Autopsy Round 4, 2026: Positives and Negatives vs Sydney

[xInfected_Virus]

No Yeo, Murdock, Robertson and Newton are huge losses. If they were both fit and firing the club certainly doesn't lose by 128 points. Easily under 100 at worst and about 10 goals at best.

Without them the team lost physicality. The team has often performed better with Yeo on the field. The team was down 12 tackles and Champion and Owies failed to replicate the physicality Yeo and Robertson provided.

With all four of Yeo, Murdock, Robertson and Newton the team's defensive and forward pressure are much better than before.

Flynn against elite rucks once again an elite Ruck in Grundy was rated BOG. Against Gold Coast Witts was BOG imo, against North Xerri was BOG and against Port he broke even because they don't have a strong ruck division. The sooner the team can find a ready made upgrade the better the team's fortunes would be.

I did personally rate Ginbey and believed he can be the number 1 KPD with better craft and knowledge but I changed my mind, the team is in need of an number 1 KPD so Ginbey can play on the third tall and run and rebound more.

Hough needs to revert to the Brad Sheppard MK-II lockdown role where he's best at shutting down medium and small forwards. He has less impact when he's trying to be more attacking, he more impactful when the opposition gun small forwards are neutralized.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

No Yeo, Murdock, Robertson and Newton are huge losses. If they were both fit and firing the club certainly doesn't lose by 128 points. Easily under 100 at worst and about 10 goals at best.

Without them the team lost physicality. The team has often performed better with Yeo on the field. The team was down 12 tackles and Champion and Owies failed to replicate the physicality Yeo and Robertson provided.

With all four of Yeo, Murdock, Robertson and Newton the team's defensive and forward pressure are much better than before.

Flynn against elite rucks once again an elite Ruck in Grundy was rated BOG. Against Gold Coast Witts was BOG imo, against North Xerri was BOG and against Port he broke even because they don't have a strong ruck division. The sooner the team can find a ready made upgrade the better the team's fortunes would be.

I did personally rate Ginbey and believed he can be the number 1 KPD with better craft and knowledge but I changed my mind, the team is in need of an number 1 KPD so Ginbey can play on the third tall and run and rebound more.

Hough needs to revert to the Brad Sheppard MK-II lockdown role where he's best at shutting down medium and small forwards. He has less impact when he's trying to be more attacking, he more impactful when the opposition gun small forwards are neutralized.

Bad result. But it's just one game and nobody should have expected the improvement to be a linear line sloping upwards with no blips. Two games like this in a row or short space of time would be reason to worry though.

 

[whatis]

Positives:

Mini would have gathered some good data from that game. Expect a massive turnaround if we face the Swans in finals later this year.

Negatives:

My soul hurts.
David King on commentary. Miserable, whiny campaigner deserves an uppercut. Witch hunt against Harley tonight was out of line.

 

[Mudguts12]

Jamie Cripps

15

Jamie Cripps

Age

33

Ht

184cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.7

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.8

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

3.9

5star

G

1.3

5star

D

10.3

3star

K

6.3

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

2.4

3star

G

0.4

3star

D

6.4

2star

K

4.2

2star

HB

2.2

2star

M

1.0

1star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.4

5star

6 tackles so far for 2026. He's shot. Isnt his role a pressure forward? Just a total non factor these days.

Remember when Josh Rotham

35

Josh Rotham

Age

28

Ht

193cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

2.8

2star

M

4.7

4star

T

1.8

4star

MG

167.2

3star

D

7.5

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

1.0

1star

M

2.0

2star

T

2.5

3star

MG

157.5

3star

D

10.8

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

168.0

3star

had a run in the ruck back in the Simmo days. Even he would've dominated Flynn. I agree it's like having a 5 goal handicap.

Duggan has to have the record for most kicks smothered. Such a frustrating and low IQ player. Hit his ceiling in 2018 and its been downhill since then.

I like Tyler Young but seeing him live he doesn't have the pace, strength to play on KPF's.

