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Heard this quite a bit during trade week. "Get rid of Player X because he won't be part of our next premiership!"

But who will be?

We are 4 years on from our last premiership. Equivalent years are 1998 and 2010.

1998 List (there may be inaccuracies. I noticed a few in the 2022 list I copy and pasted that I manually fixed)

Jason Ball
Drew Banfield
Michael Braun
Ben Cousins
Jaxon Crabb
Andrew Donnelly
Tony Evans
Brendon Fewster
Michael Gardiner
Fraser Gehrig
Ilija Grgic
Brett Heady
Todd Holmes
Glen Jakovich
Rowan Jones
Dean Kemp
Chris Lewis
Andy Lovell
Chris Mainwaring (RIP)
Neil Marshall
Peter Matera
Phillip Matera
Ashley McIntosh
Guy McKenna
Daniel Metropolis
Chad Morrison
Phillip Read
Jarrad Schofield
Shane Sikora
Nicholas Stone
Paul Symmons
Ryan Turnbull
Chris Waterman
Mitchell White
Andrew Williams
David Wirrpanda
Josh Wooden
John Worsfold

I've bolded those who became premiership players in 2006, 8 years later.

The 2010 list:

Mitch Brown
Sam Butler
Dean Cox
Bradd Dalziell
Brad Ebert
Andrew Embley
Darren Glass
Ashton Hams
Ashley Hansen
Shannon Hurn
Brett Jones
Jordan Jones
Josh Kennedy
Daniel Kerr
Mark LeCras
Quinten Lynch
Eric Mackenzie
Beau Maister
Chris Masten
Patrick McGinnity
Ben McKinley
Nic Naitanui
Mark Nicoski
Matt Priddis
Matt Rosa
Will Schofield
Adam Selwood
Scott Selwood
Brad Sheppard
Luke Shuey
Ashley Smith
Matthew Spangher
Koby Stevens
Lewis Stevenson
Andrew Strijk
Tom Swift
Beau Waters
Callum Wilson

Again, I've bolded those who became premiership players in 2018, 8 years later.

So 5 players in 1998 became premiership players in 2006. Where they drafted:

Drew Banfield - Pick 1, 1992. Reigning Premiers and we traded our way to Pick 1. It was a more innocent time.
Michael Braun - Pick 53, 1996
Ben Cousins - Pre-draft F/S selection, 1995. Under current rules, would likely go Pick 1. Or at the VERY least, top 5
Rowan Jones - Pick 28, 1997
David Wirrpanda - Compensation Pick for losing Tony Godden to Fremantle :straining:

The circumstances around how three of those five (Banfield, Cousins, Wirrpanda) became Eagles simply would not happen today. We would splurge on Cousins under the current rules, but we got him for free in 1996.

If our rebuild truly began from when we next missed finals, that was 2000-2001. Here's who we picked up in those two years who became premiership players:

Daniel Kerr
Chris Judd
Mark Seaby
Ashley Hansen
Quinten Lynch

That's 10 players from the 2006 premiership side.

6 players in 2010 became premiership players in 2018. Where were they drafted:

Shannon Hurn - Pick 13, 2005
Josh Kennedy - Originally Pick 4, 2005. Traded to West Coast via Carlton
Mark LeCras - Pick 37, 2004
Chris Masten - Pick 3, 2007.
Will Schofield - Pick 50, 2006
Luke Shuey - Pick 18 (Priority), 2008

And of course Naitanui (Pick 2, 2008), Brad Sheppard (Pick 7, 2009) and Mackenzie (Pick 29) missed through injury.

We'd already been rebuilding since the 2007 draft by the time 2010 started, finished dead last, and picked up the following premiership players in one hit:

Andrew Gaff
Jack Darling
Scott Lycett
Jeremy McGovern

:oops:

That's 9 players from the 2018 premiership side, plus another 3 that were integral to that side (Naitanui, Gaff, Sheppard).

Which brings us to the sorry state of our list in 2022:

Oscar Allen
Brayden Ainsworth
Tom Barrass
Rhett Bazzo
Aaron Black
Greg Clark
Tom Cole
Campbell Chesser
Jamie Cripps
Jai Culley
Jack Darling
Angus Dewar
Hugh Dixon
Liam Duggan
Harry Edwards
Luke Edwards
Jake Florenca
Luke Foley
Andrew Gaff
Stefan Giro
Brady Hough
Shannon Hurn
Callum Jamieson
Jamaine Jones
Tom Joyce
Tim Kelly
Josh Kennedy
Zac Langdon
Jeremy McGovern
Declan Mountford
Patrick Naish
Nic Naitanui
Jackson Nelson
Xavier ONeill
Sam Petrevski-Seton
Jack Petruccelle
Jack Redden
Willie Rioli
Josh Rotham
Liam Ryan
Dom Sheed
Luke Shuey
Luke Strnadica
Zane Trew
Jake Waterman
Connor West
Bailey Williams
Jack Williams
Isiah Winder
Alex Witherden
Elliot Yeo

This time I've bolded those drafted last year, when we missed finals for the first time since 2018. The start of the rebuild.

In both 1998 and 2010 it took us another 8 years to win our next premiership. Today, that means 2030. Who on that 2022 list will still be around in 2030? And will it take us 8 years? 2006 team included a compensation pick, a free f/s pick, priority picks and a host of rookies that simply don't exist that deep into the draft anymore. 2018 also included priority picks, the long term return from losing the best player in the competition, and one Jeremy McGovern.

History suggests 5/6 players might still be running around in 2030:

Allen?
Bazzo?
Chesser? (hasn't even ***** started running, let alone still running in 2030)
Culley?
Hough?

With no f/s freebies, compensation picks, priority picks, stupid clubs handing us Pick 1 for peanuts or rookie revelations, how the **** are we going to turn the worst team in West Coast history into a premiership side in 8 years using today's drafting rules?

I can't help but see how many top 5 picks litter the lists, or at least would have been top 5 picks if using the current rules too: Banfield, Cousins, Wirrpanda, Judd, Kennedy, Masten, Naitanui, Gaff.

Now we're pinning our hopes on the likes of Oscar Allen (Pick 21), Campbell Chesser (Pick 14), Brady Hough (Pick 31), Jai Culley (midseason draft), Pick 2, Pick 8, Pick 12 etc.

I'm feeling rather pessimistic at how long this is going to take given the composition of the current squad, and the lack of high end quality coming through.

Someone make me feel better about how we turn this around without going full Melbourne and being shit for a decade or more. Finish last next year and smash next years super draft like it's 2010 and we'll be back on track?

Ugh.

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