West Coast - where are they going?

[adammania9]

It’s extraordinary they got away with a 2-20 and sub-60% season under the premise that the early season COVID problems derailed their season. They could have fielded their best side every week and they’d have won only 4 games. They’ve already blown an opportunity to earn points against North Melbourne. They’ll win 2 or 3 games again this year.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

It’s extraordinary they got away with a 2-20 and sub-60% season under the premise that the early season COVID problems derailed their season. They could have fielded their best side every week and they’d have won only 4 games. They’ve already blown an opportunity to earn points against North Melbourne. They’ll win 2 or 3 games again this year.

Yeah I can’t believe what they’ve got away with. I guess it’s different in the west with the attention, I can’t imagine they’ve “got away with it” there. I watched them quite a few times last year, they were an utter disgrace. Forget injuries, covid, etc, when you send out 22 players you expect some semblance of effort. It’s clear they just could not give the slightest *. They need to drop all their experienced players (as much as possible) and play kids who are actually hungry and want to win, even if they can’t yet.

They appear fat, lazy and content and with a coaching group who either can’t or won’t do anything about it.

I have no idea how Simpson is still in a job… your first job as a coach is surely to get your players competing. These blokes don’t.

 

[The 747]

Didnt you and Gavin Excell say that Historically West coast haven been down for long and they will turn it around quickly?

Do you think the eagles will turn it around quickly with this current situation?

Historically yes but this looks to be a bit different. The experienced players are the issue, they have no real trade value and I don't see much in the way of young players to get excited about. It's one thing to have skills and not be able to execute them, not putting in enough effort is a different issue.

 

[The 747]

Yeah I can’t believe what they’ve got away with. I guess it’s different in the west with the attention, I can’t imagine they’ve “got away with it” there. I watched them quite a few times last year, they were an utter disgrace. Forget injuries, covid, etc, when you send out 22 players you expect some semblance of effort. It’s clear they just could not give the slightest *. They need to drop all their experienced players (as much as possible) and play kids who are actually hungry and want to win, even if they can’t yet.

They appear fat, lazy and content and with a coaching group who either can’t or won’t do anything about it.

I have no idea how Simpson is still in a job… your first job as a coach is surely to get your players competing. These blokes don’t.

I thought they put in more effort when their side was full of top ups last year.

 

[the harry]

Yeah I can’t believe what they’ve got away with. I guess it’s different in the west with the attention, I can’t imagine they’ve “got away with it” there. I watched them quite a few times last year, they were an utter disgrace. Forget injuries, covid, etc, when you send out 22 players you expect some semblance of effort. It’s clear they just could not give the slightest *. They need to drop all their experienced players (as much as possible) and play kids who are actually hungry and want to win, even if they can’t yet.

They appear fat, lazy and content and with a coaching group who either can’t or won’t do anything about it.

I have no idea how Simpson is still in a job… your first job as a coach is surely to get your players competing. These blokes don’t.

You know Simpson is contracted for another 2 years after this?

 

[Gavin Excell]

Didnt you and Gavin Excell say that Historically West coast haven been down for long and they will turn it around quickly?

Do you think the eagles will turn it around quickly with this current situation?

I know it sounds like me Trolling West coast and ashing them....

Theres 18 teams in the league and only 8 finals spots. Its gonna be common for teams to spend 4, 5, 6 years in a row, maybe more to build up a finals contending side again.

To make finals, you need that bunch of decent 22-25 year olds.

But....

I look at some teams spending long amount of periods of No finals.

Dockers didnt play finals from 2016-21. Made finals in 2022
Saints didnt play finals from 2012-19. Made finals in 2020
Demons didnt play finals from 2007-17. Made finals in 2018



Current sides...
Crows last made finals in 2017, they made a grand final. Havent made finals in 2018-22.
Blues last final was 2013. Havent made finals in 2014-22.
North last final was in 2016. Have not made finals in 2017-22.

Suns have been in the comp since 2011. Have not made finals in 2011-22.

I don't recall such statements

 

[Obeanie1]

This just in, team gets worse over time.

Mate, they will either go another flag tilt or they will cut fat and rebuild. There's no third option when they have an ageing crop of stars. Its pointless hanging around midtable.

Finished 2nd last in 2022.

Will finish bottom 3 this year.

They turned over a few last year and will cut harder this year in a deeper draft.

They are in rebuild. The CEO finally admitted that publicly yesterday.

It's not hard to see where they are and where they are going.

Media are being flogs to get clicks debating where they are. Eagles are rebuilding. Simple.

 

[Jibroni]

Not withstanding 4 Flags since entering the Comp is a fair effort it's still hard to fathom WC would end up this bad. They have always been highly competitive and a step a head of the rest.

