Are we are an irrelevant club?

[arfadunger]

I guess that the Eagles are financially strong, employ lots of good people in the AFL system and have a large, incredibly loyal, fan base.

However:

The club simply does whatever the AFL says.

We are a mid table side.

We play a bruise free game style.

Players seem to be recruited based on their character rather than their footballing ability.

Are we now just an irrelevant club? I think that we just about are.

I used to take great pleasure some years ago having a crack at Docker supporters about how the players from the club that they supported used to strut around town acting as though they were kings of Perth simply because they were playing in the AFL, but they never achieved anything. There seems to be a lot of that about the Eagles at the moment.

For someone who has followed the club from the inception and seeing how hard the players and club had to work to gain respect from the VFL and AFL community it's so disappointing to see what is happening now.

 

[ChampRevesby]

We are a very powerful club off-field but pandering to corporate interests, pleasing grandmas with safe player selections and building houses in Cambodia does not win flags.

 

[domo]

ask Aaron Sandilands if we play a bruise free style of game

I think you are clutching at straws to find meaning to why we are losing. I'd be the first to acknowlege post Cuz drugs dramas we self imposed handbrakes on our spirit trying "change culture". But we were frikken hammered by the AFL .. it was pathetic. And our club jumped at ghosts and perceptions with major paranoia. With Cuz not even testing positive in their stupid system which saw others get multiple 'strikes' and nothing happened. All the bullshit about our flags being tainted. Collingwood + their outlaws. Mathew Stokes was selling the gear. Not to mention their prize recruit + darling Harmichal Krunt. And then you had Hird & the Bombers.. frikken joke. Their whole first grade side should have been excluded from the comp for a year. Now they're edging Hird back into the fold.

We will never get respect from the east. Fork em! We don't want it. They won't even exclude bullshit VFL stats/memories/records and romance from their calculations and wankmusings. No, you have not won record number of premierships in AFL which include those you won in VFL you morons!

We are totally relevant! We kick their arse and they can't handle it. Let's see how those softcoks over there would go traveling 1000s kms every second week? and besides that.. surprise surprise.. just like every other sporting comp in the world, teams have a home advantage. "Flat trackers" BHAhAHAHa if that's the best they can come up with about us then they are the truly irrelevant ones.

 

[Beutbrute]

We are a very powerful club off-field but pandering to corporate interests, pleasing grandmas with safe player selections and building houses in Cambodia does not win flags.

Agree with most of the above, but the last time we went to Cambodia was also the last time we made the grand final and looked like a good team

 

[Crimson King]

Ease up, we are not the Fremantle Dockers.

 

[TheGhostOfJohnBelushi]

We're definitely meandering.

The club used to stand for something and fought to be the best at everything. We basically showed the entire comp how to use the draft (multiple times, I might add). We forged the way for every single non-Victorian club, copping s**t draws, "home" finals in Melbourne, and basically are the club that made the national competition what it was. Without us, it would have failed.

We were the trendsetters, but now we've been overtaken by way too many clubs for my liking. We'll continue to be financially successful. Given our position in the WA market, it's impossible for us not to be. But we've dropped the ball in a competitive sense. We've lost the edge that made us win 3 flags in the first 20 years of our existence. I feel, ultimately (and many have said this before), we're stale. Nisbett and co have been there for far too long and we needed to transition away into a more dynamic and strong visioned leadership group. I'm talking from the top down. We don't want to be one of those clubs where the line is "this is how we've always done it".

One thing I actually feel works against us is the financial security of being the most supported club in WA. It breeds a contentedness and we have the same old boys hitting the same KPIs and the same line saying "we've won the third most games in the comp in the last few years" and the same old nannas clapping the boys because memberships are full with the same old, same old, same old. The new stadium move may be a kick up the butt needed, but I still fear they'll fill the stadium just as easily and everyone will be just as content. 60k isn't really a huge leap from 43k considering those on the waiting list. But we'll see how that goes.

I actually think, and this is likely gonna be shot down, that a third WA team would do both clubs here the world of good. More competition in the market. More chances for the public to see football at our new stadium. More desire to go just that bit better. Let's face it, Fremantle have been the worst possible competition for us in this state. They have been woeful for 20+ years bar a small bump in 2013.

We definitely need a spark. A drive to be the best. If it's there already, I'm just not seeing it.

 

[RookiePick]

...

