News Media Thread, 2024: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Grahame]

It’s an entirely bonkers system because the league morphed into existence from an expanded state league rather than being specifically designed and built as a national competition

This. And as a result we have the vAFL.

But go back over the history and it was WA who didn’t back SA to force a near bankrupt VFL to create a truly national competition instead of an expanded VFL. It was an absolutely pivotal moment.

And as a result we have this huge unwieldy comp which still doesn’t have a Tas team and has way too many Vic teams. Imagine how different a 12-14 team comp with only 6-8 Vic teams would feel.

 

[Keys]

This. And as a result we have the vAFL.

But go back over the history and it was WA who didn’t back SA to force a near bankrupt VFL to create a truly national competition instead of an expanded VFL. It was an absolutely pivotal moment.

And as a result we have this huge unwieldy comp which still doesn’t have a Tas team and has way too many Vic teams. Imagine how different a 12-14 team comp with only 6-8 Vic teams would feel.

Part of the reason we jumped early was East Perth (I think it was them) threatening to go it alone which forced the WAFL’s hand

Port Adelaide would eventually do the same in SA resulting in the Crows

The better solution would have been for WA and SA to play the long game and wait for the VFL to properly go broke but self interest is a powerful motivator

 

[WCE_phil]

It’s not just with us but it’s a bugbear of mine that clubs are said to have received the first player taken as the priority pick when the actual advantage was the second player

Take away PPs in that draft and we still take Judd at 3. Someone else then gets Sampi

The only real priority pick that counted as a priority pick at the pick taken was Shuey as the club rated Swift higher but were worried Melbourne would take Shuey at pick 19 so switched the order in when they were taken.

Also on the Darling PP it was pick 26 after we received pick 4 as our first pick after winning the spoon. Again with PP the real priority pick was Lycett as otherwise.

In any year a club would sign, file the paperwork and run off laughing to trade up from 4-1 and receive pick 26 or 29 whichever way people want to call it.

 

[Cornelius Roy]

Looking forward to the media outcry this week about how s**t north are despite receiving assistance.

Will probably be making a case for more draft picks.

 

[Boohemian]

https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/...n/news-story/8a4a84b75ce20c51d0cfc32c20394cd1

In light of West Coast playing Sydney in gather round, here's an article comparing West Coast's list building compared to Sydney without giving due consideration to the academies Sydney had access to.

"Slight advantage".

 

[wirra44]

Looking forward to the media outcry this week about how s**t north are despite receiving assistance.

Will probably be making a case for more draft picks.

Don’t get too excited we will lose by 71pts and it will be all about how the eagles are 2 seasons behind north Melbourne

 

[southcoast]

You could call it football’s equivalent of a perfect storm. You could call it bad luck, bad management or a combination of both.

But whatever you choose to call it, West Coast’s Eagles plummet from a 2018 premiership to a 2023 wooden spoon and a start to 2024 so poor that sentiment is growing for them to get priority draft picks is an extraordinary tale of miscalculation, misadventure and misfortune.

There was the miscalculation of what they could gain from the trade to get Tim Kelly to the club and by way of extension what they could afford to pay for him.

There was the misadventure of Willie Rioli, a premiership star in 2018 but a Port Adelaide player by 2023 with a two year WADA drug infraction extension in between.

There was the misfortune of a frightening injury suffered by promising youngster Daniel Venables in 2019 which ended his career. And then there are the frustrating runs of injuries – the ones that eventually ended the careers of Luke Shuey, Brad Sheppard and Nic Naitanui and the ones that have severely limited the impacts of Elliot Yeo, Jeremy McGovern and Oscar Allen over the past four seasons.

West Coast have now won just five of the club’s last 52 games at a rate of less than a win every 10 games.

There was always a distracting reason to think it might not be as bad as it has now been revealed to be.

In 2022 it was Covid and a significant amount of injury that derailed them. In 2023 it was injury and it was probably injury only that provided sufficient mitigation factor to save coach Adam Simpson’s job, even though he has two years of a contract remaining.

Simpson told Fox Footy last week that he now had sufficient player availability for people to be able to legitimately judge him on his coaching.

It is a comment made against the perspective of the carnage of recent seasons because while Simpson now has up to a dozen players playing in the WAFL to put pressure on his AFL team – he is still without his co-captain Oscar Allen for two months and his ruck recruit Matt Flynn for at least another month.

His 2020 All-Australian forward Liam Ryan, his first round draft pick from 2022 Elijah Hewett and his 2018 grand final matchwinner Dom Sheed are others yet to play this year.

This is West Coast’s five year road to ruin, a path never before trodden by one of the AFL’s most powerful and successful clubs.

It will take it to a fourth September in a row without finals, a list that has the reputation of being the league worst by some margin. And if the opening three weeks of this season are anything to go on – the Eagles may not have hit rock bottom yet.

May 17 2019: West Coast’s Daniel Venables gets cleaned up in a frightening mid-air collision with Melbourne’s Tim Smith and teammate Nathan Vardy in a round 9 clash at Optus Stadium. Venables, pick 13 in the 2016 National Draft was 20 years old, had played 21 games including the 2018 grand final. He was expected to graduate into the midfield. He never played again.