 

[Sphynx]

Actually don't think they will as bad as people think.

They just missed Yeo and NicNat on the weekend.

Once Yeo will be back, Yeo and Ginbey will be a pretty physical duo, with Kelly and Shuey to support.

Barass/McGovern down back and Allen, Darling, Ryan and Cripps is a forward setup capable of kicking a score.

Think they will win a few at home to keep them away from the spoon.

 

[Obeanie1]

Yeah I can’t believe what they’ve got away with. I guess it’s different in the west with the attention, I can’t imagine they’ve “got away with it” there. I watched them quite a few times last year, they were an utter disgrace. Forget injuries, covid, etc, when you send out 22 players you expect some semblance of effort. It’s clear they just could not give the slightest *. They need to drop all their experienced players (as much as possible) and play kids who are actually hungry and want to win, even if they can’t yet.

They appear fat, lazy and content and with a coaching group who either can’t or won’t do anything about it.

I have no idea how Simpson is still in a job… your first job as a coach is surely to get your players competing. These blokes don’t.

How does team get away with not needing to rebuilding every 10 years?

They are fittter this season just a year older and missing two dominant mids in Nic and Yeo.

And now blooding the kids.

As for Simpson. He's coach because he's contracted. Eagles have a plan for the next coach just not moving now.

Just watch Don Pike and Dean Cox take over end of 2024.

 

[HTPunter]

Can’t get rid of everyone at once but there isn’t a senior player left that I don’t think is not currently overrated.

Barrass plays too loose, as good an interceptor he is.
Yeo and Naitanui don’t play much at all and it’s difficult to see them return to even close to their best.
Gaff is ineffectual. Shuey and Hurn try hard but seem to still be rated as if they are at the peak of their powers, Shuey particularly. Shuey is not the Norm Smith player anymore. Both will struggle to even make long trips this season.
Ryan is lazy, Cripps tries hard but is limited.
Darling and McGovern are probably the main 2 good performers but even then there’s an attitude that they should be rolling at their peak AA level which clearly they aren’t at anymore.

Tim Kelly

11

Tim Kelly

Age

29

Ht

184cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

23.6

5star

K

13.5

5star

HB

10.1

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

4.0

5star

CL

4.9

5star

D

19.9

5star

K

12.3

5star

HB

7.6

4star

M

3.1

3star

T

4.7

5star

CL

3.6

4star

D

21.6

5star

K

10.4

4star

HB

11.2

5star

M

2.8

3star

T

3.8

5star

CL

3.8

5star

is just poor now.

Players peak and decline. Doesn’t mean they’re “bad”, but the narrative from many was that they should smash North because they’ve got all these amazing senior players back who had bad years last year - I tipped the Eagles but that was an indictment on North, not because I thought the Eagles were any good. As it stands, both clubs were pretty much deplorable. Less worse team on the day won.

Their list is extremely poor and there’s probably a good 25 who I don’t think should be there in 5 years. On the flip side, they’re one of the most well resourced clubs in the comp and can quite easily deal with a rebuild off the field.

Looking at the list, I think they need to focus on mids. Most top 4 teams have top 4 midfields generally. 2-3 drafts will give them 5-6 high pick mids/rotating forwards, they’ve already got Allen and Chesser and Ginbey, plus they’d hope Bazzo and a couple of others kick on. Nucleus forms. Then you target Logan McDonald or Aaron Naughton

33

Aaron Naughton

Age

24

Ht

196cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.7

3star

M

4.9

5star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.8

4star

D

6.3

1star

K

4.0

1star

HB

2.3

2star

M

2.5

3star

T

0.8

1star

G

0.5

4star

D

12.8

4star

K

8.8

4star

HB

4.0

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.2

3star

G

0.0

1star

in FA like Dees did, like Tigers did etc.

 

[HTPunter]

Actually don't think they will as bad as people think.

They just missed Yeo and NicNat on the weekend.

Once Yeo will be back, Yeo and Ginbey will be a pretty physical duo, with Kelly and Shuey to support.

Barass/McGovern down back and Allen, Darling, Ryan and Cripps is a forward setup capable of kicking a score.

Think they will win a few at home to keep them away from the spoon.

Keeping them from the spoon is only 1-3 clubs in a worse spot than they are. There’s genuinely 4-5 clubs that are very bad at the moment list wise, and 2 will get the cracks papered over by finishing not bottom 3.

“just” missing 2 old players with notorious histories of soft tissue injuries and limited playing time is not much of an excuse when you’re talking about the difference between bottom 2 and 15th.

 

[Freomaniac]

They are heading to where North Melbourne have been.