Funny that with all the hype of getting Baker, that Graham has ended up being the better player for us so far.

 

[garlic munchers]

Just over 40 possessions from our 6 fwds for an entire game is diabolical.

Cripps, Owies and Champion ain’t it.

 

[garlic munchers]

Not even the Donald would try and spin this result.

 

[LittleFires]

I attended the game - was an absolute shitshow and the sooner I forget what happened the better.

While I was staring into space post-siren and processing what I’d just witnessed, I couldn’t help but notice one Swans player spending the most amount of time chatting to Eagles players.

The Chad spent a good 2 minutes catching up with Harley post-game, and I also saw him chat at length afterwards with Baker and Waterman.

I know rumours around him moving back to WA are rife already but it’s not hard to see why. He would certainly look very nice alongside Harley in a couple years time.

 

[wce4premiership]

Gladly didn't see the game, but excited to watch Willem Duursma highlights, that's about it.

Bring back Murgod.

 

[jdisc]

Not even the Donald would try and spin this result.

Quite frankly, the Eagles didn’t just win, they won bigly. One of the biggest wins you’ll ever see, maybe the biggest.

The fake news will tell you Sydney kicked 24 goals, but a lot of those were very fraudulent, very suspicious goals. Garbage goals. Stat-padding. Everyone knows it.

If you watched the game properly, West Coast dominated completely. Total control. Total authority. A massive Eagles victory that the corrupt scoreboard and dishonest media are trying very hard to hide. But the fans know. The real fans know.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

With the rule changes and heavy, heavy draft compromises, the gulf between the good and bad teams has never been wider. Which leaves us with this, a pretty easily drawn Division system of the good teams and the meme teams.

I think this can form a good benchmark for us. Can we snag some wins from the real teams, and can we finish in the top two of this group of also rans (aka avoid bottom four).

We’re currently 2-0 within the shit division, and 0-2 outside with a 10 and 20 goal loss. Geelong and Freo to come before we play the other five shitters within a nine game span (with St Kilda, Melbourne, GWS, Collingwood interspersed, hardly a murderers row).

Grit your teeth and get through the next fortnight. Then comes a two month period which, if vaguely healthy, will be a very fair reflection of what we are against the teams we need to surpass before we can honestly say the rebuild has meaningfully turned beyond the green shoots stages.

 

[juice568]

With the rule changes and heavy, heavy draft compromises, the gulf between the good and bad teams has never been wider. Which leaves us with this, a pretty easily drawn Division system of the good teams and the meme teams.

I think this can form a good benchmark for us. Can we snag some wins from the real teams, and can we finish in the top two of this group of also rans (aka avoid bottom four).

We’re currently 2-0 within the shit division, and 0-2 outside with a 10 and 20 goal loss. Geelong and Freo to come before we play the other five shitters within a nine game span (with St Kilda, Melbourne, GWS, Collingwood interspersed, hardly a murderers row).

Grit your teeth and get through the next fortnight. Then comes a two month period which, if vaguely healthy, will be a very fair reflection of what we are against the teams we need to surpass before we can honestly say the rebuild has meaningfully turned beyond the green shoots stages.

Surely melbourne are in the shit division too

 

[Selurs]

We gave Heeney far too much space, and he absolutely tore us to pieces. Taggers are back in vogue, we can’t just “back in our system " when the guys are still learning and developing.

We've run tags the first three weeks, so really odd we didn't tonight. Heeny was more often than not in meters of open space, was really frustrating.

Also, does anyone know what we did to the swans to hurt them? Did we run over their team cat or something? More than any other team they seem to take a perverse pleasure in not just beating us, but keeping the pedal down and making it a proper demolition - that's six consecutive wins by an average of nearly 93 points! That takes special motivation, but honestly no idea why they'd pick us to do it to?

 

[RookiePick]

Anybody hoping there is anything to come up from the WAFL should put that thought to bed.

The WAFL side were also abject and the only.person who would get excited by anything we have at that level is Tony Galati.

