West Coast just lost by 171 points to the Swans on Saturday.
171 points.
The combined scores of their last two games sit at 86-379. That is unfathomably bad. It was the equal fourth-largest loss in the history of the competition. It was the fourth 100+ point defeat for the Eagles this year so far, and we still have nine rounds to go in the home and away season. It just keeps getting worse.
Their percentage is currently 47.35%, which is equally unfathomable. For teams who have finished last in recent seasons, none of them have been this awful. To put it into context, the Eagles right now have the worst percentage of any team since GWS in 2012. An expansion team, filled with 18-year-olds and overpaid veterans, had a percentage just 1.18% worse than the Eagles right now. In that season, GWS won two games, and West Coast is stuck on one victory from 14 games at the moment, with their sole win coming against the aforementioned Giants.
It seems crazy to think that the Eagles will somehow win another game this year to double their win count. They do play North at home, so they have a small chance in that one, but the Kangaroos are competing well at the moment and have had some very close, and somewhat controversial, losses in recent weeks, so they are due for some luck soon.
AFL LADDER PREDICTOR: WEST COAST TIPPED TO GO WINLESS
So what exactly is going wrong for the Eagles? Injuries aren't helping. They had 17 players on their injury list last week. Important players Nic Naitanui, Jeremy McGovern, Liam Ryan and Jamie Cripps have combined for nine games so far this year. Luke Shuey, Elliot Yeo and Shannon Hurn have battled injury woes. Naitanui, their best player when fit and firing, is yet to play a game this season and only played eight in 2022. It is incredibly tough for West Coast to be winning games when they are missing so many big names and have been very unlucky in the last 18 months with injuries and COVID-19-related issues.
That being said, it is embarrassing for this once great and powerful club to be this poor for the second straight season.
Another issue for the team is the fact that their few healthy veterans are simply not performing, with Tim Kelly being the exception, who has played as well as he can so far this year. Andrew Gaff is seriously out of form. He is on pace to have his first season in 10 years averaging under 20 disposals a game. He lacks the speed, polish and class he possessed when he was an All-Australian. His drop-off over the last few years has been huge. Jack Darling is also not performing anywhere near his best, averaging his lowest goals per game mean since his rookie year, as well as career lows in disposals and marks per game.
Some of their veterans are playing near or at the required standard, including the aforementioned Kelly, Yeo, Shuey and Dom Sheed, all of whom are talented players, but none except Kelly have been able to consistently stay healthy for years now.
It is easy for many to say the Eagles should trade most, if not all, of these senior players for draft capital and young talent to push the rebuild, but how many players do the Eagles have that have strong value that they would want to trade?
Oscar Allen and Tom Barrass would net huge returns, possibly multiple first-round draft selections from teams in need of the key positional talent and looking to contend now, but the Eagles have to keep these guys. They are their their most consistent and most important players right now and are still young enough to keep.
Barrass might be worth trading, but his agent shut down rumours of a move recently. Other than those two, which players have first-round draft trade value? Kelly probably would, but it is highly unlikely he will leave as he requested a move from the Cats in 2018 and 2019 to play in Western Australia. It wouldn't make much sense for him to look for a move at this stage of his life, unless the club pushed him out the door.
McGovern would possibly have decent value, but he hasn't played since Round 3 and is a free agent this year. Ryan has faced similar injury woes to McGovern and has not played an AFL game in months. Guys like Yeo, Shuey, Darling and Sheed all would have suitors, but it is very unlikely any of them would be worth a first round selection at this stage of their careers. Are they worth trading if they only net second and third-round picks in return? That is a difficult question to answer.
So how does West Coast get better? There is no easy solution. They have to keep suffering so the club can continue to bring in young talent and reshape the board and coaching staff. The problem is, West Coast's mix of youthful and high-potential players is pretty poor. If they had a strong group of youngsters, they would be much more competitive. How many of their players aged 24 or under have star potential? Oscar Allen for sure - he's averaging 2.5 goals a game in a team that can't score and hasn't looked out of place after missing all of 2022. Allen has been one of their few bright spots in a dark campaign to date.
Reuben Ginbey has been a standout in his rookie season so far, but does he have the upside and potential of a match-winner? He looks set to be a really good player in his prime, like a Jack Steele or Ben Cunnington-type inside midfielder, but will he ever have that game-breaking ability like modern-day superstars do? That remains unclear, but he definitely is someone to keep developing long-term.
Fellow 2022 draftee Elijah Hewett looms as an exicitn youngster as well, early signs of what could be on offer for the long haul, but apart from him there really is only Allen and Ginbey that are truly exciting.
Others include Bailey Williams, Jamaine Jones, Jack Petruccelle and Jai Culley, but they don't exactly possess much A-Grade potential. Their first-round pick from 2021, Campbell Chesser, was injured all of last season and has not offered much so far in 2023. That too is a bit worrying, but he still has plenty of time to develop. Everyone else is either unproven at the moment or not illustrating much that suggests they will be elite down the line.
They will likely have pick 1 at the end of the year, and the unquestioned number 1 prospect is Harley Reid. Do the Eagles keep the selection and take him to build their future around a game-winning superstar, or do they trade the pick for multiple high-end selections to build up a pool of young talent they so desperately lack? GWS has two top 10 picks at the moment and potentially another after free agency compensation if Harry Himmelberg is to depart. Three first-round selections for Pick 1 would be tempting, despite Reid's stance as a standout among his class. Most would lean toward taking Reid, but trading the pick is worth considering if it nets an incredible return.
You can hope the Eagles can get back to the top, a powerhouse in the west that every team is scared to come up against. It's always fun when the big-name teams are up and about, but the day West Coast is feared again looms to be a long way away.