You might be right.... Today's game vs Freo didn't help the eagles chances of making finals.

They lost today and had 5 Injuries

 

[Corkintheocean]

You might be right.... Today's game vs Freo didn't help the eagles chances of making finals.

They lost today and had 5 Injuries

We're back into spoon calculations after the carnage today. That's a good thing. In a perverse way, the Tim Kelly trade may end up being a blessing. Forcing us to genuinely bottom out as opposed to finishing 8th-12th for the next decade. We weren't winning a second flag with this vanged up squad anyway.

 

[bzparkes]

We're back into spoon calculations after the carnage today. That's a good thing. In a perverse way, the Tim Kelly trade may end up being a blessing. Forcing us to genuinely bottom out as opposed to finishing 8th-12th for the next decade. We weren't winning a second flag with this vanged up squad anyway.

I mean, who did we honestly miss out on if the Kelly trade never occurred?

 

[PorcelainBus]

They were good today despite having no bench after all the injuries - just ran out of puff in the last quarter - they will really challenge teams this year

 

[Stabby McGee]

They were good today despite having no bench after all the injuries - just ran out of puff in the last quarter - they will really challenge teams this year

I give them full credit for the game today, but I wonder how much was due to Freo being really bad?

I see WC having a couple of years of pain because of the rebuild from natural attrition, but Freo seems to be rudderless right now, and if it's not addressed properly they'll make more than a few ordinary teams look good against them.

 

[PorcelainBus]

I give them full credit for the game today, but I wonder how much was due to Freo being really bad?

I see WC having a couple of years of pain because of the rebuild from natural attrition, but Freo seems to be rudderless right now, and if it's not addressed properly they'll make more than a few ordinary teams look good against them.

Well - you can't win with NO bench . . . .

 

[demondavey]

WC will win another flag before Fremantle, North, Essendon and St Kilda.

They’re a beast of a club. I guarantee the cogs are turning behind the scenes. The drafting of Victorian kids is going to hurt as so many people just want to go home to mummy. Works the other way as well.

They’ll be throwing the kitchen sink at kids like Pickett, Van Rooyen etc. They have to act in reverse to the Victorian go home factor and draft hard from WA and target WA players in other states.

By 2026 onwards they’ll be back in the hunt.

 

[bh90210fan]

WC will win another flag before Fremantle, North, Essendon and St Kilda.

They’re a beast of a club. I guarantee the cogs are turning behind the scenes. The drafting of Victorian kids is going to hurt as so many people just want to go home to mummy. Works the other way as well.

They’ll be throwing the kitchen sink at kids like Pickett, Van Rooyen etc. They have to act in reverse to the Victorian go home factor and draft hard from WA and target WA players in other states.

By 2026 onwards they’ll be back in the hunt.

Helps that Fremantle wiped themselves out of a couple of drafts while we’re rebuilding too.

 

[demondavey]

Helps that Fremantle wiped themselves out of a couple of drafts while we’re rebuilding too.

We regularly pilfer from Fremantle at draft time. God love em.

 

[Toump Ass]

Eagles are rebuilding.

Strange to think they won a premiership without Nic Nat and Gaff in the side, traded Tim Kelly in, and then spectacularly fell apart.

Thought they'd be up for a while, or at least challenge again, but nope. They're garbage.

 

[The 747]

Noting that once again the Eagles are getting a pass from the broader AFL community, because they won one game against a bottom four side at home and then had their injury prone players get injured during the Terence Trent D'arby.

 

[Obeanie1]

Noting that once again the Eagles are getting a pass from the broader AFL community, because they won one game against a bottom four side at home and then had their injury prone players get injured during the Terence Trent D'arby.

Cry us a river.

Eagles have copped plenty of criticism dropping away after winning in 2018. Now it's the pussy cats turn.

 

[bzparkes]

Noting that once again the Eagles are getting a pass from the broader AFL community, because they won one game against a bottom four side at home and then had their injury prone players get injured during the Terence Trent D'arby.

Most people who have watched our games this year can tell that, apart from that 2nd quarter against North, the team has actually cracked in and had a real go.

There's a clear difference in game style, as well as an emphasis to get games into the younger guys.

Simmo reiterated on AFL360 tonight(he said it in a presser last year also) that 2 years ago they identified the need to turn over the list for the next shot at a flag.

Last year was horrible beyond control. This year's had a lost of positives already.

It's all you can ask of a club in rebuild. Too many other rebuilding clubs over the years have played with no heart or direction. Thankfully, this doesn't appear so for the proper start of the WCE rebuild.

People will criticise keeping a number of older players but having mature heads around the club will help the kids in their development by leaps & bounds.