I actually think, and this is likely gonna be shot down, that a third WA team would do both clubs here the world of good. More competition in the market. More chances for the public to see football at our new stadium. More desire to go just that bit better. Let's face it, Fremantle have been the worst possible competition for us in this state. They have been woeful for 20+ years bar a small bump in 2013.

We definitely need a spark. A drive to be the best. If it's there already, I'm just not seeing it.

If they got a third team up and going and West Coast were still showing no improvement in their will to fight out a game it would have to be tempting.

Getting in on the ground floor with a new organisation would have to have a lot of disgruntled punters and saps who have been stuck "In the Wings" for years and years considering it.

This is the first time I can remember feeling embarrassed to tell folks I support West Coast and it's all down to the insipid brand of footy we play.

 

[WCErevival]

People really need to get a grip. We are on a downward cycle atm. So according to footy tragics we are irrelevant, dont stand for anything, have poor culture, are accepting mediocrity or any of the other rubbish that gets thrown around reglarly in situations like this. Its just footy. It will come back around.

 

[BartBart]

It seems to me we have switched one form of poor culture with another.

 

[QS]

ask Aaron Sandilands if we play a bruise free style of game

I think you are clutching at straws to find meaning to why we are losing. I'd be the first to acknowlege post Cuz drugs dramas we self imposed handbrakes on our spirit trying "change culture". But we were frikken hammered by the AFL .. it was pathetic. And our club jumped at ghosts and perceptions with major paranoia. With Cuz not even testing positive in their stupid system which saw others get multiple 'strikes' and nothing happened. All the bullshit about our flags being tainted. Collingwood + their outlaws. Mathew Stokes was selling the gear. Not to mention their prize recruit + darling Harmichal Krunt. And then you had Hird & the Bombers.. frikken joke. Their whole first grade side should have been excluded from the comp for a year. Now they're edging Hird back into the fold.

We will never get respect from the east. Fork em! We don't want it. They won't even exclude bullshit VFL stats/memories/records and romance from their calculations and wankmusings. No, you have not won record number of premierships in AFL which include those you won in VFL you morons!

We are totally relevant! We kick their arse and they can't handle it. Let's see how those softcoks over there would go traveling 1000s kms every second week? and besides that.. surprise surprise.. just like every other sporting comp in the world, teams have a home advantage. "Flat trackers" BHAhAHAHa if that's the best they can come up with about us then they are the truly irrelevant ones.

Wow. Dude can post outside of the Priddis thread!

 

[Macpotata]

This season - Yes. But it was only two years ago you made the GF which is better than what most had did of late. Made b2b GF's in 05 & 06 and in 07 were ****ed by injuries and drugs. 12 years ago is not that long in football terms especially considering what you did in 2011, 12, and even last year. The Adelaide Crows haven't made a GF for almost 20 years just like North, and Melbourne etc. Teams go ages without winning one so in the big picture you aren't irrelevant but the short term, yes. Things look like they're going to or perhaps have to go quite a few steps back to go forward imo.

Sheed's a gun and Nit Nat to come back, quality right there. JK is a ******* star.

Fremantle Dockers, * now that is irrelevant.

 

[Smeg Head]

We have been mediocre soft nice people (and seemingly recruited that way too) ever since the inquiry into the drugs issue here. Patrick McGinnity would be the player who came in during that time with the most mongrel.

 

[eagles rule]

WCE are one win out of 4 th position and playing 4 kids or 5 when Barrass is back in ..

With a decent ruck combo back in 2018 we can easily bounce into the top 4 next year ..

 

[ndot]

If you have to ask if you're irrelevant, then you're irrelevant.

 

[Eaglespur]

What a bizarre post, West coast are a very relevant club. League would be greatly inferior without them.

 

[Dark Sharks]

Yeah, but are we actually that bad?

 

[javaguice]

Yeah, but are we actually that bad?

Nah just not that good.... is that being irrelevant? Think we all miss being the envy of other teams. We aren't irrelevant just not relevant

 

[Woobla Stainz]

We're definitely meandering.

The club used to stand for something and fought to be the best at everything. We basically showed the entire comp how to use the draft (multiple times, I might add). We forged the way for every single non-Victorian club, copping s**t draws, "home" finals in Melbourne, and basically are the club that made the national competition what it was. Without us, it would have failed.

