Is the Eagles list as bad as we thought?

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Barrass will be 32, Yeo will be 34 and Kelly will be 33, not sure if they can keep their level of form up at that age especially with your travel requirements

Barass will still be under contract so will be around, think Kelly as a late starter kicks on. Think Yeo transitions to back pocket to end his career and gets a extra year or two out

 

[burge13]

To be honest I think we need to grab 1 or 2 from other clubs too. Not just a high draft pick situation here. Unlike North we should be able to attract good free agents or young players. I also think we got 5 or so years to do that.

Outside of Reid Ginbey we got a fair few who will still here here in 3 years time who can be considered guns like Oscar Allen, Elliot Yeo, Tim Kelly, Tom Barass.

In the youngsters also we got positional guns like Hough, Long, B.Williams (backup ruck) who are great for the roles they play. I can see Hough being AA back pocket in his prime for example and a guy like B.Williams being best backup ruck in the league as well since his marking is really good nowadays.

I think we need 5+ more guns but feel like lets do that in the next 3 or so years and not well tomorrow like you are suggesting. If Hewett can be a gun, we can knick Chad Warner and Sam Taylor, we can get a surprise out of Johnston/A.Reid/Hall/Maric/Brockman and the like then its not that far off

Yeo still playing like this in 3 years?! More chance Queen Elizabeth comes to your birthday party

He's managed about 10 good games in the last 3 years, he's not to be relied upon moving forward whilst this form is nice

 

[Yippy Yi Yeo]

Yeo still playing like this in 3 years?! More chance Queen Elizabeth comes to your birthday party

He's managed about 10 good games in the last 3 years, he's not to be relied upon moving forward whilst this form is nice

That's rubbish, he played good games more often than not even during the last few years of injury, problem was he couldn't stay on the park. He went to Qatar to see some sort of specialists that helped him change his gait which has paid dividends as he had his first uninterrupted preseason in years and hasn't missed a beat since. No reason he can't be moved to the backline in a couple of years to extend his career if all goes well.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Yeo still playing like this in 3 years?! More chance Queen Elizabeth comes to your birthday party

He's managed about 10 good games in the last 3 years, he's not to be relied upon moving forward whilst this form is nice

He wants to add onto his career after missing 3 years, not end it short cos he missed 3 years. Not sure he will be relied upon in 3 years. Id say he ends his career at back pocket for example. In my fantasy world he is just keeping the spot warm for a guy like Chad Warner or the next gun in the meantime until he ends it in defense.

 

[Cleansweep17]

I can’t speak for Freo as I don’t really watch them but we did have a lot of injuries and it was an away game when they beat us.

I reckon the bottom 4 will look like this

15th Richmond or Crows

16th WC

17th Hawks

18th North

 

[The 747]

WC supporters seem to be pretty realistic about where it is at, so not much to add.

But

Genuine effort from the whole team makes a big difference. Has not been present quite a few times in the past few years (and right now for example it is absent from North).

 

[nameless]

A very long way to go, our list is all out of wack with older, injury-prone players who have given a reminder of why they're AA, B&Fs and have lead this team to some strong performances, but history suggests they aren't playing every game.
Then there is a big list of young players who are still finding their feet and have not yet proven they can take over from the older bunch.

Hewett, Allan and maybe Flynn are the only certain best-22 players out of the side who will be around for the next flag tilt.
Others are unproven or finished.

The toughest replacements will be Barrass and McGovern, AA KPDs don't grow on trees and we've had two of the best hold this team together.

We might have a bump for maybe a year or two, but unless we replace those older guys it could be another drop, probably not dissimilar to Freo.

I will say there is a lot of confidence in building a list because we don't lose many best-22 players, so can build it up knowing they'll stick around.

I think we'll do well to win 5 games this year, very dependent on a few players staying fit.

 

[WillHayward]

Not sold at all on Chesser.

Too early to write him off. But still not sure

 

[Lach72]

If you watched them against Peel on the weekend, there’s not much underneath.

Depth is not there…need another couple of drafts and they desperately need to replace McFatty, Barrass, Cripps, Yeo etc…Reid is only one man.

Perhaps discounting the last draft with Williams and Hewett, their recruitment team could reach into a bag of vaginas and find a 3 inch length.

The one year there’s a Dusty/Judd clone they finish bottom…irritating

 

[bzparkes]

If you watched them against Peel on the weekend, there’s not much underneath.

Depth is not there…need another couple of drafts and they desperately need to replace McFatty, Barrass, Cripps, Yeo etc…Reid is only one man.