 

[omgfridge]

Positives

• Duursma is going to be an absolute jet.
• CDT getting some ruck time, loved him taking it straight out of the ruck.
• Bo Allan, really coming along especially when Mini moved him to the centre 2nd half.
• Ginbey, had some goals kicked on him but he was doing the work of 6 men down back tonight.

Negatives

• Tylar Young is bad positionally and also bad one one one. Looked completely lost all day. Had 2 kicked on himearly then moved to Curnow who immediately got a goal. Multiple times after that just in no mans land.
• Owies and Mini saying we need more senior players, please don't include this bloke, he is absolute dogwater.
• Flynn, his West Coast career peaked couple weeks back with that goal, now send him to the wafl, you may as well play with 1 down with him on field. I'm no big bad Bailey fan but has to come in to at least offer something else.
• The missed tackles! They were endless and I'm glad there is not a swear jar in my house.
• Duggan, I think it was the 4th quarter but had a comical 30 seconds of being completely inept. Can't wait for us to have the depth to phase him out.
• Lots more but we've all been here multiple times throughout the years, hopefully bounce back and show a bit more.

 

[BSD]

Positives

• Duursma is going to be an absolute jet.
• CDT getting some ruck time, loved him taking it straight out of the ruck.
• Bo Allan, really coming along especially when Mini moved him to the centre 2nd half.
• Ginbey, had some goals kicked on him but he was doing the work of 6 men down back tonight.

Negatives

• Tylar Young is bad positionally and also bad one one one. Looked completely lost all day. Had 2 kicked on himearly then moved to Curnow who immediately got a goal. Multiple times after that just in no mans land.
• Owies and Mini saying we need more senior players, please don't include this bloke, he is absolute dogwater.
• Flynn, his West Coast career peaked couple weeks back with that goal, now send him to the wafl, you may as well play with 1 down with him on field. I'm no big bad Bailey fan but has to come in to at least offer something else.
• The missed tackles! They were endless and I'm glad there is not a swear jar in my house.
• Duggan, I think it was the 4th quarter but had a comical 30 seconds of being completely inept. Can't wait for us to have the depth to phase him out.
• Lots more but we've all been here multiple times throughout the years, hopefully bounce back and show a bit more.

At the risk of being called a broken record again, it would have been far more effective to put the number14 eagles jumper on a traffic cone and put it out on the ground for the Swans training drill.
We have a long way to go to match the fast game Sydney played yesterday. We have too many plodders in our midfield who also can't kick goals like Chad and Heeney. Replacing 2 midfielders with 2 small fwds was also a dumb move.
The game was lost from the first bounce, Flynn was putrid, would BBBW have done any better ?

 

[EagleEgo]

Surely melbourne are in the shit division too

With N Daicos injured, Collingwood will join the bottom 9. St Kilda will not do much better with this list and also join the bottom half.

 

[Shueygod]

Also fair, but it’s been his career. So, have they addressed it and he continues to do it? Or has it never been addressed internally and he continues to do it?

Either way, he continues to do it. He’s in his 3rd year. When do you stop ‘he’s just a kid’ comments? Would it be tolerated if it was any other 20 year old?

“Harley’s undisciplined because he gave away a free for bumping some one within 5m of the ball”.

Try actually watching the game and forming your own opinion instead of spewing this ******* rhetoric.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Still feel the biggest negative was Luke Shueys stoppage coaching... I think the guy coaches like we have Naitanui/Cox in the ruck basically. The logic of us constantly being on the offensive while getting absolutely pantsed in the hithouts makes zero sense. We should have positioned ourselves on the defensive end of the contest once the ruck dominance was apparent but we changed nothing and pretended Flynn could win a hitout to advantage which never came

Its the boys club mentality. Shuey was a sublime player... he is just a terrible coach. Flynn makes a sublime Chicken Curry, he just cant play football, Johnston is a great person whose good with the fans but he just isnt good with the football. We need to cut a few off and do so with a bit more ruthlessness.