September 12 2019: West Coast arrive in Melbourne for their semi final clash with Geelong and are told forward Willie Rioli has been charged with a doping infraction for tampering with a urine sample. Rioli is later found guilty of tampering with a sample twice. The 2018 Premiership star, 25 at the time is suspended for two years and misses all of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. He plays 13 games in West Coast’s Covid ravaged 2022 season and asks to be traded to Port Adelaide.

October 9 2019: West Coast clinches the trade deal to bring Tim Kelly back to Perth from Geelong. The Eagles gave up pick 14, a future first round (pick 18 in 2020), picks 24 and 37 for Kelly while they got pick 52 and a future third round pick in return. The draft index values the cost of Kelly as higher than pick two in the draft. WA products Mitch Georgiades, Trent Rivers and Chad Warner are available at the 2019 picks the Eagles give up but Kelly is traded in on a $800,000 a year six year deal to be the cream on the cake of a midfield that includes Elliot Yeo, Luke Shuey, Jack Redden, Andrew Gaff and star ruckman Nic Naitanui.

July 4 2020: The cake Kelly was recruited to be the cream on top of begins to collapse. Luke Shuey suffers a hamstring injury against Sydney in round five at Carrara. It will be the beginning of the end for the 2018 Norm Smith Medallist who was made captain at the end of the 2019 season. He will be plagued by hamstring and calf muscle concerns for the rest of his career and will play just 47 of 85 games between the start of 2020 and the end of 2023 before announcing his retirement.

July 19 2020: Defender Jeremy McGovern suffers a broken thumb in the round seven Western Derby win over Fremantle. He will miss five games and the injury will bother him for the rest of the season. It is the start of a run of various injuries for McGovern who suffers rib, hip, back and hamstring concerns over the coming seasons. McGovern will play just 46 of 85 games between the start of 2020 and the end of 2023.

August 9 2020: Elliot Yeo plays his last game of the season for the Eagles in round 11 against Carlton. Yeo has been battling Osteitis Pubis for most of the Covid interrupted season. The cake continues to crumble. Between the start of 2020 and the end of 2023 Yeo plays 37 of 85 games for the Eagles and is rarely fully fit in the games he does play.

Summer 2021-2022: Defender Brad Sheppard is forced into retirement due to concussion concerns at the age of 30 after 216 games. Sheppard, who missed the 2018 grand final with a torn hamstring, was a 2020 All-Australian, a 2019 All-Australian nominee and twice third in the Eagles best and fairest.

Summer 2022: Forward Oscar Allen suffers a foot injury leading into match practice for the 2022 season. He misses the entire year.

First round draft pick Campbell Chesser suffers a foot injury in the opening minutes of the first interclub practice match against Fremantle. He also misses the entire season. Grand final match winner Dom Sheed gets his ankle caught beneath him in the Fremantle practice match. He plays one game for the season.

2022: After the WA border shut down during the pandemic both West Australian clubs are vulnerable to Covid outbreaks. Fremantle manages to control the outbreaks within reason but the virus goes through West Coast like a hot knife through butter. By round two the Eagles are forced to play four players from AFL created Covid contingency top up lists to put a team on the park. They are forced to dig into the top up list once more before the season is over. At the end of the season no Eagle has played all games and only six have missed fewer than four matches. The Eagles, making at least half a dozen changes through either Covid or injury from match to match, win just two games and champion forward Josh Kennedy retires at season’s end.

2023: Ruck champion, two time best and fairest and three time All-Australian Nic Naitanui is sidelined with an achilles tendon problem before round one and does not play a game all season. The Eagles season falls apart in the round three western derby when five players: McGovern, Shuey, Jamie Cripps, Liam Ryan and Chesser all go down with injuries. Ryan has not played at AFL level since. McGovern plays only nine games while Yeo and Shuey play 10 each and Cripps plays 12 times. Premiership captain Shannon Hurn, successor Shuey and Naitanui all retire at the end of the season. The Eagles win only three games and win the club’s second wooden spoon.

2024: Sheed suffers a stress reaction in his foot and is yet to play a game. First round draft pick Elijah Hewett is diagnosed with sesamoiditis in both feet and is told he needs surgery in one foot. He will miss most of the season. Ruck recruit Matt Flynn and forward Ryan go down with significant pre-season hamstring injuries and are yet to play a game. Allen goes for scans after knee swelling following round one and is told he will miss eight to 10 weeks with significant bone bruising. The Eagles lose their first three matches by more than 50 points and go goalless for at least two quarters in round two against GWS and round three against the Western Bulldogs.

Thought list management, recruiting and development along with Beagles May also have rated a mention.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Goroyals22]

Don’t get too excited we will lose by 71pts and it will be all about how the eagles are 2 seasons behind north Melbourne

It would be exciting if we only lost by 71 pts


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[bzparkes]

Don’t get too excited we will lose by 71pts and it will be all about how the eagles are 2 seasons behind north Melbourne

That'd be 100pts better than last time.

