interstate kid says the same the VFL media call it draft tampering and it’s the end of the world and he shouldn’t be allowed to….

The VFL media never shuts up about Harley Reid coming home and how we shouldn’t draft him and has a tanty when JHF goes home.

We are used to it and plan accordingly.

 

[kranky al]

They are still waiting to get the band back together...

"Just you wait until we get [insert long list of totally cooked players here] back.
We don't need a rebuild. We are the Eagles. We never stay down long. We have the most money in the comp. ....

Have you seen how good Ginbey, Edwards and Hewett are? All champions....

Blah blah blah...."

This is the deluded horseshit Eagles fans have been spinning for five years now in here.

Very tiresome.

Imagine if we could get players outside of the draft from academies like Sydney can.

I mean dude, I understand non-heartland states need every help they can get and I approved of this but gloating about it?

And two of those players were drafted a coupla years ago so ….. five years is a stretch.

Being the richest club doesn’t do much when you have a football spending cap does it?

 

[Le RickyBobby]

They are still waiting to get the band back together...

"Just you wait until we get [insert long list of totally cooked players here] back.
We don't need a rebuild. We are the Eagles. We never stay down long. We have the most money in the comp. ....

Have you seen how good Ginbey, Edwards and Hewett are? All champions....

Blah blah blah...."

This is the deluded horseshit Eagles fans have been spinning for five years now in here.

Very tiresome.

Spot on!

That's the bit that gets lost, they've been singing the same song for so long. Going on 5 years into a rebuild and Ginbey and Hewett are their prized assets.

Outside of Reid there is a lot of mediocrity.

They need to nail the draft this year.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

we’ve lost very few players. Judd is the only big name player we’ve lost.

So I don’t know what on earth you are talking about.

If a kid (such as sheezel for instance) tells us he’s going to piss off home very first chance he gets, we take that seriously and look to draft elsewhere.

We have found over time that kids that come from vic country move to Perth and love it, most stay after footy.

So if there are two players around the same pick - ones from melbs and ones from country vic we are likely to take the country kid.

If there’s a melbs kid and a wa kid around the same mark and the Melbourne kid has intimated that he doesn’t want to leave. Melbourne we will pick the W.A. kid.

If there’s a Melbourne kid and he has intimated that he wants to stay in Victoria and there’s no W.A./ vic country or South Australian kid in that pic Area we tend to split the pick.

That’s the reality of it.

We haven’t had a problem retaining players because we play the game according to the paradigm that exists where Vic kids openly say they don’t want to leave home and the VFL media says sfa or if an interstate kid says the same the VFL media call it draft tampering and it’s the end of the world and he shouldn’t be allowed to….

The VFL media never shuts up about Harley Reid coming home and how we shouldn’t draft him and has a tanty when JHF goes home.

We are used to it and plan accordingly.

You are confirming my point, one of the WCE fans said that since 2010 the Eagles have steered clear of VIC metro kids, why would you do this when the evidence shows it’s not in your best interest.

Perhaps by not taking Sheezel then you set the precedent to all the kids and their managers of how to not be selected by the Eagles, instead of backing in your culture that you will change them once they are Eagles

 

[Mr Q]

Half those blokes you kept gifting new contract extensions to when they were getting around in wheelchairs.

Embarrassing shit.

The Eagles 2022 squad wasn't even the average oldest that season, and was younger than the '25 lists of Collingwood, Brisbane or Melbourne.

It wasn't that long off being a premiership team.

You are however making a good argument for the WA teams getting serious assistance to cover the additional cost of all that travel.

 

[Rich01]

You are however making a good argument for the WA teams getting serious assistance to cover the additional cost of all that travel.

The AFL cover travel costs for AFL teams.

 

[kranky al]

You are confirming my point, one of the WCE fans said that since 2010 the Eagles have steered clear of VIC metro kids, why would you do this when the evidence shows it’s not in your best interest.

