Mega Thread WCE: When is the first win? How do we fix this mess? Can we see any improvement at all?

[Wooshaaaa]

Here's the stat.

"The lowest contested possession for a game since that stat has been recorded."

Now remember what is a contested possession?

Loose ball get - is interesting
Hard ball get - Yeo Cripps green
Free kick - look at the rucks
Contested mark - again rucks
Ruck hard ball get. -Again!
Contested knock on - bont
Gather from hitout

Are contested possessions a 'key indicator of success' or just a 'fancy term' in the AFL?

The contested possession has increasingly gained prominence in recent years, but there is much debate in the AFL world about its value.

www.abc.net.au

Hard ball gets is the one stat out of all of them IMO is the one to rule them all. Yeo and Yeo types. Blues would be nowhere without Cripps. From without seeing. Sums without rowell.

So we need a better ruckman.

Loose ball gets dominated by elite outside runners.


These should be our priorities in both finding who on our list has these capabilities and for trading at years end

Further more to this.

If we fix this, then supply, inside 50s take care of themselves and then the small forwards have the opportunity to do what they do, which is contested possession forward pressure acts. For three years we have had to play the game in our defensive half because of shit midfield. Everyone banging on that our defence is shit, doesn't allow for this.

 

[Westend]

Has anyone discussed the fixture ??

Look at our first 5 games ....we have played In Qld NSW and SA all in the first 5 rounds

We have played two home games...one against the Dockers whose home ground is also ours

We have played the Grand final winner plus the prelim finalist and Carlton who finished 8th last year ... all teams we have played did not finish in the bottom four last year ?

See the issue ??...Yes I agree we are a poor side but it doesn't help when the fixture is so blatantly hard against a team that finishes in the bottom four.

We should be at least playing two games in the first 5 rounds IMO against teams in the bottom four where we finished on the ladder last year.

 

[Wet Toast Rule]

The AFL have nothing to lose by us being a basket case. Nothing
If we were GCS we would have had priority picks by now because they own the license

If we are successful it’s of no benefit to the AFL. If we are a basket case there is a chance they will get their hands on the license one day

 

[Goroyals22]

Where? I was chasing winless odds all week but couldn’t find a betting agency that had it.

Sportsbet shut the winless before round 10 odds off after round 2 so I’m thinking after round 11 you should be able to get on.

 

[Boohemian]

This board has become absolutely hysterical.

 

[Ochre]

Last season we were going winless and priority pick certainties after round 3, and the rebuild was almost over after round 10, so I think assuming we'll be exactly this bad for all of this season is a smart bet.

 

[timeforanother22]

TBH, after round 1 already knew we had no chance to win until at least round 6. Great FIXturing AFL.

Also figured the confidence of the team would have taken a big hit by then as the hope built in pre-season would be gone.

I hope a good percentage of the soft cap is being spent on a great sports psychologist.

 

[Into The Black]

Also while I'm at it, I think we really need a national u21s comp and raise the draft age to 21.

It kinda blows me away that the primer sport comp in the country is still considered and accepted as a development comp by all involved.

We shouldn't be "playing the kids" in the AFL. We should only be playing those hardened and ready. Could you imagine the uproar if an NFL or EPL team come out and declared they are rebuilding and will be playing the kids and will be noncompetitive for the next couple seasons.
It would stand with anyone.

The u21s comp would enable new players to come in basically AFL ready with the additional 3 years of development in a high performance environment, and would also weed out those that aren't going to make it, taking alot of the guessing game out of the draft.

Not going to happen, but something I would like to see.

Really like this idea, makes a lot of sense.

 

[CursoryMercenary]

The reason we are where we are is because over the course of a decade 2011-2020 we systematically traded out of the top end of the draft in preference for the following two strategies:

• Trading in targeted role players from clubs (paying mixed amounts of draft capital to do so)
• Trying to make up for our lack of draft capital due to the above strategy and relative success by trading back in the draft to use a "scattergun" approach.

The first strategy had some success, with players like yeo, redden and cripps, contributing to a premiership, but on the whole was more unsuccessful than successful and robbed our future for what then, was the now.

The second strategy was an abysmal failure. With horrible talent identification meaning we burnt a number of picks and brought in basically no long term players in repeated drafts. This is disgusting to look at - Duggan is our only First rounder playing from the last decade.