We were the trendsetters, but now we've been overtaken by way too many clubs for my liking. We'll continue to be financially successful. Given our position in the WA market, it's impossible for us not to be. But we've dropped the ball in a competitive sense. We've lost the edge that made us win 3 flags in the first 20 years of our existence. I feel, ultimately (and many have said this before), we're stale. Nisbett and co have been there for far too long and we needed to transition away into a more dynamic and strong visioned leadership group. I'm talking from the top down. We don't want to be one of those clubs where the line is "this is how we've always done it".

One thing I actually feel works against us is the financial security of being the most supported club in WA. It breeds a contentedness and we have the same old boys hitting the same KPIs and the same line saying "we've won the third most games in the comp in the last few years" and the same old nannas clapping the boys because memberships are full with the same old, same old, same old. The new stadium move may be a kick up the butt needed, but I still fear they'll fill the stadium just as easily and everyone will be just as content. 60k isn't really a huge leap from 43k considering those on the waiting list. But we'll see how that goes.

I actually think, and this is likely gonna be shot down, that a third WA team would do both clubs here the world of good. More competition in the market. More chances for the public to see football at our new stadium. More desire to go just that bit better. Let's face it, Fremantle have been the worst possible competition for us in this state. They have been woeful for 20+ years bar a small bump in 2013.

We definitely need a spark. A drive to be the best. If it's there already, I'm just not seeing it.

Agree freo have been bad for us not only have they diluted the WA talent but they have been horrible for their entire existence, if they had been more successful and professional it might havenl forced us to react, but since we are the top dogs in the state we get comfortable and sit back. I think Freo are finally sorting their s**t out so we can't afford to get stale.

 

[kranky al]

Wow. Dude can post outside of the Priddis thread!

Yeah well now priddis is on the way out hes not taking all the "rest of the threads minutes"

 

[yogibbear]

We're nowhere even close to being irrelevant. Thread is ridiculous. This year has been s**t from injuries and some key elite players not being able to play their best football anymore (and recognizing it). Next year we are a real chance at top 8, being one of those scary teams to face that could cause an upset if we can have a really strong preseason, and get everyone into good condition. If we get enough of our young players improving significantly year-to-year then we'll look a whole lot better next year. Mitchell will be a huge loss, but we'll still have his brilliant mind to impress important tactical stuff to our new looking (and improved) midfield. Shrug off the 2017 blues, and ignore what the club has been labelled. We can dominate 2018.

 

[BartBart]

We're nowhere even close to being irrelevant. Thread is ridiculous. This year has been s**t from injuries and some key elite players not being able to play their best football anymore (and recognizing it). Next year we are a real chance at top 8, being one of those scary teams to face that could cause an upset if we can have a really strong preseason, and get everyone into good condition. If we get enough of our young players improving significantly year-to-year then we'll look a whole lot better next year. Mitchell will be a huge loss, but we'll still have his brilliant mind to impress important tactical stuff to our new looking (and improved) midfield. Shrug off the 2017 blues, and ignore what the club has been labelled. We can dominate 2018.

Like your optimism, but it looks like we will be more of the same old, same old. Probably finish in the 6th-10th region.

 

[JackOutback]

We made the grand final two seasons ago. The fact that two 'poor' years (both of which could include finals appearance) has supporters tearing their hair out suggests fans don't accept mediocrity and we will ensure we remain relevant. It looks worse than it is because two teams managed a dynasty since our last premiership, but the expansion played a part in some strange goings on.

 

[La Dolce Vita]

embarrassing thread..

It's hard being a supporter when your team doesn't win every week hey..Go ask mummy for a hug

 

[Mico89]

For our short time in the AFL we have played in 6 grand finals and won 3. That stat alone shows we are a worthy club, and not to mention our membership numbers we hold and the number of people on the waiting list. Teams like saint Kilda haven't won the flag since we joined the AFL.... and it does make me happy that Freo have been in the ALF for a while and only managed one GF with one loss...

deleted this thread thanks

 

[Ishmael_]

First things first, I liked a Domo post - it felt kinda dirty, but I like it.

And OTT we're perhaps the richest club off-field and about to move into a world-class stadium. On the field, we're in that horrible treading water phase. I'm optimistic things can change quickly, a good trade period and some of our B - B+ players becoming A grade and we're back in the hunt.

It might seem like our list is flat, but it's important to remember that even the best teams only have maybe 5-8 Elite players. Add Yeo, Duggan and Sheed to McGovern, Kennedy and Naitanui and we've got a very good core. That might never happen, but i'm holding my judgment for next year.