Perhaps by not taking Sheezel then you set the precedent to all the kids and their managers of how to not be selected by the Eagles, instead of backing in your culture that you will change them once they are Eagles

With the overwhelming evidence coming from interstate clubs losing vic metro kids every single year whilst we benefit from go home kids every year I don’t think you are on the right track at all.

Our premiership in 2018 had redden, yeo, Jetta, Hutchings and Cripps as come homes and no one of note I can think of as go homes. They formed a huge part of that flag.

.
Right now we have Liam baker, Jayden hunt, Tyler brockman, Tim Kelly, Jamie Cripps, Jack graham, matt Flynn, as come homes or trade ins and an excellent player but injury prone Tim barrass gone and again excellent player but injury prone oallen looking at leaving.

I’d say as far as player retention and recruiting goes we are nailing the go home factor both ways better than any other interstate team.

We took Harley Reid, despite all the static from the VFL media and I’m pretty confident the kids signing up on a long term deal.

Putting development into kids who are likely to leave is a mugs game. See norf….

 

[Mr Q]

The AFL cover travel costs for AFL teams.

The finances aren't what I'm taking about, I'm taking about the additional strain on the players from all that plane travel, and the cost in shortened careers.

 

[Cyber_punk]

1-22 is not something I would have ever thought a big club like them could fall to. A small club like ours it's more believable.

 

[fnerd]

1-22 is not something I would have ever thought a big club like them could fall to. A small club like ours it's more believable.

Yep.

Dons and blues too essentially too

So perhaps north and their supporters can finally let that chip on their shoulder go for good .

and understand they’re only in the situation they find themselves in due to terrible incompetency from their own doing and NOT some big conspiracy from the AFL , fixturing, big clubs,ungrateful non vic draftees and basic poor minnow club is us attitudes etc.

 

[Obeanie1]

You are confirming my point, one of the WCE fans said that since 2010 the Eagles have steered clear of VIC metro kids, why would you do this when the evidence shows it’s not in your best interest.

Perhaps by not taking Sheezel then you set the precedent to all the kids and their managers of how to not be selected by the Eagles, instead of backing in your culture that you will change them once they are Eagles

Eagles have drafted a lot of Victorians.

Just not Metro kids.

They often go best available and not just WA kids. However in 2022 Ginbey and Hewett were two very good WA prospects.

Sheezel was a major flight risk, lets not ignore that. Major flight risk.

Harley
Shanahan
A Reid
Chesser
Johnston
Long
Maric
Hutchinson
Gross
Grego
B Williams
McCarthy
Petruccelle
Cole
Duggan

All from Victoria, Eagles have had many long termers drafted from Victoria.

 

[Rich01]

Fans believe they have a great retention rate of players. But they do this by and large by not drafting the vic metro kids.

Their willingness to trade down last year after knowing their Vic Country targets were likely gone, as well as opting not to draft Sheezel in 22 to trade down further underlines their strategy.

Bo Allan over Murphy Reid was another example from last year.

Rather than try to build a culture to retain the best players regardless of where they are from, they have chosen to play around it.

For this reason I think they will overlook CDT this year.

It’s not a criticism of the way they work, just an observation.

 

[Le RickyBobby]

1-22

Captains gone to Brissy.

They have to step in this year. Joke of a football club atm.

 

[swingdog]

Fans believe they have a great retention rate of players. But they do this by and large by not drafting the vic metro kids.

Their willingness to trade down last year after knowing their Vic Country targets were likely gone, as well as opting not to draft Sheezel in 22 to trade down further underlines their strategy.

Bo Allan over Murphy Reid was another example from last year.

Rather than try to build a culture to retain the best players regardless of where they are from, they have chosen to play around it.

For this reason I think they will overlook CDT this year.

It’s not a criticism of the way they work, just an observation.

All interstate clubs have to keep that in mind when drafting Vic Metro kids.

 

[Obeanie1]

1-22

Captains gone to Brissy.

They have to step in this year. Joke of a football club atm.

Lol. If you say so.

At least as a club we fans have never hurled abuse and spat on our players walking off.

 

[kranky al]

Fans believe they have a great retention rate of players. But they do this by and large by not drafting the vic metro kids.

