Is that still possible?
Would need to absolutely nail this year and next year draft but thats looking very challenging given this year's draft crop doesn't doesn't look amazing.
2030 looks highly unlikely
-
Mobile App Discontinued
Due to a number of factors, support for the current BigFooty mobile app has been discontinued. Your BigFooty login will no longer work on the Tapatalk or the BigFooty App - which is based on Tapatalk.
Apologies for any inconvenience. We will try to find a replacement.
West Coast - When will the AFL step in?
- Thread starter PowerfulPies2023
- Start date
- Tagged users None
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
Would need to absolutely nail this year and next year draft but thats looking very challenging given this year's draft crop doesn't doesn't look amazing.
2030 looks highly unlikely
The AFL need to give them exactly what they gave both North and Gold Coast.
Their win loss is just as bad as Gold Coast and worse than North over the two years prior to their PPs.
I think there is the additional issue of Tasmania coming in and taking the Lions share of top talent, making it even harder dor West Coast to rebuild.
The AFL cannot give certain teams like its nepo baby Gold Coast, and a Victorian team in North PPs that it then withholds from a WA club who is in the same position as those other teams were.
Having said that, the AFL will absolutely treat them differently and they won't get PPs this year.
Their win loss is just as bad as Gold Coast and worse than North over the two years prior to their PPs.
I think there is the additional issue of Tasmania coming in and taking the Lions share of top talent, making it even harder dor West Coast to rebuild.
The AFL cannot give certain teams like its nepo baby Gold Coast, and a Victorian team in North PPs that it then withholds from a WA club who is in the same position as those other teams were.
Having said that, the AFL will absolutely treat them differently and they won't get PPs this year.
- May 11, 2015
- 1,104
- 3,506
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
- Other Teams
- Ipswich Town FC, Leeds Rhinos
Equalisation is a small part of it, but your last statement is hugely wide of the mark. If equalisation was designed to punish teams for consistently making finals then the Cats, Pies, Giants and Bulldogs would all be down the bottom with West Coast.
As has been touched on here by several people it's a trifecta of loyal, unlucky and abject list management:
- Loyal: yes they have been loyal to champions of the club, but most on here would want their club to do the same and it's only really the Hawks in recent times who have pushed their champions out of the door when they turn 30 (I look at the Tigers and think it was more a case of we won't stand in your way rather than pushing them out). Kicking the Eagles for this is genuinely being a hindsight hero because you can look at the majority of lists and see a small group of 31-34 year olds who the fans adore. From a Freo perspective there were plenty of fans who wanted to keep Mundy for another year, so it's pretty rich to kick West Coast for this.
- Unlucky: Partially linked to the above, yes there's always a risk of an older player breaking down, but it seems to me that West Coast have been especially unlucky in this regard (NicNat, Gov, Yeo being great examples). Then you couple this with the number of recent draftees who have had significant injuries (Chesser, Venables spring to mind) and it's a huge factor. Maybe their strength and conditioning team need to be on the hook??
- Abject: For me, the biggest factor is the trading/rebuild strategy since 2020. The Kelly trade will take the headlines, but the failure to realise/acknowledge the list needed rebuilding until 2023 coupled with some appalling trades using draft capital (Langdon, Witherden, Petrevski-Seaton, Hunt, Brockman, Owies) has meant that outside of Reid there's been no top end draftees coming into the club. Add to that has been a tendency to focus on Western Australians in the draft and trade period when it's becoming clear now the WA talent pipeline has been pretty poor for the last 7-8 years (again this is really benefitting from hindsight).
Some clubs have rebuilt relatively quickly in recent times (Hawks and I suspect the Tigers). Others take a bit more time (Freo, Crows - 6 years out of finals) and then there's the Roos (the less said about them the better) and the Lions/Blues in the 2010s.
It feels like I'm kicking the corpse here, but it's hard to see the Eagles climbing out of the Bottom Four until 2029 at the earliest - and that assumes Reid stays (I hope he does and can still be taunting JHF for years to come about going home to mummy).
As a Freo fan there's a huge part of me that loves to see it - but I've also got a lot of friends who are loyal and decent West Coast fans and they are hurting, so I hope for their sakes there are some green shoots on the horizon soon because as bad as things have been for Freo generally (30 years and only 1 losing GF to show for it) - we have never in our history fallen this low.
Barrass 29yrs old (one bad knock to the back from retirement) traded to accelerate rebuild as everyone was saying the club needed to do. Help yourself before asking for it was the commentary. Landed Hawks 2025 1st. 2nd AND 3rd round picks to assist the rebuild.