Draft Year	Traded In	Used	Burnt Picks	Playing Now	First Rounders Taken
2011​	Hill	49​	Newman (23), Mcinnes (28)	None	Newman (23)
2012​	Wellingham, Cripps, Morton	18, list spot	Colledge (45), Carter (59)	Cripps (good trade)	None
2013​	Yeo, Ellis	none	Karpany (31), Main (49)	Yeo (good trade)	Sheed (11)
2014​	None	None	Lamb (32), Nelson (51), Cavka (66), Waterman (76)	Duggan (pick 11)	Duggan (11)
2015​	Giles, Jetta, Redden	17​	Partington (28), Mutimer (57), Allen (62)	Cole	None
2016​	Mitchell, Vardy, Petrie	Spots	Venables (13), Rotham (37)	Waterman	Venables (13)
2017​	Ah Chee	F3	Brander (13), Ainsworth (32), Brayshaw (68)	Allen, Ryan, Petch	Brander (13)
2018​	Hickey	39​	Oneill (28), Foley (31), Cameron (39)	Williams, Edwards	None
2019​	Kelly	(pick 2 equiv)	Jamieson (49), Johnson (58)	Jamieson, Kelly	None
2020​	Langdon, Witherden	54, F4, 56	Edwards (52), Winder (57)	None	None

With such a gaping hole on our list I don't really see the talent to win games this year. Maybe Melbourne in Round 8 at home is a chance. Honestly other than that, I don't think we beat anyone but Richmond this year, we have two shots at that so we should get them once. We will win a game somehow.

In terms of fixing the list I think you have no choice but to hit the draft incredibly hard (trading in any capital 27yo+) and as a secondary focus, trade in any quality talent you can under 24. Inevitably through the passage of time you will time out your list issue. This will take close to 5 years. We are probably 2-3 years through but unfortunately we still haven't really faced reality trading for baker last year. Baker really is the type of thing we've done for the last decade, trade in senior average talent and try to offset using a scattergun approach.

Thanks for this, list management at it's absolute worst.

 

[Pwani Magharibi]

For the reasons discussed in this thread and numerous other ones, it sucks to be an Eagles fan right now and will continue to do for a long time. But imagine how much worse it would feel if Dom Sheed had missed that very difficult shot at goal.

 

[ioppolo]

For the reasons discussed in this thread and numerous other ones, it sucks to be an Eagles fan right now and will continue to do for a long time. But imagine how much worse it would feel if Dom Sheed had missed that very difficult shot at goal.

I dunno, maybe we win in 2019 because more than just Sheppard, Gaff & Naita give a shit.

 

[Eaglemaniac]

We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, and that is play the youth and drop senior players who aren’t performing. This week that would be Duggan and Allen for a start. I don’t care if they are our captains, they are supposed to be leading from the front and the only thing they’re doing is leading us backwards.
Bring in the best performing youth from the wafl side and keep getting games into the kids and see who’s got what it takes. If senior players start dominating in the WAFL then they should earn a re-call, but only if none of the young guys are playing equally as well.
Get games into the youth and draft as many top level mids as we can in the next few years as that’s our biggest area of need. Things will get better.

 

[KERRPOW]

I come in peace.

I watched yesterday's game and like many non-Eagles supporters I speak with, it's no longer funny and is actually quite sad where this proud club has ended up. It's terrible for the competition and the AFL must be deeply concerned.

What is more concerning as well is that the draft is about to be compromised for the next few years with the impending inclusion of a Tasmanian team. The outlook appears really, really bleak, with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't really know any Eagles supporters to get a perspective from, but what are the main reasons for why the club has fallen so hard?

For mine, it seems like Covid absolutely ruined your list. Decimated it. I remember when you could barely put an AFL side together, and the WAFL side was comprised of almost completely non-AFL listed players.

After Covid, it seemed like the rot just set in. Combined with very poor list management decisions. Honouring Tim Kelly's wish to return home and rigid demand to only play for West Coast by placating my club's demands was, in hindsight, a terrible decision.

What I struggle to understand is how a core group of senior players, premiership players, have just sunk so low into mediocrity. Where did it go wrong? How much of this is truly on Simmo? Anything else?

As a keen football observer, I'd love to understand more from the fans, what you guys think needs to happen. I'm glad this thread was created. One club always has to finish last, but West Coast's time down the bottom has been far too long.

Netflix could make a miniseries of where it all went wrong

 

[ioppolo]

Netflix could make a miniseries of where it all went wrong

The Hub: TRUTHS EXPOSED

 

[KERRPOW]

The Hub: TRUTHS EXPOSED

FRIENDS, FAMILY, FLAGS, FAILURES

 

[Priddis Is Done]

The draft, salary cap, soft cap and free agency doesn't allow a rebuild from this far back. There's too many teams in AFL and nowhere near enough good players to go round.