Perhaps discounting the last draft with Williams and Hewett, their recruitment team could reach into a bag of vaginas and find a 3 inch length.

The one year there’s a Dusty/Judd clone they finish bottom…irritating

And the week before they beat the reigning premiers.

Pretty hard when most of the players in the WAFL are all late picks/rookies in their first and second years who are surrounded by ammos who likely wouldn't get a game in any other WAFL team, outside of Ruscoe, Gilbee and Lucassen.

Only real seniors on the weekend were Gaff and Ryan.

 

[Lach72]

And the week before they beat the reigning premiers.

Pretty hard when most of the players in the WAFL are all late picks/rookies in their first and second years who are surrounded by ammos who likely wouldn't get a game in any other WAFL team, outside of Ruscoe, Gilbee and Lucassen.

Only real seniors on the weekend were Gaff and Ryan.

Not ideal to be be fair, but I look for small moments…not a lot going on there, apart from Zane Trew.

I reckon that kid might be a bit unlucky when he gets delisted

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Not ideal to be be fair, but I look for small moments…not a lot going on there, apart from Zane Trew.

I reckon that kid might be a bit unlucky when he gets delisted

I think from that team the player to watch out for is Burgiel but it’s his 1st game back from about 4 months off. I expect Johnston to definetly develop to best 22. Hall/Reid too early. Obviously Liam Ryan still a good afl footballer. We still do have 3 of our best 22 out also in Allen, Flynn, Hewett and then Bazzo/Jamieson who are their abouts . From the team last week I’d expect that Johnston, Burgiel, Allen, Flynn, Hewett are all best 22 by this time next year for example

Rest of the lot in the WAFL though will be moved on in the next 3 years in a 5 in 5 out fashion. We seem to have a squad of 32 to pick from with 12 guys hanging on for dear life. It’s why a clean injury run is so absolutely vital

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Not sold at all on Chesser.

Too early to write him off. But still not sure

None of us are. He is learning to play a wing role which is like brand new to him. No idea what he is doing at present. Think he hangs around for versatility he has but I’m not expecting anything more then a role player from him. Was a bad pickup in a bad draft. Everyone said we should have picked up Matthew Johnson whose a similar average role player too

 

[Altum Volantes]

Don’t make threads like this, you’ll anger the footy gods.

List still needs a lot of work, as you would expect, considering we finished last in 2023. I don’t expect us to finish outside of the bottom 4 this year - a 2 win break on last is handy though. They’ve shown they can compete when Yeo and Gov are out there - and it’ll be interesting once Allen, Ryan and Flynn return….but whether those 5 things all line up at once remains to be seen - over the last few years, nothings ever quite worked out like that.

Reid is ready made but the rest still need time - Ginbey, Long, Hewitt, Hough, Chesser, Maric + some raw tall talent - and the mid age guys are starting to pull their weight (Waterman, Cole, Duggan etc). So the balance is looking a little better.

What has been misjudged though is the ‘5 years off being competitive’ stuff - that has always been overcooked. Teams change pretty fast and a big portion of the list has turned over already. It’ll continue to change - we’ll have a period where we are strong in some areas and weak in others - mid table stuff and then hopefully work our way up from there.

 

[NetworkNerd]

If the club manages the retirements of its premiership stars then they can build something on this pre Tasmania era and take advantage of Tim Kelly

11

Tim Kelly

Age

30

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

while he is still at his peak.
One pressing issue is key defence with McGovern nearing the end of a stellar career. Will WCE go after WA boy Denver Grainger-Barrass? Might be able to get him cheap.

 

[PP34]

List is still far too bare and reliant on older blokes who are managing to stay away from injuries for the first time in a while.

Sorry to say to Eagles fans but they remind me of what happened with Carlton when Cripps really came into his own. We won a handful of games after a shocking period and there was this assumption by some that it was a sign of things to come with wins coming quickly.

Reality is we were far too reliant on Cripps plus some stop gaps who weren’t going to be there in 3-4 years. We blew some picks during that period too and it’s only now we are finally a team winning consistently.

Adding genuine talent to win every week isn’t a fast process and if the Eagles are to do it quickly they’re going to have to be really spot on with drafting and signings.

 

[craffles]

Yes

 

[Farang83150]

If the club manages the retirements of its premiership stars then they can build something on this pre Tasmania era and take advantage of Tim Kelly while he is still at his peak.
One pressing issue is key defence with McGovern nearing the end of a stellar career. Will WCE go after WA boy Denver Grainger-Barrass? Might be able to get him cheap.