Darling - same, move on to develop A Ried, J Williams and Shannahan.
Allen - same likely lands pick 2
Rioli - pot head was too embarrassed to stay after the club supported him for years whilst suspended.
Harely - looks like extending.
So that's 0 from 5 attempts troll.
Surely you can do better?
Log in to remove this Banner Ad
We don't need or want priority picks at this stage.
We need 4 rookie spots and some extra soft cap to employ better and more development coaches.
Considering the massive list turnover the Eagles will have 3 kids developing to every senior player. And half the old guys are perma injured in rehab.
We know we aren't an AFL nepo club and our fans still turn up. VAFL House has no interest in helping anyway.
Give us another 4 rookie spots and we will be fine. Dewar just got a rising star nomination and the 4 extra rookie spots helps get the Beagles more competitive.
None of this compromises the draft any further.
Most of these players suck but they were all traded for late picks or were free agents, except for Owies who was steak knives.
- Aug 15, 2009
- 6,298
- 10,393
- AFL Club
- West Coast
Didn't happen to be the same three to four nimrods windmilling in this thread did it?
(Ofc it was)
SSSSSS
Brownlow Medallist
- Apr 18, 2011
- 26,375
- 66,107
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
- Other Teams
- Six decades of domination
Dunno how I feel about a club getting a PP after winning a flag less than ten years ago.
They've completely mismanaged the situation. I'd only do it on the proviso the AFL can take over and clean up the shop before handing back the keys.
They've completely mismanaged the situation. I'd only do it on the proviso the AFL can take over and clean up the shop before handing back the keys.
So.
How long since the Swans won a flag buddy? Hmmmmm. Heading g on 13 years this season isn't it?
Doesn't look like they will be winning one any time soon either does it?
Even after being spoon fed assistance every year.
Clubs who aren't nepo babies of the AFL need to bottom out and do it tough. Our fans still turn up. The Swans won't hense why the AFL spoon feeds your club every year even when playing in grand finals.
Then again Swans getting absolutely FLOGGED in the past two GFs they played not surprising the AFL assistance keeps on coming. Must be hard getting so much assistance from AFL House compared to others but still not getting the job done.
Keep your chin up though. Maybe they will sneak COLA back in to get the Swans over the line ....... again.
- May 5, 2006
- 65,593
- 74,746
- AFL Club
- West Coast
Hawthorn turned things around quickly in 2024 but were still out of the finals for 5 years before then and 6 out of 7 after 2016. I wouldn't get too carried away about Richmond, they are 5 wins 68% which is where WC finished last year, and the team they are fielding is a lot more experienced than the media make out. Adelaide are similar to Hawthorn in that they should've sneaked into finals in 2023 but otherwise haven't really been anything since 2017. Their improvement this year has been rapid but their list profile matches a contending team. Their last game they had 9 100 gamers, 9 50 gamers and 5 sub 50 gamers. Rd24 last year it was 8-8-7. Rd 24 2023 it was 7-5-11. This natural progression is huge. Plus this year they added 3 more 24-29 year old best 22 players into the mix. The WC team on the weekend was 6-8-9. If you take just that side and add 23 or 46 games experience across the board (obviously Cripps probably won't play another two years) I'm confident it will improve organically. And I am not bullish on the 23 selected on the weekend or anything, some of that team young and old won't be there next year.
It's possible but the other factor in play is footy doesn't stand still. If Carlton and Melbourne continue to do nothing do you want to be them in 1-2 years? Every year there are teams getting better and teams getting worse. North are the ones I can't figure out. Surely they have to at least become a 7, 8 win 80-90% side at some point.
Eastern Rangers
2015 Worsfold Medalist - Rowen Powell
Eastern Rangers
2015 Worsfold Medalist - Rowen Powell
West Coast did have an extended injury crisis from late 2020 to 2023.
Unfortunately, they didn't get a proper best 22 together in 2021. I don't think it would have made much of a difference because 2019 and 2020 were the premiership window. The Eagles' fate was sealed in 2019 with the loss of Venables, Rioli's suspension & trading for Kelly, with the subsequent loss of all draft capital for 2019/20.
After we lost to Hawthorn in R23 2019 after running Richmond to 6 points at the MCG. That was the turning point for the squad under Simpson. I said this after round 23 2019, and I was unfortunately right.
- May 5, 2006
- 65,593
- 74,746
- AFL Club
- West Coast
Was anyone in 2021/22 talking up West Coast's prospects in 2025? There is overrating your list year to year (see Melbourne, Carlton) and not actually having a list to pick from. Planning to better in 2022 after a poor finish to 2021 isn't the same as planning for your 2021 list to be your 2025 list.