Their willingness to trade down last year after knowing their Vic Country targets were likely gone, as well as opting not to draft Sheezel in 22 to trade down further underlines their strategy.

Bo Allan over Murphy Reid was another example from last year.

Rather than try to build a culture to retain the best players regardless of where they are from, they have chosen to play around it.

For this reason I think they will overlook CDT this year.

It’s not a criticism of the way they work, just an observation.

We do draft vic metro kids - just not the ones who flat out tell us they will leave first chance they get.

Sheezel is the classic example - he told us not to draft him he’s going home regardless.

Imagine how much you would have to bend over backwards to try brown nose a first year kid and how deleterious that is to the playing group and your culture.

As I said earlier in the thread, we benefit at a rate of about 5-1 with come homes vs go homes….. we still draft plenty of vic / vic metro kids and we keep winning flags….

 

[Rich01]

We do draft vic metro kids - just not the ones who flat out tell us they will leave first chance they get.

Sheezel is the classic example - he told us not to draft him he’s going home regardless.

Imagine how much you would have to bend over backwards to try brown nose a first year kid and how deleterious that is to the playing group and your culture.

As I said earlier in the thread, we benefit at a rate of about 5-1 with come homes vs go homes….. we still draft plenty of vic / vic metro kids and we keep winning flags….

Did Logan Morris and Murphy Reid say the same thing?

There’s a balance between having a strategy that excludes players from certain areas and picking best available.

 

[The_Reaper]

Fans believe they have a great retention rate of players. But they do this by and large by not drafting the vic metro kids.

Their willingness to trade down last year after knowing their Vic Country targets were likely gone, as well as opting not to draft Sheezel in 22 to trade down further underlines their strategy.

Bo Allan over Murphy Reid was another example from last year.

Rather than try to build a culture to retain the best players regardless of where they are from, they have chosen to play around it.

For this reason I think they will overlook CDT this year.

It’s not a criticism of the way they work, just an observation.

Brisbane openly do the same.

In fairness to Vic Metro kids its also largely psychological.

A Vic Country or a Tasmanian kid (other than someone born in Geelong) knows that if he is drafted he is leaving his home town and family regardless. In fact a huge proportion of country kids in general will leave their home town for education/work at some point even beyond footballl so a lot of their mates will leave as well.

WA and SA kids know it is almost certain.

So Vic Country/WA and SA kids come to terms with out it before leaving the draft.

Its only the Vic Metro kids who know they have a good chance to stay at home and play AFL so don't come to terms with leaving predraft. Plus almost all of their school mates won't leave either.

 

[kranky al]

Did Logan Morris and Murphy Reid say the same thing?

There’s a balance between having a strategy that excludes players from certain areas and picking best available.

Yeah. We took “Chopper” Reid despite the vic media just about going nuts telling us he’d come home in 5 minutes.

We split a pick and got the big ranga get im up ere I wanna boof im Ginbey and Hewitt.

Ginbey will end up a multiple aa and Hewitt is tracking incredibly well and will become at least an a grade mid but has upside that could be higher again.

I’m backing the club on when they do and don’t choose to do this. They speak to the kids involved.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

All interstate clubs have to keep that in mind when drafting Vic Metro kids.

Giants use it to their advantage? Knowing that they will get highly draft picks in return for anyone who wants to go home, have a pipeline of high picks

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

Yeah. We took “Chopper” Reid despite the vic media just about going nuts telling us he’d come home in 5 minutes.

We split a pick and got the big ranga get im up ere I wanna boof im Ginbey and Hewitt.

Ginbey will end up a multiple aa and Hewitt is tracking incredibly well and will become at least an a grade mid but has upside that could be higher again.

I’m backing the club on when they do and don’t choose to do this. They speak to the kids involved.

Love your faith in Gibbey, but nothing he has done at AFL level suggests he will be an elite level footballer.

 

[Rich01]

Yeah. We took “Chopper” Reid despite the vic media just about going nuts telling us he’d come home in 5 minutes.

We are taking about vic metro kids.
Harley wasn’t vic metro.