Really hope not, there's a very good reason he'd be so cheap.

 

[Corkintheocean]

An overlooked unintended consequence of having Harley Reid may be the potential to recruit players in free agency, something we haven't really been able to do. Given we should have a stack of cap available on account of having no decent players from 22-28, I would hope we are chasing top tier WA talent and selling them on the play with Harley/have success/job for life post footy dream.

Taylor, Warner, Starcevich, MacDonald, Baker, Sheldrick, McVee, DGB, R. Garcia etc etc (haven't factored in current contract situations in this list)

 

[Freomaniac]

I know we're up and about after 2 good wins - and it's only 2 wins - but it's undeniable we've shown major improvement from last year. Much has been made about how good Reid is, how he's inspired the group etc and that's part of it, but for the first time we haven't been absolutely savaged by injuries, and I think our list was never bottom 2 quality. We still have Yeo, Kelly and now Reid - a formidable trio - veterans playing well and some serious young talent. Ginbey is an absolute bull. I do think we're in a rebuild, no doubt, but there is a lot of media doomsaying that we'll be anchored to the bottom for years to come, Tasmania will compromise the draft etc. I always felt that was sensationalist exaggeration. Historically we've never been down long and tbh I feel its partly culture. We find a way to win and aren't down for long. I could be wrong and it could still happen, but is it that crazy we can at least be competitive the next few years? That we won't be bottom 4 for years to come?

I wrote on your board on which games I thought the eagles were a chance to beat at home...

I mentioned a few sides in Tigers, Bombers, North and hawks.

Eagles beating the tigers wasnt just a win but a psychological win. Similar to freos win vs the dogs in round 3 of 2017.

Once you get a home win, team start to become confident of winning certain games at home, most likely the bottom half sides.

I will reserve my judgement on the eagles next 2 games which are suns away and essendon in perth.

Saying that, not many people predicted eagles to beat freo in the derby on the weekend.

 

[Freomaniac]

Yeah its true we still have a lot of veterans retiring, and we need another KPF to support Oscar Allen. Will definitely need to draft well. Darling is not really up to it generally.

Im not saying we'll be playing finals or contending soon, merely questioning the narrative we'll be like Carlton or North, near the bottom for ages. If it happens it happens, but 2 years of this isn't a good reason to forecast that.

Of Course you do.

Eagles need a good Full Forward. Either a Josh Kennedy of 2013-19 or A quentin Lynch of 2005-7.

A Quentin Lynch type thats 195 cm and 110 kg that can play full forward and can pinch hit in the ruck Helps.

Or Even A Ruck KPF type like Kurt Tippett or Charlie Dixon.

Jack Darling was never a Full Forward. The bloke is a CHF.

 

[NetworkNerd]

Of Course you do.

Eagles need a good Full Forward. Either a Josh Kennedy of 2013-19 or A quentin Lynch of 2005-7.

A Quentin Lynch type thats 195 cm and 110 kg that can play full forward and can pinch hit in the ruck Helps.

Or Even A Ruck KPF type like Kurt Tippett or Charlie Dixon.

Jack Darling was never a Full Forward. The bloke is a CHF.

Maric? Young but doesn't look so bad

Maric at CHF, Allen at FF, Waterman and Ryan in the pockets. Brockman at HFF. They have most of the pieces there already just need them all on the park

 

[matthew_s]

**** me. What a stupid thread.

We've had a couple of wins, 1 against a side without a forward line who thought they'd win by showing up and another against a half strength richmond.

If we can stay healthy, we'll win another couple of games, maybe even a handful but expect the performances to drop off in the 2nd half of the season.

Theres always someone from every club to post cringe shit on the main board isnt there?

 

[Tyberious Funk]

I struggle to think of who your next gun players are going to be outside of Reid and maybe Ginbey.

You need more high draft picks I reckon.

Brady Hough.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Of Course you do.

Eagles need a good Full Forward. Either a Josh Kennedy of 2013-19 or A quentin Lynch of 2005-7.

A Quentin Lynch type thats 195 cm and 110 kg that can play full forward and can pinch hit in the ruck Helps.

Or Even A Ruck KPF type like Kurt Tippett or Charlie Dixon.

Jack Darling was never a Full Forward. The bloke is a CHF.

Jake Waterman is fricken top 5 in the coleman.

Are people really just going to ignore him cos of his last name or something? He is a very good footballer in his own right