Nic Naitanui was AA 2020 and 2021. Two years in 2022 was iffy given he was injured during that season but he never played again. Were we supposed to de-list him?
Josh Kennedy retired in 2022. He played on and played a bigger role than planned that year because Allen did his ACL. Shannon Hurn and Luke Shuey retired in 2023. Jack Redden 2022. None of these are unusual.
Prior to that Shuey signed in 2017, Darling in 2019, Gaff and McGovern in 2018. Good players in their prime. I don't know if anyone noticed but McGovern was our best player last year and was going to play on next year but had to retire from a head knock. The decision was made to let TB go because he had draft currency and keep McGovern because he was still playing great footy. We would be better right now with TB but getting shitcanned for keeping a 30 year old. Yeo earned a contract for this year (again 3 years iffy) by being one of our best players. Has anyone started shitting on WC yet for resigning Jake Waterman? I mean he was 26 last year and made the AA side so we probably should've moved him on right?
There were 12 100 gamers in the 2018 flag side and 17 players that are now 30 or older this year. The way people carry on every single one of them is still on the list getting $1m a year to play cards in the changerooms. There are actually only 4 players left on the list from that team plus McGovern and Sheed.
Nic Naitanui was AA 2020 and 2021. Two years in 2022 was iffy given he was injured during that season but he never played again. Were we supposed to de-list him?
Josh Kennedy retired in 2022. He played on and played a bigger role than planned that year because Allen did his ACL. Shannon Hurn and Luke Shuey retired in 2023. Jack Redden 2022. None of these are unusual.
Prior to that Shuey signed in 2017, Darling in 2019, Gaff and McGovern in 2018. Good players in their prime. I don't know if anyone noticed but McGovern was our best player last year and was going to play on next year but had to retire from a head knock. The decision was made to let TB go because he had draft currency and keep McGovern because he was still playing great footy. We would be better right now with TB but getting shitcanned for keeping a 30 year old. Yeo earned a contract for this year (again 3 years iffy) by being one of our best players. Has anyone started shitting on WC yet for resigning Jake Waterman? I mean he was 26 last year and made the AA side so we probably should've moved him on right?
There were 12 100 gamers in the 2018 flag side and 17 players that are now 30 or older this year. The way people carry on every single one of them is still on the list getting $1m a year to play cards in the changerooms. There are actually only 4 players left on the list from that team plus McGovern and Sheed.
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4,354
- 6,788
- AFL Club
- West Coast
That pick 2 trade was a big win in hindsight
You always win the trade with hindsight, in hindsight we picked Serong instead of McAsey with pick 6 lol.That pick 2 trade was a big win in hindsight
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4,354
- 6,788
- AFL Club
- West Coast
Right but you have the benefit of hindsight and still used the trade as a poor move. Wardlaw for Ginbey and Hewett is a massive win m.
PowerfulPies2023
Premiership Player
- Oct 5, 2023
- 4,851
- 3,004
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Thread starter
- #167
It goes for you too then.
Well, Wardlaw wouldn't have had that much concussion at West Coast.....in hindsight.
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4,354
- 6,788
- AFL Club
- West Coast
And still wouldn’t be as good as the combined package.
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
I'm not sure if you've watched Wardlaw to be saying that.
- May 11, 2015
- 1,104
- 3,506
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
- Other Teams
- Ipswich Town FC, Leeds Rhinos
- Feb 12, 2017
- 22,181
- 59,756
- AFL Club
- Geelong
- Other Teams
- have been WARPED by Geelong
West Coast, Geelong and Hawthorn need draft assistance and they need it now.
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4,354
- 6,788
- AFL Club
- West Coast
I have, have you watched a fit Hewett?
Is he as powerful and explosive as Wardlaw???
- May 11, 2015
- 1,104
- 3,506
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
- Other Teams
- Ipswich Town FC, Leeds Rhinos
Melbourne are probably not the best example because at least they got up, played some finals, won a flag and then imploded.
But I think we can all agree that no one wants to be like Carlton, Saints or the Bombers - spend half a decade at the bottom rebuilding, rise up to have a couple of seasons making up the numbers in finals before sliding back to 12th-15th purgatory. It's my biggest fear for the Freo rebuild but I am optimistic we can push on to have a sustained 5+ years in the top/middle of the eight.
As for North - like you I can't figure them out. There's no way with the quality of some of their draft picks in recent years that they should be in the bottom three this year. I can only put it down to a deeply ingrained losing culture and general malaise about the club.
Similar threads