Our administration caused this by letting an entire generation of senior players collapse en mass with zero succession planning in place, but the AFL created this possibility with its aggressive equalisation rules that impacts us more than just about any other club.

Now they needs to decide if they are ok with the devastating impact their rules will be having on grass roots footy in WA and if it's ok with the decimation of the recently marquee team in Australian sport. Eventually the chickens will come home to roost as the cash cow dies and the volume of talent in WA starts to dry up.

How did Freo get around the same set of rules?

And granted they've got a revolving door of high end picks going back over east, or players they've recruited.

And their coach is a complete bust, so maybe I'm answering my own question... By being perennial underachievers, they get to replenish a few spots with talent most years.

 

[Natho]

Melbourne will absolutely smoke us.

 

[YeoGabbaGabba]

Also while I'm at it, I think we really need a national u21s comp and raise the draft age to 21.

It kinda blows me away that the primer sport comp in the country is still considered and accepted as a development comp by all involved.

We shouldn't be "playing the kids" in the AFL. We should only be playing those hardened and ready. Could you imagine the uproar if an NFL or EPL team come out and declared they are rebuilding and will be playing the kids and will be noncompetitive for the next couple seasons.
It would stand with anyone.

The u21s comp would enable new players to come in basically AFL ready with the additional 3 years of development in a high performance environment, and would also weed out those that aren't going to make it, taking alot of the guessing game out of the draft.

Not going to happen, but something I would like to see.

Rate this idea - but like you’ve said. Won’t ever happen

 

[YeoGabbaGabba]

Absolutely doesn’t help when you start the draft process with pick 1 & 19, but actually end up with pick 1 & 30 when it’s all said & done.

This - the draft system is an absolute joke and I hate to sound like a sook but is it even a method of ‘equalisation’ anymore? It’s easily the worst and most compromised of any sport. Never been a fan of F/S picks and would say the same even if we were being blessed with it consistently every year. Brisbane Lions getting Levi Ashcroft after winning the flag is diabolical. Academy rules also get tweaked every couple years that I don’t even know the rules of them anymore.

 

[Westend]

Melbourne will absolutely smoke us.

The dees ??? Petraca wants to leave there forward line is woefull ...Oliver is always an issue for the playing group

reckon we can beat them

 

[YeoGabbaGabba]

The dees ??? Petraca wants to leave there forward line is woefull ...Oliver is always an issue for the playing group

reckon we can beat them

You’d think a midfield of Gawn/Petracca/Oliver should surely be able to put it together against somebody for a game soon. I get they’re bad, but I wasn’t expecting them to be 0 and 5 level of bad, even with all their issues on/off field. I do agree that there is a chance though but that says a lot about how Melbourne are currently tracking

 

[ziad]

Melbourne will absolutely smoke us.

Sadly so

 

[Shuestar13]

Every team will ‘smoke’ us as we clearly won’t win a game.
Maybe next year x

 

[ArdentEagle]

I asked ChatGPT to come up with a game plan that would counter the best sides, give us the best chance of winning.
Must say, I'm a little worried that Mini got his plans off ChatGPT now

Game Plan Revolution – “SURGE + STRANGLE”​

To beat the top sides, you need a hybrid strategy that combines:

• Fast, daring ball movement from D50 (like Collingwood).
• Aggressive, frontal pressure and contest dominance (like Melbourne and Brisbane).
• Structured defensive systems to restrict corridor use.

Key Game Plan Features:​

• Surge mentality: First instinct is forward. Handball chains and corridor use, but smartly—not suicidal.
• Half-back creativity: Use aggressive kicks from rebounders (e.g., Hurn successors) to launch inside-50 entries.
• Midfield pressure traps: At stoppages, deploy a “web” to trap teams that like to spread wide (e.g., Brisbane’s wings).
• High forward pressure zone: Mobile smalls and medium forwards harass defenders—build a system that forces turnovers forward of centre.
• Tactical tagging of key opponents in big games—especially ball users like Nick Daicos, Neale, Petracca.

 

[HitTheNailOnTheHead]

We won't win anything with the midfield we currently have. The loss of Yeo and Kelly's form slump has killed us. Even Sheed would have been ok as an experienced head. Harley looks to have lost interested and is likely to leave. Not sure why he isn't playing the whole game in the middle.

Now we are stuck with kids and makeshift midfielders like Baker and Duggan.

Spud coach doesn't help.