Minutes after his side’s 122-point loss to Adelaide in June, West Coast coach Adam Simpson declared his club’s intentions at season’s end.
“We‘re going to transition the list pretty quickly, it’s going to be one of the youngest lists in the comp in a year or so,” Simpson told reporters at Adelaide Oval.
“We want to get some picks at the top end if we can.”
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It was a brief yet blunt insight into how the Eagles will approach arguably their most important yet delicate off-season in their history.
Premiership captain and dual All-Australian defender Shannon Hurn on Tuesday announced he would retire at season’s end after a decorated 18-year career.
You sense Hurn was the first domino to fall, with his retirement set to spark several West Coast exits over the coming weeks.
West Coast is one of the AFL’s strongest and richest clubs. Yet its fans – like any supporter group – will struggle to tolerate many more seasons anchored to the bottom-end of the ladder.
Eagles fans have already endured the worst year since the club entered the AFL. Yet it’s come amid a peculiar list situation.
While the Eagles sit on the bottom of the ladder with a 2-17 record and a paltry percentage of 50.6, they still have the seventh-most experienced and 10th-oldest list in the competition.
Essentially, the Eagles haven’t ‘bottomed out’ yet – even though their on-field results this season should reflect a team that has bottomed out.
As dual All-Australian Kane Cornes has persistently pointed out, West Coast’s on-field woes have derived from an “arrogant” list management strategy, with the club handing out questionable long-term contract extensions to some players and trading out of three consecutive drafts.
Now the reality is West Coast must become young – and quickly.
Clubs like Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn and Richmond in recent years have all attempted to renovate and rebuild on the run – that is bringing in some young players while retaining a core senior group and topping up with a few acquisitions via trade and/or free agency – while remaining in the premiership window.
It worked for the Swans and Cats and fell flat for the Hawks, while the jury is still arguably out on the Tigers.
Enjoy some Bunga highlights...𥹠pic.twitter.com/uKvKHZarVX
— West Coast Eagles (@WestCoastEagles) August 2, 2023
West Coast had a crack, too. But as evidenced by its past two seasons, it backfired spectacularly.
Yet you sense the Eagles can’t afford to head down the Hawthorn or North Melbourne route and cut ruthlessly...
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