I mean in the end once we missed Cameron we needed to do SOMETHING. We had quite a few options. Im not even sure if its Captain Hindsight but moving on Harry Barnett to get Mason Cox

18

Mason Cox

Age

35

Ht

211cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.7

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

3.5

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.2

4star

D

6.0

1star

K

3.0

1star

HB

3.0

2star

M

2.3

2star

T

0.3

1star

G

1.0

4star

D

9.0

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.6

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.8

5star

was a no brainer. His competitive spirit is what we need and he would be first choice ruck... Instead we kept the proven failure and in reality no reasoning exists other than us being too soft to make the tough call

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Quite frankly, the Eagles didn’t just win, they won bigly. One of the biggest wins you’ll ever see, maybe the biggest.

The fake news will tell you Sydney kicked 24 goals, but a lot of those were very fraudulent, very suspicious goals. Garbage goals. Stat-padding. Everyone knows it.

If you watched the game properly, West Coast dominated completely. Total control. Total authority. A massive Eagles victory that the corrupt scoreboard and dishonest media are trying very hard to hide. But the fans know. The real fans know.

"Did you see Matt Flynn today. A unmovable object. The guy, he's so big, he's a machine, he's a weapon. You know what I think everyone is scared of him. People are jealous that we have someone like him in our administration"

 

[bzparkes]

Surely melbourne are in the shit division too

Laughton is a Melbourne supporter, hence why he didn't put them in there, despite being thumped by Freo.

 

[Cuzz09]

I dont think the difference in rest days made much of a difference as it was literally from the first bounce it was tripe.

Be interesting when we play Catlton in June we would have had a 14 or 15 day break v a 6 or 7 for Carl and a more even opponent.

 

[bzparkes]

I dont think the difference in rest days made much of a difference as it was literally from the first bounce it was tripe.

Be interesting when we play Catlton in June we would have had a 14 or 15 day break v a 6 or 7 for Carl and a more even opponent.

Vic media will cry about unfair that is. Just you watch...

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Disappointing result but you're gonna get these when you're a young developing side missing Yeo, Edwards, Murdoch, Dev & Starc. Look what a flop Pies were with Daicos out or Skidney's performances with Heeney & Gulden out (granted, higher quality outs. But it's all relative).

What really bothered me about the loss is that it's the older players that stunk it up. The players who have the mature bodies and AFL experience to put out a performance that at least resembles AFL quality. You can accept poor games from kids, but you expect better from senior players.

The sooner Flynn, Duggan Cripps & Owies are playing WAFL the better. Likewise we're seeing why Young, Schoenberg and Macrae's (on WAFL form) clubs let them go. They're just not much chop. Ideally, they're WAFL depth so they can help our developing youth.

Anyway, after enduring these losses for years, I'm kinda numb to these types of scores. Onwards to next week.

 

[PremiershipNo4]

He's also a massive momentum killer, and then he turns the ball over.

No one from our 2018 premiership team should be in the side, the only one who still a good footballer is Elliot Yeo, and he can’t stay on the field. So disappointing to see Duggan named as co captain, he is the weakest link in our defence, slow, fumbles a lot, so many poor kicks, terrible on his right side, slow and negative decision making often slowing the game down or kicking backwards. Still reverts to the slow negative footy under the Simmo era.
Shocking choice as captain and another contract extension that makes me

 

[Wooshaaaa]

The AFL has a problem they've created, that the developing teams can't compete with the top 6. Equalization has failed.

This shouldn't be happening in the AFL, sans new teams like GWS GCS and soon to be Tassie..... cough!!! (correction.....the AFL will rape and pillage everyone else to ensure it doesn't happen to Tassie)

Its hard enough watching you own team getting flogged, but when you sit down and watch 8 other games and only ever see 2 or 3 competitive battles, the game has lost it.

I couldn't watch, but checked the score at the 15 minute mark and didn't bother again until I got home to find 120 ****ing points. Honorable losses should be 60 points or less from now on.