 

[Avalor]

Part of the reason we jumped early was East Perth (I think it was them) threatening to go it alone which forced the WAFL’s hand

Port Adelaide would eventually do the same in SA resulting in the Crows

The better solution would have been for WA and SA to play the long game and wait for the VFL to properly go broke but self interest is a powerful motivator

You are correct, it was East Perth.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

In this thread it's the AFL's comprised draft that's the problem, in the other it's Adam Simpson that's the problem, and I'm sure there's another two or three that blames Optus/Lathlain

 

[Yippy Yi Yeo]

Let's also be honest, we've never built a premiership team without some extras. 92 and 94 had all sorts of strange rules as the draft was in infancy. In 06, Ben Cousins was Father-son and I'm pretty sure Judd came from a priority pick. 2018 had Shuey and Darling as priority picks.

As the media says, it's a competition and we need to pull every lever possible to get players in. I say we get all the priority picks we possibly can.

1 father son, compared to Geelongs how many? Completely negligible and we would've taken Judd regardless, Sampi effectively was the priority who didn't play in 2006. We received pick 26 as priority in 2010 which we then used on Darling after we won the spoon and our first pick ended up being pick 4 due to GC entry to the comp. Shuey the only genuine priority pick of any consequence and he was a pick 18.

 

[Tugga27]

Hallelujah.

An excerpt from an article by Jake Niall in The Age.

If anyone is still questioning West Coast’s decision to retain pick No.1 and draft Harley Reid, rather than selling it for multiple lesser picks, they should watch the Port v Essendon match and especially Horne-Francis and Rozee; the value of the prospective midfield superstar was the underlying story of this mismatch.​

 

[ziad]

Hallelujah.

An excerpt from an article by Jake Niall in The Age.

If anyone is still questioning West Coast’s decision to retain pick No.1 and draft Harley Reid, rather than selling it for multiple lesser picks, they should watch the Port v Essendon match and especially Horne-Francis and Rozee; the value of the prospective midfield superstar was the underlying story of this mismatch.​

Bang on. We shouldn't have split the year prior as well.

 

[WCE_phil]

Bang on. We shouldn't have split the year prior as well.

The year before the eagles board top 3 whilst I heavily disagreed with it was Cadman, Clark, Ginbey due to the issues with top talents not wanting to leave victoria.

So the club would have drafted Clark or Ginbey even if we hadn't split the pick.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Should have drafted the top talent anyway. Convince them to stay, or cash in if they don't.

 

[WCE_phil]

Should have drafted the top talent anyway. Convince them to stay, or cash in if they don't.

Ok say we drafted Wardlaw as he was the biggest list need. He did heck all last year due to injury, then moves back to victoria and demands a trade, what are you getting? He picks the club. Lets say he chooses Geelong, Essendon or Melbourne. You're dreaming if you think the club is getting back anything better than one of 7, 10 or 11. That is the best case scenario.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Well I'd also advise against drafting injured players but that's too far away from the patented Eagles blueprint.

 

[ziad]

The year before the eagles board top 3 whilst I heavily disagreed with it was Cadman, Clark, Ginbey due to the issues with top talents not wanting to leave victoria.

So the club would have drafted Clark or Ginbey even if we hadn't split the pick.

If the club listened to BF.
I am no student of emerging talent but I did watch the U18 championships. The stand out players were clear and not the ones we drafted.

 

[shoutsatclouds]

Ok say we drafted Wardlaw as he was the biggest list need. He did * all last year due to injury, then moves back to victoria and demands a trade, what are you getting? He picks the club. Lets say he chooses Geelong, Essendon or Melbourne. You're dreaming if you think the club is getting back anything better than one of 7, 10 or 11. That is the best case scenario.

If you're going to get screwed anyway, then refuse the trade and bench them for the year - Cam McCarthy style.

Wasn't that was a lightbulb moment for his career. Oh, wait...

 

[Tugga27]

Well I'd also advise against drafting injured players but that's too far away from the patented Eagles blueprint.

Who would you have taken with our first pick?

 

[eaglespremiers]

The article this week in The Mongrel Punt regarding draft concessions for us is infuriating.
Suggesting that the 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

trade was an undisputed disaster when the picks traded for him resulted in Cooper Stephens, Jeremy Sharp and Ryan Angwin is such a poor take. The 2019 draft was particularly short on talent after pick 14.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Who would you have taken with our first pick?

I wanted the Sheez

 

[eaglespremiers]

https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/s...n/news-story/8a4a84b75ce20c51d0cfc32c20394cd1

In light of West Coast playing Sydney in gather round, here's an article comparing West Coast's list building compared to Sydney without giving due consideration to the academies Sydney had access to.

"Slight advantage".

Is that the one that doesn't even mention they received Heeney by matching pick 2 with pick 18?

 

[eaglespremiers]

I wanted the Sheez

Wasn't he identified as the biggest flight risk of all flight risks?